The Start Of Something Beautiful

[Mrs Dobby]

Its not that you dont want to use manure Ben, its more the fact that you need to let it rot down for at least 12 months, otherwise it could 'burn' the roots of your veg.

The problem with some manure is a weedkiller that has been commercially used, (ammilopriad or something) which stays active on the fodder that the animals eat and then stays in their poo. It can taje 3 years or more to break down, so I'd recommend talking to other plotholders about where they get their manure, and once you find a decent supplier that has good stuff you trust, stick with them!

If you get a freecycled greenhouse, then hire a man with van to help you move it, should be a lot cheaper than buying a new greenhouse, especially as the cheaper ones arent always up to winter conditions in an exposed site, they are fine when they are sheltered, but not so good if exposed to wind, so may prove to be false economy!

If you can get a greenhouse before spring, then get it and get it set up, otherwise you will find yourself struggling with time, as spring is busy with sowing seeds, planting our crops and weeding. I'd urge you to do as much preparation as possible before the end of winter, which will allow you to concentrate your efforts on your crops come the spring!

We generally do any hard landscaping work, dig the plot over and muck in the cold weather, means the exercise keeps you warm and you can then spend the warmer spring days on your planting!

Our 'growing season' starts in January with tomatoes and chillies in propogators on the windowsills, then other crops in propogators once the first ones have been planted on!

HTH
Regards
Suzanne

[Sanjo]

Why not use the horse manure? man this is getting so confusing people say use this then people say dont use that, and the greenhouse thing its hard cause i dont drive and only person i know who could pick stuff like that up would be my dad and hes busy alot i was just thinking would be easier to deliver but ill give it a look at i wont get greenhosue till spring anyway

Insy, two places above your post there is a sticky regarding Aminopyralid which you would really benefit from reading. Manure is a great soil improver, but none of us on here would want you to lose your first crops to a herbicide you didn't know the manure contained. You can't see the damn stuff it just lurks around ready for you to plant potatoes or tomatoes etc and then wipes them out.
I have suggested in the past that in my opinion, the more established members on here have a responsibility to warn newer, unsuspecting gardeners of the danger. Send a message to Zazen, she'll tell you of the heartache involved when your plot is poisoned.
I just hate the thought that your hard work and enthusiasm will be repaid by disaster all because you took our advice at face value. If you are on friendly terms with the stables/friends then ask them if they know the source of their hay. If it is from horses fed with hay from their own fields then they will know whether they used a herbicide on the field.
Please do not underestimate the damage this herbicide can do to a plot and think it's just scaremongering by me. Check it out on google first and see what it does. We all want you to get the rewards and benefits that an allotment will bring you and I am sure would not want you to be disheartened by crop failure.

[insy]

Well i hvnt been up the allotment all weekend due to work and that just to tired, ill be up there tomoz after gym if the weather is nice hopefully

I have just ordered the following:

Allium 'Electric' (Onion) Sets x 50
Allium 'Jermor' (Shallot Onion) Sets x 10 ( ordered 2 sets of these )
Allium 'Radar' (Onion) Sets x 50
Allium 'Shenshyu Yellow' (Onion) Sets x 50
Allium sativum 'Germidour' (Garlic) x 3
Allium sativum 'Lautrec Wight' (Garlic) x 1
Allium sativum 'Marco' (Garlic) x 3
Allium sativum 'Thermidrome' (Garlic) x 3

This should keep me more than busy haha so whilst im waiting for them to arrive in stock and be delivered ill be tending to the 2 holes ive dug

1. Sieving nice fine soil back into the holes with the weeds/grass seperated at the same time
2. Adding chicken manure pellets to the soil i added back
3. Add compost to the soil and chicken manure
4. Due to no wood atm ill be attaching weed surpression sheets the the walls of my holes to keep weeds and bay

So once they all arrive they'll be ready to plant, i also may go get some cheap netting and grab 4 posts and cover both holes with netting to protect from birds/animals until that blossom

Anyone got any other suggestions to what i could grow? i know broad beans, but ive been reading you can plant spuds but they have to be indoors correct? if so no spuds for me ill have to wait for next spring or something

thx
regards
ben

[Lazgaot]

Over the past couple of years I've learned that the success rate of overwintered red onion sets is far, far lower than yellow/white ones. I planted 4 rows last Autumn, 2 red and 2 yellow and the reds hardly came to anything.

