Allotment: Woo Hoooo!!! :) :) :)

[Arzosah]

Victory! Congratulations! Good lord, a foot deep in roots? Horrendous, I've never seen anything like that. Of course you made the right decision, once you knew there was a decision to make.

[jennyjj01]

Victory! Congratulations! Good lord, a foot deep in roots? Horrendous, I've never seen anything like that. Of course you made the right decision, once you knew there was a decision to make.

The more I read about, and watch on youtube, about couch grass, the more I know it was the right choice.
That original plot was > 90% covered by the stuff. Scraping the top off seemed easy enough and gave me a false sense of progress. But hell's teeth, the rhizome roots were just endless. The top 6" of soil was dominated by the stuff, like white lengths of fat white wire. Even to the full length of my garden fork, I was still only just bottoming it out. I took well over an hour to MOSTLY clear out a square yard or so. Even there, I couldn't avoid leaving little two inch fragments. I could have used a hay bailer to make the removed stuff into big bundles.
Unwisely I'd already committed some of this [expletive] stuff into the compost heap.
I'll have to show you some pics to do justice to how frustrating it was.

Having tried to weed around existing fruit, I realised that I'd been merciful to some of the choking rhizomes. Those berry plants were never going to survive.

The new plot has maybe <20% couch, but the rest SEEMS to be couch free, though some is sneaking in from the paths. Swapping plots must be saving me >70 hours of hard graft. The hours invested so far are just sunk cost. Chalk it up to experience.

[steptoe]

Hi jen ok i did a few photos today as sun is out lol , hope you can see them ok
There are the eygptian onions in a bed with some onions between and also a bed og garlic with onions , i have also doen a few others to give you some idea of what you can do in the garden or on your allotment .
The larger garden area is bare right now other than a few over winter fennel(trial of mine) , the currant bushes are behind them i have black red white and the rose ones now .
the wire mesh is to grow peas up it beats collecting twigs to grow them up push it is easy to control them .

[jennyjj01]

Hi jen ok i did a few photos today as sun is out lol , hope you can see them ok
There are the eygptian onions in a bed with some onions between and also a bed og garlic with onions , i have also doen a few others to give you some idea of what you can do in the garden or on your allotment .
The larger garden area is bare right now other than a few over winter fennel(trial of mine) , the currant bushes are behind them i have black red white and the rose ones now .
the wire mesh is to grow peas up it beats collecting twigs to grow them up push it is easy to control them .

garlic and onion.JPGegyptian onion and garlic.JPGstrawberry bed.JPGraspberry and blackberry frames.JPGnew strawberry bed.JPGcloche with last year fennel.JPGDSCF2651.JPGDSCF2650.JPG

Thanks. You're very industrious and put me to shame. Interesting idea to grow your peas up a net.

I've acquired some great big sheets of clear plastic ( there's a draughty phone box somewhere )and now have the project of designing a grow frame to be made of pallet wood. If it works out, it should be just the job for tomatoes. I probably have enough to make it 3 foot tall, with a bit of creativity. I could make it clear all round and 3 feet tall, or clear top and three sides with a wooden back and over 4 feet tall. Actually..... I bet a whole phone box would make a perfect frame I'm sure one phone box wouldn't be missed

[jennyjj01]

I've acquired some great big sheets of clear plastic ( there's a draughty phone box somewhere )and now have the project of designing a grow frame to be made of pallet wood. If it works out, it should be just the job for tomatoes. I probably have enough to make it 3 foot tall, with a bit of creativity. I could make it clear all round and 3 feet tall, or clear top and three sides with a wooden back and over 4 feet tall. Actually..... I bet a whole phone box would make a perfect frame I'm sure one phone box wouldn't be missed

OK Budding architects..... with 4 pieces of plastic glass each 2 feet by 8 feet, plus lots of pallet wood (4 foot lengths), what sort of design should I come up with for a free standing growing frame/cloche/mini greenhouse?
Many of the designs I see online look to not be very high. so would not be suitable homes to big tomatoes??? which is what I want to grow. If I go too tall, then It might blow over or cast shadow on a neighbouring plot.
I guess it could have a non-transparent back wall?
You don't need to design it for me, but what sort of height should I go for? My initial thinking is to make it like a two door wardrobe roughly a 4 feet wide cube?.... Or I could go 6 ft tall but shallower front to back?

Your thoughts?

[jennyjj01]

Victory! Congratulations! Good lord, a foot deep in roots? Horrendous, I've never seen anything like that. Of course you made the right decision, once you knew there was a decision to make.

