got me an allotment!!

Food, Nutrition and Agriculture
jansman
Posts: 13622
Joined: Thu Dec 30, 2010 7:16 pm

Re: got me an allotment!!

Post by jansman »

I have an old fashioned ‘ Irish spade’, with pointed blade and straight handle. However, your new one looks easy to use. Might just treat myself, as my back is well worth looking after!
In three words I can sum up everything I have learned about life: It goes on.

Robert Frost.

Covid 19: After that level of weirdness ,any situation is certainly possible.

Me.
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Mick104
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Joined: Sun Mar 04, 2018 1:34 pm
Location: Ennis, Ireland

Re: got me an allotment!!

Post by Mick104 »

Yorkshire Andy wrote: Sat Jul 28, 2018 5:27 pm I'm planting a cover crop of winter bean that I will chop off and dig in, in the spring using the greenery to out compete weeds and allow the nitrogen fixing property's to help enrich the soil with the root fibre
What type and variety of bean will you use ? , I have never used green manures its always poly or nursery grade weed suppressant fabric. Except for my potato patch I practice the no dig method so I often put down a layer of compost then cover with mypex til spring .
featherstick
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Joined: Mon Feb 17, 2014 9:09 pm

Re: got me an allotment!!

Post by featherstick »

Green manures are well worth the small increase in effort. I've used field tares with great success, grown very good caulis after them. I'm planning on ordering some winter mix from these guys: https://www.greenmanure.co.uk/pages/cho ... een-manure

(no connection)

They fix nutrients by sucking them up to grow with and stop rain leaching them away. They also increase organic matter in the soil, and increase the micro-organisms both as they grow and then as they rot once you dig them in. They do all that over winter so there is no real opportunity cost.

In summer for a short-term green manure you can use fenugreek which is available very cheaply from the Asian supermarkets. It's good intersown between e.g. sweetcorn where the soil would otherwise be bare, or as a quick cover for a few weeks while you are waiting to plant something. It's so fragile that you can practically hoe it in before you plant.
Yorkshire Andy
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Re: got me an allotment!!

Post by Yorkshire Andy »

Well back off my holidays ....
IMG_20180816_194933582.jpg
IMG_20180816_195829635.jpg
So there's as few rows of carrots, lettuce, and 3 rows of late potatoes (Maris peer, Charlotte, some thing else ;)


Burnt a load of rubbish tonight and took the rake to some weeds......

So what's a good Dutch hoe? As the £5 green gem special is just wrong it's blunt and to me the angle is way out
If your roughing it, Your doing it wrong ;)

Lack of planning on your part doesn't make it an emergency on mine
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Deeps
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Re: got me an allotment!!

Post by Deeps »

Yorkshire Andy wrote: Thu Aug 16, 2018 7:35 pm

So what's a good Dutch hoe?
:shock:
I take it you've never been to Amsterdam. ;)
Yorkshire Andy
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Joined: Thu Oct 03, 2013 4:06 pm

Re: got me an allotment!!

Post by Yorkshire Andy »

Deeps wrote: Thu Aug 16, 2018 8:13 pm
Yorkshire Andy wrote: Thu Aug 16, 2018 7:35 pm

So what's a good Dutch hoe?
:shock:
I take it you've never been to Amsterdam. ;)

Suppose they do ok in the bulb fields
images(47).jpg
images(47).jpg (14.58 KiB) Viewed 2378 times
:tinfoil
If your roughing it, Your doing it wrong ;)

Lack of planning on your part doesn't make it an emergency on mine
Arzosah
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Re: got me an allotment!!

Post by Arzosah »

:shock: :shock: :shock: Yew peepl is baaaaad! :twisted:
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ukpreppergrrl
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Re: got me an allotment!!

Post by ukpreppergrrl »

Deeps wrote: Thu Aug 16, 2018 8:13 pm
Yorkshire Andy wrote: Thu Aug 16, 2018 7:35 pm So what's a good Dutch hoe?
:shock:
I take it you've never been to Amsterdam. ;)
I named my Dutch hoe, Magda. I giggle every time I get her out of the shed :D
Blog: http://ukpreppergrrl.wordpress.com
التَكْرَارُ يُعَلِّمُ الحِمارَ "Repetition teaches the donkey" Arabic proverb
"A year from now you may wish you had started today" Karen Lamb
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Mick104
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Location: Ennis, Ireland

Re: got me an allotment!!

Post by Mick104 »

Yorkshire Andy wrote: Thu Aug 16, 2018 7:35 pm So there's as few rows of carrots, lettuce, and 3 rows of late potatoes (Maris peer, Charlotte, some thing else ;)
Looking good already .
Yorkshire Andy
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Joined: Thu Oct 03, 2013 4:06 pm

Re: got me an allotment!!

Post by Yorkshire Andy »

Well I took a hammer over a block of wood to the hoe and attacked it with a grinder ... It now works well....
IMG_20180913_183422304.jpg
Got 2 more spud trenches in as well since I got back of my holidays

And the letuice is storming away



Just got a 1kg mix of winter onions in Radar, troy, senshyu, and some red skins Got them In tonight with a decent dose of fish blood and bone in the bed
If your roughing it, Your doing it wrong ;)

Lack of planning on your part doesn't make it an emergency on mine