Hel's heaven once again GSOH required!

Morning all

Just caught up with this thread, your garden looks fantastic Hel, lots of hard work, but worth it, no wonder your family were drooling :thumb:

 

Looking very very good Hel

 

Thank you very much Rouxbee, Coub still so much more to do but I'm going to take things a little bit slowly now, but I'm sure we will get there in the end.Hel.xxx.

 

Hel

i remember reading somewhere something about a garden that's finished is a garden that's dead or something similar so it sounds like you have it right!:thumb:

 

Hi all well some of you may know that even although there's still plenty of work to do in the gardens Bob and I have taken on an allotment in fact we got one only last week Monday.

I foolishly told the guys over on the allotments that we will take on any vacant lot needless to say we got one there and then but boy has it been hard work but strangely enough it's doing my back the world of good.


Here's what we had to deal with 5ft high nettles that just seem to get bigger day by day!


Here's another shot of our plot it's 75ft x 40ft and has been unloved for many years, you can just see our new 'neighbour' Ray's plot which is pretty tidy and almost 3 in 1 although there are 3 of them tending to it!



This shows you the progress we have make in a week, we have done everything by hand and I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't see them myself just how big nettles roots grow!



This next shot shows our first bed it's 32ft x 15ft just got to dig it over a few times more and away me go.

As you can see from the pictures it's not the greatest plot on site in fact I think the guy in charge look at us and thought they're young'uns and can cope with the work involve although others have told us that the guy should have given us a far better plot as there are plenty free.

The plots sloping and has a couple of trees down one side that makes the soil very dry along that edge although right down at the bottom of our plot it gets waterlogged in winter or when it rains heavy like last year so we are going to burn our stuff down there and leave it to nature after that.

Sadly the work down at the alloment it a little too much for Bob so I now have to retire my loyal friend 'The Whip' :D But Bob does do a fine job at clearing the tops for me and keeps me company although I'm sure he's just making sure I don't run off with the lovely guys down at the alloments!:eek: Hel.xxx.

 

or helen fancy him giving you a plot that needed so much work doin can i pop up and punch him on the nose for you :D looks like you have been so busy and all worked very hard...lady imp said if you are to retire the whip can she have it:eek:...dont run off with a six pack helen remember you can look but dont touch or was it touch and dont look:D:D..thanks for showing us your lotty, you should have had a open day for g,c, members and not told them the work involved just gave out spades on arrival:thumb:

 

Hi Helen you and Bob are doing a fantastic lot of work in getting your lottie in to some sort of order.:thumb:

Nettles are usually a sign of fertile soil though you are right about the trees,they will suck any water out of the ground where the roots travel to.

Mr K and I were over at ours for eight hours yesterday and that is on top of the three hours we did for my FIL on Sunday afternoon.:eek:

It doesn't look like we shall get what we are asking for so I will have to find somewhere to put my piccy's of my plots and plants:D

Must dash the bread needs taking out of the breadmaker the dustbin men have just emptied the bins and I am just about to start mowing the lawns,oh and I also have to go over to the lottie at some point to water all the plants we put in yesterday.Roll on retirement so we can have a rest.:thumb:

Keep up the good work

 

Looking good, it will be worth it in the end. What plans do you have? I have such fond memories of my Grandparents allotment in Reddish Stockport. I used to spend ages helping out and learnt so much. It was part of my love for gardening now.

Id love to have the time for an allotment as well, but at the moment i seem to spend so much time working on the garden itself. Maybe in a year or two we will go for an allotment as well.

 

Ste your good lady will have to wait for the Whip yet as I might still have a use for it maybe whipping pigeons out of the sky as it's been years since I had a good pigeon pie!:D

Don't think I'm quite fit enough yet to run off with any of the old guys on the allotment in fact I might need to borrow one of their zimmer frames after spending a few hours working there as I don't seem to be able to walk in a straight line and that's nothing to do with the pub being right opposite the allotments I can tell you...it sure makes you cream crackered!:eek:

Never mind Kandy I will have to keep going and getting tips from other sites if we don't get a thread section here but it's such a shame really isn't it?

