The Smith's on Plot 4

Hi there,

I forgot to mention that yesterday I used Round-Up on the other end of the Lotty to where I was working.

Arriving on plot 4 after work today I was pleased to see it was having an effect, the nettles were nearly dead already and the brambles and assorted other weeds were starting to change colour around the edges of their foliage too.
Looking at the results of the spraying so far, I decided to go over the rest with the weed killer.

I know a lot of people like the totally organic approach, but I know i will still get great tasting food even if I did get a chemical help at the beginning and with a little luck i may even be able to grow something this season!!

http://www.allotment.org.uk/articles/new-allotment.php - an inspirational article for a newbie allotmenteer like myself.

Like it says in the above article, if I get up and running now, I can always go 100% organic next year :)

After giving the plot a spray I noticed a funny looking rock, only it wasn't a rock it was a stump of some kind. I spent the next hour trying to dig out around it and remove it.
Once that was finally done I had a chat with John who said he had asked my neighbor when he had seen him earlier and that the pallets in the corner of plot 4 weren't his so I could get rid of them if I wanted.

Hell no!

I will be swapping the pallet currently used as the back to the opposite side, cleaning the debris out and lining it with tarp to use as a compost bin ;)

I also met another plot holder today called Tom, he works somewhere that can get wood for nothing and he said I could use the pile on top of my soon to be compost bin if I like. Raised beds = Sorted :D
After having a natter I pottered about for a little bit, my plot is in a great position where it gets sun all day, so I just enjoyed the peace and watched the birds playing..... Bliss!
I won't have too much to do over the next week or so while the weed killer does it's stuff but I do have the compost bin to get on with and some tidying up. I also need to come up with a rough plan of what I actually want the plot to look like and where the beds are going to go.

Thanks for reading my ramblings,

Rob

Made our way back to plot 4 today to try and get a little of the digging done, little being the key word! lol
Keeping with the plan of doing it in bite sized chunks, I went back to work on the corner I started yesterday. While I dug/forked it over Kat, Lucy and Ozzie helped out buy grabbing any weed, clumps of grass and roots and chucking them in our handy white bucket.

We kept at it for a hour or two until it was time for the kids to get home, washed and in bed.

I came back after dropping them off to turn it over again and just grab any stray bits that were missed by my lovely assistants. Spent an hour or so turning and weeding, as you can see in the picture I have a third of todays patch to sift trough tomorrow before starting on the next chunk.
As I am new to this I have no idea if what I am doing is right but it is satisfying seeing a bed emerge, even if it is a teeny tiny section on our lotty's corner ;o)
One day I hope to get it looking nice and tidy like our neighbors plots!
Well thats enough rambling from me for now, but if you have any hints, tips, advice or comments please feel free to let us know!

TTFN,

Rob, Kat, Lucy and Oscar

Hello and thanks for taking the time to look at our humble little corner of blogsphere.

After 2 years on the waiting list we have finally been given our very own allotment! (well a half plot really but half a plot is better than no plot!)

My wife Kat picked up the key at lunch time and as soon as i got back from work we shot round to see what we had gotten ourselves into.

As you can see we got a big slab of weeds :oP but I have three flippy floppy scarecrows to keep away pests!

having a closer look we found a bramble by the pallets at the far end and this poor fellow


So at least we know something other than weeds can be grown here!

Back home we went and put our 2 monsters to bed and I popped back over to plot 4 to have another look and make a token effort at digging.

Arriving back on my own I took a look around and realized I had no idea what to do or where to begin!!
Now don't get me wrong, the couple of years on the waiting list was spent reading through Grow your Own magazines, looking up allotment blogs and reading a couple of very good books on the subject. Yet the second I set foot on the plot everything I had read dribbled out my ear.

Looking around in despair I spot a chap tending his own plot across the way and decide to introduce myself and see if he had any idea of where I should start!

Turns out the chap's name is John and he has been on the allotment for 3 years and he seemed  really nice. After showing me around his and plot and a couple of the neighboring plots we got down to the business of what I should do with my own plot.

He said I should pick a section and aim to do a little bit at a time and bit by bit get the whole lot done in bite sized chunks to avoid burning out or giving up.

This was great advice and was what I had originally planned before it fell out of my head earlier.

Asking how hard the ground was for digging he scooped up my fork and nearly bit his tongue off with the force of impact. The ground is pretty much rock solid.  So new plan, give the area a good soaking to soften in up for digging up.

With John now off to the pub and hose in hand, I soaked the area I am planning on digging over first and not wanting to leave without making a token effort, I made a start in the far corner.
Turning up the grass revealed a LOT of bindweed and Couch Grass, so I should imaging there is a lot of sifting through the dirt to remove as much as we can over the coming weeks :o(

Thats all for today, Thanks for stopping by!

Rob, Kat, Lucy and Oscar Smith of Plot 4