I don't like Mondays - 31 July 2006

Waited in all day for B&Q to deliver my shed to allotment and after at least 6 phonecalls they let me know at 3.45pm that they weren't going to have time to deliver it today. This morning they couldn't actually find the shed in their warehouse.

On the up side they did refund the £20 delivery charge only after I asked them nicely explaining that they hadn't fulfilled their side of the delivery arrangement whatsoever.

So now it is shed-uled(!) to be delivered tommorrow afternoon - so finger-crossed!

Hooray for some rain - 30 July 2006

Last night it rained for some hours so today I'm going up the allotment to catch cheeky slugs. Not sure what I'll do with them in order to kill them! Animal rights go out the window when it comes to slugs and gardening obviously. They are just so ugly and disgusting with their trails of slime, not to mention eatting my tender plants. Right on that note I'm outta here.

Dr Lynn visits - 29 July 2006

Last night Steve and I celebrated his birthday, we got in at 2am. His Mum said she'd call in to see us on her way home from the North and arrived at 10am!! Steve had been sick as a dog from 8 til 9am and we were both in bad shape. Thankfully Lynn just wanted to read her book in the garden for a few hours. Steve finally got up at 1pm and we all had cooked breakfast which seemed to sort us all out.


Anyway late this afternoon we popped up the allotment and took some photos to show the progress made this week.

I look so rough on this picture, all I needed was a duvet and I'd have fallen asleep on the spot!

Steve helps me out - 27 July 2006

This evening Steve helped me by moving the 12 pavers from one end of allotment to other and positioning onto the plastic groundsheeting. Will need another 4 pavers and luckily that's exactly how many my Mum has left at her place. These 4 pavers are slightly bigger, thicker and heavier and so Roger, my Mum's boyfriend is going to help her load them into car.

Been watering the allotment every night recently because of the heatwave so no time for anything exciting!

Shed foundations levelling - 26 July 2006

Decided to position my shed come summerhouse in the opposite corner of my plot to my original plan. Because it is farthest away from the water trough and so collecting water in butts there would be ideal. But mainly because the view from this corner is uninterrupted views across allotments and beyond is a nature reserve woodland area which is very picturesque.

Had to level the ground ready for plastic groundsheet and the pavers (my Mum and I brought 12 pavers down from her garden in Abergavenny to the allotment on Monday).

Found a cheap shed - 22 July 2006

Yesterday I saw a summerhouse in B&Q that was reduced from £559 to £180 because it was a ex-diplay, slightly damaged and faded looking and would need dismantling.


It is really nice, 8ft by 8ft in total which includes a 2ft by 8ft veranda. It has two patio doors and three windows - all plastic windows.

One of the doors is a bit warped - hopefully we can solve that somehow, plus there is no key for the lock, oh yeah and their is no handle on the side window. Otherwise it is sound!


Decided that by the time I bought fence panels, posts and met posts, plastic roofing and fixtures that I would have spend pretty much the same amount - plus I'D HAVE DRIVEN MY FAMILY CRAZY IN THE PROCESS!!


So today my husband Steve and I took it apart and then piled it up on the base ready for B&Q to deliver on Monday 31 July to the allotment. It was difficult to take apart because some of the screws had been driven in too far and too tight so sometimes we had to either break the screws inhalf or literally rip sections apart. I was pretty pleased that we didn't do too much damage getting it apart.

Now I just need to level the ground on the allotment, put down black plastic and lay the pavers which will form a base for the shed. I hop my fellow allotment holders don't think it is too extravagant - I think it was a bargain and it's dishevelled look should fit quite well on an allotment!

Can't wait to see it built in situ now.

Finished diggin for a while - yeah! - 20 July 2006

Am so glad to have finished the digging.


Offered some good advice today by John, my neighbour who said to pour a watering can of water over the baked dry soil to soften it up before digging - this works a treat!

Scattered some Lucerne (Alfalfa) seeds over the racked ground and water all my plants and seeds.

Some fellow allotmenteers who were looking around for another plot for their relation offered me a door today which would be brilliant, it's even got a lock and key! They said they would drop it off on my plot on Saturday so fingers crossed.

