Hobbit Allotment!

[horticultural_hobbit]

Tried that too, drip trays, sat in newspaper lined plastic trays. Not allowed that neither.

[horticultural_hobbit]

Vamp killing equipment

Look what I dug up today

https://www.facebook.com/search/resu...type=1&theater

https://www.facebook.com/search/resu...type=1&theater

[horticultural_hobbit]

For the moment.

Don't worry, I'm not giving up. Just trying to think of a game plan.

The wall to wall wet has kiboshed everything. I don't think there are going to be any crops to be had. The garlic has done well, a success story, yes. But not a lot else.

Patch is a boggy, swampy mess. The clay is lovely but horrible at the same time. All i want to do, is to start again. See if I can clear some of the weeds over the summer. Sow some green manures ( I have clovers, fenugreek and grazing rye) perhaps and learn some lessons for next time.

[snohare]

Aye, I think raised beds could become incredibly popular in areas with lots of flooded allotments. The difference in drainage times is very marked - although I am not sure that it helps any when you have had nonstop rain for weeks on end, or four feet of water on the ground !
Have you looked at the old threads on improving clay soils ? There was some very knowledgeable folk, including one Grape whose job it evidently was to know such things, who knew all about how to make clay soil less sticky, more free draining; the word "kieselguhr" springs to mind for some reason, I think that might be the stuff that helps make it more crumbly. Much discussion of exactly which sands to add, and why. Needless to say I have forgotten all the important nitty-gritty details which I was so interested in !
Still, I think your allotment cannot be any worse than mine. I must post some photos on Facebook to show what happens when you neglect to go for the whole month of June...didn't manage again this week, and I am half-expecting to see blighted tatties when I go on Monday.
It's all a learning curve. We may take comfort that even the slugs have their problems, what with this Spanish slug that is invading...

[horticultural_hobbit]

Oh, I've been studying the various clay improving threads; trying to get my head around it. When I first got the lotment and established the soil type off I went to dig in organic material and FYM. There's even a builders bag of leaf mold that has another year left to cook. I even put in fenugreek, and that did actually work on one bed.

The half plot is waist height in weeds in places. Specifically where all the onions, garlic and shallots were. I won't have any spuds, 95% failed: rain and slugs. Carrots and parsnips never happened, as didn't the turnips. Cabbage are netted but still slug sandwiches. Tomatos are confused, but flowering.

Major major re-think over the summer, in terms of infrastructure. Invest in raised beds, I still haven't filled the ones that are sat there lined with newspaper. Dig over and green manure some how. It took 45 garden bags to clear the thing last year, I envisage the same thing happening again.

[Two_Sheds]

When it was me:

- strim the weeds and cover with *something* (newspaper, card etc)
- or if they're easy to pull, pull out the weeds then immediately sow/plant something (green manure?)

I know that lack of time is an issue for you HH, as well as the awful weather. Don't give up now, but get on top of those weeds. If you don't, it'll just be even harder next year (if the committee don't take it off you, that is).



I'm green manuring a lot of my ground right now (instead of Oct), because July is forecast to stay wet, so I'm not going to kill myself trying to urge the pumpkins to grow: they just won't.

[horticultural_hobbit]

Definitely not going to give up, Aunty Two_Sheds! Have wanted to play too much. If it wasn't for the horrible weather and Ma being poorly, it wouldn't be so bad i don't think.

Will definitely chop down, if not strim; as well as newpaper over. There are weeds that can be just hooked up. Will be shoe horning time with the summer holidays only a fortnight away

[horticultural_hobbit]

Went down to plot 2A today, feeling a bit b***dy minded. Needed to ascertain what the plan would be for the summer holiday.

There are no crops down there, so that affords me the opportunity to think about things and get it all into perspective. And it was akin to a boggy mess. The one side of the plot is under half foot of water Adjacent to the plot is a patch of wasteland that is covered in horsetail that is basically the same time as me; some of it had bent over and covered my pathway. So I literally had to wade to get my pathway cleared .At one point, i put my welly booted foot down squelch and felt myself sink.

I have eight beds, all which are 12m square, but you wouldn't have thought so with it all carpeted with weeds. So I started on the one bed, where my garlic and broadies had been. Luckily, I was able to just pull all the weeds out. Before long, I had a wheelbarrow full. Then I put down newspaper on top. I don't quite know when I am going to be able to plant stuff onto it. I will slowly but surely get the plot tackled in small chunks.

