Alotment project diary

well, as I mentioned on a previous thread, I have just got my first allotment. We now have 'ownership (well, tennantship)
I went today to get some photos and as you can see we have a LOT of work to do! I even disturbed a fox aslepp amoungst the bramble....made me jump!
Its on the edge of the allotments, which I like because its a little more private and work will begin tomorrow (by me and my shears!) and I'll employ my daughter (6) on Saturday....
cant wait :D

 

Nice scruffy "Before" photos. Perfect!

ow you can photograph the plot next door, weed free and jam-packed-full-of-veg and post them as "Hat I have achieved in a weekend" :D

You photos during-next-year will be a joy to hold side-by-side with these :thumb:

 

Congratulations on getting yourself an allotment. It's a good time of the year to be starting on one, right when most of the weeds are shutting down for the winter. If you had a load of old carpets and plastic sheeting, this could save you a whole lot of strenuous digging time. Give it about six to eight weeks and all you'll find is a lot of bare earth ripe for turning. It'll be better than having all those weeds to compost, or whatever...

 

only had about 1 hour spare time today, so went and had a good look at it with my husband and he helped me move a ton of carpets from one part of the allotment to the other...Idea is.. I now have a clear patch to work on and the carpets can kill the weeds off the next bit! but there were creatures under those carpets I didn't know existed!
anyway.....real dfigging starts tomorrow and I shall post some picks (we even have a pack lunch in mind!)
xx

 

Honestly Alison your plots not too bad at all ours were so much worst in fact due to me being poorly for a couple of months we haven't started on the third plot but as nobody wants it there's no rush!:hehe:

Just do a little at a time & always move along don't hop from one place to another. Having a goal to reach each time you go to your plot also works well too.

If you're quick you can turn your ground over before the winter freezes the soil too because it takes forever (or so it seems) to wait for the ground to be soft enough to take a spade to it. Good luck honey I'm sure you will love being an allotmenteer!:thumb:Hel.xxx

 

You could always leave it exactly as it is, and tell everyone you've created a wildlife habitat

Jokes aside though, well done on getting an allotment. You'll have plenty of hard but rewarding work to be getting on with I reckon. Are there any birthdays coming up in your household soon? If there are, then a perfect present for someone would be a nice new pickaxe. It is far easier to do the initial busting up of the ground with a pick than it is with a spade.

Good idea with moving the old carpets about. That will help clear the ground nicely.

A mistake I made when I took on my land was to try to do it all in one go. Given the time I had available, there was no way I could do it, so I ended up a bit demoralised at one point. If you focus on one half, or even just a third of it at a time, you'll be seeing proper results much more quickly, and that will spur you on.

 

Thank you all for your encouragement and kind words. Myself and my daughter (6) got stuck in at the weekend and have made good progress.
We have sort of decided on what many of you have advised...we have cleared a lot of the overgrowth on half the plot and the other half is now covered in carpet. So of our 'useable' half we have split that in 2 and 1 half (1/4 of total plot) we are going to cover with tarpaulin and the other we shall start working on...hopefully get some garlic and winter leeks down.
as for birthdays...well, I'm the only member of the family really interested in it (hubby likes the fresh veg but not the digging!) and my b'day is not until March...but great for seeds!
I have some photos of our weekends progress
The first 3 are after Saturdays work....the green thing is a home made compost from an old pets at home rabbit run and some tarpaulin. The final 2 photos are after yesterdays efforts. (another 2 photos after yesterday efforts are in the next thread, because I couldn't attach them all at once!)..the 'slightly' dug bit near the compost is now our main aim and the weedy bit will be covered.
Sorry for the HUGE essay and congrats to those that stayed with it

 

a couple more pics after Yesterdays work!

 

There's some good progress there, well done.

On the pickaxe pressy point, just buy it for your husband anyway. One of two things will happen. Most likely he'll be determined to test it out at the earliest opportunity (blokes love heavy tools, especially ones that can smash things as it gives us the illusion that we are more powerful than we really are. Alternatively (and less likely) he will be disinterested, in which case if he doesn't want it, you might as well have it

 

Ali, you're doing very nicely and judging from your images, you couldn't have started it at a better time.

I can even picture what you'll have there next year, and no I'm not a clairvoyant, but I do see an allotment that will be the envy of many.:hehe:

Now, where your husband is concerned, why not tell him that you keep on digging up the odd one pound coin here and there. If he thinks there's some beer money to be had from a little digging, then the work will soon be over.:lollol:Good luck!

 

Thank you

Strawman...perhaps I should just hide a couple of cans of beer in the undergrowth, I'd have the whole lot dug over for me in a day!

not much happening there this week...roll on the weekend!

 

Hi Ali, I think that your idea would work the best, but only for as long as he doesn't cotton on to what you're doing.:lollol: