STW – Garderners and allotment users – Friday chat

woody – my board name says it all……. 8)
allotment visit via The Riverhead anyone??

I mentioned plans for this in a thread a while ago, finally, having been in MM Towers for 4 years we recently had the boys in to do the outside stuff.
View from back bedroom, formerly the courtyard area was a wasteland of builders materials etc….

this is the bit above the courtyard, thought it was ours when we bought the place, turns out its not, its an allotment which we took on, about the same time we started proceedings against the conveyancing solicitor…… 🙄
The Courtyard Boys did the work clearing it for us and using the old patio to make raised beds….

So, where do we start now (I know, I know, TIDY UP 😀 ) beyond that though initial thoughts are the beds need a good dig and a load of well rotted manure mixing in?? after that we’re clueless…… any ideas and suggestions for resources – fora, boks, etc greatfully rec’d….
Oh, the other idea is top centre, left of and behind the tree, we did that over and put the spuds there, keeping the raised beds for for other goodies.
Cheers Chris

doh…..
try again, just mised the ‘edit’ cutoff……..

allotment bit…..

It’s my second year growing fruit and veg….

This is how it’s looking at the moment

Potatoes have been in for 2-3 weeks. Leek seedlings have just started coming through. Strawberries are looking great (no flowers just yet though) and the Mixed Salad’s coming along nicely

As you can see below the Herb Garden and the onions are looking great at the moment.

This year the produce list is as follows…..

Strawberries,
Lettuce (3 diffrerent varieties)
Cabbage (Round and Pointy)
Cauliflower
Brocolli
Carrots
Onions (Red and White)
Potatoes
Pumpkin
Courgette
Beetroot
Butternut Squash (hopefully)
Tomatoes
Peas
Runner beans

Plus Chives, Basil, Oregano, Thyme, Mint, lemon Balm and Rosemary

I love gardening I do !

Were you all frantically weeding before taking those pics to put up here?

😉

Some of them may shame me into getting out with the hoe and trowel a bit more often.

Marsdenman – Nice spread, but I can’t help looking at that patio and thinking “he could get a few more beds in there easy”.

on the subject of topsoil.
Rolawn now produce 1m bulk bags of fruit and veg topsoil.
should be available at your local builders merchants.
pricey though.

This great! We have just moved into a rented property with a huge allotment at the end of our lovely garden. We also have a small glasshouse. Last weekend I hired a rotavator and went over the allotment. To be honest we are way behind in getting the garden planted up. Hopefully will be off to the local garden centre to get my seeds. On the flower front, I am an ex- gardener, so I will still get all my flowers from my mate who still works for the company. So I have to prepare the beds and get some hanging basket brackets up. And get a new phornium for my front door. And a Japanese maple. So much to do, not enough time!!!

Broadbeans coming through 🙂

Reading with interest as we measured out the size our garden will be once the garage has been demolished and we will have room for decent veggie plot, hurrah!

cxi, how long did you have your fig before it fruited? I have one that was started off as a cutting about 5 years ago and am wondering how much longer I have to wait! GF laughs at it, it’s still a stick really, but it’s growing nicely. It’s a long term project 😉

Came back from a week away to find the lettuces, broad beans, peas, onions and radishes are all through – no sign of carrots or potatoes yet.

Planted runner beans last weekend – we’ll wait a little while before planting out the courgettes and tomatoes, pretty much all we have space for in the garden

If there’s anyone in or around Aberystwyth I’ve got more Courgette and Pumpkin plants than I will have space for. If you want and my email is in profile..

Worst photo stitch ever! Thanks Canon. Empty beds are for veg and the space to the right is for the greenhouse which is on order.

Been a good week this week, apart from frying some young Tomato plants on the window sill at home, not sure if they will make it poor little things, some look like they will make it though!

Put out some excess trays of young peas and carrots next to my honesty box at my allotment and had a weird collection of things left for a trade, not sure what I am going to to with some of the wood, but the bins might come in handy, had a nice thank you letter from some kid who took some of the pea plants, bless…..

Did make a herb tub from some of the wood though 😉

How is everyone else getting on?

Put Butternut Squash and some herbs in pots last week, and generally tidied what bit I’ve got to plant in up.

Just about to build our first planter. Sounds like it’s the time of year for Potatoes and we’re big potato eaters so that will be going in first. What else is good for planting around now?

Carrots, Beetroots?

Cheers Jimster.

I’ve just completed the first bed border. I removed a 2×2 square of 600mm paving slabs to place it on and on seeing marsdenman’s beds I’m wondering how to use them to make more beds 😀

Can I just use multi-purpose compost from the garden centre? I’ve got 100L of peat moss too if that’s any use.

Built a raised bed this afternoon from some decking planks lying behind the shed, just come in out of the afternoons sun. Great day in the garden.
My spuds are flying high, chives and coriander are coming nice, beetroot and toms are doing well.

Raised bed will get some carrots and onions I think, but not sure if I should wait till next year

Todays relatively shallow beds. Probably only 6 inches at the edge but can build the earth up inside.

And where they sit. This triangle of patio is completely useless so planning to fill it with beds. Next plan will be to lift a 2×6 set of slabs to form a bed as seen in marsdenmans garden. There’s still plenty of spare slabs for other beds here and there too.

anyone in/near manchester know a good (and cheap/free!) source of reclaimed timber/planks for making raised beds with?

A pictorial update of how my Veggie patch is progressing…..

Strawberries flowering nicely…. should be a nice fruity May/June

Potatoes have now come through

Courgettes are out (a bit ambitious, but i’ve got reserves if the frost gets ’em

White onions are doing well, and the runner beans are in behind them !!

