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Post by emmasplot on Feb 16, 2020 12:14:54 GMT
 Dear fellow allotment enthusiasts, My name is Emma. Welcome to my allotment diaries. It's been 5 months since I took on my first allotment. I wanted to start these diaries in January so I can properly document the year through all the seasons and show you all the progress I will, of course, make. When I took on my plot it was so heavily covered in blackberry bushes you couldn't even see the end of it. In fact, you couldn't see the middle either. It was just one enormous tumble of thorns and leaves and sickly sweet, half dead blackberries. And so I did what any completely clueless but gardening enthusiast would do. I grabbed a pair of shears and I started hacking at it. It was a garden massacre, and it was blooming good fun too. Fast forward 3 months and the end of the allotment was in sight. But it wasn't without it's casualties. Beneath me lay the remains of several thousand former thriving blackberry bushes. Which, I suddenly realized, meant about a thousand blackberry canes firmly rooted in the soil. The battle had been won, but the war wasn't close to being over yet. Braced with the thickest pair of leather gloves I could find at B&Q, I began the slow and tedious task of digging each cane out by hand. It was hard, back breaking work and the progress felt so slow at times it was almost as though I were moving backwards. But something in me had changed. Because as difficult as it was, at no point did I want to give up. If anything, discovering a hidden but very active wasp nest and about a dozed giant ornamental grasses not only spurred me on, but filled me with a joy I hadn't expected. I felt productive, like I never had before. I was working hard, but I was working towards something. An end goal, a vision, a dream. It felt good. After a very nasty, but successful altercation with a fox and several wasp stings later, I had finally managed to hit soil. And it was euphoric. It was the smell of success ,validation of all my hard work. The plot had been half cleared, and I was ready to create my raised beds. Through rain, freezing fog and oozing mud I haphazardly nailed together pieces of wood. The beds were built. The 2 for 1 compost bags were emptied and I finally had something that looked like an allotment. An empty, slightly wonky allotment, but it didn't matter. Because it was mine. And I had created it. And here we are. January. The longest month of the year, and for the first time, I was glad for it. Because the work doesn't stop on an allotment. In fact, the list only grows longer. On January the 1st, 2 months late, I finally planted out 150 tulip bulbs in my first raised bed. The satisfaction I got when I planted that last bulb was like nothing I had ever felt. It was an achievement, a job today for the promise of tomorrow. The work continues and spring only grows closer. So watch this space, because I'm sure I'll have lots more to share with you over the next few months. Be it success or failure, I'll stick it out. Digging one carrot at a time.
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Post by steve on Feb 16, 2020 13:36:22 GMT
Welcome to the forums Emma, looking forward to the updates
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Post by sweetpea on Feb 16, 2020 16:22:54 GMT
I've got plenty brambles still if you want to come and clear them  I tend to be picking thorns out of my hands for days after clearing them but there are worse things. Good luck with your plot. Get some spuds in to chit and plant later. All the cultivation will help to keep the weeds down.  |
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Post by keith on Feb 17, 2020 3:49:57 GMT
Emma
I hope you did not lose those garden Shears. One tip get a plastic container to put the tools in as you are working that way you keep them cleaner and will not lose them.
What are you intending to grow?
Keith
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Post by SueA on Feb 17, 2020 9:00:41 GMT
Welcome emmasplot, hope you enjoy the forum. That's a lot of hard work you've got through but I bet it's satisfying, you'll be able to get down to the fun part of actually growing things now!  |
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Post by lesley on Feb 17, 2020 18:28:41 GMT
welcome Emma lovely to see some one new, look forward to seeing your allotment
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Post by emmasplot on Feb 18, 2020 19:25:52 GMT
Thank you everyone for such a warm welcome. Well, we are flying through February and boy do I have some updates for you all. Firstly, I really must learn to listen to advice. I wish I had listened to all the people who told me to properly weigh down my brand new polytunnel. Of course, it took flight during the storm and landed in a neighbors apple tree. I can't begin to imagine what an idiot I must have looked balanced precariously on a compost bin, yanking the poor thing out the tree. It's bent and battered and I have well and truly learned my lesson.  I sulked over this for far too long, I must admit. It really knocked my confidence and felt like a major set back. However, once I had pulled myself back together, I decided to start clearing the very back of the plot which was covered in blackberry bushes. I must admit, i t's been more like a garden massacre than anything recently as I've literally been hacking at it for hours on end. I'm beginning to feel like the plot will never be cleared. However, as I painstakingly dug and pulled cane after cane out of the ground, I did start to feel more positive. The end of the plot is an absolute suntrap and I've let myself daydream about cut flowers and vegetable beds and even a bench and table... My hands will say differently. Any tips to stop the thorns snapping and getting lodged in my fingers would be much appreciated. Someone asked me what I'll be growing on my plot. And the answer is... whatever I can! Like any newbie gardener, I've bought myself a sack load of seeds and started planting everything. Sweetpeas, cosmos, onion sets, peas, peppers. Anything I can get my hands on. It's quite magical, putting a seed in some soil. Such a simple yet profound job. A tiny miracle, a little glimmer of hope for the future. It totally grounds me and makes all the hard work completely worth it. February has been a tough one, hasn't it? Fellow allotment friends have reminded me that we can not control the weather. We are not here to control nature, or even to contain it. But to facilitate it. To tweak it, guide it but ultimately, to let it happen. And in a world full of concrete and pollution, I feel it's really more important than ever to do this. March, I'm ready for you. Please be kind. My seeds are ready, my plot is almost cleared and my enthusiasm is at full throttle. More updates to come, but until then, you can always check out my YouTube channel where I post all my updates on my plot. Thanks for reading! Emma. Emmasplot |
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Post by grindle on Feb 19, 2020 7:57:10 GMT
hello Emma nice to meet you, look forward to seeing how your new plot develops |
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Post by SueA on Feb 19, 2020 9:11:07 GMT
You've been unlucky Emma with the weather & your tunnel taking off - although it's always wise to weigh it down anyway with the wind as it has been it didn't stand a chance! You need a good pair of strong gardening gloves to tackle the brambles etc. & stop the thorns getting you, look for some with leather/suede (fake or real) palms which are useful for pruning roses, raspberries etc. as well.
