It’s amazing how time just passes by! It’s easter weekend already, and while I haven’t done an awful lot on my plot since last update, there’s a few things I can tell you all about.

Easter weekend is usually the time of the year when most allotment plotholders start to get really busy. I’m no different! Before this weekend is over, I’m going to have my plot rotovated and ready for sowing/planting out.

Ironically I had a letter from the local council yesterday, to inform me that a ground maintenance officer had been on site and found my plot in a non-cultivated state. Those guys make me laugh! They obviously don’t know enough about ground maintenance to see that all weeds have been sprayed, and that the weedkiller have done its job. I wonder how they can get paid in excess of £20K a year!

On a more positive note, I’ve picked up my seed potatoes for this year a couple of weeks ago, and they are chitting away at the moment. This weekend my early tubers will go in the ground, while the others will be left until the end of the month. This year I picked my seed potatoes from a local farmer, at an absolute bargain price, so if you’re anywhere near a professional potato grower, you’d do yourself a favour by paying them a visit.

The downside is that they may not have the specific variety you’re after (they didn’t in my case), but, the value for money, their expertice and advice, not to forget the passion for growing spuds takes some beating! My farmer friend told me everything there is to know on the subject, and threw a few very rare tubers on the box of seed potatoes I bought of him. Price: £10.00! Would have cost me no less than £40 from the garden centre! And you guys have a new info-sheet on growing potatoes coming up soon…..

Also, the seed for all my vegetables are ordered and in the post as I’m writing this! I placed my order online again this year, due to the amazing selection you get in comparison to the shops. I bought my vegetable seeds from Dobies - but you can go with any of the seed retailers that I link to in the menu bar on the right - as they’re all more or less the same.

This will do for now - but I’m sure there’s going to be more updates coming in the next few days and weeks - as the allotment season gets into swing, so keep your eyes peeled.

Technorati Tags: Allotment Soil Preparation, Seed Potatoes, Allotment Info Sheet.

Today is officially the first day of spring. Time to get started back at the allotment, and get the plot ready for a new season of growing.

I made the first proper visit to my plot yesterday, and spent a few productive hours, getting a few jobs done. I’m in the process of tidying up the plot, trying to recover from last years disaster. They say third time lucky, so fingers crossed, this is going to be my year!

I started out getting a fire going in my rubbish burner, a recycled oil barrel from a local garage, burning some old twigs and dried up weeds together with some bits of wood off my old greenhouse.

Next I cut back the Autumn fruiting raspberries, right down to the ground as you’re supposed to before the end of February. Talk about leaving things to the last minute

Also, my strawberry plants ended up fighting a losing battle last year with a bunch of buttercups. They’re not easy getting rid of when they first get hold, so I dug out 20 plants (a mix of mature plants and runners), and put them in some pots of compost. My plan is to build a strawberry terrace when I get the time, and put them on there i pots. Should be an awful lot easier to manage, both in terms of weeds and in terms of protecting them from pests.

Finally, I made short process of dealing with all the grass on the plot - the result of digging in fresh manure in the topsoil last year. I got out the knapsack and treated the lot of it with weedkiller. A bit sad in a way - but there’s just no way I can manage the plot without help - as time is a major issue.

All in all a rather productive weekend. If everything goes to plan I’m going to order some seed potatoes off eBay before the end of the day, because I think I might get a better deal here than with the commercial seed merchants. More on that later.

Technorati Tags: Allotment Spring Cleaning, Strawberry Plants, Pruning Raspberries.

Something new has been added to the Allotmenteer.co.uk website: The Allotment Info Sheets!

Actually, the page from where you’ll be able to get your hands on (hopefully) a lot of these sheets in the future, has been online for a few weeks, but today the first sheet has been uploaded today.

The sheet goes into detail on “How To Dig Over Your Allotment Plot“, information that is already available on the site, but the sheet shows things off a bit differently and is 100% printer friendly.

I hope you’ll all like this new addition to the site, and judging from the amount of visits to the page about the info sheets, there’s definately interest out there. I’ll do my best to get some more sheets produced and uploaded in the coming weeks.

You can download the new info sheet from the link above, or visit the Allotment Info Sheets page from the menu on the left for full instructions.

Technorati Tags: Allotment Info Sheets, How To Dig An Allotment Plot, Digging Over An Allotment.

I suspect most visitors to the Allotmenteer.co.uk website will be familiar with eBay. After all it’s one of the most well known, and visited, websites in the world. Basically, eBay is the biggest car boot sale on the surface of the planet.

