What do I need?

[wrennie]

I rented a lottie yesterday and my family have offered to help me with equipment!
I want to be organic, but I need to know what are the essentials for starting up with my patch.
I know I need a spade and fork!
Any suggestions for what would be a good start equipment wise?
Look forward to hearing from you
Cathie
 ;D

[wrennie]

[Mrs Ava]

Hiya wrennie, and congrats on the plot!  What couldn't I do without.....wheelbarrow for lugging stuff to and fro - I am not terribly strong, a good bucket for dragging water from the stream - and apart from fork and spade, I think that is about it!  I took my sprung rake up there today just to rake up the leaves, and I have a pair of secateurs just for pruning the branches that prod me out of my apple tree and I guess come spring as things start to germinate I shall take my push hoe up.  I would love a shed, to shelter in during downpours and so I don't have to drag my tools back and forth.  But the most important thing on my plot, the old man!  aaaahhh!
What sort of state is your plot in?  Good luck, and enjoy!

[Doris_Pinks]

Somewhere on this site Wrennie is a post about what tools we couldn't be without, can't remember where tho!! Mine is a 3 pronged hoe, great for breaking up the soil!
Welcome ;D and good luck! Dottie P.

[wrennie]

Thanks for your advice!
My plot is 90 feet by 30 feet, and is in a terrible state. It is overgrown with brambles and thorns!
On the plus side, it has a water tap at the end, I have been offered a tatty shed and it is on a south facing slope overlooking the sea in Torbay!

 ::)

[good_life_girl]

Overlooking the sea!! You lucky thing!
I also started with a plot overgrown with brambles so I'd add to the essentials list a VERY STRONG pair of gardening gloves...ideally ones that come a long way up your arms - unless you fancy all your colleagues staring at you on Monday mornings! Also a pair of secateurs (sp?!) as it's a lot easier to dig out brambles etc if you can cut off most of them first.
Other than that I've survived my first year on spade and fork. On my list before next summer is a hose to make watering a bit quicker, and a hoe to help with the weeding.
Actually if you can beg or borrow a leaf rake thing for when you're clearing the site your back will thank you for it - I couldn't and I spent more on Radox than the cost of a rake!

[Tenuse]

I spent minutes wondering what kind of shed a tatty shed was - especially for storing potatoes?  ???

Until I realised that you meant "a bit run down"  ::)

Doh!

Ten x

[wrennie]

;D

[cleo]

and don`t forget a trowel and a knife.

Stephan

[Doris_Pinks]

Oh and a flask for your tea!

[campanula]

Right on Doris - you beat me to it - I could not cope without frequent tea stops. As soon as I can sort out my (new) shed (thrilling), I already have a camping cooker and a gas bottle - not only tea, but TOAST. Oh ho, there will be none of this rushing home with sweetcorn - the pan will be there, boiling away - I have only had fresh sweetcorn as a child on my dads plot, 38 years ago. What took me so long!
And, Wrennie, a nip of brandy goes a long way!

[Hot_Potato]

All these lovely suggestions - just can't wait to get a shed......H.P.

[Doris_Pinks]

Have to remember Campanula to keep all your tea ingredients seperate. ;D My Grandad taught me that one! If you make the tea up complete in the flask it tastes funny!! :( So I take my bags, a jam jar of milk, and  my flask filled with hot water, and make it when I need it! Tastes MUCH better! ( but I am with you, a nice shed with the facilities would be a big bonus!) DP

[gavin]

Would be lost without the thingymmajig!   Green plastic "thingy", 40p in a clearance sale.  

15 inch handle, (works as a dibber);  two heads, one like a hoe blade, the other a three-pronged cultivator head.

All best - Gavin

[teresa]

Hi I found a old plastic garden chair placed down the bottom of my lottie I could go and sit down to straighten my back worth its weight in gold. Painkillers for when you get home and radox for the bath.
You find mucles you never knew you had. But its better than going to a gym and cheeper hee hee.
Teresa

[carrot-cruncher]

Hi

I too have just got my first 'lottie, this week in fact.   My dad gave me great advice on what basic tools I need i.e. fork, spade, wheelbarrow, string & wellies (pref steely toes).  I'm reliably informed Santa will bring me some tools for xmas (isn't he loverly!!!).

Was anybody else scared by the size of their allotment when they saw it for the first time.   Mine's huge!!!!  I thought it was two when I first saw it.

[teresa]

Hi Anaxi and welcome
Yep they are huge untill you dig them seems never ending but when you get plants in and seeds the lottie seems to get smaller and  your always short of room to grow things.ha ha
The old saying the more you have the more you want hee and its true.
Glad santa is getting you something you will need dont forget the old chair so you can sit and amire all your hard work and the camera to take photos for the album from the start.
Good luck Teresa

[budgiebreeder]

Welcome to our site Anaxi.

[Hot_Potato]

Hi there.....welcome from me too......H.P.

[mysticmog]

I still can't see the end of my lottie, tis too wild and brambly, but I have recently experienced a strange effect that clearning has - as you get rid of the undergrowth it seems to shrink the plot!  Experienced this on Tenuse's plot and is v weird.  

Maybe you just get used to it, most gardens aren't 27m long as it's a bit of a shock to see so much land.

Anyway, happy growing

M xx