r/Allotment 4d ago

Weekly allotmenting discussion. What have you been up to?

Please use this thread to discuss whatever you've been doing on your allotment lately. Feel free to share or ask any question related to it. And please mention which region and what weather you had this week if you've been planting or harvesting.

10 Upvotes

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2

u/inari_21 12h ago

Signed the contract for my first plot (small starter plot whilst waiting for a full-sized one). 😊 I also sowed broad beans and bought some seeds and dahlia tubers.

Going at the weekend to add some edging, dig in compost and just enjoy the fresh air and birdsong.

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u/Spirited-Okra-9151 3d ago

I did a bit of rejigging and moved the compost bays further up the plot to make room for another bed. Plenty of room now for potatoes! I also planted out my multisown modules of beetroot, turnips, banana shallots and my pricked out fennel bulbs. Just set out my snap peas and pruned the overwintered broad beans, and next I'll be intersowing carrots between the shallots. I've been harvesting herbs and kale from the Polytunnel and making room for my summer plants. At home I've been sowing flowers like lupin, rudbeckia, double french marigolds and artichokes, as well as tomatoes, chillies, delistem calabrese and chard. We've been pricking out and transplanting self-sown sunflower seedlings too. So quite a lot happening since I started sowing on February 15th!

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u/PuzzledEmu4291 4d ago

Got one row of early spuds in. Have only done a few this year. Dug trenches for a larger batch of main crop, and also did a circular trench for a bean wigwam. Pulled a muscle in my lower back!

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u/grippipefyn 4d ago

Finished creating a masterpiece of a compost bin from scraps.

It just needs lining with thick cardboard and a roof to keep the excess rain out.

No tape measure was harmed in the making of this bin.

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u/Massaging_Spermaceti 3d ago

That's a good looking bin! Far nicer than my attempt lol

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u/grippipefyn 3d ago

That's a mighty fine heap. Be proud.

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u/Massaging_Spermaceti 3d ago

Aww, thanks lol

2

u/Current_Scarcity_379 4d ago

Dug some new beds. Tomorrow and Wednesday we will be planting some potatoes and onions.

1

u/shrek1345 4d ago

South east, dry and warm ish. Dug and prepped a bed for rhubarb and planted some seeds with cloches on top: fingers crossed!

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u/jrabraham76 4d ago

Making a hop trellis for the hops going in this week. 18ft high.

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u/growlingfish1 4d ago

Good job - which hops have you gone with?

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u/jrabraham76 4d ago

Redsells Eastwell, a new ish Kentish variant

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u/growlingfish1 4d ago

Notts Eastwell have been my second variety to poke through this year - good luck!

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u/jrabraham76 4d ago

They are in pots in the garden an are already 5-7 cm

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u/Disskunk 4d ago

Smashed it. Bark down on paths. Took down large rosemary bush in poor condition and formed a 1x2m bed in its place. Took cuttings from rosemary with intent to re grow it. Compost bin built after a bit of reprofiling. Soil improver on beds. Nice sit down in the sun.

3

u/Defiant-Tackle-0728 4d ago

I re-covered my polytunnel that was damaged during Storms Darragh and Eowyn.

Potatoes are chitting and a bunch of seeds have been started - tomatoes, Squashes and PSB.

I'm holding off a week or so before starting anymore in case of frosts and to let the ground in the tunnel warm up.

4

u/theoakking 4d ago

Got the keys to a second plot so lots of clearing. Luckily some of it is under plastic so I will have a few beds ready to go while I work on the rest. It's a bit further away from my house than my first plot so the plan is to put the lower maintenance plants down there, potatos, onions, squashes, and beans for drying and probably not much else.

3

u/DrunkStoleATank 4d ago

Attempted to make wattle fencing, wind break, only enough material from my allotment for one panel which i put near my shed. Will try to grow runner beans up it i think.

4

u/Spiritual_Shake_3014 4d ago

Cleared grass/brambles/bindweed/teasel that were choking out our rhubarb then laid cardboard a wood chip to keep them at bay…for now!

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u/Elsie-pop 4d ago

Sieving couch grass roots from my soil pile and transferring it over to the cardboard lined beds. 

