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Me and my wife have just taken on an allotment. It’s 53sq meters and hasn’t been touched for 2 or more years.I don’t know how anyone can dig for a living, it genuinely feels like the toughest morning of my life. Just back from there and I hurt, god knows how I’m going to feel tomorrow. Digging on hot days is not my forte.I’m going to need a sit down and a few cold beers and a sit down.4
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charltonkeston said:Me and my wife have just taken on an allotment. It’s 53sq meters and hasn’t been touched for 2 or more years.I don’t know how anyone can dig for a living, it genuinely feels like the toughest morning of my life. Just back from there and I hurt, god knows how I’m going to feel tomorrow. Digging on hot days is not my forte.I’m going to need a sit down and a few cold beers and a sit down.Charles Dowding is a good guy to follow on YouTube etc if you want to try 'no dig' going forward once the plot is in shape.
Allotments can be hard work, but very rewarding in both the produce grown and mental escape, though this year has been tough getting much to even germinate!
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I’d recommend no dig. It’s taken me a while to set up but it’s so much better than digging every year. I’d recommend making as big a compost system as possible (pallets are good) so you can create the good stuff to use on your no dig areas.addix said:charltonkeston said:Me and my wife have just taken on an allotment. It’s 53sq meters and hasn’t been touched for 2 or more years.I don’t know how anyone can dig for a living, it genuinely feels like the toughest morning of my life. Just back from there and I hurt, god knows how I’m going to feel tomorrow. Digging on hot days is not my forte.I’m going to need a sit down and a few cold beers and a sit down.Charles Dowding is a good guy to follow on YouTube etc if you want to try 'no dig' going forward once the plot is in shape.
Allotments can be hard work, but very rewarding in both the produce grown and mental escape, though this year has been tough getting much to even germinate!I can recommend chicken manure as it really helps break down the other stuff.1 -
As luck would have it we have on the plot two compost bins made from pallets. They are a bit rotten and will need replacing. We have moved the compost,(which looks good), from one to the other and started afresh on the empty one. I agree and are all for the no dig method but we had and still have some serious cleaning to be done. Nature has well and truly taken over. There is also a small shed that should last for another year but I will replace it with a 6 X 4 or maybe a slightly larger one if allowed.Arsenetatters said:
I’d recommend no dig. It’s taken me a while to set up but it’s so much better than digging every year. I’d recommend making as big a compost system as possible (pallets are good) so you can create the good stuff to use on your no dig areas.addix said:charltonkeston said:Me and my wife have just taken on an allotment. It’s 53sq meters and hasn’t been touched for 2 or more years.I don’t know how anyone can dig for a living, it genuinely feels like the toughest morning of my life. Just back from there and I hurt, god knows how I’m going to feel tomorrow. Digging on hot days is not my forte.I’m going to need a sit down and a few cold beers and a sit down.Charles Dowding is a good guy to follow on YouTube etc if you want to try 'no dig' going forward once the plot is in shape.
Allotments can be hard work, but very rewarding in both the produce grown and mental escape, though this year has been tough getting much to even germinate!I can recommend chicken manure as it really helps break down the other stuff.My wife wants to grow flowers for the house which is nice but maybe a little late for this year I’m happy with a couple of fruit bushes that are existing but will need attention.The real reason for taking this on is in 2 or 3 years time I will retire and will need things to occupy the time. It’s probably best to get things under way now rather than down the road. I / we do have other interests but always wanted a bit of ground that I could experiment with rather than our house where everything has to look in order.6 -
Garden along with all my pots of which I have 116 spread between the front and back of the house coming along nicely, another shout for chicken s*** manure pellets.Be warned, dogs love them I’ve had to start mixing them with water to stop the dogs eating them from the top of the pots! 😂
I also have two comfrey plants growing in the garden so comfrey feed is also used on alternating weeks when watering.Third year for climbing roses (red) second year for rambling roses (pink) along with honeysuckle growing amongst them.
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Surely that's Chelsea !T_C_E said:Garden along with all my pots of which I have 116 spread between the front and back of the house coming along nicely, another shout for chicken s*** manure pellets.Be warned, dogs love them I’ve had to start mixing them with water to stop the dogs eating them from the top of the pots! 😂
I also have two comfrey plants growing in the garden so comfrey feed is also used on alternating weeks when watering.Third year for climbing roses (red) second year for rambling roses (pink) along with honeysuckle growing amongst them.2 -
I well remember those aches !!charltonkeston said:Me and my wife have just taken on an allotment. It’s 53sq meters and hasn’t been touched for 2 or more years.I don’t know how anyone can dig for a living, it genuinely feels like the toughest morning of my life. Just back from there and I hurt, god knows how I’m going to feel tomorrow. Digging on hot days is not my forte.I’m going to need a sit down and a few cold beers and a sit down.