The mission for the summer holidays, is to just get rid of the weeds.If that means a carpet of newspaper or green manure, then that is it. The one main thing though, is going to be raised beds. In the words of the 'lotment secretary, I have the worse patch of the lot. The lowest point on the lotment, with water draining onto it from the waste land adjacent to it. Apparently, in his 30 years, the lotment secretary has never seen things this bad. I wanted to chat with him, just to make sure that I wasn't about to get thrown off. Apparently, he only boots those off who don't do anything, and I have been doing bits and pieces.

The raised beds, i think are definitely the way to go. To raise the level of the growing space is not going to be cheap or easy. I've yet to fill the ones I already have! I think I have a vague plan of action, and all is not lost. This is all about learning, isn't it.

[snohare]

Six inches of water ! Jings, and I thought our local park at Lumphanan was boggy !

I think I have a vague plan of action, and all is not lost. This is all about learning, isn't it.

Well, good to see the fight you have in you, Hobbit. You are absolutely right. Failure is merely a lesson in how not to, as long as you don't give up !
As I and my fellow Conservation Volunteers say when doing footpath work up a hill in the dinging-doon rain, now is the ideal time to find out exactly how the drainage works. (I know, you're going to say "It doesn't !" )
But seriously, make a note of where exactly the puddles and muddy bits are, and where the deepest water is; take photos if you can, that will let you spot these bits even in winter. What this does is highlight the relief of your plot - the contours if you like, although they will only be inches apart - which of course lets you know where water in any future floods will want to go, and where you must build up and by how much, in order to keep growing ground above waterlogged level.
(I am hoping devoutly that there is some ground lower than you nearby, which you can somehow divert groundwater to via French drains or suchlike.)
No doubt you have thought of all this as you waded miserably between puddles, but it is worth repeating I think.
As for cost, you might be pleasantly surprised, and you may find that this nasty black cloud has a silver lining. Asking your lottie neighbours for their spare stones is a great way to get free base material for French drains and raised beds, and will show that you are keen enough to be doing something hard !
My other suggestion would be to contact a tree surgeon, and see what kind of cost a lorryload of wood chippings would be. (Note: not bark chippings. They'll cost a fortune.)
Granted, you would not be able to use them for some plants eg, the first year's root crop bed. You'd be best to to try to get some that have been sitting out for a few months because of the way fresh ones rob nitrogen from the soil: but assuming that tree surgeons down your way have the same waste disposal problems as they have up here, you might find that they would be falling all over themselves to give you some. (I know of one company up here who have a 3000 tonne pile sitting out in the middle of nowhere, simply because the landfill tax is so high.) And of course, you can think long term, and stick a heap to rot down in builders bags (one tonne per bag) - instant raised beds for salad crops if you stick some topsoil on top.
Once nicely rotted down, this sort of stuff is a wonderful, humus rich basis for improving your soil and raising your beds; and of course, it will improve the drainage of your clay no end, even supposing you just use it as a base layer underneath clay topsoil for your raised beds.
Given the predicted heatwaves for future years - yes, I know, that sounds like a sick joke this year, but when the climatologists talk about climate change leading to "increased variability of weather events" they are really not joking - a nice deep humus-rich layer under your clay is exactly what you want. http://http://www.newscientist.com/a...html?full=true
If you want to steal a trick from permaculture (I always think that should be something about art and theatre) stick some waste deadfall wood and scrap brashings from hedge cutting, pruning etc into the middle of mounded beds, and leave it to rot down naturally. It will take a while longer than getting wood that has been through a shredder, but it will certainly raise your ground level and won't risk suddenly robbing your soil of nitrogen; plus a mound has more planting area than a flat surface.
Keep it up Hobbit, out of this hard work will come bigger, better, more disaster-proof veggies !

[horticultural_hobbit]

Wise words, Sno, wise words.

Yes, i do think the notion of French drains was mentioned somewhere on this thread. I'm sure it's logical, my aversion is the digging. I know it's an inherent part of the 'lotmenteering; i just wish it wasn't. My brain will get there eventually, and you can all do the 'I told you so' thing with pleasure.

I was sat here thinking-whilst watching a fairly bad movie-that I don't have to newspaper the whole lot as I had been thinking. I can pull up the weeds, and green manure. They are sat in Dad's shed where all my tools have been stashed. You know how it sometimes takes a penny to drop...was that sort of moment. I could also most hear Aunty two_sheds, 'weigh the newspaper down with weeds."

