new plotment

Smashing!! Hope you enjoy it. I'd always hoped, one day to have the time for an allotment(as well as my veg patch at home and one at one of my customer's gardens) but I don't unfortunately have the energy nowadays as i've recently been diagnosed with Fibro Myalgia which makes heavy gardening work very difficult, so I'm enviuos of you and Ben. Enjoy it!
And by the way, us blokes like to have familiar things around us you know! So don't you go tidying that shed up will you??? Made me laugh reminded me of the coimedian, Michael Mcintyre's routine about the 'Man Drawer' with all it's (not so) useful contents. Did you ever hear that routine? Very funny!!!

ha ha paul yes i like michael too think hes funny,sorry to hear you have fibro myalgia a neighbour of mine had it so know how painful it can be..

Im sure ul enjoy your New Plot Joan :) i once had an allotment & it gave me much joy as i didnt have a Garden back then :)

thanks jacque will enjoy it i know, its just the thought of starting again,but will be worth it im sure..

well done joanella and ben, glad you got another, is it close to your other plot? i would hide that sink if i were you, and try to keep the pond to, a nice feature having water there while you enjoy your summer days sat having a brew lol,
anyway hope you have many happy times there together :o))

cheers san & thanks,yes its just across from one we have got now,i know i told ben to hide it but he wouldnt and i cant lift it lol yes will try to keep pond as good for frogs,birds etc

Exciting ! :o)) You must be over the moon with 2 plots. Can't wait to see all the stuff growing with you. It might be handy having bees near by for polination. Now my shed is also full of wood and screws and handy things lol. Well I'm sure they'll come in handy one day ;o) I hope they leave that sink for you. Have you planned what you're going to grow in it ?

yes hywel i am excited but feel a bit guilty at same time,not too sure about the bees but shoud be ok,dont know about sink im open to any ideas from anyone thats if it gets left on plot which i think it will he seems to have cleared what he wants now,so you have a man shed too :o)))

Thats good news Joanella and you don`t have to feel guilty about it,you did`nt cause the other tenants problems. Its good that both plots are close and I hope you get many hours enjoyment out of both plots.It will be interesting to see how you get on in the coming months......

Yes I have all sorts of things in my .... garage really lol - but no car can get in there. My shed has a potter's wheel and equipment :o)

So happy for you both . What a commitee do is take note who does clear the sites allocated and if they show promising like your selves will offer another one. I would nt be bothered about the bees, as when I had allotments they kept bees on them, never bothered us at all, also will polinate your plants for you as there is a shortage of bees no bees no plants, moths do polinate more than bees, I have read. Smoke makes them drowsy, they should keep them under control normally in the rules of allotments.
As for your ground being wet, should nt ought to be as it looks from your pictures it slopes down wards, also should be easy to clear, by the looks of it, as the privious owner has veg growing and left it . You might find the pond is for watering his plants as I cannot see a water butt on there, perhaps I 'm wrong.

Oh thats so exciting isn't it Joanella? That turned out soil from the tub is fantastic, showing just how worms work to break up the soil for us. I'm sure you will get to like the bees. They don't like stinging and just go about their work if left alone. Lets just hope they stay healthy. No doubt they will be a help to you too making sure everything gets pollinated.
I know what you mean about feeling guilty, not enough people do. I bet you will make good use of your ground. I think I saw a water butt behind a shed, is that right? Also a pond would be useful in attracting frogs and toads to eat the slugs and snails.
I do envy you. I hope you will keep us up to date with all you do there.

Great hope you enjoy your new plot together.

thank you for your comments lincs yes lots of enjoyment i think.
hywel we are the same ,garage too full to put car in keep saying i wil get round 2 clearing it dont know when though lol !
yes sixpence i know there are quite strict rules on keeping bees so should be ok,the ground is on a slope but not good drainage on whole site, its next to a dam where people go fishing and water comes under our site we are trying to get something done about this problem.the water butt was on first pics but has now been taken off by last tenant.
thank you mad feeling a bit better about the bees now,yes there was a water butt there as you say,and you are right about the frogs & toads the slugs ate most of what we planted last year
thank you clarice we will :o)),