Nearly a foot..... Certainly > 6 inches solidly matted with wiry roots. Sorry if I exaggerated. I was frustrated.

[steptoe]

Victory! Congratulations! Good lord, a foot deep in roots? Horrendous, I've never seen anything like that. Of course you made the right decision, once you knew there was a decision to make.

Nearly a foot..... Certainly > 6 inches solidly matted with wiry roots. Sorry if I exaggerated. I was frustrated.

Jen just remember if fixing the plastic to the wood with screws drill the plastic first make sure the screw will not be tight or bingo it cracks if it is like the stuff i see , if it is polycarbonate you can just screw that on .

i will try and find the book i have with cold frame desines but i bet there are a few online to follow and pallet wood is good just cresote it then when sat on the soil it will not rot so fast . also if you do make a good compost heap a hot heap you can put a frame on top and use it as a early start greenhouse frame .

[jennyjj01]

Victory! Congratulations! Good lord, a foot deep in roots? Horrendous, I've never seen anything like that. Of course you made the right decision, once you knew there was a decision to make.

Nearly a foot..... Certainly > 6 inches solidly matted with wiry roots. Sorry if I exaggerated. I was frustrated.

Jen just remember if fixing the plastic to the wood with screws drill the plastic first make sure the screw will not be tight or bingo it cracks if it is like the stuff i see , if it is polycarbonate you can just screw that on .

i will try and find the book i have with cold frame desines but i bet there are a few online to follow and pallet wood is good just cresote it then when sat on the soil it will not rot so fast . also if you do make a good compost heap a hot heap you can put a frame on top and use it as a early start greenhouse frame .

Thanks. I don't know what kind of plastic, so we'll have to be careful. It's thin and pretty bendy. Cutting it might be tricky. Hubby thinks that sandwiching it or clamping it, or even glueing it, might be safer than screwing it. I defer to his superior knowledge.
Mostly I was just weighing up how tall to dare make it so it won't blow over. A 5 foot cube would seem to be pretty stable, albeit a rather novel shape. I have some plywood pallets, but I doubt they'd last long in the rain. Some of the pallet wood is soft as 5h1t so I don't expect the wood to last I have a few paving slabs to sit it on.

Good idea using the heap as dual purpose. My NEW heap is going to be a bulk bag with holes in it. All the stuff I put on the old heap can be someone else's treasure.

[steptoe]

Nearly a foot..... Certainly > 6 inches solidly matted with wiry roots. Sorry if I exaggerated. I was frustrated.

Jen just remember if fixing the plastic to the wood with screws drill the plastic first make sure the screw will not be tight or bingo it cracks if it is like the stuff i see , if it is polycarbonate you can just screw that on .

i will try and find the book i have with cold frame desines but i bet there are a few online to follow and pallet wood is good just cresote it then when sat on the soil it will not rot so fast . also if you do make a good compost heap a hot heap you can put a frame on top and use it as a early start greenhouse frame .

Thanks. I don't know what kind of plastic, so we'll have to be careful. It's thin and pretty bendy. Cutting it might be tricky. Hubby thinks that sandwiching it or clamping it, or even glueing it, might be safer than screwing it. I defer to his superior knowledge.
Mostly I was just weighing up how tall to dare make it so it won't blow over. A 5 foot cube would seem to be pretty stable, albeit a rather novel shape. I have some plywood pallets, but I doubt they'd last long in the rain. Some of the pallet wood is soft as 5h1t so I don't expect the wood to last I have a few paving slabs to sit it on.

Good idea using the heap as dual purpose. My NEW heap is going to be a bulk bag with holes in it. All the stuff I put on the old heap can be someone else's treasure.

Hi jen yes there are many ways to fix it if you glue use the stuff in a silicone tube i forget the name it ain't the gorilla stuff thats way to expensive but it grips like s*** to and army blanket .
5ft would be good but just put a post in on 2 sides get some cheap timber cresote it and cut a point drive down 2ft and that means you can then fix the cube to that and bingo no blowing away lol my tunnel 6 mt x 3 mt has never moved in highest of winds i put the dog lead large corkscrews that go in the ground for fixing down and then i attached that to the wood frame , same at the allotment i put the greenhouse on a wood frame and the frame was fixed down with the dog screw downs they are great also for plastic garden furniture

[jennyjj01]

We couldnt afford a rotovator but found that an Azada - aka Chillington Hoe was good for doing the heavier digging before I discovered the joys of no-dig. Also good for exercise - maybe that I why I like the no dig
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeKKaw5Lc6c&t=213s

On its way... Watching the videos, this should save me HOURS of back breaking hard graft.