Allotments

We had one back in the eighties when we were younger and fitter. We could have done with it being about half the size it was. We loved it, but they do take up an awful lot of your time, and back then, DH was still in the Army and only home at the weekend. I would go down some mornings before I went to work, and in the evenings to water. One of the worst problems we had was that half the allotment was heavy clay, and no amount of digging stuff into it, and growing spuds in it, seemed to make it any better. Fortunately the rest of it was very fertile. As for couch grass, the only way is to dig dig dig it out, I think. When I went over to working full time, we gave it up because we just didn’t have the time for it, but I still love to see a good allotment. It is a thing of joy!

H has been sharing a plot with a female friend of ours for 3 yrs now. He does the heavy work and so far it has just been Sunday mornings (4hrs) though she does have a rotavator which is a big help she buys seed etc and they share the produce.
However, he has just aquired his own plot and will continue to help our friend so next spring he will be there all day probably No good suggesting I join him as I'm not fit enough.
This is on top of the 4 half days he does paid gardening from March-October and keeping our own fairly large garden looking lovely.

That’s dedication with a capital D, nina!

Nina, that's dedication. Mind you I do begrudge life spent not gardening.
I have a whole plot, inherited from my daughter. Takes me 15 mins to walk there or 10 if I cycle. Usually my best crop is the blackberries that grow wild. Also have lots of fruit trees.
I am always thinking " now, should I give it up ?" But haven't yet.
If everything was really looked after, I would have a wide variety of produce.
I wonder if any GNS locally would be interested in sharing it with me?

Would be a shame to give it up loopy! You just need some help with it.
Have a word with the other plot-holders to ask around if anyone is looking for a plot at the moment. They could be willing to share the heavy work with you doing the seedlings, picking etc. Sharing crops!
Wouldn't necessarily have to be an older person, some younger people are interested but haven't room in their new-build gardens.
Keep enjoying it loooy! .

Don't you have to use a flame thrower on couch grass?
Rather than chemicals?

Must go out and do something with my messy garden, you are making me feel guilty. I couldn't cope with an allotment as well.

That's a thought, I do have a weed wand that I use in the garden.
And yes I should be out there, not chatting on Gransnet, but you guys are helpful.

H dosen't think of it as work, he loves it he would go stir crazy if he couldn't garden.

I have battled with couch grass, the only effectivd way is to keep digging it out. We weed then cover the plots we are not using in winter with black formsil sheeting and then weight down with stones and bricks. It helps come spring to start with a weedfree bed and soil warmed up a bit.

We have cut down on the number of beds we use, as you say turni g some over to fruit is a great solution, and if you donot get to weed round them it is less important and they still flourish. My soft fruit bed is covered in a creeping campanula, the bees love the flowers and it helps set the fruit!

We keep finding some couch grass around the garden which came with some plants from someone else's garden, (kindly given and gratefully received). It was not feasible to use a flame thrower because of the plants, but if you have virgin ground, nothing planted as yet, then it could be the easiest way to deal with it.

Not sure it is, really. If you burn the tops off you still have the roots and rhizomes that, if left in the ground, produce new plants. These have to be carefully dug out, or the plant treated with a gel systemic weed killer or it will just keep coming back. It’s horrible stuff.

We have an allotment. A large one. We’ve learned over the years how to cope with it.

Have a couple of beds for soft fruit; raspberries, strawberries, black currents, blueberries, gooseberries, etc..

Leave one bed fallow each year and dig all your kitchen waste, grass cuttings, etc into it. Same bed, have a bonfire on it in autum and burn all your weeds and rake in ashes, then plant a crop of green manure. We have chickens at home so also dig in their soiled bedding.

Plant crops you know you’ll eat and plenty of them. We’re virtually self sufficient in onions, garlic, leeks, beetroot. Plenty of potatoes (first earlies, second earlies an main crop) IF you eat them.

Have a few fruit trees, apples, pears, cherries, etc. We also grow our own hazel nuts.

Grown mixed crops in some beds eg a row or carrots, a row of parsnips, kale, beans, peas. Intersperse with lavender (attracts pollinators) chives (deters some insects) and other herbs.

Try The Three Sisters - that’s growing sweet corn alongside beans and courgettes in one bed. The sweet corn provides support for the beans to grow up and the courgettes provide ground cover so keeping moisture in. Alternatively you can grow squashes (same family as courgettes) and/or pumpkins.

But only grow what you will harvest and eat!

Couch grass...just keeping digging it up and burning it if you can.

Hilltopgran's solution is about the only resort to get rid of couch grass. Never rotovate it.

We have just enjoyed a stuffed marrow (well, it was an over-grown courgette) and self-set potatoes this evening.

I hope you have success with your allotment loopylou.

Burying the couch grass worked for me. I dug a trench at one end of the long narrow plot, then worked on the adjoining 6 to 9 inches, turning the grass and roots from it into the trench then covering it with more soil from underneath the grass i had just removed. In other words I I was creating another trench as I filled in the first. I then kept repeating this until the whole bed had been turned over, then filled in the final trench with soil that had come out of the very first trench. Admittedly, it was extremely hard work , but none of that couch grass ever grew back.

Bindweed was a different matter - despite digging as deep as i could to remove its roots every time it appeared, in 15 years i never managed to clear the plot of it!

We have a very large allotment; it's situated along a lane that leads from the front of my house to the river - just 30 second's walk.
It keeps The Wonderful Man very busy through the summer weekends and evenings and in the beginning it was really hard work as it was overgrown and full of bindweed. After the first few seasons we planted more and more fruit because it needs less looking after than the veggies. In the fruit cage we have blueberries, loganberries, blackberries, gooseberries, red/black currants and a cherry tree. We also have a rhubarb plot, a strawberry bed, raspberries, eating and cooking apples, two types of pear and a plum tree. In the greenhouse we grow salad leaves, tomatoes and peppers. Then we have artichokes (what a faff to prepare and cook, but the flowers are stunning), potatoes, onions, beetroot, spinach, squashes, courgettes, french beans, mange touts, swede and cabbages/kale and broccoli. We've just harvested the last courgettes, peppers and tomatoes today and there are still a few butternuts to collect.
In our own garden we also have a plum tree, a fig and a kiwi.

I loved the mechanics of the allotment; the double digging, plot rotation, green manuring and all the sowing and raising of vegetable plants, the different varieties; the quest for a decent cauliflower - the only vegetable I never had any success with. Flowers have never held the same mystique for me, and still don’t. DS always liked to come down when the potatoes were ready to come up - he liked to help with that, but DD hated getting her hands dirty. There is an area of allotments along one of our regular walks. They are really well kept and productive and it’s a pleasure to stand and look at them.

I have been into organic gardening all my life - my father wouldn't tolerate chemicals either but ...... This year I was so fed up with weeding out the ground elder under the hedges that I bought a large Roundup spray and blasted the lot. A week later took all the weeds off and I reckon that have saved me a month's worth of weeding.
Naughty? probably but my back and knees are thanking mme.

MamaCaz bindweed is a problem here too - I have just tried to remove some from the rose bed. In fact, we got rid of one border which was infested with it, no matter how I tried to get rid of it. DH dug as deep as he could and still there were roots; I moved the plants and that bed is now lawn.

We're not allowed to put it in with the garden waste so it goes in the bin, presumably to landfill which it could proliferate.

During the war years we were encouraged to grow our own fruit and veg Not much option as so many things were on ration. I don't know if my relatives had allotments then but my father did have one after the war and I can remember my young days, on a weekend, having a picnic at my fathers allotment and father digging up carrots and new potatoes mum and me picking peas ,black and red currants gooseberries etc. We did get some wonderful summers.
PS My local council will provide the correct bags and pick up bagged garden waste if contacted.They will however need to know whether there is invasive materials in these bags.

Sorry no. I moved house because my garden was too large. I am now the happy owner of a postage stamp sized grassed outside space and enjoy it thoroughly....no back breaking mowing/weeding....just cups of tea and scones with a book. Hoorah! My friend has a massive allotment at the back of her house with chickens and all sorts. All her time is taken up with it, and now that her husband has become frail, she is up to her eyes maintaining it by herself. I admire people who do keep an allotment and I am happy to purchase their produce but have no time for growing things myself.

Yes I started sharing one last year with a lady who is local. We both lead busy lives but we arrange who’s got few hours spare and just email each other with jobs to do and jobs we’ve done.Gets but tricky when we get a real hot spell cos the watering takes more time in morning before sun is up then again late evening.Its rewarding so we just juggle our time but it would be to much for one person.

I have an allotment - got it the first year I retired and without a doubt it's my "happy place". It's not huge but enough to satisfy my passion for growing organic veggies all summer long as and when they are ready for picking. If it's something you love doing, then you make time for this hobby, and I find nothing more peaceful and restful than keeping the beds well weeded. Our season is short (I live in Ontario Canada). We close our allotments around mid November - the ground is frozen from January through to the end of March. We start up again in early April when the frost comes out of the ground, and my allotment is all planted up with first set of seedlings by mid May. I do a second and third planting throughout the summer months and normally have a great harvest August and September. I plant my garlic for next year in late October and then close down everything mid November again as the cold, snow and deep frost moves into the ground once more.