Kitchen Garden Forum

Just got allotment it has a shed, fruit cage, water butts set up & compost bin.

Beside it there is a small orchard with apple & pear trees needs a good trim up behind.

Ground is not over weedy, I'm Charles Dowding "No DIg" will sort it out.

I’m a very happy bunny.

You are very lucky to get a plot that has obviously been well looked after

Looks grand, Colin! I bet you are now making lots of plans of what to plant and sow next year. Good luck and have fun!

Enjoy, you can now sit down and plan the months ahead, plan your bed rotations and compile your seed list and look forward to the fruits & veggies of your labours over the years to come


Have fun & good luck

Bet you're delighted. You've been lucky to get one that has been well maintained and probably a good time as you can ponder over winter exactly how you want to use it. Sounds as if the previous holder was probably reluctant to have to give it up. Am sure the fruit cage and water butt will prove useful. Just don't get tempted to grow masses of vegetables you don't eat or like just to fill up the space. However, if you find the weeding does start to get hard, turning over part of the plot to winter squash will help keep the weeds down !

Brilliant luck Colin getting an established plot that has been looked after!

Oh the planning, bed positions, plotting the sun & shade, looking at seed catalogues. Planning, dreaming! Just improve the soil as you don't know if depleted of essential needs if plot has been in use for sometime & check the PH. Then grow to your hearts content & keep us updated on your progress!

Had a pleasant surprise whilst cutting back trees and hedges there was a pigeon or collard dove sitting on a nest, left it in peace and did the other side.

Gosh Colin, that’s a bit late to be breeding isn’t it although perhaps it was just treating its nest as “home” rather than as a breeding place.
Query to the bird experts. Do birds use their nests for sleeping in at night? I always imagined them just finding a comfortable twig to perch on but perhaps I’m wrong. Obviously birds which fly around In flocks like starlings don’t use nests but I have no idea what the sleeping habits of smaller birds like blue tits or robins are.

Collar doves (which this bird probably was) breed virtually the whole year round if the weather is clement.

As for using nests as sleeping places, wrens will use tit boxes, swallow nests etc to roost in large numbers, but I don't think larger birds like robins, blackbirds etc ever roost in nests. They find thickly leaved and evergreen trees and bushes like conifers or ivy and hanker down in there for the night.

A little snippet about the latter: many years ago we had a thick conifer hedge along one side of the garden (now replaced by a dry stone wall). One winter's night it was snowing heavily and the conifers were splitting apart from the weight. So I went out with a broom to shake off the thick snow when dozens of birds flew out. I had obviously disturbed their sleep. Oh, I did feel sorry as they disappeared into the dark, hopefully to find another roosting spot!

how absolutely marvellous!

You are correct Monika it is a collard Dove, it was sitting on side of next and there does not appear to be any young.

Last year I had collard dove sitting on nest, thought at the time it was just practising.

You will be cursing it in spring when it's pulling all your seedlings up

“You will be cursing it in spring when it's pulling all your seedlings up”

Yes Robo a difficult judgement call for me as I want to encourage wild life.

There are loads of rosehips which I want to cut back but I believe birds love them, so I will leave for them, also I intend to put up feeders for birds as well. I guess the answer will be to order loads more netting.

I have nesting box's and feeders all over our plot I work on the idea that if I attract enough birds they will eat a lot of undesirables ,we also have rose hips but I've not seen birds eating them , all you will have to do is cover all new sowings with net's

Not thought of nesting boxes Robo thanks for the idea.