Well I spent a couple of hours over the weekend “testing” the soil (read as: digging it over, but finding it really hard going!) and managed to dig over a section about 2 metres square, fully weeded and conditioned and ready for sowing my garlic (and whatever else I find that I can sow now)

It’s given me quite a sense of achievement having just that small section cleared, but it really was hard work. I had to clear the long grass (with shears) rake out as much of the moss as possible (can this be dug in?) and then dig it over and clear as much of the roots that were left as I could find. I adopted “a rake top layer into a pile and then sift it with my hands” approach! Ah well it worked for that 2 SQ metre patch… I’m hiring a rotovator for the rest, it was too back breaking. The rotovator won’t help me clear all the roots etc out – but that is less back breaking and a little more therapeutic…

I’ve laid a few SQ metres of weed fabric out to kill some of the weeds etc (starving of light etc) so I’ll see if that helps too…

On a plus side – after all this hard graft we found 5 slow worms in just that small patch – so there is a lot of wildlife about. I don’t really know if slow worms will do me good in an allotment (like frogs and hedgehogs) but all wildlife has got to be good to a point ;)

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A MAMMOTH task

OK. So I’ve got the allotment, and I’ve been down a couple of times to “test the water” as it were. I’ve made rudimentary measurements of the plot and then check those on Google Earth. I make it 7 metres by about 16 metres. I don’t know whether that is a normal size or not, but all the 60 odd plots in the allotment area I have in Bracknell are about that size.

 

I took a spade down to the allotment and dug a small area – a couple of metres square – to see what the soil is like. It seems just fine! However, all of the soil is covered with a LOT of tall grass, and there is still the issue of the Bramble to clear!! I wish I hadn’t decided to do it organically really, it would have been a lot easier to clear bramble with some chemical or other, but I know its for the best really!

 

There also seems to be some Raspberry canes, I think, growing amongst the tall grass, but being new to this I can’t be sure. I need to get down the allotment whilst there is someone there who has been there for a little longer so I can confirm or reject this. It seems a shame to chop them down if I can possibly save these… I’m researching now to see if it’s doable!

 

I’ve received my newsletter from the council and, interestingly, they are splitting some of the sites into 2 or 3 smaller plots for people that can’t cope with the large size. I’m glad I got in early on mine; I would have hated to accept a smaller plot.

 

I’m heading down again this weekend to really start digging out the front 2 or 3 metres of land so that I can look at setting up some beds. It’s late in the season but I can plant some Rhubarb sets (thanks to my folks I can head over there and split some Rhubarb) and I know I can plant some varieties of pea and garlic!

Because I’m planting Rhubarb, a vegetable that doesn’t like to be moved and therefore needs a permanent bed I need to organise how I’m going to do my crop rotations. Plenty of drawing and planning to be done!

 

That’s all for now – I may remember my camera this weekend so I can update this site with some pictures!

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The Allotment is MINE!!

OK, although still on hold "in principle" I've finally been granted an allotment near (ish) my house!! :)
It is incredibly overgrown and needs some work to get it ready; and, although the house renovations are still getting in the way, I feel I have at least a little time to do some groundwork preperations!

Luckily I have a very good friend who works in a landscape gardening firm, so it's petrol strimmers at the ready to clear the land down of the overgrown grasses etc... I've not worked out what I am going to do with the 1/5th bramble that I have inherited, but I should think I can cut that back sufficiently with some thick gloves and shears. I'm a little tempted to TRY and keep some of it - I do LOVE bramble jelly!!