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Stumbled across this little Gold mine while using my Google Kung Fu looking for advice.
So thanks for the great advice thus far and hello!
Just a little background, I got into gardening a few years ago when I moved into a property with a garden that was mostly 4 foot high in weeds and the housing association had sent a letter requesting it be "tidied up". I moved in with (my now ex missus) who wasn't interested in gardening and she used the garden mainly as a dog run which is why it was in such poor state. So I set about tidying it up and got bitten by the bug, not long afterwards I also started collecting Bonsai as it was something I had always had an interest in.
A few years down the line the garden started shaping up nicely and my Bonsai collection had grown to a large scale production facility with the full intention of starting my own Bonsai nursery in a few years.
I split up with the missus at the tail end of last year and I moved out a few months ago into a flat with only a small balcony, managing only to salvage a small portion of my Bonsai and next to nothing of the hundreds of hours of sweat, blood and tears, let alone effort and hard work of the decent sized garden I had built up from nothing.
I caught a break when I asked the local council if they had any plots available on the local allotments when I was informed they had several available. I now have my first plot of land and around 250 m2 of land at my disposal! It's still very much in dog order as moving house and starting a new job recently has taken up the bulk of my time, but once things settle down I intend to start investing time and effort (No doubt a decent chunk of cash) to get myself back up to speed and where I was prior to having to move with my Bonsai interest.
The allotment will mainly be used for Bonsai cultivation, but I will keep a section for the veg and flowers I liked eating/growing.
Early days and a lot of graft required...
I've been putting in an hour or Two here and there, digging over the bottom end and removing the weeds, some of which are doing their best impression of an underground Anaconda...
I have been lucky to snag some great stuff via Freecycle, Wheel Barrow, Burn bin, composter and a 7x5 shed along with a load of flags, bricks and timber/pallets. (Yep, back of my VW Polo looks like my allotment already, tick that one off the list.)
Managed to get some maincrop spuds in already, hopefully will get some Sweet Corn on the go this week.
I'm now about a Third/Halfway up the plot digging over, so will slow down with that and focus on the area I have dug over.
Gonna have to spend a few hours removing the nails out of the timber I have so far managed to get my hands on and then start building some raised beds. I was going to do the same as I did at the old house and build large raised beds from decking, but I now only have use of a VW Polo and I cannot fit the 2.4m long decking boards into it and B&Q will not cut them for fear they break a blade, grrr.
I need to get the raised beds up and running as I desperately need to get some of the Bonsai I have in the ground so they can get a few months of growing and settling in before Autumn hits. They can't stay on my balcony at home for much longer and a few years in the ground will do them so good. I used to overwinter them in my polytunnel, that now isn't an option so in the ground they shall go and it'll be fingers crossed they make it through the winter. That said, they were spoiled rotten, large heated polytunnel all through the colder months, heh.
Must say I'm missing the 5m x 2m polytunnel I used to have, this time of year it'd be swamped with seed trays and bursting with life. I have improvised and adapted a little bit and have started to use the spare bedroom as my new Bonsai studio. Though there is only so much you can do with a few windowsills and a small balcony. That said needs must as the devil drives and I have just bought some staging to go out on the balcony and it is now filled up with the seed trays for the £50 worth of tree seeds I recently bought and sowed indoors. Need to start somewhere to get myself back on track and rebuild the huge number of trees and saplings I lost this year due to the move.
The sunshine of the loss though, I did not have much room at all at my old place to get trees into the ground to bring them into maturity, now I have a honking great stretch of land, so it's all good!
So thanks for the great advice thus far and hello!
Just a little background, I got into gardening a few years ago when I moved into a property with a garden that was mostly 4 foot high in weeds and the housing association had sent a letter requesting it be "tidied up". I moved in with (my now ex missus) who wasn't interested in gardening and she used the garden mainly as a dog run which is why it was in such poor state. So I set about tidying it up and got bitten by the bug, not long afterwards I also started collecting Bonsai as it was something I had always had an interest in.
A few years down the line the garden started shaping up nicely and my Bonsai collection had grown to a large scale production facility with the full intention of starting my own Bonsai nursery in a few years.
I split up with the missus at the tail end of last year and I moved out a few months ago into a flat with only a small balcony, managing only to salvage a small portion of my Bonsai and next to nothing of the hundreds of hours of sweat, blood and tears, let alone effort and hard work of the decent sized garden I had built up from nothing.
I caught a break when I asked the local council if they had any plots available on the local allotments when I was informed they had several available. I now have my first plot of land and around 250 m2 of land at my disposal! It's still very much in dog order as moving house and starting a new job recently has taken up the bulk of my time, but once things settle down I intend to start investing time and effort (No doubt a decent chunk of cash) to get myself back up to speed and where I was prior to having to move with my Bonsai interest.
The allotment will mainly be used for Bonsai cultivation, but I will keep a section for the veg and flowers I liked eating/growing.
Early days and a lot of graft required...
I've been putting in an hour or Two here and there, digging over the bottom end and removing the weeds, some of which are doing their best impression of an underground Anaconda...
I have been lucky to snag some great stuff via Freecycle, Wheel Barrow, Burn bin, composter and a 7x5 shed along with a load of flags, bricks and timber/pallets. (Yep, back of my VW Polo looks like my allotment already, tick that one off the list.)
Managed to get some maincrop spuds in already, hopefully will get some Sweet Corn on the go this week.
I'm now about a Third/Halfway up the plot digging over, so will slow down with that and focus on the area I have dug over.
Gonna have to spend a few hours removing the nails out of the timber I have so far managed to get my hands on and then start building some raised beds. I was going to do the same as I did at the old house and build large raised beds from decking, but I now only have use of a VW Polo and I cannot fit the 2.4m long decking boards into it and B&Q will not cut them for fear they break a blade, grrr.
I need to get the raised beds up and running as I desperately need to get some of the Bonsai I have in the ground so they can get a few months of growing and settling in before Autumn hits. They can't stay on my balcony at home for much longer and a few years in the ground will do them so good. I used to overwinter them in my polytunnel, that now isn't an option so in the ground they shall go and it'll be fingers crossed they make it through the winter. That said, they were spoiled rotten, large heated polytunnel all through the colder months, heh.
Must say I'm missing the 5m x 2m polytunnel I used to have, this time of year it'd be swamped with seed trays and bursting with life. I have improvised and adapted a little bit and have started to use the spare bedroom as my new Bonsai studio. Though there is only so much you can do with a few windowsills and a small balcony. That said needs must as the devil drives and I have just bought some staging to go out on the balcony and it is now filled up with the seed trays for the £50 worth of tree seeds I recently bought and sowed indoors. Need to start somewhere to get myself back on track and rebuild the huge number of trees and saplings I lost this year due to the move.
The sunshine of the loss though, I did not have much room at all at my old place to get trees into the ground to bring them into maturity, now I have a honking great stretch of land, so it's all good!
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