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Hello, I'm Kate and I live in a lovely rural village near Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk.
My partner and I recently (end of April) took on an allotment. We're lucky in that there was no waiting list and we had a choice of a few, all in varying states of disuse. We chose the one that appeared to have been cultivated the most recently.
We're also lucky in that the allotment site is situated at the end of our road within a very short walking distance from home, which I think makes it easier to just pop down there and get something done. 
Neither of us have done much gardening in the way of growing food before, so this is a joint learning project. Between both working full time, the usual mundane chores and the dreadful weahter, we are slowly working on getting it cleared and planting some stuff (just potatoes so far) as we go and on Sunday we were rewarded with the sight of our first potato leaves breaking ground!
The plot has a small apple tree (variety unknown), which has had a lot of blossom that is almost gone now. I have no experience of caring for fruit trees so any advice on this would be greatly appreciated. Along with a decent sized clump of rhubarb, there are several raspberry bushes of an unknown variety and one currant bush (colour unknown) that appears to have set a good amount of fruits.
One of the first jobs I did was to cut down the old raspberry canes as they were all very overgrown and untidy. Without knowing the variety, I don't know if this was a good thing to do at the end of April or not, so we will have to wait and see. We also inherited a strawberry patch about 8' square, and the plants are looking really good, with lots of flowers, since I weeded the patch. One of my next jobs is to set up some netting to protect them.
Most of the other allotmenteers that we've met are friendly and generous, offering help and encouragement. One couple, very kindly, even gave us 7 old pallets, for the making of compost bins, and a few cabbage seedlings.
We have taken some pictures as we go, so I will post a few as I know, from reading other posts, that you are a nosy lot! Haha That will have to come later, though, as they are at home and I am not.
My partner and I recently (end of April) took on an allotment. We're lucky in that there was no waiting list and we had a choice of a few, all in varying states of disuse. We chose the one that appeared to have been cultivated the most recently.
We're also lucky in that the allotment site is situated at the end of our road within a very short walking distance from home, which I think makes it easier to just pop down there and get something done. Neither of us have done much gardening in the way of growing food before, so this is a joint learning project. Between both working full time, the usual mundane chores and the dreadful weahter, we are slowly working on getting it cleared and planting some stuff (just potatoes so far) as we go and on Sunday we were rewarded with the sight of our first potato leaves breaking ground!
The plot has a small apple tree (variety unknown), which has had a lot of blossom that is almost gone now. I have no experience of caring for fruit trees so any advice on this would be greatly appreciated. Along with a decent sized clump of rhubarb, there are several raspberry bushes of an unknown variety and one currant bush (colour unknown) that appears to have set a good amount of fruits.
One of the first jobs I did was to cut down the old raspberry canes as they were all very overgrown and untidy. Without knowing the variety, I don't know if this was a good thing to do at the end of April or not, so we will have to wait and see. We also inherited a strawberry patch about 8' square, and the plants are looking really good, with lots of flowers, since I weeded the patch. One of my next jobs is to set up some netting to protect them.
Most of the other allotmenteers that we've met are friendly and generous, offering help and encouragement. One couple, very kindly, even gave us 7 old pallets, for the making of compost bins, and a few cabbage seedlings.
We have taken some pictures as we go, so I will post a few as I know, from reading other posts, that you are a nosy lot! Haha That will have to come later, though, as they are at home and I am not.
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