What have you done on the plot today?

[Flying_Monkey]

I doubt that's going to be satisfactory. Converting lawn to veg growing really requires double digging, with inverted turf buried at the bottom of each trench or used as the basis for a compost heap. Double digging also gives the opportunity to feed/improve the soil, especially as it's clay; mixing in barrowfuls of stable manure/seaweed/compost as you go along.
3m x 5m should take a day, maybe two tops, and getting it right at the start will save time later.
Assuming you don't expect to get all your acre producing veg immediately, cover areas you're coming to later with carpet offcuts to kill the turf. And if the plan is to get an acre of veg going asap then ignore all advice about double digging, and rotavators, and get a friendly local farmer to come and plough you over to start with.

Don't worry, I am not doing anything like the whole acre! And the rotovation is just the beginning - but it makes sense to do this before the winter (which is pretty severe here), during which it will indeed be covered (probably by snow most of the time, but I will covering it with tarps too to make sure).

There will be plenty of digging (or not depending on what methods I use where) come the early spring and lots of soil improvement. I'm making several different types of compost, and I will certainly be buying in plenty of manure from local farmers and sand too.

There's only one small area I will be using during the winter, which is to grow some garlic.

Most of the acre will be fruit and nut trees, and soft-fruit, and plenty of experiments with perennial food plants, including edible hedges (something I've wanted to do for a while - using various varieties of crataegus and prunus spp) and we certainly don't want to be rotovating, let alone ploughing, in those areas.

We will also be keeping one area of lawn and some more conventional flower beds.

[Julian]

I've been busy!

I've turned the compost heap and moved it from the far end of the garden (where the chickens will be, when we get them) to the near end.

I've used the lovely stuff at the bottom to tuck a blackcurrant bush in for the winter.

I've planted rosemary inna big pot, lavender against the fence, two climbing plants (honeysuckle and solanum) against the fence and put in a whole load of bulbs (anemones, blue squills, snowdrops and tulips) which should come up and cheer the place up in spring.

And now I'm drinking a huge mug of tea and contemplating cake.

[Flying_Monkey]

Sounds perfect! I have been raking leaves from my garden and my neighbours' place helped by their little boys (seriously - they worked as hard as I did and they are all of four and five!). I then made a proper leaf composting area for the mountain of leaves we had. Then I started stripping the small branches off the cedars I cut down a few weeks back. They are going to be chipped and used as mulch. The main trunks, I will use to make various things - as I am starting to really get into woodwork. I want to make a traditional barn ladder for a start.

[fruitcake]

I've pulled up all the summer plants.  All that's left is the leeks.

The five raised beds we've got have been more than enough for the two of us, so I'm abandoning plans to convert the other half of the garden into veg too. 

Plant vegetables there too.  Give them to your neighbours.  Or sell them to your local organic grocer.

[spindrift]

I flipping love doing compost this time of year.


I turned a year-old pile I've got in one of those chest-high plastic composters. It's just lawn clippings, lots of coffee Starbucks give away free, shredded material, banana skins and old potato and tomato grow bags. It was rich and crumbly- like a Christmas pudding! I got three wheelbarrow's worth out of the pile and tipped it under the hedge and over the vegetable plot.

I left the bin a quarter full of semi rotted stuff and made a new pile with shredded leaves, more coffee, three big bags of shredded leaves and the cuttings from probably the last mow of the year. That was only  a week ago, and when I took the lid off today steam gently rose, it's cooking up nicely! The worms love the coffee grounds, they're banging on the lid for me. They're simple organisms, I wonder if they get a caffeine boost...

I've just made a gigantic leaf pile. The roads near the house are smothered in fallen leaves. They've been walked on for ages so they've already started to break down and turn mushy, so I walked down with a rake and gloves and a huge blue recycling bin and stuffed the bin full and dragged it up the hill. Three times. There's now a huge steaming heap next to the shed so I'll just leaf it for another year to break down.

 Girlfriend's been promoted, I've just got a new job after a year off, there's a dirty great leaf pile rotting down outside and Norwich won 7-0, a nice day.

[docsquid]

I've been planting my new blackcurrant canes.  They are going to live in the front garden.  We have a lot of veg and fruit in the front garden and nobody has ever stolen any!

[Jules]

Yesterday. Had our allotment society AGM. Then had a huge bonfire, let off a few quids worth of fireworks while eating a wide selection of nice food with a few glasses of wine.

Beats double-digging!

