Newbie seeking advice / opinions / help! Possibility of an allotment!

[Mrs Dobby]

Lol Nicos! May have to get you down to our plot with some then, think it needs a party to warm it up atm, its sooo bitterly cold with the wind down there! Mind you, we've plenty of weeds to have a bonfire with!

[dexterdoglancashire]

Did someone mention a party? Dexterdog

[Mrs Dobby]

Latest Piccies

Hi all, after being asked, I thought I'd bring together some of the piccies from some of the other threads that feature our plot, hope you like them! I'll try and take some more tomorrow, weather permitting!



A view of the 'Fedge' at the bottom of the right hand bed (the one with the greenhouse at the other end!)



Another view of the 'Fedge', showing the strawbs planted to the south side, a totla of 84 raspberry canes and about 230 strawberry plants in total!



View from the bottom left hand corner of the plot, showing the greenhouse, pond and some of the cleared, double dug and covered beds, all ready for planting in the spring!



Our 'Free' Greenhouse, fully finished and resplendant in all its clean glory! (***** fluid does a darn good job of cleaning, but anyone know how to get rid of the smell from your hands!)

Anyhows, hopefully have some more piccies tomorrow!

[Mrs Dobby]

Latest Piccies from our plot!

As I was asked so nicely yesterday we took a few piccies today, showing where we are up to now, hope you like them!

First one is the view from the path at the front, looking towards the back and the highly raised bed. The central beds have been double dug and covered, and the one to the right of the picture near the greenhouse has been 2/3rds double dug. There's only 1 major bed left to dig, the one on the left of the picture which currently has the roots and weeds from the far bed heaped on it, awaiting a dry spell to burn them!

Piccy 2 is the view from the other end of the plot, from the raised bed.

Piccy 3 shows the repairs Mr D made to the boards that hold back the raised bed at the bottom of the plot, he likes the 'rustic' look, hence the uneven tops of the boards! Lol!

Piccy 4 shows the onion sets and garlic that we have growing, strange to think that some of them have only been in for 4 or 5 weeks now!

Piccy 5 shows the greenhouse bed thats now 2/3rds double dug, Mr D has done a great job here!

More piccies in the next post!

[Mrs Dobby]

A few more piccies!

Last few for today!

First one is of the back raised bed

Next one is of the side of the shed and 'thing' that were there when we got the plot! Shed needs some work to it (unless we can freecycle a better one) and the 'thing' we think was a homemade plastic coated greenhouse / potting shed, tho we have thought of covering it in black plastic and getting a composting loo in there!

Third one is of one of the nettle roots Mr D got up today!

4th is of the fedge and strawberry beds, methinks some more cutting back fo the leaves on the strawbs is yet needed!

Last one is Lee, asking if we can go back to bed cos its raining! Lol!

[Earthbabe]

Puts my plots to shame Mrs D. Still haven't mastered the piccies or you'd be inundated with pics of my weeds and brassicas!!

[pete10]

Looking good ,Great work .Got a bit behind with mine what with pants colds
to much work and crap weather. Should get my raised bed wood this week
at last .

[Mrs Dobby]

Puts my plots to shame Mrs D. Still haven't mastered the piccies or you'd be inundated with pics of my weeds and brassicas!!

LJ has the link to adding piccies to your posts, so perhaps asking her nicely may get you some instructions EB? I'd love to be innundated with piccies of your Brassicas and weeds, cant wait until we have some Brassicas to take some piccies of!

Looking good ,Great work .Got a bit behind with mine what with pants colds
to much work and crap weather. Should get my raised bed wood this week
at last .

Thanks Pete, sorry to hear of the cold and poor weather, hope you are feeling better now! Good luck with the raising of the beds (sounds like something out of a bad hammer horror plot)

[nick the grief]

The "Thing" - how about covering it in black plastic or the Black onduline that they use for roofing & grow mushrooms in it - just a thought.

Anyway, looking good Mr & Mrs D bet you cant wait to get the greenhouse up & running.

[Mrs Dobby]

Hi Nick,

Wow! Mushrooms, what a darn good idea!! I love mushrooms and have to admit to using about 1 1/2 lb of them a week, so if we could grow some on the plot then that would be a great way to cut our shopping bill and get something else from the plot! I've seen the little 'box' type kits, and read their instructions, but other than that havent much of an idea, have you any links that you'd recommend?

Yes, cant wait to get planting in the greenhouse! Its been up now for the last 4 weeks or so, but no planting in their yet, roll on the new year, we both want to get our seedlings sprouting in there ready to be planted out asap!

[nick the grief]

I'll have a dig (no pun intended) in the books & see what I can find. You could use a raised bench with some fresh muck on it and make sort of mild hot bed. you could always force some rhubarb or chicory underneath the bench then

[Mrs Dobby]

You want us to grow MORE rhubarb??????? Lol!!

We've 7 crowns in the plot already (found the other 3 when clearing the raised bed the weekend before last), so I dont think we need to grow any more Nick!

Actually, if we are going to use it for growing mushrooms, then the more we can grow the better, perhaps instead of using the underneath area for forcing we could use it for another type of mushroom? You have me thinking now Nick, thanks for that! I never thought we could possibly grow all the types of veg / fruit and fungus that we eat!

[nick the grief]

http://www.mushroomcouncil.com/grow/grow.html
http://www.farminfo.org/garden/mushrooms.htm
http://www.handsontv.info/series3/gr...s_germany.html

Try these links for a start.

[Mrs Dobby]

Thanks Nick! I'll have a butchers tomorrow, Mr D wants to go to bed now, something about a special hug he wants to give me!

[nick the grief]

You can never have enough rhubarb - reduces cholesterol & you get loads of excersise running to the loo