A P(l)otted History

[Pa Snip]

I'm humbled by this effort and the results, I think I might stop moaning about problems I have.

Don't be humbled and definitely don't stop mentioning problems you experience.

I am sure that if I visited your, or anybody else's, plot of land that you grow fruit and veg on I would learn something.
In reality I know precious little about the subject and despite my age I am not to old to learn by experience and my peers.

[Ricard with an H]

Well-done anyway.

The reason I'm humbled is because at the top of my acre plot I have a fair sized area of very fertile soil, It's where most of our the moles live. Lot's of moles means lot's of worms and lot's of worms usually hint at fertile soil.

Because it's a 100 paces walk away I decided to tough-it closer to the barn but where the top soil is thin and stony and moles only come after you cleared the stones and upped the fertility.

You would have turned the top of our paddock into an allotment that was 100 paces away, luxury eh.

I could have run a 25mm blue pipe up there for water and would have had more shelter from the S and SW winds that batter us because the top of the plot has higher banks.

Hindsight, a wonderful thing if you're 30 years old and have time to learn from your mistakes. I'm supposed to be resting on my laurels.

Have a firm and blokey handshake.

[Pa Snip]

Blokey handshake reciprocated.

Although our plot is not 100 yard walk away from home it is all of a 4minute drive. Within walking distance but I usually take the car in case I'm needed in an emergency.

Funnily enough the guy who gave up the last section of plot I took over did live within about 100yards and didn't visit that often.

[Pa Snip]

1st March 2015

Looked out of the window this morning and encouraged by blue sky and sunshine decided today was the day to get the last of this years shallots in the ground. Got to plot and temperature inside shed read 10 degrees. Must get a weather vane and wind speed device because despite the sun the wind was whipping across the plots at a seemingly chill rate

Already have some Jermor shallots in that have overwintered since being planted on 9th October.
Trying Longor this time having bought some quite large bulbs.

Bit concerned about the wind factor as some of the overwintered garlic, onions and shallots are suffering a bit of wind burn.

Another possible future thing to have to contend with also showed up today when digging ground over.
When I took this section of plot on my immediate neighbour had made his own long wide greenhouse which is right on the dividing line of our plots.

Since the earlier pictures on this thread were taken it has been re-roofed and it is becoming apparent that the ground adjacent to it is soaking sodden wet because of the amount of rainwater now running off of it directly onto my side of the dividing line.

Fortunately this was not the area I was planting the shallots in today. The plan for this year is that this area will be the potato bed.

[Westi]

Hey Pa Snip

Why don't you ask him if he'd mind if you put some guttering on his greenhouse & connect a water butt on your side to collect the rainwater? His loss, your gain!

Westi

[Pa Snip]

Hi Westi

I had exactly that thought myself today. Unfortunately it would not be possible to affix guttering to the metal framework he has used. His greenhouse is a bit 'heath robinson' but is practical enough for him.

The other thought I had was that maybe a diversion channel at ground level might work

[peter]

Make a freestanding framework that holds guttering close enough to the eaves?

Or holds up one edge of a sheet of clear plastic the directs the water into something at ground level. Overshoot will be your foe at ground level.

[Primrose]

Only a true gardener could appreciate all the hard work that you have put into your plot. Your progress has made inspirational reading. I do hope you will continue to keep us all updated. I,m sure you are itching to get going on a new season's growing and hope you manage to resolve your adjoining greenhouse/ water shedding problem. (Hopefully to YOUR advantage!). Sadly people rarely think about the longer term consequences when they plant / install things right up against a shared border or boundary.

[Ricard with an H]

+ 1 from me on that post, sometimes people just don't think and sometimes they just don't care.

It's like living semi-detached.

[Pa Snip]

Thanks for the idea Peter.

I have now established that the roof area of the side of the greenhouse is 20ft x 4ft.

The problem would not be quite so bad if the roof panels did not overhang the side of the greenhouse, the water would then fall on his side of the dividing line.

I have decided on two courses of action.

One is that I have already moved a couple of my compost heaps to that area, by placing them just a few inches inside of my plot the rainwater will not fall directly on them. This frees up an area of ground elsewhere on the plot that actually has better soil quality anyway.

The second thing is that when I next see that plot holder I will have to try and explain to him that the overhanging translucent roof panels need a Stanley knife taking to them to cut them back almost flush to the side of the structure.

This will not be quite as simple as it sounds since English is not his first language, in fact its barely his second.

[Pa Snip]

Primrose

Thanks for your words of encouragement, very much appreciated

I am forcing myself to hold off on sowing yet, even though as you rightly say I am like many itching to get on with it

I have spent time up the plot over the last couple of days working on what I have been calling on here the second section.
Most of the overall plot has stood well over winter, with the original and third sections both up and ready for when sowing and planting time comes.

It is the second section which I am having to devote time to. Despite my efforts at hand digging the entire area last year to remove weeds and couch grass root a lot is reappearing already.
Cannot expect anything less really since there was so much of it on that unworked section it was always going to take a while to clear it.

Hey ho, Rome wasn't built in day

*****************************
Richard

So true. !!

[Ricard with an H]

I'm absolutely gagging to get at it, my soil is dry and feels warm though I must stick a probe in to find out how warm. Over the winter the soil has benefitted from green manures and a regular application of wood ash and my wood store is completed so other than a busy period of felling a couple of trees, pruning boughs off and actually filling that log store I'm right Dow into my starting blocks to going.

I have seedlings sprouting in the shed, they'll be going outside under mini poly tunnels then more seed sowing.

Let me get at it.

[Shallot Man]

Pa Snip. I think we can blame the telly for some of the problems on neglected plots. Watching the program where the soil seems to have come from"Harrods". They think I will get a plot. If like our area it's good old Essex clay. They soon get a rude awakening. If our site is anything to go by, some seem mildly surprised it hasn't already been dug over for them.

[Ricard with an H]

Can post a photo of that pile of stones I removed from the planting trench when I planted a sea-buckthorne hedge as a windbreak.

1 barrow of soil.
1 barrow of stones.

The work nearly broke my resolve to create a kitchen garden, it took a weeks resting just to overcome the fatigue and I lost most of the precautionary-winter-lard.

Now the mole use that trench as a motorway regardless of the sea buckthorn roots. Mole also uses that trench to get to the terraced raised beds.

Shot myself in foot, Eh.

Each time I create a raised bed I remove 1 barrow of stones to get a barrow of soil and for those who are yet to be converted for the final stage you just have to have a rotosieve.

British bulldog. Grrrrrr.

[Pa Snip]

Hi Shallot Man

If our site is anything to go by, some seem mildly surprised it hasn't already been dug over for them.

Well now, lets put the cat amongst the pigeons. Perhaps plots should be ready dug over when taken on, and with the exception of extenuating circumstances should be handed back in the same state when tenancy is terminated.

I think I have read in the past that there are some sites around the UK that operate such a policy.

I do agree with you that some people do not really research just what is involved when taking on a plot and then find the whole process is a damn sight harder to deal with than they thought