ALLOTMENT!

[juliet]

marnameow & I have an allotment! The nice allotment chap phoned me last night to inform me of this. We are off to meet him, & have a look at it, this evening. I will endeavour not to witter on about it to everyone at Poptimism tonight, or at least not *too* much.

[does happy dance]

In other news, I rebleached & dyed my hair last night, so it is now shinyblue again (brighter blue than last time, as well). Also, I smell quite strongly of bleach & dye.

In other other news, last night there was an exciting new fountain erupting out of Drummond Road for a couple of hours. Approximately the height of Marden Square. Most impressive. I have photos, on the phone, but cannot work out how to get them *off* the phone.

Hurrah for Friday. Poptimism tonight (post-allotment-inspection), nice lazy day tomorrow, off to Thorpe Park with the lovely kitty_goth on Sunday (with his work, & thus FREE yay).

Comments

[catsgomiaow.livejournal.com]

I am SO IMMENSELY JEALOUS of yr allotment! Where is it? And can I come and hang out in your shed?

See you at Poptimism!

[juliet]

Here, so only about a 5-10 min walk from home (less on a bike). Which is about right - we didn't want one on one of the further locations, because realistically if it takes 30min to get there you're not going to be able to keep it up properly.

I don't know if we have a shed! But you're more than welcome to come & hang out & make us tea :-)

[marnameow.livejournal.com]

We should possibly acquire some flavour of shed or box, for storing unwieldly tools and the like, if it's not got some level of secure storage already.

(I should really stop planning twenty different and perfect allotments in my head now.)

[juliet]

[agrees re shed]

I am trying to avoid *too* much planning before seeing it!

[marnameow.livejournal.com]

I'm trying, but not managing it at all.

[atommickbrane.livejournal.com]

Blimey, grow me some vegetables eh!! :)

[ewtikins.livejournal.com]

YAY allotment!

If you would like some wild garlic do say, I have some that could be divided.

I would also offer mint but all the stuff already in my garden has rust.

I could probably give you a cutting or sucker from the quince tree, too, there are enough of them. Perhaps I am wrong in calling it a quince tree as it doesn't produce the huge quince fruits, but the smaller ones, but they are still good to make jelly with and they smell nice.

There is wild fennel in Millfield Park that has probably gone to seed now.

[juliet]

I wouldn't grow mint other than in pots; and already have a couple of pots of it. I think it probably comes under the heading of 'things best grown on the balcony', anyway - herbs are IMO sensible to grow close at hand so you can use them at will.

The quince might be good, though - thanks! And possibly the garlic (actually, I'd definitely like some of the garlic - it's a good salad veg & therefore would be good for the balcony, which will now be focussed on salad & herbs). I shall consult with Marna - we need to think about what we're going to grow, & how, & also to find out what sort of state the allotment is in currently (I don't know if it's come vacant because someone's left, or because they've not looked after it properly & it's been taken away from them).

[marnameow.livejournal.com]

Unless it's in really good condition the thing to do will probably be to get the weeds out, and get a crop of clover or similar on it for the winter to keep the soil happy and warm and fed. And possibly plant some garlic and maybe possibly some brassicas to grow overwinter.

I am too excited!

[juliet]

[nods] Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Although I've been looking, & it seems clover may not be the best bet: this chap suggests it doesn't develop fast enough to be useful (although he's in Leeds, so we're further south) as a temporary crop. Alfafa might be a better bet. Also, we could plant a small bed of comfrey - you can plant it in the autumn, & then we should be able to use the first crop to help the compost along/as liquid manure come next year.

If possible, it'd be good to grow *some* sort of overwinter crop, but we'll have to see what state things are in.

[marnameow.livejournal.com]

Even if it's just twelve bulbs of garlic....

The green compost decision'll need some research, maybe. Also, it will depend on what the soil's like. Comfrey, definitely, though. Oh, and we get to have a compost bin!

[juliet]

Yeah - I just don't want to miss a season altogether!

Definitely compost bin! I was thinking to get a little one for the kitchen again, & get those bin-bags you can get that are also compostable (so you just take the whole thing down & chuck it on). I have been feeling Bad about not composting currently.

http://www.allotments-uk.com/forum/ - forum. I've been making notes of stuff I find. Some advice seems to be contradictory (unsurprising - what works in one place doesn't always in another) - e.g. the person who suggested that alfafa is a nuisance because long roots make it hard to dig in. Actually, if the growing season for clover is a problem, it may not be so in this instance if we get it in sharpish.

http://www.hdra.org.uk/ - the organic gardening people

[marnameow.livejournal.com]

It feels horribly wrong to be both not composting and also to be pouring plant food on plants.

Followed a link from the forum: http://www.organiccatalog.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=2085 might be a plan (or some of the components anyway) if it is in good condition. Also winter potatoes might work.

I had heard that about alfafa before. It probably mostly depends on the soil and the area, so hopefully the horticultual society people (or people with next-door-allotments) might be able to give us some pointers too.

[juliet]

http://www.allotments-uk.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=636#2160 - people taking over in August!

[arkady.livejournal.com]

If you plant comfrey I'd be very interested in some of the crop when you harvest it; I have lots of uses for comfrey.

[juliet]

Sure! I think it's pretty definite that we will plant at least a small patch - it's very good as a liquid fertiliser/assistance to compost. Not sure what sort of quantity you'd be after (nor how much we'll be planting - no idea yet how big this allotment is!), but I'm sure we could spare you at least some.

[marnameow.livejournal.com]

I am still bouncing with over-excitement! And the whole office knows (well, Sarah is an allotment-er already, and Angela thinks we're funny when we start our hippy-talk, and, umm, htat's the office).

Oh, and Sarah has some books that she bought when she took hers over - including a big one all about minding allotments, and one on bugses and what they do and how to attract/repel them - that she's going to bring in for me once she gets back from holiday.

[juliet]

Yay!

I am going to have another look at the book-list & reply to yr email.

Turbonegro say:

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

Woah-woah-woah! You got ALLOTMENT!

Re: Turbonegro say:

[catsgomiaow.livejournal.com]

You're going to be a MENK at poptimism, aren't you? :)

Re: Turbonegro say:

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

That is a distinct possibility, yes.

In unrelated news: one of Alan and Emma's nu-neighbours works at EARS!

Re: Turbonegro say:

[catsgomiaow.livejournal.com]

I bet it's Pero. He lives in Harlesden!

[xxxlibris.livejournal.com]

Dude - allotment! That is tremendously exciting.

[beingjdc.livejournal.com]

Ace. I'm game for coming and sitting in a deckchair er, furrowing or whatever you do on an allotment. I want one, but I keep moving.

Photos

[daneel-olivaw.livejournal.com]

Either transfer to SD card, thence to PC and interweb, or FTP them straight off the Treo via GPRS (I have an FTP client [VFSFTP+] on my Palm for precisely this purpose).

[easterbunny.livejournal.com]

Cool! Do keep us posted about whatever you decide to grow. And whether you get a shed.

[hazyjayne.livejournal.com]

Rah! That sounds fantastic! Your own bit of green space. You'll have to take lots of photos... see you at Poptimism later.

[plumsbitch.livejournal.com]

cor, how exciting. Allotments=timeconsuming but total Joy, from the people I know here who have them. Have you considered broad beans for a potential winter crop?

[juliet]

Yep, that's on the list :-) Also useful because you can start 'em off in little pots, & then plant them straight in once they're big enough, i.e. don't need to have cleared the bed properly first.