So, why would this be interesting to allotment plotholders? Good question! Let me try to come up with a few ideas that you might find useful:

• Have you ever had a clearout of your shed, and come across stuff that’s of no value to you but might be good for someone else? Do you grow more produce and plants on your plot than what you can use yourself? eBay could be your ticket to earn a few extra quid, selling off some of this “unwanted” stuff. By all means, still share with your fellow plotholders, but there’s only so much they’d want as well.
• Are you looking for a good deal on something you need for your plot. There’s more than a good chance that you’ll find it on eBay, and at a knock down price! As a matter if fact, you’ll struggle to think of something that can’t be found for sale on the site.
• Perhaps best of all - if you’re looking to grow some unusual plants and produce on your plot - eBay is a treasure chest of everything from seeds - over plugs - to mature plants, many of them very unusual.

These are just a few good reasons to take a look at what’s on offer on eBay. Below you’ll see a banner with some current offers relevant to allotment plotholders, and an option to make your own search. Have fun on eBay….

As I promised in my previous post, 2009 is going to be a year where a lot of things will take place here on Allotmenteer.co.uk, and the first visible result is the newly opened Allotmenteer Bookstore.

The Allotmenteer Bookstore offers a wide range of allotment books and allotment DVD’s that will help you to make the most out of your allotment plot. You’ll find everything you need to know, right from allotment handbooks and vegetable growing guides, over organic allotment gardening, to books on how to make the most of your harvest.

While there’s a number of allotment books on these subjects, some of you may be happy to know as well that there’s a good number of allotment DVD’s available, all of which you can find in a separate section of the shop as well.

The Allotmenteer Bookshop has been set up in co-operation with Amazon.co.uk, a trusted and reputable online merchant, who will take and process any orders.

I hope you’ll enjoy this new addition to the site.

Technorati Tags: Allotment Books, Allotment Handbook, Allotment DVD, Vegetable Growing Guide, Organic Allotment Gardening

Another year has passed and for many people, me included, it’s time to stop and take stock of the past year and make plans for the year ahead.

There’s no doubt about it – 2008 was a disappointing year for me as an allotmenteer – as well as a webmaster of this site. Things went badly wrong on my plot for the second year running, and so this site suffered as well, which is obviously not what I wanted.

In saying that though, I’m still determined to turn things around, and I’m still going to make a successful allotmenteer and webmaster. I’m hoping it’s a case of third time lucky.

So – having a look ahead – what can you expect to find on this site in 2009, and what do I have planned for my plot in the season ahead (or coming seasons for that matter)?

My plans for Allotmenteer.co.uk has always been, and still is, to create an online community for allotment plotholders, and vegetable growers alike. I get a lot of people looking by the website, many of them new visitors, for tips on how to plan an allotment plot, and how to prepare it for a new season.

I’m happy with this, but I find it’s time to start taking things to the next level, so what I’m going to do is this:

• Start building a library of “Info Sheets” for all allotment favorites, starting with the most popular vegetables.
• Dig down into the world of composting (essential for any allotmenteer), particularly the benefits of composting with worms.
• Start a forum where allotmenteers can sign up to have their questions answered, share their knowledge and just have plain fun.
• Report more happenings from my own plot.

In terms of things that I hope to accomplish on my plot this season are:

• To get a decent crop
• Get my plot freshened up, looking a bit more like a great vegetable garden.
• Build a worm composting facility (a real worm bed rather than just a few wormeries)
• Get a greenhouse built on my plot in time for next season.

As you can tell there’s enough for me to be getting on with, aside from the small matters of going to work and running a family, which for some people is enough work in itself.

Here’s to a productive and prosperous 2009 for all allotmenteers and vegetable growers.

Technorati Tags: Happy New Year, Allotment Plans, Allotment 2009

Wow! Wait a minute. I just remembered that I have this website on allotmenteer.co.uk, logged in, and noticed my last posting to the site dates back nearly 4 months!

OK - let’s say it was during winter this happened - you could sort of understand. But as it happens summer is nearly gone, and this place should be bustling with reports of a bountyful harvest from my plot, so why is it that nothing has happened?

I’m afraid that this season has been another disastrous one for me! The two main reasons being lack of time due to work and family commitments, and a massive, massive mistake I made at the beginning of the season. Let’s rewind……

My previous post read:

On top of that I have, over the last month or so, wheeled in an additional 2-3 tonnes of manure, and spread it in a 2 inch layer on top of the soil. Yesterday most of it was turned into the soil by rotovator (I still need to run over parts of it another time or two), so my entire plot is now ready for sowing and planting out.

I have now learned the hard way! Never - never ever - use fresh manure on your top soil!

Now - some of you may want to know why? Simply because seeds that would have been part of the diet of the animals that produced the manure may not have been digested properly (this is particularly true for grazing animals), and so they will germinate and grow on your plot.