Bob's thinking about having compost bins under the trees not sure how that will work out and also some bins to put our cages in when not in use as other allotmenteers have said we need cages as the pigeons will just come and pull up our young plants. I know this is true as poor Ray next door planted loads last week and was quite proud of the fact he got so many planted needless to say he was gutted when we saw him the very next day as all his plants were gone!

Gaz I know where you are coming from we are kind of lucky in one sense (at least) in that we do have loads of time on our hands and really needed some new projects to take our mind off health issues. We badly needed another new area to grow stuff as we have managed to run out of space in our own gardens and have only been here 2 years and everything was done from scratch, all we had was a huge privet hedge and bumpy grass!

Next week we will have the builders in knocking a wall down so we will have plenty of time to play catch up in our own gardens then which will be nice.Hel.xxx.

 

chopp chopp hellen . commone i dont see wot all the fuss is about.

the plott from the start had the correct weeds in (aka stingers) i would bet you have good easy mud to work (nettles like a rich grownd but some shade)its going to take some digging to get the boggers out but you got good fertial soil .
wot i would do with your plot is just tydy it up chuck in wot ever you can and see wot grows .

and dont forget to put the nappy's on the compost heap

 

You could have made nettle soup for the other plot owners

 

I still have some big projects to finish in my garden before i can think about an alottment. Im in the middle of building a pond, which is going rather slowly - mainly as i want to spend some of my free time actually 'gardening' rather than building. But the blocks and concreting is more or less finished now. Will have it done this weekend, so can then think about a liner etc. I have a patio to build in the middle section of the garden, which is going to be hard work, that will be the first one i have made.

Plus a few bits of the garden i still want to make 'tropical' but im leaving some of them for next year - as they look quite nice anyway and i may find a plant i just have to have next year that can go there.

But i would love an allotment in time - the extra greenhouse space would be very useful. I suspect though time will still be a major constraint. I might end up sharing a plot with my Dad instead.

 

Lol Colin went over yesterday evening just to do an hour or so because boy was it hot here yesterday!

Only to find the very lovely Ray waiting for a chat and to say thank you for the marigolds and Dahlias that we dropped off for him over the last few days.

Anyway I wanted to dig the area over once again before I could start another bed but Ray came over with his strimmer and hacked nearly all the weeds down for Bob the baddies have started to gang up on me now as both Ray and Bob agreed that they can't have any girls getting that far ahead of the guys...needless to say I now have an awful lot of catching up to do!

Ray said he's going to give us some cabbage plants but I'm a little worried if they will be happy as there hasn't been anything added to the soil for quite a while although I'm hoping that we could maybe get away with adding a top dressing for this year. If you have any ideas on this Colin or anyone one else could you let me know?

Fancy I always thought my cooking had a sting in it!:D

Looking forward to going over today and getting stuck in, my goodness it's hard work but really rewarding. Hel.xxx.

 

Lol Gaz you posted just before me!:D

I'm sure in no time at all if you stick at it in your garden it will be sorted before you know it. Sharing an allotment with your dad would be ideal not only would it give you some escape from your own plot as I'm should just like us you think 'what should I start next' but it would also give you some quality time with your dad and that would be wonderful for the both of you as well as supplying you with some tasty veg for your dinner!Hel.xxx.

 

Helen, once again - where do you get your energy from!? Bet you can't wait to see all your lovely veg growing there. Scrummy. Poor Ray, do they keep pigeons at any of the allotments? I know around here there are quite a few but they are kept in the 'coops'(?) most of the time. Guess it is the 'wild' ones that get at the plants. Our neighbours grow veg and he is always putting nets etc up to stop the birds. I couldn't believe one year when I saw a couple of sparrows inside the nets - I tried to see where they got in so I could tell the neighbours. They certainly find a way.


Don't cracker yourself mate.

TM, well remembered - I had to think for a minute there!,lol.

cheers