The New 'Allotment'
By bulbaholic
13 comments
Recently Moongrower and I have been refering to the new piece of garden that we have for veggie growing. I thought it might now be time to start a blog to show it to you.
Our neighbour across the road has a large garden but absolutely no interest in gardening, even hates cutting the grass. We know his garden and that there used to be a cultivated piece of ground at the bottom of it. At the begining of August we were talking to him and the outcome was that he was happy for us to take over the bottom of his garden and that we would cut the grass and tidy the hedges etc.
So we went down to have another look. Ahha!
The top garden is separated from the bottom garden by a leylandii hedge.
This was obviously going to need a little serious attention. So, Mg with the loppers on the trees and me with the heavy strimmer on the ground – we soon made a big difference to the appearance and were able to start laying out the plots and begin digging.
Today I finished digging the first of the two beds. Our local soils are a light silt and although the soil in this garden is good and dark it lacks humus and worms. We are mulching with old grass clippings as we dig the ground and will sow a green manure crop on part of the soil tomorrow.
The owners grass and hedge are also tidy and he still seems to be happy with our arrangement. There is still more digging and scut work to do before we can let the plot rest over winter but we are both satisfied with the way that we are progressing.
25 Sep, 2009
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Comments
Wow you have worked hard I too will enjoy hearing more
25 Sep, 2009
The real challenge was the Lleylandii hedge which was taking up a metre of garden space at both end of the veggie patch. Cutting back with the loppers and the hedge trimmers has made a huge different but it IS hard work. I get arthritis in my hands and after a day lopping and using the hedge cutters I can barely hold anything. BUT it is all worth the effort - we will be able to grow more of our own veg. We both really want to be as self-sufficient on this front as possible.
As you will see from B's pix. there is also a plum and an apple tree so we've already got top fruit - nope the owner does not want the fruit!
25 Sep, 2009
What a great plot to work with B & MG...loads of veggie growing space there! Hope your poor hands recover MG.
25 Sep, 2009
Happy outcome for you and your neighbour and can tell from your pics how hard you have both been working, I will enjoy following your progress,,better find an easier job tomorrow for those hands,I have same trouble with hands and know how they feel after sorting hedges.........
25 Sep, 2009
We'll just keep plodding way... get there in the end :-)
25 Sep, 2009
Another bit on the side? Looks like you've been very busy - well done
25 Sep, 2009
Good work you have achieved and a good contract too.
26 Sep, 2009
What you've wrestled back from the wilds is impressive! Pls tell me you two didn't do all that in one day?! What is the cage for? (chickens? pheasants? a lanai protection from big mosquitoes?) Ambitious & satisfying project: good job!
26 Sep, 2009
Thanks for all the kind comments. No, it wasn't all done in a day, Orgratis, but it has not taken long to get to this stage. We started in mid August and took a couple of weeks off to go back to Austria in between. The ground is very light and digging quite easy.
The cage was orginally built as a dog kennel. We have lifted the slabs from the floor and dug the ground over. The cage will be used for soft fruit. It doesn't have a roof but if birds become a nuisance we can easily throw a net over it.
26 Sep, 2009
Foresee big raspberry crop next year Bulbaholic?
26 Sep, 2009
Indeed, D. Raspberries are probably the only fruit that we need. There are gooseberries growing in profusion along the roadside and some excellent brambles in the garden already. We don't intend to grow currants so there is not much else to choose from!
26 Sep, 2009
so exciting for u both...look forward to wtching it develpe
27 Sep, 2009
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You've both worked very hard BA and MG....good luck with the plot....look forward to reading more about it :)
25 Sep, 2009