Don't rush this year, or feel the need to - as NJ might say, taking on a plot you're in a monster league. You just want to consolidate!
I can certainly recommend perennials in the long run - they're my cheat code. Yes, big up front investment in time and money but it pays off. My plot is the same size as yours - 10 rods. More than half my growing space is fruit trees, 3 asparagus beds, rhubarb bed, 10ft of blackberries, 50ft of raspberries, 2 beds of strawberries, 3 big pots of blueberries - stuff that crops year after year. Move the strawberries every 3. Pre-planting for all I generally dug in shed loads of manure or compost for the years ahead, then an annual top up. Bought the best crowns/plants I could source. That's the up front effort.
Anything that needs annual digging (to plant or harvest) or fiddly covering to keep the birds off... way too much effort. Spuds - forget it.
Onions and garlic nice and easy to plant out in autumn... leeks another easy one... courgettes, runners and sweetcorn easy in the summer. Parsnips go in soon, harvesting those are as much digging as I'll do.
Anyway, there's my 2 pence worth - allotmenting is a very worthwhile pastime - keep at it if the first few months are difficult. All the best!3 -
That’s a hell of a lot of produce. We’re pretty much the same with the stuff that requires special attention. We don’t ever put and pesticides on our garden, it started more out of laziness but mostly everything still grew so we stuck with it. Our Hostas are untouched by slugs and we have a quite few snails shells so we must a few predators around.Er_Be_Ab_Pl_Wo_Wo_Ch said:
I well remember those aches !!charltonkeston said:Me and my wife have just taken on an allotment. It’s 53sq meters and hasn’t been touched for 2 or more years.I don’t know how anyone can dig for a living, it genuinely feels like the toughest morning of my life. Just back from there and I hurt, god knows how I’m going to feel tomorrow. Digging on hot days is not my forte.I’m going to need a sit down and a few cold beers and a sit down.
Don't rush this year, or feel the need to - as NJ might say, taking on a plot you're in a monster league. You just want to consolidate!
I can certainly recommend perennials in the long run - they're my cheat code. Yes, big up front investment in time and money but it pays off. My plot is the same size as yours - 10 rods. More than half my growing space is fruit trees, 3 asparagus beds, rhubarb bed, 10ft of blackberries, 50ft of raspberries, 2 beds of strawberries, 3 big pots of blueberries - stuff that crops year after year. Move the strawberries every 3. Pre-planting for all I generally dug in shed loads of manure or compost for the years ahead, then an annual top up. Bought the best crowns/plants I could source. That's the up front effort.
Anything that needs annual digging (to plant or harvest) or fiddly covering to keep the birds off... way too much effort. Spuds - forget it.
Onions and garlic nice and easy to plant out in autumn... leeks another easy one... courgettes, runners and sweetcorn easy in the summer. Parsnips go in soon, harvesting those are as much digging as I'll do.
Anyway, there's my 2 pence worth - allotmenting is a very worthwhile pastime - keep at it if the first few months are difficult. All the best!Thanks for your insight into allotments and will take on board the advice.1 -
Zinnias come up quickly at this time of year for cut flowers.charltonkeston said:
As luck would have it we have on the plot two compost bins made from pallets. They are a bit rotten and will need replacing. We have moved the compost,(which looks good), from one to the other and started afresh on the empty one. I agree and are all for the no dig method but we had and still have some serious cleaning to be done. Nature has well and truly taken over. There is also a small shed that should last for another year but I will replace it with a 6 X 4 or maybe a slightly larger one if allowed.Arsenetatters said:
I’d recommend no dig. It’s taken me a while to set up but it’s so much better than digging every year. I’d recommend making as big a compost system as possible (pallets are good) so you can create the good stuff to use on your no dig areas.addix said:charltonkeston said:Me and my wife have just taken on an allotment. It’s 53sq meters and hasn’t been touched for 2 or more years.I don’t know how anyone can dig for a living, it genuinely feels like the toughest morning of my life. Just back from there and I hurt, god knows how I’m going to feel tomorrow. Digging on hot days is not my forte.I’m going to need a sit down and a few cold beers and a sit down.Charles Dowding is a good guy to follow on YouTube etc if you want to try 'no dig' going forward once the plot is in shape.