As for the topography of the plot, well, i know that one end is sodden through. Has beautiful friable soil; and because there's nothing in it to keep the soil together, it bogs up. (That makes sense in my head, like deforestation. I know what I mean.) As you move up, it gets less and less boggy in the middle. But the top end, where I had garlic and onions did get more squelchy. The notion of mapping does resonate.

I got home, from the plot, and was turning it over and over in my head furiously. Raised beds, raised beds, raised beds, cheap, value for money, got to last for a while. Make this plot work. I'd had an email some place that informed me of a sale. So I looked into it. Given how low the land lies, raised beds are probably the most pragmatic if not perfect way of doing things. All being well, they'll turn up during the summer. I will raid Dad's tool box for a screwdriver. I want make one for myself for a change.

Docks. Cover at least a third of the half plot. Damned things are every where, and lotment secretary suggests I dig them all out

Pansies. Are due August-september. A whole load, so it would be nice for there to be space to put them in! That would be a carrot for me, since I couldn't actually cultivate some real ones. I think the Dahlia's that I sunk, have met their maker.

I'm not the only one, who's had their plot poo-pood by mother nature. One of the lotment neighbours, beckoned me over, and was actually stood in a waterlogged trench up to half way up his wellingtons. Everyone, has been effected. I just wish it wasn't my first season as a lotment holder!

But something else made me laugh. Aunty Tish, went and bagged herself a half plot in Nuneaton. She plans to take my grandad down there. Oh, I could have keeled over. Seems I've inspired her, and since grandad used to GYO when Aunty Tish and ma were kids; she'll have some fun

[snohare]

Ah yes, dockens. Don't talk to me about dockens...I spent nigh on twenty minutes solid pulling up dockens at the lottie on Tuesday. I used to enjoy it when I did such things for a living - although mark you we did it as a two or even three man team, two forks intersecting deep beneath the taproot and loosening the soil as one person heaved the plant out of the crack - but I alone sadly, am much less able. I was forced to rest gasping and dizzy against the wall a couple of times, forcibly reminded that the previous day had been one of severe electrolyte loss.
But - great fun when you do get them out, because doing it that way you take out that vital top 4 inches of root, and that means they (almost) never return. Henceforth, only the wee seedling to contend with - a million of 'em, admittedly, but easily sorted when not embedded in grass or bricklike soil.
Some of the garlic was rotted, onions too; and as for my shallots...well, they don't seem to be shallots, more like small onions ?... I get the feeling that some of the lads at the allium-packing production line were having a laugh.
Don't get too hung up on getting wood for the edges of your raised beds. Treat that as the last thing you do with your raised beds; getting such materiels will always be the most difficult or most expensive part of the job. Keep your eyes peeled for what you need, but meantime think bulk biomass for filling. As long as they are neat, barrow-like mounds will do very nicely; better in fact in some ways, as the wee trench between edge and soil makes for good drainage, slows the rhizomes trying to go sideways, and can be a very nice flower border.
Yes, weighing down mulch sheets with weeds certainly comes naturally to me...I wish it were tidier, but hey, it works. Periodically I remove the weeds into bags for anaerobic composting, or into the heap, and if it is cardboard I am using, I generally find once soaked a couple of times it stays put, unless it dries out entirely.
Sitting here listening to Tangerine Dream's "London" on YouTube, patting my (very nice) labrador, it strikes me what a very great shame that I am not handy to dig your French drains for you. Ah, pick and shovel work was what I was born to do ! I don't have the stamina I used to, but I have gotten to that wonderful stage where I have become an "old hand". However, as I am not, and never likely to be, I will console you with one thought; once upon a time, I was as you are now, a mere stripling unversed in techniques of muscle and tendon. I learned by doing, and that which did not destroy me made me strong...
Wise words, Hobbit ? Oh, I may be terribly wrong in my judgement. Don't take anything I say as gospel. God knows, I am struggling enough in some fearful decisions I must currently make...but at least I can give you a different perspective, show a different way to think perhaps. Stupidity it seems to me, is only when you stop seeking these things. (HMG, take note.)

[horticultural_hobbit]

Hello, summer holidays!

Smiled a bit today, to see that raised beds are on their way. With any luck, they will arrive this week and I can find dad's screwdriver and build them on his lawn and then take them to plot. Cumbersome and awkward, yes, but I don't fancy taking them to a boggy plot 2a and losing the screws amongst the weeds. Are 2m x 1m, with a height of 20cm. Not brilliant, but might do the trick.

