Must haves on the wishlist for the new allotmenteer?

[lottie dolly]

The only things i can say are,kettle ext,and a seat each

[benji_lb]

Thanks for all the replies!

We've had the plot for about 9 months already and we were lucky to get in early enough to do a very late sow and harvest plus we got a lot of 'free' onions and potatoes from the previous person that left it to over grow.

The staging for the greenhouse would be very helpful as we plan to seed / germinate(?) everything in the greenhouse. We already have a few bog type carniverous plants that are dormant in there at the request of my gf who wanted them.

The tools would be useful but I love the idea of getting 2nd hand and sharpening them up ourselves. The old tools are great on the plot and one of the old chaps is happy for us to raid his shed whenever we're there!

The bathtubs that we have came free off the scrap pile of our community and our dalek was given free by a friend who got a job lot in one go.

[Kristen]

The staging for the greenhouse would be very helpful as we plan to seed / germinate(?) everything in the greenhouse

They may need some heat - which might mean that some seed need starting off on a windowsill in the house?

For example, Tomatoes, Aubergines, Peppers, Cucumbers need a minimum night temperature of 10C,a and quite a lot of veg need around 20C to germinate - hence heated propagators are popular for starting seeds. Seeds don't HAVE to have 20C, obviously they do fine in the ground!, but with that bottom heat generally all the seeds germinate at once, and start growing strongly, which helps get good strong plants later on.

Just want to make sure you don't sow seeds early that need more temperature than an unheated greenhouse will have and/or that you are not in too much of a hurry to start!! as later on there is more heat, and better light, for seedlings

Brassicas will be much happier not having extra heat ...

[Mikey]

I know a lot will have already started seeds off undercover.

If I can give one piece of advise, it would be patience, nature has her own way of putting a stop to our over enthusiasm.

One thing I do start early undercover are carrots, raised bed covered with polythene. I have a supplier near me that makes the bags that clothes get sent out in the shrink wrap ones. I call in from time to time and pick up any end of run rolls FOC. They are normally about 1.2 metre width and can be anything up to 40 metres in length, plenty for my raised beds.

I have galvanised wire cut into sections and bent into hoops, one hoop for the frame about every 40-50cm, then plastic then a second hoop over top to hold the plastic in place. Gather the ends and push into the ground. Leave the earth covered for a couple of weeks to warm up under the plastic then plant out your carrots. I was picking full size carrots in May.