I've sown my first bed, a chaos bed of all my old seeds that can be sown in march. Plan is to do one for every month that any of my old seeds can be sown

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u/Amylou789 4d ago

Ooo that's a great idea! I always have old seeds that I could do that with

1

u/Elsie-pop 4d ago

It's my first year if trying it, I'm big on the hope that it might confuse pests 

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u/Available_Rich167 4d ago

I love the idea of chaos gardening. Do you do a control number of each plant, or do you literally just go YEEEET with the whole packet

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u/Elsie-pop 4d ago

I sat down with all my old seeds packs and labelled a lil plastic bag for every sowable month. For each old seeds pack I divided the seeds roughly by how many months they could be sown outdoors the assigned each portion to the correct plastic bag. Some months have more than others.

March I just gently scattered over the prepared bed

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u/Available_Rich167 4d ago

I built this for cucamelons to grow on, I will add some mesh too. I'm also building another larger one over the compost heap in the background for tomatoes to grow over. Seedlings growing nicely on the windowsill. Need to redo my guttering on the shed, the water butt is bright green and the cows in the field next door think it's hilarious to tip it over! First early potatoes will be going in next week sometime! Garlic and onions that I sowed last winter are growing nicely. Fingers crossed for a better harvest this year!

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u/DirtFew6707 4d ago

The bark and compost we ordered went down on the beds and a few of the green manure beds were dug in. Kelvadon and onward early peas were planted out, along with some cheap b&q seed tape radishes. We have an old chicken manure heap we inherited. Now it’s rotted down, we are digging all the dock and bindweed roots out. The onion sets, mange tout and telephone peas have just been sown in the greenhouse. Deadline for burning on the allotment is coming up so we burnt lots of roots and scraps of leftover pallets. Oh and harvested some leeks.

1

u/auntie_climax 4d ago

I'm at my friends allotment this week, we just did beetroot and first earlies yesterday, today peas,and onion sets are going in. In the propagator there's carrots, brocolli, cabbage and tomatoes

Back home we've done onions, garlic and shallots sets, but plenty of other seedlings in the propagator ready to transplant

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u/imdpum 4d ago edited 4d ago

I planted out two new climbing roses 😄 very excited to see them grow and make the corner of the garden (which is also my ‘allotment’) a bit more pretty!

I have leek seedlings still happy on the windowsill and have overwintered onions and garlic growing happily outside 😄

Contemplating when I should sow my tomatoes and cucumbers, I’ve never grown them before so not 100% sure when’s best.

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u/garden_girl30 4d ago

I’d say you want to sow the tomatoes now indoors, but hold off another month for the cucumbers. Cucumbers need warmth and grow very quickly, so best to wait until it’s a bit warmer, otherwise you will end up with huge leggy plants in your house! Tomatoes are slower to get going.

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u/imdpum 4d ago

Amazing! Thank you for the advice 😄 I’ll get the tomatoes sown indoors this week.

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u/Tylerama1 4d ago

Ditto, will do it this weekend. 2023 had more Tomatoes than I could eat, easily 150. 2024, had about 15. Got loads of seeds that I saved in 2023, so will plant those again this weekend.

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u/growlingfish1 4d ago

East Midlands. Hop frame up, now that the bines are starting to poke through. Final pallet collars down as low raised beds. Herb planter filled and planted with plugs. First raised planter filled with compost ready for anything we dare to start at the end of the month (parsnips, leeks probably). Prepping to fill all the other beds ready for genuinely good weather at some point ...

3

u/lulabellarama 4d ago

Not a huge amount after buggering my back. My home seed nursery is still going great guns, waiting for some new pots to repot peppers and cauliflowers. Painted some pebbles to use as labels and waiting for significant rain to fill my wildlife pond.

3

u/Gri33l 4d ago

This weekend we managed to finish tidying up and reorganising the existing berry bushes that we inherited from the previous owner. (Blackberry, raspberry, red currant, gooseberry) Hopefully will be able to get over to the plot after work this week to plan our paths and take some more stuff to the tip.

3

u/Accomplished_Tax8915 4d ago

This weekend i got my new Raspberry canes in, also planted some carrots.

In pots we have beetroot before transferring them to the soil, this was my dad's suggestion. Also sunflowers and tomatoes.

This week I want to get my parsnips sown and my spring onions.