Allotments can be hard work, but very rewarding in both the produce grown and mental escape, though this year has been tough getting much to even germinate!I can recommend chicken manure as it really helps break down the other stuff.My wife wants to grow flowers for the house which is nice but maybe a little late for this year I’m happy with a couple of fruit bushes that are existing but will need attention.The real reason for taking this on is in 2 or 3 years time I will retire and will need things to occupy the time. It’s probably best to get things under way now rather than down the road. I / we do have other interests but always wanted a bit of ground that I could experiment with rather than our house where everything has to look in order.I recommend retirement as soon as you can. Take life at a different pace. I think you’ll find you won’t have enough time to do all the things you want to. I’ve never been busier than in retirement!1 -
I’ve made comfrey feed before (wow does it stink!) how much do you dilute it by? My comfrey is growing fast at the moment but the bees are loving the flowers so I hate to cut it yet.T_C_E said:Garden along with all my pots of which I have 116 spread between the front and back of the house coming along nicely, another shout for chicken s*** manure pellets.Be warned, dogs love them I’ve had to start mixing them with water to stop the dogs eating them from the top of the pots! 😂
I also have two comfrey plants growing in the garden so comfrey feed is also used on alternating weeks when watering.Third year for climbing roses (red) second year for rambling roses (pink) along with honeysuckle growing amongst them.0 -
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Like everything in the garden, I just wing it!Arsenetatters said:
I’ve made comfrey feed before (wow does it stink!) how much do you dilute it by? My comfrey is growing fast at the moment but the bees are loving the flowers so I hate to cut it yet.T_C_E said:Garden along with all my pots of which I have 116 spread between the front and back of the house coming along nicely, another shout for chicken s*** manure pellets.Be warned, dogs love them I’ve had to start mixing them with water to stop the dogs eating them from the top of the pots! 😂
I also have two comfrey plants growing in the garden so comfrey feed is also used on alternating weeks when watering.Third year for climbing roses (red) second year for rambling roses (pink) along with honeysuckle growing amongst them.
If works it works.
Using a watering can, I cover the bottom sufficiently to put some colour in the water, just enough to make it looks like dirty water unlike on gardeners world where it looks like treacle.1 -
The back of the house is coming on too. 💪
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I've heard Monty Don say it should be like weak tea (looks not taste
). Maybe a 10 to 1 mix. 1 -
Looking good Ray, although your lawn might benefit from some wateringT_C_E said:The back of the house is coming on too. 💪4 -
No problem - yeah my boy eats a mountain of fruit and he gets through all that fruit and more besides - I need to add more! Apsapraus I grow more than I need but there's plenty of harvest sharing goes on at the allotment, which I hope will be the same at yours, so any excess given away always comes back some other time with something I don't grow. The onions and garlic from last summer we put in shed storage on racks and only just finished eating.charltonkeston said:
That’s a hell of a lot of produce. We’re pretty much the same with the stuff that requires special attention. We don’t ever put and pesticides on our garden, it started more out of laziness but mostly everything still grew so we stuck with it. Our Hostas are untouched by slugs and we have a quite few snails shells so we must a few predators around.Er_Be_Ab_Pl_Wo_Wo_Ch said:
I well remember those aches !!charltonkeston said:Me and my wife have just taken on an allotment. It’s 53sq meters and hasn’t been touched for 2 or more years.I don’t know how anyone can dig for a living, it genuinely feels like the toughest morning of my life. Just back from there and I hurt, god knows how I’m going to feel tomorrow. Digging on hot days is not my forte.I’m going to need a sit down and a few cold beers and a sit down.
Don't rush this year, or feel the need to - as NJ might say, taking on a plot you're in a monster league. You just want to consolidate!
I can certainly recommend perennials in the long run - they're my cheat code. Yes, big up front investment in time and money but it pays off. My plot is the same size as yours - 10 rods. More than half my growing space is fruit trees, 3 asparagus beds, rhubarb bed, 10ft of blackberries, 50ft of raspberries, 2 beds of strawberries, 3 big pots of blueberries - stuff that crops year after year. Move the strawberries every 3. Pre-planting for all I generally dug in shed loads of manure or compost for the years ahead, then an annual top up. Bought the best crowns/plants I could source. That's the up front effort.
Anything that needs annual digging (to plant or harvest) or fiddly covering to keep the birds off... way too much effort. Spuds - forget it.
Onions and garlic nice and easy to plant out in autumn... leeks another easy one... courgettes, runners and sweetcorn easy in the summer. Parsnips go in soon, harvesting those are as much digging as I'll do.
Anyway, there's my 2 pence worth - allotmenting is a very worthwhile pastime - keep at it if the first few months are difficult. All the best!Thanks for your insight into allotments and will take on board the advice.