Tempted, to put up a polite request on the 'lotment shed asking if folks have rocks and pebbles littering their plots that they don't mind getting rid of. They may well want them themselves, but there's no harm asking.

My mission over the holidays, other than school work and ma sitting, is to clear the weeds, newspaper mulch and possibly green manure the bits that don't get newspapered.

Could a kind grape aunt or uncle advise whether or not I can plant garlic and onions through newspaper mulch? Early, i know, but I'm thinking through my logistical re-jig.

[horticultural_hobbit]

Dedicated to my uncle sno

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Summer of discontent - Horticulturalhobbit Wiki

One of the lotment old boys, told me today I was wasting my time with the plot; that i should move further up the site. He's all right, he means well. it was the "Now listen to your elders" said in a proper Dublin Brogue that it started with. I protested that I didn't fancy clearing another one, and I had already worked hard with plot 2a. And hopefully the raised bedding would help. I'd want to see this thing through!

[snohare]

Well, I must confess to some envy here, Hobbit. Your beds are going to be a lot more decorative than my (disastrous-looking) brutally utilitarian ones. In point of fact, if anything, my beds - don't laugh at this admission from such a keen advocate of raised beds - are sunken. Not what I was aiming for, you can be sure !
Your attitude is spot-on. This is just a re-jig of logistics. I always think the first season is mainly building infrastructure; any crops you get are a bonus. In a dire growing year such as this, it's not surprising that you are struggling to get anything. I spoke to a local worthy at a glen near here yesterday, and he was saying that it was the worst year for fruit and vegetable growing in the Glen, that he had seen in fifty years.
The upside of all this of course is that you are being tested in extreme conditions (which by the way, you can expect to have replicated time and again), and this is the ideal chance to adapt to such conditions, in advance of them recurring. I would also say, in future years - greatly increased variability of weather conditions being now the norm - being at the bottom of the swale might be your ace in the hole. You might have moisture when everyone else's clay is baked and cracking...expect ferociously hot heatwaves as well as floods and frosts.
For all the dire words of your neighbours, you can be sure that be you right or wrong, they will respect you for your willingness to take on a challenge and stick with it. If there is one thing we all know here on the Vine, and on every serious allotment, it is how hard it can be to keep on keeping on - and that will bring kudos for your efforts. And the more you have to learn at the bottom of the learning curve, the better you will learn the basics.
As for planting through newspaper mulch, well mulch is mulch is mulch. (Not mulch more to be said really.) I've certainly heard of other Grapes doing that sort of thing, very successfully, when using cardboard as mulch in the first year. I was rather thinking of doing it myself, once (if !) I finally get seedlings established enough to plant out.
I am wondering what would happen if I plant some garlic bulbs now...it's been a crazy year temperature-wise, I have absolutely no idea whatsoever what is forecast for this winter, and I am rather thinking of throwing the rule book out of the window and planting as if the growing season will go on until the New Year, or even later...thinking Northern temperate tropical, in fact.
Thank you for the dedication, much appreciated ! I really must get around to posting some photos of my allotment - I inadvertently bounced my camera twice off some slabs yesterday so may not be snapping away as often as usual in future but maybe it will push me into actually showing the unholy mess that is my growing ground. I really need to post a photo of my garlic worms, see if anyone knows what they were...tiny, wriggly little things the colour of the rust that is left behind when you take nails out of a rain-filled container.
And so to bed, as my frozen shoulder seems to have returned with the advent of the warmer weather !

[horticultural_hobbit]

Everytime I see my messy newspaper mulch-I'm far too embarrassed to stick a photo up-I hear your'status quo'. At least, I think it was you! I apologise if not.

In my cogitations, was the garlic that has me befuddled. As it needs a frost for it to split.
My crop did indeed split; so would the mulch act as insulation and prevent that. That was my hypothesis. Any hypothesis is of course testable and falsifiable.

Went down to the plot between visiting Ma, and I grumbled. So much to chop down, pull up. There is no way, that it will look like it did last year. I don't really want to spread weed killer everywhere. Firstly, would need what feels like a small ocean liner in volume, and second I don't want to do more harm than good.

There are both good parts and not so good parts on the site. You get the beautifully kept ones, and then you get mine. Feels like I've taken a huge step backwards. Me being me, I'm half a job bob; I don't tend to do things properly per se, just do them my way.

Have also decided that I would like some roses when I have made sense of things. Not fancy Ferrari expensive things. But p***nl**d ones. Think grandad mike had some and Ma planted one in a pot. If I want anything planted, it needs clearing.