October 2012
So this is it, my new allotment on a hill in the North East of England. It has been left to run wild for quite a while, and as you can see from the pictures is going to take a lot of work and time to get it in full working order. It looks like I have every weed there is growing here, except for bind-weed thankfully!
The allotment is a full size plot which used to house guinea pigs, apparently a big fire destroyed the buildings which housed them years ago and has not been worked fully since.
Cutting myself a path to the upper end of the allotment, I find myself looking down at the scale of it all and questioning whether I can really do this, where do I start?
A huge bonus I didn’t expect was finding that I have my own water supply half way up the plot. Under the growth I’ve also found a hose, fork, spade, wheelbarrow, and a garden chair.
At the lower end of the plot there is dappled shade from the nearby trees. It is from this end I got my first vision of what it could be, will be!
Some exploration of the soil tells me I have clay soil, heavy to work and slow to warm up. That’ll be fun!
Thanks for taking your time to read this, and I hope you’ll join me in future posts as I battle my way to a better and healthier way of living
Michelle Mawson
Buy a few crates of beer and then get loads of people to come and dig, with the promise of beer/bbq at the end. Many hands make light work
Excellent advice Jerry 🙂
Slow and steady wins the race. Weather permitting, set yourself small achievable areas to work. It is important that you remove as many of the weeds and roots as possible as the diets sign of warmer weather they will come back with a vengeance making your effort seem worthless. Perserve it will be worth it in the end.
Thank you digginwivdebb, I had to do it that way in my garden with the bind-weed. It took a few years to eradicate it but as you say, it’s worth it in the end.
Hello Michelle. Thank you for visiting my blog, which bought me over to yours. Congratulations on your new allotment, I know there’s lots of work involved, especially initially but I think that Jerry and digginwivdebb have given you good advice. Get a working ‘bee’ going if you can. That will give you a real leg up with the initial digging. And secondly as debb says, move as many of the weeds as you possibly can as you clear the ground. Sounds obvious, but when you have such a large area of land it would be tempting just to dig it over.
The other thing I suggest you look into, once you have cleared the ground I have seen folk cover the ground with a weed suppressant if you are waiting to plant the ground at a later date.
Welcome to the world of allotmenteering, and blogging.
Thank you for the warm welcome Jean.
I’m enjoying every minute of it so far and appreciate the advice and support from everyone.
Michelle
Don’t be put off by the size ..I would shut some of it off as already mentioned by weed suppresser ,not only does it work but makes it look as if you have less to do.Then do a little at a time. Trust me once the weather warms up and the sun comes out you won’t regret it ….But just take it a bit at a time.You say you have clay soil. Potatos for the first year breaks up the earth nicely .
Thanks Jackie,
taking it in smaller bits is definitely the way to go. I have made the mistake on too many visits of over doing things, then spending days wincing in agony with every movement. The potatoes are at the ready 🙂
Michelle