We're not short of a few bob due to our collective cash crop [1]



[1] Charging rugby lovers a small fortune to park their Range Rovers on the less cultivatable areas as we're within 3 minutes of Twickenham

[Speshact]

We're not short of a few bob due to our collective cash crop [1]

[1] Charging rugby lovers a small fortune to park their Range Rovers on the less cultivatable areas as we're within 3 minutes of Twickenham

Maybe it's time to get some raised beds in where the Range Rovers currently fit?

Today, planted the last of the autumn Broad Beans, gently weeded and plotted how to get rid of plot holders not using their allotment properly! Current plan, to bury their remains on their plots..shh.

[Jules]

We're not short of a few bob due to our collective cash crop [1]

[1] Charging rugby lovers a small fortune to park their Range Rovers on the less cultivatable areas as we're within 3 minutes of Twickenham

Maybe it's time to get some raised beds in where the Range Rovers currently fit?

Range Rovers are a far better crop - you ought to try them. The  income allows us the occasional wild party, for us to sell at a discount  all sorts of nice things (like horse manure and anti-pigeon netting) and to have a good range of power tools available for free loan.

Today, planted the last of the autumn Broad Beans, gently weeded and plotted how to get rid of plot holders not using their allotment properly! Current plan, to bury their remains on their plots..shh.

Asylum man 'killed and burned his wife' (From Watford Observer) - Happened on our site

[hellymedic]

Eaten some more of the excellent tomatoes that are still ripening here.
David brought in another half pound today...

[Flying_Monkey]

Last weekend I put in some currants and raspberries kindly donated by a neighbour whose fruit bushes were threatening to take over the world. And I planted my garlic. Should be fine as it had got warmer again here... although it is now taking a turn towards the winter freeze.

[Pancho]

At the weekend, I:

- dug over two veg beds
- covered with copious leaf mould

- dug a bloody deep hole in a flower bed and buried the fox

[Welsh Man]

At the weekend, I:

- dug over two veg beds
- covered with copious leaf mould

- dug a bloody deep hole in a flower bed and buried the fox

Pity for Fox !!!

[Palinurus]

Finally I had a Sunday when I wasn't racing 'cross and it wasn't raining.

What a mess. I covered up the weediest bed and started digging some of the others over, weeding as I went.

Found some forgotten potatoes, dug up some leeks.

Must get some manure delivered soon, I keep putting it off because it means 4 hours of wheelbarrowing to get it from the roadway to my plot.

[Jules]

Dug over four beds and then decided to join two of the smaller ones together by removing the metre wide strip of grass that seperated them. Went and collected 10 sacks of "well-rotted horse manure" from the other end of the site (we collectively buy our shit in bulk) and dug those into said beds.

Harvested the remaining onions and carrots and half of the leeks.

Went home for a nice hot bath to relax my overworked muscles and remove the smell of horse ordure.

[matthew]

I've ordered three blueberry bushes, so now I have to dig out the rosemary stump and dig over the bed to add in compost to our bagshot sand.

[Palinurus]

Cow shit delivery day!

Had some help this time, four of us and two wheelbarrows. Still took about 2.5 hours to get it from the roadway to the plot.

Enough for 2-3 seasons anyway. Won't have to do it again for a while.

[andygates]

Man vs. Bramble.

After half an hour of mincing, I remembered my badger-molesting gauntlets.  The proper violence began.

Half an hour later, Bramble tapped out, snarling "I'll be back, just you wait and see..."

[Jules]

Digging, digging, digging.

Harvested my last onion and half the remaining leeks.

[andygates]

Wrapped the wormery up in an old duvet to keep 'em from freezing solid.  In a regular winter the die-off recovers easily but tonight and tomorrow are bloomin' parky.

[Julian]

The next-door-neighbours have lent us a special insulating thingy to put over the henhouse to keep them cosy - they used to keep guinea pigs and apparently this is the thing to use in cold weather.  It's certainly kept the chooks happy!

[andygates]

There's some internal heat from rotting stuff and worm activity, so it just needs to be kept in.  I imagine the worms will be hunkered down inside the fox skull, passing thin roll-up cigarettes around a samovar and wondering when the cossacks will ride through.

[Mrs Pingu]

Oh crap, I forgot about the worms (mainly cos I haven't been on the bike since before xmas and therefore haven't been in the shed). Hopefully the being in a shed will be enough insulation.. 

[longers]

Thanks to reading this my worms now have a lovely duvet. I emptied the plentiful liquid over Christmas so hopefully they'll be ok with these measures.

[Si]

Hadn't been up for a while, thinking that there wasn't much i could do in the snow.  Wrong.  One very important thing - clear the snow off all the netting and cages and then take them down!  A few had suffered broken poles due to the weight of snow on them.

Harvested a few sprouts.  Eventually managed to ease some swedes out.  Didn't even consider trying to get a parsnip up.