Result? When I came back from my holiday at the end of May, my plot looked like something in between a nice meadow and a lawn! Sad - but true! Now - it takes enough out of me to get the time to go and tend to whatever crops I’ve got, so having to weed out grass from all over the plot was simply more than I could bear to think about.

Needless to say - but most of my plot has been in a horrendous state through most of the season. In saying that though - I have had a decent crop of strawberries, peas, raspberries and beetroot. Also I have had a few carrots - and a few brassicas that I don’t yet know how will turn out. Oh - and my sons sunflowers have been a tremendous success - second season on the run!

I have learned my lesson! I shall get up - brush off the dust - and move on! Success on my plot will happen the third time around - and I’m still adamant that this site will evolve into a valuable ressource for allotment plotholders and/or vegetable growers in the UK and world wide.

Just watch this space….

Technorati Tags: Allotment Digging, Allotment Gardening, Manure

Yesterday was a day of great achievement in my allotmenteer career. After 18 months of hard work I finished double-digging my entire plot! This means that every bit of soil on my plot has now been dug over, using my “Cheat version” of double digging.

In reality, even though this technique is not a labour intensive as “real” double digging - make no mistakes - it still takes a considerable amount of effort, along with (quite litterally) tonnes of organic matter! My estimate would be that over the course of these 18 months, I have wheeled in well in excess of 50 tonnes of horse manure onto my plot, and dug it in.

On top of that I have, over the last month or so, wheeled in an additional 2-3 tonnes of manure, and spread it in a 2 inch layer on top of the soil. Yesterday most of it was turned into the soil by rotovator (I still need to run over parts of it another time or two), so my entire plot is now ready for sowing and planting out.

I’m going to do some of that tomorrow (it’s a bank holiday in the UK), while I promised to also run the rotovator over another plot or two, belonging to some elderly plot holders who would have no chance of doing it themselves. Those machines in themselves are worth a few hours in the gym - so if you’re 70+ years old - you really don’t stand much of a chance. I love helping people - so it’s a problem solved!

Technorati Tags: Allotment Digging, Allotment Gardening, Manure, Rotovating

As I told you last week, I ordered a new wormery to go on my allotment plot (eventually). I had 2 reasons for buying a new wormery. First of all I wasn’t too impressed with the one I bought last year (for more money than what I paid for the new one!) - and secondly I figured that I could just take some of the worms from my new wormery to re-populate my old one - and get them both going.

On one point I was “let down” bit - but it’s all good!

My new wormery is fully up to the standard I would have expected it to be, having bought it directly from a professional worm farmer with 30 years of experience. It’s built out of very sturdy plastic boxes, rather than the cheap ones from the pound-shop, and have a few seemingly essential features that I’ve missed previously.

The “let down”? Well - since I bought this wormery from a worm farmer - he didn’t send me breeding worms as I thought he would. This means I’ll have to hold off re-populating my old wormery for a month or two, as all of my new worms are rather small. The biggest of them are around 2 inches long - but once they get down to business of munching through some of my green waste - they’ll soon grow bigger.

For those of you interested in worm composting - I’ll be posting regular updates here on how things develop over the season - and hopefully I’ll be able to encourage/help some of you getting going with your own wormeries.

Technorati Tags: Allotment Gardening, Worm Composting, wormery.

I saw a very interesting feature on the BBC breakfast programme this morning. Apparantly it’s now “in” to go to the green gym.

So what is a green gym then? Simply a number of community projects set up for people to come and do some gardening activities, and do a bit of a workout that way, rather than going to the more traditional gyms and pull some iron rods around etc. Apparantly an hour doing light gardening is as good as, if not better than going on an excercise mashine or doing “steps” for 20 minutes, and it’s free! I know which one I’d prefer.

A doctor interviewed on the program confirmed what we allotmenteers have known for ages - twenty minutes of digging every day is more than enough cardio-vascular excercise for the average person - and there’s social and psychological benefits in it as well.

Personally I love the idea! Not only for the health benefits, but also (maybe particularly) for the benefits of the communities in which this work takes place. I hope that a lot more people becomes involved in things like this, and that the powers that be will start to realise the need for projects like this, and start setting up more allotment sites in order to meet the demand.

In other news I ordered a new wormery for my plot yesterday. I can’t wait to get going again, and I’m going to get my old wormery started up again, as well as setting up some more wormeries as and when the population of worms allows it. Before the end of the season I would like to be able to set up a complete “professional” worm-bed on my plot, but we’ll have to wait and see if my time and finances allow for this. Fingers crossed! My new wormery should be here this coming friday.

Technorati Tags: Allotment Gardening, Worm Composting, Green Gym.