Peas are away and climbing

First time I’ve grown rocket and it’s looking good atm

Cauliflowers are coming along, but may need to move

Carrots are through and need thinning out. Thought I’d grow them in pots as the grounds very stoney here in Mid Wales

Well, our 30ft glass house is taking shape.

We filled it with 18 bags of composted farm yard manure (guy up the road has a business composting farmyard manure, selling the worms to fishermen and compost to gardeners. Soil looks great now.

Toms are planted, the cherry toms are still in pots. cayenne, jalapeño and red devil chillies are still in pot and will be going into the ground soon. broad beans and French beans are ready to go in. Cabbage are popping up. Lettuce and rocket are doing well, nearly ready. Courgettes and chicory still to be sown but that won’t be until June. Usual herb patches of coriander, basil and lemon grass are starting to germinate.

Partly inspired by this thread and partly by a visit to a friends, I spent Saturday digging over the garden and putting some spare wood to good use.

The outcome was this:

Today I planted them up. The nearer one has rocket and radishes. The far one has courgette, beetroot and cabbage.

I’m hoping the spot I’ve chosen is not too shady and before long there will be some nice veg to eat.

an update on my side of things

Landscaper has been let down by his contractor and can no longer undertake our work 🙁

so

today i have hired a van, bought 32 railway sleepers, cleared 10 square meters of 3″ deep gravel, removed plastic lining and completed raised bed 1 of 4.

The trouble I now have is that the wood yard have given me the wrong size of shorter sleeper, the narrower end of my 8ft by 4ft beds is 10mm lower than the long side. I was thinking of buying some 10mm treated timber and using it to pad out the short bits and then was going to put a row of decking around the top. not only will this serve to cover up the error I think it will make the beds a pleasant place to perch and chat to the neighbours. what do you think?

on the plus side, baby corn, courgettes spinach, radishes, salad leaves, aubergines and chillies are all doing very well 🙂

mrmichaelwright – I’d leave it, its got a sort of penrose stairs thing going on. any fiddling will just look like you are fiddling. Good job BTW.

thanks, a trip to the osteopath may be in order tomorrow 😥

Mrs NBT wants raised beds: is it essential to uyse treated timber or can I get away with scrap wood, at least to start with?

Don’t worry about it, get some scaffolding boards or, as above, railway sleepers. These have the depth/rigidity to hold their shape when moisture becomes an issue.

PS. Fibreoard/woodchip/MDF are the exception to this. Get something with a grain.

you can line them with marine ply if you want to use scrap wood. It won’t rot so easily. don’t use old brown railway sleepers, they are poisonous. new sleepers are expensive. 12x8ft and 20x4ft for our garden would have been £520 delivered.

might give the local scaffolders a ring tomorrow I think, in the short term just plain wood will do – I;m getting hassle to get the thing built, and will no doubt get more hassle when I have to rebuild it, but the point is to save money by growing our own food, not to spend more than we’d save on buying wood…
cheers for the advice

I acquired 5 4M scaffold planks from a mate who was doing a scaffolding job down the road. These have now been made into 3 sides of a 3.6M x 1.2M bed. I’ve left 1 side open to barrow in the top soil then will close it up. Even managed to offload the stack of paving slabs onto martyntr in exchange for some part-grown plants hopefully. Pictures tonight.

Scaffold planks seem to last quite well in our UK weather too, well our neighbouring plot holder has some that are 5 years old and he never bothered treating them.

Mine cost me £3 a plank, finding decent soil at a good price was harder though 😉

My messy plot 😉

Spuds are now poking up in their tubs and finally we have life in the spring onion pot.

I’ll be out on snail patrol tonight as they’ve started eating my bedding plants. Grrr!

Spuds coming up nicely
Carrots beginning to appear
Rocket sprouting
Onions doing really well
Toms starting to appear (we were late with these)
Strawberries – looking promising
Courgettes going in this weekend
Vines (got two over a pergola) look they are going to be mighty good this year
Herbs doing well
Garlic – absolutely not sign of ’em at all!

Probably going to get some ‘troughs’ to put slad leaves, radishes, etc in to dot around the place

been a busy couple of days:

6 tonnes of organic topsoil arriving on tuesday 🙂

soil is in 🙂

truck driver managed to get most of it straight in the beds, i only had to shovel 2 tonnes of it myself.

it’s lovely soil after our solid clay, was nice and warm so i guess the organic content is good.

pics to follow.

Nice work, those beds look top notch.

I grow veg in my front garden too, onions and garlic – with a few daffs mixed to keep the missus happy.

MMW out of interest how much did it cost you for the soil, was it from a national or local firm?

decent top soil from my local supplier costs me £35 a ton, that is, if I pick it up myself.

There we go.

Ski – best place we could find was local but does nationwide delivery. we didn’t know it was local at the time! top service. ordered saturday 10am and rocked up today.

Home

My allotment is a hideous windswept thing covered with scratty bed-invading grass, which resembles a gulag where vegetables go to die. That said, it currently has rhubarb, the dregs of last year’s leeks and chard ready to pick, plus onions, beans, sweet peas, and a lone courgette. I have a load of spuds in the shed that I really need to get planted!

I’ve got more chard, beetroot, carrots and parsnips growing in the cold frame and I’m going to try a bit of companion planting this year (marigolds, tagetes and heliotropes) to deter the flea beetles and aphids.

Xherbivore, if you’re looking for free wood, try scouting out the local skips for floorboards or similar.