Hello from sunny Southampton

[Olorin2001]

New on here but been gardening since I was a kid, although some would say I still am one. So half a century plus of experience and still learning.
Had my present allotment/s for twelve years, 30 rods in total, but 12 years ago nobody was interested in allotments and the council actively encouraged having multiple plots, anyone as long as you paid the rent they were happy. Have a shed, five greenhouses, a bus stop and a pet fox.

My pride and joy is a 36ft x 12ft greenhouse, thanks to ebay, with a propagating bench 4ft x 24ft, also has a wood burner and 12volt lighting, car battery with solar charging, many other features. Being a retired toolmaker everything was made from scrap and mostly on site using hand tools.

Not entirely sure why I registered here, but it is a useful site

[mrbadexample]

Welcome to the Vine Olorin. I think you've registered here to make people jealous - that's some greenhouse!

I reckon we'll all look forward to learning something from your years of experience. I'm sure you'll enjoy it here. They're a friendly bunch, if a little, err...odd at times.

[lottie dolly]

Welcome to the vine,looks like your hard work paid of,them cactus look eye watering,what a smashing green house,as regards to why you joined here,why not,am sure you have knowledge to share,like you say,learning is never done,

[Bren In Pots]

Hello and welcome to the vine Olorin you have a great set up there

[Glutton4...]

Hello, and welcome to the Madhouse! Lovin' the greenhouse!

[Florence Fennel]

Hello and a very warm welcome to the Vine

[Verinda]

Hello, welcome to the forum. How come you have a pet fox? Is he tame and affectionate? Just curious. I love foxes and badgers, all animals really.

[Darwin.]

Hey there, welcome to the forum, the big greenhouse is class, I'd love something like that.

[LillyRoseGarden]

Warm hello from me! Wow, that's really impressive skills and applications you have there. A pet fox is not undeard of, but do you take it to the vet?

[bearded bloke]

Hello & welcome

[veggiechicken]

Not entirely sure why I registered here, but it is a useful site

I often feel like that Look forward to hearing from you - and Welcome

[Olorin2001]

Sorry for not responding sooner but now the weather down south is dry there was so much work to catch up on and even though it is cold and bitterly cold with the east wind blowing, can't let a little thing like that stop me - not made of sugar. Half our site has been flooded since the autumn, ditches dug to allow the water to flow out, so lots of remedial work just to get ready for preparing the ground for planting.
To answer some of the question, when I say pet fox, she just turned up one evening and started following me around the plot. I would say she had already had human contact but she doesn't come closer than four feet. If other people are about she always keeps me between her and them. I don't feed her although if I am digging she does go for any worms turned up. Given that the average life span of a wild fox is two years although captive ones have similar life expectancy to dogs, I don't expect our relationship to be a long one.
The greenhouse has become Allotment HQ sometimes I can spend the whole day socialising with successive visitors, but when theres snow on the ground and the wind is blowing compost bins around I can get a ton of work done in the dry and relative comfort inside. Cost about a grand including truck hire to move it, I just sat looking on eBay month after month until one of a suitable size came up and at an eventual price that wasn't silly. Worth every penny.
Most people like my cactii - I only grow two types, those tall ones grow 18 inches in a good year and when kept dry are totally hardy, they do have medicinal properties. The other species is much smaller but equally hardy and flowers profucely from end of May until first frosts.
As for the comment about some on here being a little odd - then I should fit in just fine.
Being a retired engineer I have a tendancy to use that background to make life easier, or try to - hence this contraption, made on site with basic hand tools, sweat and some loss of blood, out of scrap stuff laying around and about £10 of nuts, bolts and odd bits from the local recycle. Trommel - YouTube - I do hope this link to youtube works, other wise you just have to go find it for yourself - One of our lady gardeners threatened to do a streak across the video, but I said the world wasn't ready for a naked Alison - and she hit me.
You can see in the background my compost bins which take a quite a while to sieve for useable compost, normally takes me all summer to do that, a bit each week. So I got to thinking there has to be an easier way, maybe not the cutting edge egineering I did professionally, definitely doesn't look as pretty, but it works just fine and leave more time for the productive activities, and for drinking coffee.
Being still new and finding my way round this site, seems confusing at times, so does one start a blogg page? or just leave comments/advice etc when you feel the urge?

[KittyColdNose]

Ooooh... I want a greenhouse like that. I could go sleep in it when oitc is snoring.

Welcome to the vine Olorin. The answer is yes to both

[Olorin2001]

OK - I made my first blogg, see how that goes.
The greenhouse does have eye bolts along the eaves and a hamock is fine for reading a book on a cold and windy winters day, but I fell out of it, so now I have stabilisers fitted to it. Luckily there was no video for them to put on youtube.

[KittyColdNose]

I just saw the time on your post I have bouts of insomnia but even then am usually pushing z's at 4am lol.

The blog looks good so far.