Topic: Goodbye plot 307 (sniff)

[chriscross1966]

Today was my last day (probably) on my old plot in Oxford. I've hadned it over to the guy that's taking it on, an dI leave it in a way better state than I got it even though it's hardly weed-free  ;D

It's been an interesting couple of years... I got it at first as I was in the process of buying a place and had raised a load of plants to take to the what I expected to be my new garden. Whn it fell through I was left with a huge pile of plants and nowhere to grow them.... asking around tracked down a derelict plot on a site halfway between work and home (and I drove every day so it was convenient)... Didn't have enough time to dig it all before the season was upon me so a lot of the plot got covered in weed membrane and by picking up topsoil on freecycle I managed to fill a bunch of buiilders bags to a depth that would support planting adn grew a load of stuff in them, plus things like onions in the flat that i had managed to dig.....

The year it was almost the same, winter found me in the process of buying (but from a much better seller, so by March instead of being halfway down the ten-mile journey between work and home it was a short cycle or drive from work (if I had driven) but 30 miles from home.... As I didn't have enough space at home sorted out and was stilol ona waiting list in Swindon I kept the Oxford plot but concentrated it on growing things that didn't need cossetting or constant picking over. ...POtatoes, squashes, shelling beans and maincrop onions fitted the bill along with garlic adn it's been a good year overall...

Hope the guy taking it over can make a good go of it so good luck Guillaume!

chrisc

[betula]

A sad feeling when you have to go......... :(

[saddad]

Have you got a Swindon Plot yet?
 :-\

[caroline7758]

Hope the guy taking over appreciates what you've done and hope you ge a plot near home if you haven't already.

[Squash64]

Good luck with your new plot.  :)

[chriscross1966]

Have you got a Swindon Plot yet?
 :-\

Yeah, but it's less than half the size of the one in Oxford..... I'm on the list for another one asap...

[saddad]

Better than none...  :)

[chriscross1966]

Better than none...  :)

True, but I hadn't realised how much space I like to use.... that said I'm processing harvest into frozen ready meals ATM adn I think I'll have enought to feed myself until next years starts coming through soon.... more potatoes to harvest now as well, the Pentland Javelins that I planted up in pots decided they'd finished last week adn the haulms were dying down anyway, the frost will have finished that off, along with the Congo's.... the other first earlies I put in at the back end of July (IIRC) are still going and are in the polytunnel ATM.... I think I had some Lady Christl and some Sharpes Express adn one other..... might have been Rockets...

chrisc

[1066]

good luck on the new plot  :)

[cornykev]

Best of luck on your new small plot CC.    ;)        ;D ;D ;D

[chriscross1966]

Thanks for all the "good lucks".... It's a bit odd... the old site was pretty big and had a fiar few old-timers on it who knew the soil really well adn you could always ask for advice... On the new site, becasue it's only just reopened I think I'm one of only two or three that have had an allotment (or indeed done any gardening of veg on any scale) before....I grew up eating veg my dad grew, I can remember helping plant potatoes from the age of 7 running behind his ridger-equipped Howard Gem putting the potatoes in at a gap ping that dad had given me a piece of bamboo cut to length to measure them in.... it was the first year he had had the Gem and the combination of the mechanical aid and a small boy putting all the spuds in place turned an Easter weekend plus another weekend of backbreaking labour trenchign and earthing up into a fun morning for both of us... went in for lunch, Mum couldn't believe we'd done it all in a morning!.... There was a time a few years ago when I had  a fair chunk of my folks town garden (we moved from the big garden in the country when I was 12) under veg, but as grandkids (courtesy of my brothers) arrived it got turned back into lawn....

It's horrible watching people make some avoidable mistakes though I try not to be Mr "You didn't want to do that".... all those plots that got rotavated before weeding a couple of months ago are now solid banks of couch grass, I've still got a bit of digging to do on mine but where I've dug, it's clean and I can easily keep it that way against annuals with small rotavator.....

Some of them have read a sensible book, dug through the whole thing properly adn then built theior beds.... some of them have just built the beds.... out of new bought-in stuff (liek the sheds..... they're all new, it doesn't look like an allotment if all the sheds are new.....

chrisc

[Digeroo]

What a pity you have had to give up your oxford plot.  There are quite a few veggie novices on our site and it is very hard sometime biting my tongue.   But once I started producing lots of crops people have started asking questions and asking for suggestions. 

Weed control is always a huge problem.  Turn your back and the little blighters soon pop up.

[1066]

It's a funny old world. Because I'd gardened before, and because I didn't know differently I dug and weeded my plot when I 1st got it. Got some gentle teasing from some of the old timers but I guess that was their way of welcoming me  ::)

[caroline7758]

The people who took over the other half of my plot bought a new shed. Don't know why they bothered as they hardly ever come to the plot- there were massive marrows (probably frosted now) and rotting tomatoes on their plot when I went on Monday. :(

[pigeonseed]

It's a funny old world. Because I'd gardened before, and because I didn't know differently I dug and weeded my plot when I 1st got it.

I don't understand. Isn't that a good thing, 1066?  :-\

I think you are all right to bite your tongue with newcomers, digeroo and chriscross, so they can have some freedom to do their own thing. I hated that feeling at my first plot, that people would always be watching and rolling their eyes. (Now my plot's surrounded by overgrown plots, so there are no eyes to roll. )

I wish you the best of luck on your new plot too, chriscross, and I hope you get an extension soon!  :)

[1066]

It's a funny old world. Because I'd gardened before, and because I didn't know differently I dug and weeded my plot when I 1st got it.

I don't understand. Isn't that a good thing, 1066?  :-\

I think you are all right to bite your tongue with newcomers, digeroo and chriscross, so they can have some freedom to do their own thing. I hated that feeling at my first plot, that people would always be watching and rolling their eyes. (Now my plot's surrounded by overgrown plots, so there are no eyes to roll. )

I wish you the best of luck on your new plot too, chriscross, and I hope you get an extension soon!  :)

I'm not exactly sure - on reflection I think it was - I didn't have a rotavator, or stuff for raised beds, so yes I'm kind of pleased it worked out that way for me. i.e. got rid of most of the couch and nasties by digging - but did learn later on about covering with weed membrane and cardboard to kill off weeds, which would have saved some back breaking work.......  :-\