I'm happy for the both of you, Joanella! How exciting to have more space to do more of what you love! Should prove to be lots of fun digging around the site, nosing about, and figuring out what you'd like to do with it. I would think the last tennant took all they were going to take, and hopefully will leave you with the handy things that are there now (tub, pond, etc). How far away from where you live is the area where the allotments are located? How often do you think you visit your allotment to work on it, etc? Interested because over here in the US, we don't usually have allotments, but sometimes there are what we call "Community Gardens". A bit different actually. It would be a large piece of land with small areas fenced off that applicants can come and grow things in. Each person would get maybe the size of one or two raised beds and that's it. It is usually situated in an inner city abandoned lot where people can walk to get to it. I used to live in a very small house with an even smaller yard, no bigger than the space of one or two vehicles. That's all the space I had to garden in. Then we moved to this house where the lot is huge, and I garden everywhere I can! Looking forward to more pictures of the progress of your new allottment. Lisa

thank you Lisa ,we are just at the stage of drawing a plan to get the best out of the plot i dont know if you have seen in "my pics" photos of our other plot but they are raised beds so may do new plot on ground level,the site itself is about a 10 min walk from our house, so its easy to get to, it depends what shift ben is working we usually like to go up at least twice a week, in the summer i was there nearly every day when he was workiing days,its so quiet there just turn mobile off (bliss) the charge for the plots at our site are £20 per year so very cheap compared to some places .interesting to hear of the community gardens you have,at least it gets the community together doing something also for some people its a social life,glad to hear you have lots of space to garden in now but i find the more space you have you still find something to fill it up with.:o))

Thats great news Joanella....."his 'n hers"......lol.....that pond will come in useful....get a few frogs in and they will chomp on any SAS you get....I'm hoping to find room on mine for one. I go next Sunday to the Allotment Shed with my offer letter...and hopefully will find out when I take "charge".
I've ordered soft fruit and some veg plants for this year as I have to go into hospital for a little op sometime in March/April....bad timing...but my specialist says I can do some gentle gardening after 2 weeks!!
I'm drawing up plans of where to put my beds....and have my seed order ready to send off......Just hope this dratted snow goes away soon so I can get the soil covered and warmed up.....
Your charges are very reasonable....do you have any water laid on? toilets? car parking?....all we have is water...fortunately I have a tap on my plot.....I think our charges are about £38.......£8 for the plot.....the rest for water!!
I look forward to comparing notes!!....:-))

we are sort of split into 2 sites ours only open 2yrs but others up lane been there donkeys years being more established they have water & porterloo we have nothing on ours but can use the ones they have if needed just a pain 2 keep locking and unlocking gates if you are in a hurry (if you get my drift )we dont get offers by letter they just tell you if you can have one, car parking not so good as school at bottom of lane & small streets aways full for school,do you have good parking ?yes i have been sorting out seeds and just bought seed potatoes to go in next month.very sorry to hear about your op and hope you recover quickly from it :o))

How exciting for you both, would have loved to have taken on a project like that when we were younger, my Father had one right up until he died, he grew some wonderful fruit and veg.
If you get to keep the sink, put alpines in it, you have to cover the sink first, have a picture on my photos.
Will look forward to seeing a weekly report from you, good luck and happy growing....

thank you dd lovely memories of your father then,im off to see your pics :o)) some lovely ones there dd its an certainly worth thinking about ,would look nice,:o))

I would love to have an allotment but they are in scant supply around here & there's now a waiting list. Just a few years ago the council was offering half plots to try to encourage people to take them up. I know of 3 allotment fields around here but I haven't seen any allotments on them that look abandoned. I should have applied for one when we first moved back here 8 years ago but I didn't now I regret it! Though a man at the church I go to has offered me part of his allotment. I will have to have a talk with him about it.

I didn't know where his allotment was but on one field of allotments last year I noticed from the road that one seemed to be full of sunflowers & nothing else. I commented on it to my wife & the following week at church I was talking to this man & he told me it was his!

As I suffer a lot with back problems - I had an operation for a slipped disk in Spain in 2000 - I find it very hard to bend down. As you speak about raised beds in your blog how did you go about making them? What hight are they? How wide?

hi balcony,may i say i would consider taking the chance and go ahead with your friend at the church,what have you got to lose ? of course it is hard work but dont let that put you off,most people on the site would give you support as everyone is like minded and if you know anyone who could possibly give you a hand all the better,you never know it could give you a new lease of life,it did for us,as long as you dont over do it of course,you can plant what you want on them,if you just want flowers thats ok,or veg, as long as you are seen to be working on the plot its ok,our pots are both only half size,the raised beds are a godsend to my back and are 2 scaffold planks high, someone on your site may know where the cheapest ones in your area are,we made big mistakes first planks cost £15 each-then found some for-£10 then found local wood yard we,d never noticed -when nearly finished plot for £3 50p so really look on net & ask around before you start, but in the warmer months i would advise it,every ones so nice , its like a chill pill to me even if i dont do much that day its getting out, hope this helps but i stress dont be tempted to do too much :o))
will put proper sizes on for you tmoz as i dont know them & him indoors is in bed lol

Thanks for that, Joanella. I will definitely have a word with my friend from church.