My first 3 or 4 years allotmenting were trying things out, all good fun, it was only 3 years ago I went for the perennials approach once I knew what did and didn't work for me.
Also have a greenhouse at the plot and after years of trying out different things - peppers, aubergines, etc - I keep that simplified too to not over-burden myself - cucumbers and tomatoes only!2 -
Is that a tetrapanix I spy there @T_C_E? Looks to be at a similar stage to my own one, I'll take a snap next time I'm out there. Absolute monsters when they get established in the gound, hence mines in a pot too for now.T_C_E said:Garden along with all my pots of which I have 116 spread between the front and back of the house coming along nicely, another shout for chicken s*** manure pellets.Be warned, dogs love them I’ve had to start mixing them with water to stop the dogs eating them from the top of the pots! 😂
I also have two comfrey plants growing in the garden so comfrey feed is also used on alternating weeks when watering.Third year for climbing roses (red) second year for rambling roses (pink) along with honeysuckle growing amongst them.1 -
@Bournemouth Addick There is indeed, I have a couple in the back garden too.
One of them is growing into a bit of a lump of a plant after only one year.
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Nice one. I don't really have the space to put one in the ground just yet but I have a plan! Mines about a year old too. No problem whatsoever getting it through the winter, which was a relief given how much it cost...T_C_E said:@Bournemouth Addick There is indeed, I have a couple in the back garden too.
One of them is growing into a bit of a lump of a plant after only one year.
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JohnBoyUK said:Do ponds come into our gardening thread?
Along with the lawn at my new gaff (still no decision made on the cutting method yet!), I've also inherited a pond.
Now, I have limited experience of ponds, apart from helping my old man with his modest one as a kid. I remember him spending hours and hours cleaning the pond itself, the filter box, the waterfall he made etc. From what I remember, it was a complete utter ballache.
So...introducing my inherited pond...
For some context its about 20ft long, 12ft wide and 6ft deep. Its fecking huge. I've got to be honest, its not my cup of tea at all but part of the condition of being a suitable buyer of our house was to babysit the Koi Carp of the previous owner for a couple of months until he has a pond built at his new property. We had paid absolutely no time and effort on the pond apart from feeding the fish twice a day. The girls loved doing it. Well yesterday was the day they got collected. 20 absolute whoppers removed. But there was at least 7-8 left behind as they were pesky gits and hid on the bottom somewhere that they couldn't catch. The old fella phoned this morning to say we could keep the remaining big ones.
As it happens, I was WFH yesterday and got talking to the guys that came to collect the fish. They built the pond in the first place about 12 years, so it was useful to have some expert guidance as to what everything done, in terms of the filter/uv light system, the pump, which had the pump flow rate on a digital display at the back of the pond which we'd not even noticed. Tbh, I assumed there was a filter somewhere but I'd not investigated where it actually was in the garden.
Not sure how I could have missed it, its as big as my Dad's old pond, hidden in the bushes behind the pond. They told me to replace the UV bulbs (£20 every 6-12 months) and then rinse off the sponges in the filter every 2 weeks to start off with and they said the water would be crystal clear in less than 2 weeks. They couldn't believe that the previous owner had spent so much money on the pond but they done absolutely nothing in terms of maintaining it.
So my wife has obviously delegated the maintenance job to me as the gardening is my remit. Here's to posting more pictures of the pond with crystal clear water that I never knew I wanted in the first place in a few weeks time, hopefully lol.
Any pond maintenance tips and tricks greatly received. The guys yesterday was saying I should invest in a pond hoover.
(At least I'm glad we inherited a pond this time rather than a swimming pool!)
An update on my pond.
Well, I carried on cleaning the filter sponges and I replaced the uv bulbs but we was never truly satisified with how clean the pond was.
Started watching a few You Tube videos on pond cleaning etc and my wife said to me just get someone in to do it for you. So thats what I done. Tatsfield Aquatics came along and have cleaned it in an inch of its life and its looking bloody fantastic now.
TA came 3 weeks ago, drained off the pond which took a good couple of hours and then realised there was approx 4 tonnes of silt at the bottom. So as the fella was on his own, we refilled it half up and then came back today with a couple more hands to get it done in the day.
They also done some calculations and it turned out the UV light was only powerful enough to keep the small filter pond clean, so they're changing that for us today and then we're having a pond skimmer installed too, so I don't have to manually scoop them off.
Only thing is, even with 2 hoses currently on, I reckon its going to take 24hrs + to fill it!5 -
That’s not a pond it’s a bloody lake!!JohnBoyUK said:JohnBoyUK said:Do ponds come into our gardening thread?
