Ian B

The First Green Shoots

Exciting Times!! After a couple of weeks of rain the sun is out and I have visited my allotment to see the first few greens shoots of my broad beans.

I’m looking forward to the rest coming up. I planted 45 and so far I’ve seen 6 shoots.

My First Ever Sowing

So about a week late I have planted some Broad Beans. I lightly raked over the soil:

Then I marked out two rows 60 cm apart and pushed in 40 Broad Bean seeds about 20 cm apart

So now, let’s hope that they survive the frost and we get some nice plants.

First Bed Created ready for the Spring

My plan is to dig four large beds in the allotment. Each one of these wil be 7m x 4.5m. I have been slowly digging my way through the first bed removing all the grass and as many roots as possible by hand

I’m pleased to have got this done – 30 hours work over about 4 weeks. I can now plant some Broad Beans to overwinter, but I think I’m a bit late for anything else. Still it will be ready for the spring!

Three more of these to dig

A friendly supportive and generous community

I was told that by taking on an allotment I would be joining a community and that I would meet new people. I was sceptical about this at first as on many occasions I am the only one around when visiting my allotment.

My scepticism was misplaced as I have gradually met other allotment holders over the past month. Every single one of them has been friendly. They are interested in what I am doing and are very willing to offer advice which has been very helpful.

The generosity of my fellow allotmenteers has been overwhelming.

I have been given garden tools by someone who was giving up their allotment and was offered another compost bin by another man.

Compost bin generously placed on my allotment

I have witnessed people helping others out: one man has dug the allotment next to his for a person who has developed dementia so that he can continue with his allotment despite his illness and another has rotavated the allotment of someone who has had a couple of strokes.

I am looking forward to becoming more involved with this generous and helpful community.

It would be great to hear any stories of kindness you have if you wish to comment

A New Compost Bin!

So I’ve been digging slowly and removing all the grass and I have filled up my compost bin after having done about a quarter of my first bed

I scoured the internet for a new compost bin and brought one online from Primrose.co.uk. I’m please with it it arrived flatpacked! and was very easy to put together:

I have worked out that it is three times bigger than my existing bin. This means that it should take all the grass I dig out of the rest of my bed. It was rather expensive though at £35.99 plus p&p

I was talking to the other men on the allotment while I was waiting for my compost bin to be delivered and they told me I should build a compost bin out of old pallets. Pity I didn’t ask the before buying this.

I am a bit worried as this is the first of four beds on my allotment so I am concerned that I will not have any compost space for when I dig my future beds. I don’t know how long will take for the compost to rot down.

Any advice would be gratefully received

Getting Started

So here we are with an aerial view of my allotment. It measures 25.8m by 7.8m and is just grass at the moment. It looks like a formidable job to attack it.

I’m looking forward to getting started and to sharing my progress

My first proper day on the allotment. I’ve planned to dig four big beds – marked out the first one with string 7m x 4.5m. Its about a fifth of my plot:

Seven hours of clearing my plot and 7 sq metres cleared. This is slow work but not too onerous as I am not in a hurry. It’s really relaxing just slowly turning the soil over one forkful at a time. 😊