Strawberries & digging of course - 19 July 2006

Yesterday my Mum helped me to dig another stetch and brought me 7 strawberry plants which we made space for.


Today I dug for 2 hours and then the heat forced me to pack up. I reckon only another 4 hours digging and I'll have reached the space where the shed and decking is going - yippee!!

The seeds I planted have started popping up too.

Have closed off the back off this bed because it's going to be fruit trees on this side of the plot all the way down to the other corner. Am going to get fruit trees from the National Botanical Gardens of Wales garden centre in October when they have a special fruit market.


Got the plant trainer thingies out of a skip at the dump.

Digging and more photo's - 17 July 2006

Today I dug for two hours but it was so hot that I came home sweaty at 3.30pm.

This evening Steve and I went up to water the plants.

Here's some photo's which show what I've dug and planted, what's left to be dug and the area where I'd like to postion my shed (where the pallet is in the 2nd photo).

Mr Flower Pot man has finally been given pride of place - despite people telling me he is rather tacky, cover your ears flower pot man!

Kieron and Jack visit with gifts - 16 July 2006

Today my brother Kieron and my nephew Jack brought me some plants for the allotment - sweet peppers, chilli, melon and courgette plants.

Kieron dug loads of ground but then left after half an hour because Jack who is only 18 months old was getting bored. So then I was left to break up, weed and de-stone and de-glass the earth which took 3 hours. Then I planted the plants having made just enough space for them.

I also planted a strawberry plant which I'd had in my garden in a pot and some parsley from Tesco.

Digging with Dr Lynn - 15 July 2006

Today my mother in law, Lynn took me shopping for a new fork - nice.



Then we dug a whole load more soil - picking out the weeds, glass and stones and crumbling it up.


Picture of me and my new Wilkinson and old broken (Tesco) fork. The new one is so light and goes through the ground as if it's butter!

Sowing seeds - 14 July 2006

Today I prepared some more soil and sowed Italian Blend vegetable seeds, thyme, wild rocket and courgette seeds. The last three were given to me by my brother - I think it may be a bit late for courgette, but we will see what happens!

Leeks - 12 July 2006

Got some very welcome help today from my Mum who did lots of digging, while I did the howing, raking and wall building.

The site secretary, Roger came to see us and took me off to find some leek seedlings (donated by Leonard). So I have my first crop in - horray!!

Very easy to plant just make a 6inch deep hole, drop them in and water well (not back filling necessary).


As you can see I have broken my fork, well it was only £5 from Tesco - what did I expect? Can anyone recommend a good fork to me and let me know how much they are?

Diggin, diggin and some - 10 July 2006

Been avoiding it for too long now, so tackled some digging today.


Oh my God, the groung is so heavy!! With lots of stones, the weeds are the least problem to solve. The stones are the start of the wildlife area, close to the water for tadpoles hopefully.


Managed to gig 1m by 2m section, 2 hours into morning and 2 in the afternoon with an exhausted seista in between, nice!


Some seeds arrived in the post today from The Organic Gardening Catalogue . Only £10 for the lot, mainly green manure. Sorry it's such a boring photo, will try harder!

Laying the red carpet - 9 July 2006

Armed with a husband for carrying the carpet, a Stanley knife, tape measure and permanent marker pen I laid the free-cycle carpet around the edge of my plot. I have to maintain these paths and so thought some carpet would suppress the weeds and hopefully be nice to walk on. Here a photo of the results. As you can see my new neighbour has also been very busy.

Strimming the weeds - 8 July 2006

Today my husband, Steve helped by strimming down the horrible 5ft weeds covering 2/3's of my plot. We hired the strimmer from the allotment for just £6 plus £1.50 for extra petrol. I cleared away all the cut down weeds which were piled up on a plastic sheet. This made carrying them to the allotment compost heap fairly easy. Althought we were both pretty hungover having stayed out dancing til 2.30am, I wished I'd taken a large bottle of water up because it took us 3 and 1/2 hours to do and by then I was soo thirsty I contemplated drinking out of the water trough!


Not long after the photo of Steve we found this frog or toad (please let me know which it is?) hiding in what was left of the weeds. Managed to catch the little hopper and took him over to a neighbours pond for a dip. So glad we didn't shread the froggie!!