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Post by sweetpea on Feb 19, 2020 13:00:14 GMT
best gloves I ever had were made of antelope hide. Expensive but I won mine in a quiz. I could pull pyracantha branches without a scratch never mind brambles. They were the best not only tough but quite pliable and not so rigid as rigger gloves. next time you position a polytunnel dig a trench alongside and bury the surplus polythene and when gales forecast open both ends to let the wind through rather than having them closed and creating a solid area for the wind to come up against. Bit like a hedge lets wind filter through instead of a solid barrier. Worked for me during the hurricanes back along. Anyway it is all experience as we all find our way.  |
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Post by Cherry on Feb 20, 2020 12:13:46 GMT
Welcome Emma. Your honesty is appreciated, and don’t waste time in a sulk. Talk to us. We know what you are going through. Actually, roofgardener is the gardener I feel most sorry for. His tunnel suffered badly in gales, but he was persistent and I do admire him. Your tunnel came to rest in an apple tree, but it could have blown to the next village. You have worked hard on the brambles. sweetpea’s advice to get some potatoes in is good. It works to break the soil up. You are doing well. |
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Post by emmasplot on Feb 24, 2020 11:08:46 GMT
 Hi again everyone! Thanks again for all the advice. I will definitely be getting a thicker pair of gloves for the brambles at the back of the plot. And I will dig a trench around the polytunnel before I put the cover on again. I've left it off for now as the wind has still been quite strong! Exciting news for the plot! We put up our shed at the weekend. Of course, like everything we do at the plot, it didn't run completely smoothly. We had to have it delivered to our house and it arrived a day late which meant it had to sit in our dining room for the best part of a week! Let me tell you, untreated sheds are a tad smelly... We rented a van to take it over to the plot on Saturday and obviously, one piece didn't fit. I mean, I should have seen that coming really. So we had to walk the biggest bit over to the plot ourselves. I can not imagine how crazy we must have looked walking a piece of heavy shed half an hour down busy roads to the allotments. But we did it! Putting a shed up is not as easy as it looks. Especially when you buy a very cheap one from the internet with very questionable instructions. It felt a bit like the blind baking challenge on the great british bake off, when you are only given a few basic instructions and are left to figure the rest out yourself!! We put the sides on upside side, twice. Yes, twice. We definitely take a while to learn from our mistakes. By Saturday afternoon, the wind was so strong we were forced to abandon the shed halfway through the build. On Sunday, after one torrential downpour, the sun came out and the roof was finally attached. It's a little wonky, a little wobbly and the door is definitely on upside down (haha!), but it's build. I'm so proud of our determination and hard work. I almost killed my husband a couple of times, but I'm pleased to say our marriage has survived the ordeal. A shed has totally transformed the plot. I must admit, the layout was something I was struggling with a little. I have never designed a garden or raised beds and paths before. But now the shed is in, it really is all coming together and looking very exciting! I will have a little plot tour/update for you soon. Seeds are all coming along well. Just need to dig out a patch for the cut flowers and fix up that polytunnel. Hope you all had a great week at your plots, and hope your weekend was a little more relaxing than mine! Haha! Emma
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Post by sweetpea on Feb 24, 2020 17:37:46 GMT
In our little shed which is only for the fishpond equipment I put a few slabs on the floor to weigh it down and so far with many gales it hasn't budged.
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Post by SueA on Feb 25, 2020 8:56:55 GMT
Well done on conquering the shed Emma!  I don't know what the area is like where you have your plot but I wouldn't leave anything very valuable in it unless there's good security at the allotments but it will be useful for storing tools instead of having to carry them backwards & forwards. |
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Post by roofgardener on Feb 25, 2020 13:30:20 GMT
Yay - welcome Emma.
Did the polytunnel recover ? I had problems with mine a few years ago. After many false starts being degloved, one day it blew clear off the Roofgarden, bounced on the barbed-wire fence, and landed up in the plot of land next door, which houses an electricity substation. It nestled up against a transformer for 8 hours before I plucked up the courage to recover it.
And well done on the shed. When will you allow us to look inside ?
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I don't know what the area is like where you have your plot but I wouldn't leave anything very valuable in it unless there's good security at the allotments but it will be useful for storing tools instead of having to carry them backwards & forwards.
