Our allotments today..

Hi Joanella ..
The ornamental grasses look good, and lovely colours.
Do you know which varieties they are ?

it looks like very hard work to me ~ you have 2 plots??
i loved the grasses.
im trying to think about that muddy area ~ how about putting bog plants in there?

hi TT ,no i dont offhand i have the labels in the shed on plot,i am useless with plant names & try to always keep the labels..:o)
Stick i have thought about bog plants but could do with something to dry it up really plus i dont want to be spending much on plants.:o)

hmmm i have to have another think then.
all the best.
could you run little channels to the other beds to water them??
what about rice plants????

or watercress maybe lol. i dont know what would be best oh says fill it with a bit of hard core rubble & gravel but i dont know if that would work..the channels sound like a good idea ..i will have a think about it .:o)

i see you grow watercress already tho?

Not that bad looking for this time of the year. 300 waiting list in your area? One of the reasons I gave up my allotment about 15 years ago was because I felt lonely surrounded with empty neglected allotments. I do not know how things have changed in my area since then, but I doubt it if there is a full occupancy now. I may go round one day and look.

no stick, the cress is on the next plot to us..
Cos its funny you say that,there are a few plots fenced off on our site & one old gent that had one of these has swapped with someone to an open plot near ours as he said he only wanted a plot for social reasons..and never saw anyone as he was fenced off, i think he is ok now though..our site is fairly well visited, 3 people use it every day come rain or shine (except over winter) & in summer almost everyone is on most weekends..it may be worth a look at your old site,you never know it may have changed now.:o)

That looks a bit like my garden, although mine is still partially covered in snow, but yesterday I did see a bit of my lawns now that we are having a big thaw.

It all looks a bit bare doesn't it but that's how the winter is. I hope we get some nice weather soon for you to make a start on getting it ready for spring.

A small tree or bush, such as an alder, or a willow, would thrive in the wet area, Joan, and would benefit insects, too. Just a thought.......

Everywhere looks very bleak in winter but just think of it as a blank canvas ready to fill with new ideas! As for the boggy patch- I would be tempted to put some hard core down and build a raised bed! Good luck with whatever you decide on!

oh, 'like a bridge over troubled water' red aly??

Nice to see a blog on allotments again! :-)) I hope to make a start on ours again but at the moment it's either frozen or waterlogged if not both! Difficult to believe the soil was like sand in the summer! It has a deep subsoil that is practically pure gravel & sand, it surprises me the soil is so wet still!

I was down on the allotment for perhaps 1/2h today, to open the greenhouse & take the bubblewrap off the little greenhouse inside.

It's impossible to get on the soil. I walked along a couple of the paths I'd made between beds & they were frozen solid! We had had a lot of rain Friday night/Saturday morning then Sunday night/Monday morning a hard frost - looked for all the world as if it had snowed!

Most of the plot is bare soil at present. We are hoping to get hold of some horse manure for the plot.

I want to make a start on sowing some seeds but at the moment it's still far too cold in the greenhouse. If I want to grow any I will have to start them off here at home & then take them down to the greenhouse later.

thank you all for your comments,
Rogi i am glad your garden is starting to thaw out now.:o)
Hywel i hope we get some nice weather soon too ,
i cant wait to get cracking. :o)
David i never would have thought of a tree , that is a good idea & i love willow thank you for that it is something to think hard about..:o)
hi Red,thanx i know OH said that but i have enough beds to fill & as he doesnt plant anything its all down to me..oh sorry he did plant some spuds last year..and everyone knew about it lol :o)
lolStick.
Hi Balcony, i did not do anything on Sunday as you say too wet,i just went for a look round & check everything. i hope you get some manure we put some on at the end of autumn..i am the same as you but i have made a start,tomatoes,onions,leek & a few flower seeds..all in the spare bedroom untill i can put them in greenhouse..:o)

I think all places look a little bedraggled at this time of year, but increasing 30 to 60, I really think they are taking the pee. Just because they KNOW that people want this kind of thing. I'm sorry but it really gets my Goat.

I've sown some onion seed & I took the tray down to the allotment a week or so ago. I also planted some Garlic cloves in recycled Pansy plug trays. The ground on the plot was too frozen to put them directly in the ground. Though before Christmas I did plant a few directly into the soil. No sign of them yet though.

Now I want to start off other seeds & to that end I bought a bag of compost for sowing seeds in & took it down to the plot. I didn't have any seeds there I could plant at present.

I want to try to grow the Watermelon seeds my wife brought back from Spain foe me but I've no idea what to do with them! I've posted a question to see if anybody has any experience of growing them in the UK.

She also brought me back Cucumber seeds, Red & Green Sweet Peppers as well as tomato seeds. :-))

hi Martin its not good is it i am so glad ours is self managed,like you say because they are in demand like everything else.. the price goes up .:o)
Balcony i planted garlic & onions on the plot in Nov & they are just starting to show..i had water melons last year the plant grew well in the greenhouse & has male & female flowers.. you have to use a paint brush to pollinate them i got a few melons but only the size of a tennis ball..worth trying though..i have some seeds for bite size cucumber which i cant wait to plant..also in Netto today ( if you have one near ) packets of seeds veg & flowers are 19p per pack..:o)

Thanks, Joanella, but there is no Netto shop near here. In Wilko's they have some seeds that are very cheap. Though at present, probably for the first time in my life, I have so many packets of seeds, especially of veg., that my wife brought me back from Spain, that I don't know what to do with them at present!

Most can't be sown for a couple more months yet. I thought of sowing the water melon seeds but after reading about them yesterday I've decided I'll wait a few more months.

It was interesting to read about your experiment with them last year! Shame the fruits turned out so small.