Along with the lawn at my new gaff (still no decision made on the cutting method yet!), I've also inherited a pond.
Now, I have limited experience of ponds, apart from helping my old man with his modest one as a kid. I remember him spending hours and hours cleaning the pond itself, the filter box, the waterfall he made etc. From what I remember, it was a complete utter ballache.
So...introducing my inherited pond...
For some context its about 20ft long, 12ft wide and 6ft deep. Its fecking huge. I've got to be honest, its not my cup of tea at all but part of the condition of being a suitable buyer of our house was to babysit the Koi Carp of the previous owner for a couple of months until he has a pond built at his new property. We had paid absolutely no time and effort on the pond apart from feeding the fish twice a day. The girls loved doing it. Well yesterday was the day they got collected. 20 absolute whoppers removed. But there was at least 7-8 left behind as they were pesky gits and hid on the bottom somewhere that they couldn't catch. The old fella phoned this morning to say we could keep the remaining big ones.
As it happens, I was WFH yesterday and got talking to the guys that came to collect the fish. They built the pond in the first place about 12 years, so it was useful to have some expert guidance as to what everything done, in terms of the filter/uv light system, the pump, which had the pump flow rate on a digital display at the back of the pond which we'd not even noticed. Tbh, I assumed there was a filter somewhere but I'd not investigated where it actually was in the garden.
Not sure how I could have missed it, its as big as my Dad's old pond, hidden in the bushes behind the pond. They told me to replace the UV bulbs (£20 every 6-12 months) and then rinse off the sponges in the filter every 2 weeks to start off with and they said the water would be crystal clear in less than 2 weeks. They couldn't believe that the previous owner had spent so much money on the pond but they done absolutely nothing in terms of maintaining it.
So my wife has obviously delegated the maintenance job to me as the gardening is my remit. Here's to posting more pictures of the pond with crystal clear water that I never knew I wanted in the first place in a few weeks time, hopefully lol.
Any pond maintenance tips and tricks greatly received. The guys yesterday was saying I should invest in a pond hoover.
(At least I'm glad we inherited a pond this time rather than a swimming pool!)
An update on my pond.
Well, I carried on cleaning the filter sponges and I replaced the uv bulbs but we was never truly satisified with how clean the pond was.
Started watching a few You Tube videos on pond cleaning etc and my wife said to me just get someone in to do it for you. So thats what I done. Tatsfield Aquatics came along and have cleaned it in an inch of its life and its looking bloody fantastic now.
TA came 3 weeks ago, drained off the pond which took a good couple of hours and then realised there was approx 4 tonnes of silt at the bottom. So as the fella was on his own, we refilled it half up and then came back today with a couple more hands to get it done in the day.
They also done some calculations and it turned out the UV light was only powerful enough to keep the small filter pond clean, so they're changing that for us today and then we're having a pond skimmer installed too, so I don't have to manually scoop them off.
Only thing is, even with 2 hoses currently on, I reckon it’s going to take 24hrs + to fill it!We’ve been meaning to install a pond for about 10 years so I finally got a fibreglass one which is very very much smaller. It’s going to be a wildlife pond and already various creatures have started moving in. I’ve planted up grasses around it plus oxygenating plants and water lilies etc.
Id appreciate any advice on what else I could grow nearby.3 -
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I've got a small pond but it's for the wildlife. So fish are a total no-no. It is a bit of a chore but well worth it for the dragonflies hatching, the occasional newt, etc, etc. The caddisfly lavae are amazing swimming about in the little protective tubes they construct. We've even got a colony of freshwater shellfish and two types of snail I've no idea where they came from! Probably on plants we bought in.4
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We've got a pond, wildlife one - bit of a pain in the arse to be fair. Did start off trying to keep it a bit looked after and fitted a little pump and ran the hose (hidden) through a rockery to create a little waterfall.....just got clogged with leaves1
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What sort of plants have you got near the pond and do they help bring in wildlife?cafcfan said:I've got a small pond but it's for the wildlife. So fish are a total no-no. It is a bit of a chore but well worth it for the dragonflies hatching, the occasional newt, etc, etc. The caddisfly lavae are amazing swimming about in the little protective tubes they construct. We've even got a colony of freshwater shellfish and two types of snail I've no idea where they came from! Probably on plants we bought in.I’ve seen a snail so imagine that must be from one of the aquatic plants I’ve bought. I’m amazed how well some of the plants have grown tbh. I pretty much just bunged them on shelves. I also got a couple of lilies that you just thrown in. One had to be in the deepest part (about 4ft) and I saw nothing and assumed it had died but recently a couple of pads emerged!I love having the pond - can watch it for ages.1
