Kandy's Allotment Plots {30pole}

Thankyou Nathan for giving us this section....:thumb:

We have had our allotment plots for 28 years and it has been quiet a task getting them under control.I wish that we had though to take photos of the plots all those years ago but never thought and it was following Steve's updates {Edible Gardening thread} of his weekly progress that I started taking photos with my digi camera...

This is one of the two Rotavators that we use on our allotment plots,our first being a Wolsey Merry Tiller which is far too heavy for me to use and we had to get this smaller one when Mr Kandy blew up the engine of the larger one,enough said...

I can just about manage this baby one as I call it,but if i get too carried away and do too much my hands ache something wicked afterwards,but I do tend to get carried away with it sometimes...


And this is the result of what the ground looks like after a spot of working on the land..

 

One piece of land that I wanted to get under control was our raspberry bed that we have had for all the years we have had our plots.A lady friend who I used to work with gave us the plants originally,and over the years they have marched down the plot and had become impossible to pick the fruit due to nettles and blackberry briers taking over them.

Early in the year I decide to have a go at doing something with the mess and decide to get rid of them and to start again.Mr K wasn't very happy after he saw what I had done but me being the impatient sort and liking a good bonfire set to with chopping down all the brambles and getting rid of the nettles as you will see in the next couple of photos...










As you can see some of the briers were quiet thick and I went home most days scratched to pieces and badly stung as the nettles and briers fought back,but I won in the end...

I will add some more photos once I have sorted through them to show more progress and the resulting fruit and vegetables across the three plots...

I have just found these photo's of the pile of brambles and nettles before I had my bonfire and what the ground looked like after all the hard work and the ash from the bonfire is good for opening up the heavy soil and puts Potash into the ground though it does get leached away buy the winetr weather as well.
The bonfire is quiet large in the photo because Mr Kandy chopped down a couple of old trees that had died in the hedge so they went onto the pile as well...

 

glad you got your lotty section sorted kandy,,looking good shall be pinching all your tips for when i get mine:thumb:

 

Kandy isn't this wonderful and it really didn't take that long to get what we wanted eh?
Thanx again Mods!

Kandy your soil looks far better than ours at the moment although I know our plot has been vacant for a great many years but we are getting there and boy is all the digging doing my back wonders.

I'll look forward in seeing more of your pictures Kandy and what you grew (grow) and how successful you were (or not) as it's all a learning curve and we're more than willing to play catch-up.Hel.xxx.

 

Helen,it has taken all those years of back breaking work to get to where we are now.Our soil is clay and each year we used to dig it in the Autumn and winter months but in the end after we got the big rotavator I persuaded Mr K to see the error of his ways and to just spread compost onto the plots each year and to then rotavate it in ready for the spring.

At times it can go rock hard in big lumps if the weather catches it wrong or puddeny as well,but I just keep working it and it starts to look good,though when it is too good and crumbly it gets difficult to walk on.

I was trying to upload some more photos this morning but PB decided to go on a go slow so had to give up and at the moment I am doing house work and typing this so will have to do it later when I have a bit more time.:thumb:

I have found the photos of the baby rotavator so you can see the make of it but I am not sure wether they are still made or not

Enjoy the lottie if you get on it today:thumb:

 

Kandy, if you want a cultivator that you can handle easily, then get yourself a Mantis, they are superb. I used to have an Alco 5hp monster, but my Mantis is every bit as good.:thumb:

 

Here are some photo's of the fruit and vegetables that we grow on the allotment...

French Beans...The first lot got their tops bitten out either by the rabbits or pigeons so these are the next batch

Our Runner beans also got noshed and also some of the rotted in the soil after too much rain so we have had to fleece and net the next batch.We even had slugs nosh the leaves but now have the first flowers on the stems...

These are my beetroot sowings.I like to try diffreent sowing and growing methods so started mine off in small trays,before pricking them out in water cups that Mr K used to bring home from work and then when grown on plant them out...


These are a couple of the plants out in the open ground..

 

These are my Tender and True Parsnips.I have floated them in water for weeks changing the water on a regular bases until they have germinated...



I then pricked them out carefully into the water cups again and Mr Kandy kindly planted them last week.It is going to be interesting to see what they turn out like because root crops hate to have their roots disturbed...

We have also put these under net tunnels so they don't get noshed and also to stop them getting roasted by the sun until they are established...

 

Here is some ground after I had rotavated it ready for spud planting...The pieces of ground don't always match up with the photos as I have taken so many and havn't got the time to sort all through them but I will get it right next year,I hope

We got caught out by a late frost but luckily the plants were strong enough to take it...



The varieties we have grown this year are Foremost {Suttons}1st Early,Charlotte,2nd Early and Desiree for our late crop...

Flowers just forming...

And flowers well out...

 

These are our fruit trees.We have Pears,Plums and Apples...



This is one of the apples in flower,{Blossom}

And the next photos are the fruit as they are develping...
Pears...{Conference}

Plums...Margery's Seedling {Cooking and Eating} and Victoria {Eating}

 

And these are some of the fruit further on as they grow larger and ripen...

 

What a wonderful thread Kandy, and what a lot of hard work, but so well worth it! :thumb:

Ever since I was a wee girl, I've romanticised about having an allotment! My Grandma used to live quite near the allotments at the Inverleith Park near the centre of Edinburgh, and there's something about them that stuck with me!

Maybe in the future my dream will come true - until then, I'll enjoy reading through your story, and enjoy seeing your plots grow!

Thanks!

 

Great stuff Kandy,a lovely piece of ground well tendered.
We have heard you speak about it so often,It's realy nice to see it and I do realise what hard work it is.
But to go out and pick your own fruit and veg is awsome.
You are a good gardener because you do take the dissapointments on the chin,but I know the successus make it all worthwhile.
Top marks to you :thumb:.

 

Thankyou all for your lovely comments.Hopefully more people will add their stories and photos of how they have taken over plots and grown some lovely fruit and veg.:thumb: