Off to look at an allotment...

[HillBill]

True enough i suppose . If the canes are over 6 ft long i'd be inclined to say summer . Autumn rasps tend not to get much pst that. Looking at the pics, they look short though so its a toughy. Based on the bases of the canes, they look well established. Best way to tell is to look at the tips, are they pruned and still thick? or are they thin as though they have only grown to that size.

Should be the best indicator i reckon based on them being established plants... they have obviously grown the full year. Also the wire post looks to be of a low height, indicating low overall growth.

I'd hazard a guess at autumns based on that. Also, all the growth looks to be uniform... rather than 2 separate years of growth being utilised as you would Summer rasps.

If they are autumn rasps, you will get early fruit from last years canes, but only a small flush, around june/july, though Autumn rasps are generally better cut to ground level after the growing season is over as the new growth the next year will produce a a much heavier crop than the old growth.

 

[Everything Mac]

Well I am supposed to be offshore by now but the weather out there says no. I'm stuck in Aberdeen for another night of abusing the mobile phone for internet.

Round one of stupid questions:


What tools might I find useful to have around for the general clean up? I've forks and a couple of spades. I have a mattock kicking around that will need a new handle and your usual loppers etc etc. I think I'm set but any pointers would be good.


(I'm not looking for excuses to buy a good shovel AT ALL! )

Andy

 

[HillBill]

Wheelbarrow, composter, Hoe, A slasher of some description, hammer, leathermans are useful, Pliers, wire cutters, rake, bucket, trowel, saw, etc,

Make it a priority to learn proper soil/land husbandry

 

[British Red]

Do your back a favour and buy a proper long handled Devon spade - the first garden tool I would save in a fire!

As a man who requires dangerous tools - have you considered the joy that is a rotovator? I love mine!

 

[wingstoo]

Well I am supposed to be offshore by now but the weather out there says no. I'm stuck in Aberdeen for another night of abusing the mobile phone for internet.

Round one of stupid questions:


What tools might I find useful to have around for the general clean up? I've forks and a couple of spades. I have a mattock kicking around that will need a new handle and your usual loppers etc etc. I think I'm set but any pointers would be good.


(I'm not looking for excuses to buy a good shovel AT ALL! )

Andy

One of the first things we got was an incinerator.

Lump hammer or sledge hammer, good saw, We went for Wolf tools as one handle can have many heads, a hoe is the first tool you should wear out, it can be used every time you go on the allotment to deal with weeds and any other unwanted "Triffid" sticking its head above ground, we also had a riddle for the soil, but our soil was very easy to deal with, clay however is a lot more difficult, especially when wet and sticky.

 

[Everything Mac]

Wheelbarrow, composter, Hoe, A slasher of some description, hammer, leathermans are useful, Pliers, wire cutters, rake, bucket, trowel, saw, etc,

Make it a priority to learn proper soil/land husbandry

I'm definitely all set for hammers.

I took my big sledge hammer back to Dorset with me to break up some concrete but I've got the little 7lb'er in the corner of the shed. I've a cheap hoe too, though I really wish I'd bought the one with a nice wooden handle. Something I was oddly enough just about to look into getting.


They have a rotovator available for hire on site. Which will come in handy I'm sure.

Cheers
Andy

 

[British Red]

I use a canterbury fork instead of a hoe -somewhere between a hoe and a soil rake - great for weeding and breaking up clumps of dirt

http://www.chillingtontoolsonline.co.uk/heavy-duty-canterbury-fork-p126

 

[Kevj]

We've had an allotment for the last 3 years or so and one of the 1st things we did (after clearing all the debris and weeds) was to put up a shed - more often than not it's peeing down and with the shed we can retreat to it and have a brew! - the kids can keep warm in there as well!

next was the chicken house and then we started on installing raised beds - part of our site gets waterlogged and the raised beds give you the chance to get something in the ground and grown, without rotting!

After we got started on the beds we then made a decent size polytunnel out of scaffold tubes and polypipe - a polytunnel or greenhouse is a must on an allotment.

I've just scrounged loads of framing timber and started on a 2nd larger shed.

The allotment, in the growing season, can be time consuming but it's a great stress reliever and good for the kids education, as well as the amount of fruit and veg you get from it - we had to buy another freezer as the amount of produce you get if fantastic.

We're learning all the time and luckily we have really excellent source of experience with the older allotment holders, who are always willing to offer advice.

If you get stuck with anything, give me a shout and I'll try and help.

Kev

 

[Everything Mac]

I'm more than likely to get stuck at some point Kev. I'll be giving it a good go but we shall see. One advantage to working offshore is that I can get a decent wad of time to do as I please. But I seem to be filling my time rather rapidly recently. Ive a few trips planned soon too.

Red - They look handy but I thinK I'll be making one of those.

Andy

 

[Flav]

Just a quick one from me i got my first allotment 3 years ago and started clearing my second last year but grew veg since I was a kid in the garden, you keep saying you work offshore only that I try to spend a hour or two on mine everyday especially through the summer to keep on top of things, and to water they can be left but it then becomes a bit of a chore yo try and catch every thing up.
I love my allotments but they are a big commitment and can take a lot of time up to get it right

 

[bigbear]

Starting to feel a bit jealous. Been on the waiting list five years and in November we were given half a small allotment due to the supposed high demand. No sign of anyone on the other half yet mind, so quite what this demand is beats me, but you try getting sense out of Bradford Council.....
Cleared our half, put it some low raised beds which we will raise more over time, now waiting for spring.Think yourselves lucky to be getting the size of plots you all have !

 

[Flav]

I waited 5 years for my first allotment of 5 rods and then got another directly behind mine last year but it had not been touched for 18 months, it's worth getting to know your allotment committee as they can sometimes put in a good word for you

 

[Laurentius]

I waited 5 years for my first allotment of 5 rods and then got another directly behind mine last year but it had not been touched for 18 months, it's worth getting to know your allotment committee as they can sometimes put in a good word for you

It was a neighbour of mine who suggested I put my name down. It only took me a few months, but then I did take on one of the more difficult plots which I guess had been turned down a few times because it is prone to flooding as I subsequently discovered. However I have made a good job of it inspite of that and am now on the committee myself. It's not the easiest plot to work but I have spent a lot of time improving it, of course the lower half looks like the battle of the Somme at the moment

 

[HillBill]

Irrigation works just as well removing water as it does bringing water in

 

[Toddy]

Not quite allotment, but appropriate I think.

My elderly Uncle's neighbours have huge back gardens. Their houses were built at a time when folks expected a garden to help feed a family. The neighbours are now elderly and they're struggling to maintain their gardens; many are simply covering up beautiful worked soil with polythene and red ash chips
If you can't get an allotment, try putting up a notice in the local post office. Something tidy and easily read, and see if you get a response. I have open offer of four huge gardens here, I can't be the only person who lives in such areas.

All the old folks want is a bit of courtesy, a tidy garden that they don't need to fret over, and it would best come from someone who knows someone who they know, iimmc........and leave the washing lines free

M

 

[ship]

and they get some veg, " like veg used to be " which can be a reward in itself, I was lucky enough to spend a lot of time as a kid, on the allotments, my granda and grt granda had adjacent allotments, both disabled war vets, I @ II, and without the allotments and the banter about the wars a lot the time, but never spoke of it home, I think their lives would have so much emptier, Toddy,s idea sounds a good un, can you build a chicken coop, lol, you never know.

Atb,
ship

 

[Toddy]

You are so right, veg did taste better then, and the elderlies complain about it
I got some huge old fashioned Winter carrots a week ago... I have been thoroughly enjoying them stewed sweet in my dinners Most carrots bought now are infants, washed and scrubbed and somehow tasteless Buying leeks is a disaster, all the rich greenery cut away or mangled. The green is the soup stuff parsnips are scrubbed and bruised and I don't think they frost them at all. I put them into the salad drawer of the fridge for a fortnight to get them right before I cook them.
One of my g.g.Uncle's died at Ypres, but a g.Aunt spoke very fondly of her Uncle. She said that he had said he was an Agriculturalist, not a horticulturalist.....he liked to eat what he grew

One of the elderly neighbours had two of the most beautiful fruiting apple trees cut down two years ago. One a tart desert that ripened in the middle of August and the other a sweeter fruiter that ripened in September. The fruits on both baked well, ate well, and kept well. The lady was just too old to keep on top of the gathering, the pruning and the sweeping up of the leaves.
All I could think of was that it was such a damned shame when I realised the trees were gone and asked what had happened.

MaC if you would like blackcurrants, let me know and I'll peg down some branches

cheers,
M

 

[Humpback]

Re stuff tasting better in the past. On a podcast of a recent infinite monkey puzzle a scientist did a test with the audience which was take a small food item which needs chewing. Hold your nose and eat it. Then eat the same portion normally. The taste is lacking with nose held and this simulates the affect of age as those taste receptors in the nose die off with age. It suggests a reason why really old folk say food tastes bland. Try it.
I do however think fresh potatoes taste best from your own plot or in my case father in law's.


Alan

 

[British Red]

There are many reasons food tastes better when grown. We all know about peas needing to be processed in 2 hours right? If they aren't off the vine and into the freezer in 2 hrs or less, the sugars turn to starch and they go woody and blech. Have you ever had a meal of peas where the peas were cooked in under 5 minutes? Its a revelation but impossible to sell in a shop.

Parsnips the same. Just out of the ground they are soft and moist and buttery. After a few days they are dry and fibrous.

Many great foods - raspberries and blackberries - are hard to handle and people grow the tougher varieties to facilitate handling and shipping - not taste. Delicate ones with 50 foot from plot to plate are much nicer - but commercially don't make sense for store or consumer.

Beans...oh.....I am learning so much about beans. Shops can't do beans properly for all the reasons above. I hate broad beans - nasty, tasteless and with a flavour like cardboard. But try a fresh field bean (their small cousin) and wow - then walk into a greenhouse that you can smell that warm tomato smell and grab some, pul up a head of garlic so fresh that the juice runs over your finger, throw it all in a pan and stick it on toasted home made bread


Beans on toast by British Red, on Flickr

It doesn't look much I know - but the taste!

 

[Nomad]

Agree on the shed (chair, table, brew kit) as an early priority, but I would say clearing the rubbish and measuring out the plot come first. Once you can clearly see what you've got, and have an accurate plan drawn up, it's much easier to work out not only what will go where, but what sizes will fit in the intended spaces. (Develop a habit of wandering around garden centres and DIY shops armed with a tape measure.) To get the shed and water butt to fit into the intended space on mine, I had to move the original gateway about 2 feet, and that was done long before the shed and water butt arrived (I replaced the whole fence and moved the gateway and pathway, then built the foundations for the shed).