Photo's - 6 July 2006

Looking west my plot reaches as far as the fencing on the right and the corner of the blue shed on the left. Nice lot of weeds!!

Looking east, my plot stretches to the end of the black membrane and down through the weeds somewhere is the water trough.
As you can see I have started stock piling raw materials for hard landscaping - bricks and wood. The flower pot man is also there having a kip by the bricks!

Kate's Allotment: July 2006

Kate's Allotment: July 2006: "hic"

Action Plan - 5 July 2006

Realised that I need loads of things in order to realise my dream. As I'm on a small budget and am a bit of a womble I decided to think laterally about how I could gets hold of the following, for nothing!

Wood for shed and compost boxes - wooden pallets are ideal
A door and small windows for shed
A tree
Fruit trees
Rocks and large logs
Breeze blocks to stand shed on
Bricks for paths and bordering areas

My stratedy:

Freecycle - found someone offering house 50 bricks from outdoor tiolet they had knocked down, they gave me a plant pot Bill'n'Ben man too which will make a nice scarecrow!
- also found someone giving away an old carpet - ideal for weed suppressing and paths from the look of my neighbors allotment.
- put on a wanted message for breeze blocks, no replies so far.

Visit to local tips - Spoke to men at two local tips and asked then if they could look out for a door, wooden pallets and posts and explained what it was for. Went back to one at end of day and he had put a wooden pallet by for me so I thanked him and gave him a jar of my homemade chutney. He said to come back on Sunday when he should have more! The other tip man said to come back Sunday so fingered crossed.

At the same moment a hired van pulled up and started unloading timber decking and posts. Unfortunately they were too long (12ft) to fit in my car, they offered to dropped the wood off at my house which was on their way home! Brilliant - while I was waiting for them I bought them 4 cans of lager to thank them for their kindness. They said they might have more soon and took my phone number.

Word of mouth - Have told lots of friends and family what I'm doing and what I need. Already have 3 offers of help for building shed. My partner is going to strim the weeds on Saturday. My Mum said she'll help digging over the ground and helped moving all the wood and bricks today in her long car.

Car boot sale - Not completely free but very cheap never-the-less. Found a lady selling small raspberry plants for £1.50 which I could not resist. So that is offically my first plant!

Advice - Fellow allotmenteers have offered lots of useful local information and tips. Aslo websites such as the Royal Horticultural Society and Garden Organic have provided lots of information.

Not sure where to begin - 3 July 2006

Over the weekend I thought about what I would like on my allotment. I made the following decisions:

I want to be organic
A shed for tools with a clear roof so plants can be kept inside, with a space for sitting in the shade.
A water butt connected to guttering on shed.
Pathways
2 wooden compost boxes
A wildlife area near the water tough - hopefully get some tadpoles and frogs then!
A tree for the wildlife area, logs and big stones too!
Fruit because I love eatting it and enjoy making jams and chutneys.
Vegetables - probably lots of potatoes because I've heard their easy and act as a soil conditioner.
Green manure crops

I will only grow things in the first 1/3 of the site this year which has been covered in black membrane or else I will be over-faced and exhausted.

My Brand New Allotment - 30th June 2006

Today I met the Allotment secretary, Roger a very nice man who showed me a couple of possible plots. He recommended that I go for a plot suitated next to a water trough and one plot away from a parking bay. I had not considered the importance of access to water and ease of unloading and loading up the car until he mentioned it. This plot also had black membrane covering 1/3 of the plot.

He showed me around the site, pointing out the shop, tiolet and equipment hire store. He also kindly suggested a couple of allotments where I might be able to acquire some small plants from their abundent stocks. He explained that the site is very peaceful and private because it is located between a wildlife reserve, an FE college and a daul carriageway.

So I took his advice and I signed the contractual paperwork for plot318B, found out that my allotment is 4 perch in size (1 perch is 25 square metres) which is small apparently and costs just £13.40 per year. A COMPLETE BARGAIN!

Normal sized allotments are 10 perch - enough to feed a family of 4 all year in the Dig for Victory times apparently. He gave me a key to the main gate and welcomed me to the site. YIPPEE !