So, I started them (and some garlic) off in modules in my greenhouse in December and Jan then planted them out in Spring. They had 1-2 leaves about 1-2" high and very well developed root systems. As an experiment I planted them out very close, in grids 4" x 4" and they were excellent, very uniform all 3-4" in diameter. I'll be doing the same this year with my garlic which was also excellent this year.

[insy]

I havent got a greenhouse atm due to new allotment and also would modules be to small due to the bulb/clove sizes?

[chris]

Well, I hope you like garlic & onion

[chris]

Also you could check out this planting/sowing calendar: http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...26-post12.html

But you can quite rightly sow a certain type of broad bean (aqualuce), then there's the mustards & salad leaves. Winter radish too, erm I've recently sown some Pak Choi too.

Don't forget there's a seed swap thread too, not sure about the rules (check at the top of the forum) - but if you wanted to try a few things rather than just fork out and buy a load of stuff that may not work well for you. I did that, granted you've a lot more space than me and mostly I was lucky but for some other things (broad beans for example) I grew so many, ended up freezing them not really knowing if I liked them or not - when it came to the crunch I realised I wasn't that fond of them.. That may be down to how I cooked them though (just boiled), not sure if you're into cooking or not - but one thing I want to try and make with them is that falafel that Alys Fowler made out of them... that may change my mind

[chris]

Spuds you can do, but they need to be protected from the frost - so I'd wait until spring, you'll get a better sucesss rate - they just want to grow!

btw, your mention of "2. Adding chicken manure pellets to the soil i added back" - check what you're going to plant in the bed first before you start to add manure to it, some things don't take well to it.. but if you're leaving it until next seasont o plant in then I'm sure that'd be fine! (that was suggested to me anyway, as I mentioned I was chukcing chicken poo pellets in everywhere! ).

[insy]

Im a little pissed off atm as progress has come to a alt latelly today i went and bought myself 600 litres of rich mutli purpose compost and 10kg on pelleted chicken manure, went gym and by the time i left gym it was raining and with no shelter up there atm i cant be asked to get soaked so fingers crossed for tomommorow i need to get these beds ready in the next week or 2 for when these onions/garlic/shallot arrive

thx
regards
ben

[Mrs Dobby]

Hi Ben, dont get disheartened mate, the weather is what it is, we may not like it, but the rain does serve a purpose, and it usually changes fairly quickly (unless a front is moving in, when its gonna be around for a while!) Use the time to rest, relax and plan what you are doing.... or if you really want / need to move forwards, then get some decent wet weather gear and carry on regardless! Mother nature moves at her own pace, getting pished about it or upset aint gonna make her change anything! Lol

[insy]

Haha dont you worry im trying to get my hands on my dad fishing waterproofs tomoz i will work on that allotment rain or no more waterproofs or no waterproofs

[Mrs Dobby]

Lol, lucky you! Im (allegedly) on holiday this week, had to go into a local branch for a training coodinator cluster meeting, then tomorrow I got a Managers Meeting, but after that Im off for 5 days! Gardeners Presentation Evening on Wednesday, but the rest of the time I'll either be on the plot weeding or harvesting, beekeeping, or be in the kitchen making use of the harvest (to make ketchup, chutney, passatta, pasta sauce), drying things (in the dehydrator) or starting off our first batches of homnebrew and mead!

Today we went seed shopping in the Wyevales 50p seed sale, then on to Lakeland and the Honebrew shop before I had my meeting this afternoon!

[insy]

50p seed sale man wish i had some of them round here i need to start making a list of seeds/fruit and prices for spring on what i want to grow tbh i dont think im gunna have enough room lol

[Mrs Dobby]

Lol, I know the feeling! There's never enough room for what you want to grow, nor where to put it once its cropping! Lol!

We've 2 alotments and 3 greenhouses, and still run out of space!

[insy]

Heya people

A bit of progress made today at last , went there this morning soon as i arrived started spitting grrrr so i told the rain to ( well you all can imagine ) and i put up with it. This week and maybe next week depending how long it takes i will be preparing the 2 holes i dug for when the onions, shallots, garlic arrive. Today my back was killing and i was lacking food and drink ( stupid me ) so i get tired pretty fast but im happy with the progress i made

Today i did:

-attached weed sheets to the sides of bed, to help fight off the grass roots from paths coming back in
-Dug another depth in the hole and loosened up and broke up big lumps into smaller pieces
-sieved tons fo soil from the holes and mixed witht he compost i bought
-placed the mixture of soil and compost back into hole

i havent finished filling this hole haha plus i still have to place my chicekn manure pellets on top

pictures in order of what i did (kind off)

Beds lined and double dug



Started to fill in