Watch this Howard 350 make easy work of digging!

And here’s a little machine!


I’m really envious of the good soil these plots have!

Birds Eye is providing free packs of veggie seeds when you enter promotional codes. Like them and click the ‘Grow Your Own’ link.

Then enter codes: GROWCARROTS, GROWPEAS or GROWCORN using L2025

Free seeds from FOE – bee friendly ones

Join hozelock gardening club and get a free packet of seeds

When you see people cutting hedges and shredding the branches then it’s time to be cheeky and ask if they could drop you off a load at your garden or allotment!

I’ve just asked the workmen outside my local morrisons and they said yes! Whether they find us or not with my scribbled directions is another matter!
Fingers crossed though!

Well not long ago we spotted the truck driving past so I ran out and flagged it down!
We’ve now got a pile of mulch and he’s promised to bring us another load on Monday!

Jersey Plants Direct have some amazing bedding plants. These geraniums are great value and really pretty! perfect for tubs for summer long decoration in your garden

Geranium Zonal Collection 12 Jumbo Ready Plants £16.99
A stunning collection of semi double pink geraniumsA stunning collection of semi double flowered geraniums in a wonderful collection of pink and white flowers. Geraniums to make a stunning display!

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Very useful thing to have in the garden!
Selection of trugs at Wriggle Wrigglers

The ‘British Produce’ Trug, Single £47.00
This large and sturdy vintage trug is a perfect shape for stacking up your homegrown heritage potatoes, or cramming in your runner beans and parsley. Having done all that, it is not so big that you can’t lift it, but not so small that you have to keep revisiting the raised beds. Green painted wood with the legend ‘British Produce, Grown in Guernsey’ in black. Size: 390 x 345 x 210mm. Handle: 90mm.

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The council want £150,000 so that Ordsall can have allotments!

With the burst of recent rain, comes an urge to start planting. Despite parts of the country being desperate for rain, I can assure the general public that the rain dances can stop on my allotment. The soil is saturated. There’s a thick layer of clay under the surface that means when it rains much of the rain stays on the surface.
It’s worse on my neighbours plot which is why he’s keep to dig some sort of drainage channel but it’ll come through my plot I think and that might mean me doing some seriously deep digging. The greenhouse is full of rhubarb mostly. I optimistically planted some rhubarb seeds a few weeks ago and have since potted 40 seedlings up. I’m impressed with the idea of 40 rhubarb plants, although I will say they’re not just for my plot.

My neighbour tells me of the acre of allotment he used to have that had a massive area of rhubarb. He was inundated with people wanting the crop and despite having offers to buy the lot he never sold it, just let people come and take what they wanted for their pudding.

On our allotment we’re hoping to have some communal space ready for the rhubarb later this year. It’ll be cropped in a year or two and passed on to the local community.

Don’t let the dates on seed packets force you into rushing into planting. Dates are flexible and you should pay more attention to the weather and soil than to the packets. If it says plant at the start of April but it’s soaking wet and chilly then you may as well not worry about it and just plant the seeds a bit later. Gardening should be a relaxing hobby and not something to get stressed about.

You should learn to trust your instincts and the weather forecast. You can always sow half a row of something and then come back a week later and plant the second half. Trial and error will show you sometimes that sitting back and waiting is most rewarding.

Delaying planting can sometimes allow the weeds to have a final flourish; especially true if you’ve hoed and raked the soil in readiness for your seeds going in. Agitating the soil brings fresh seeds to the surface and this can get them going. By being able to then hoe the whole bed or row you’re spared the hard job of having to carefully hand weed to save the seedlings from being pulled up in error.
This prepare and leave technique can be beneficial especially if you have a burst of warmer weather than encourages the weeds to grow like crazy.
Plant after you’ve weeded this second time though else you’ll find yourself waiting until the end of the season.

Pay attention when you’re weeding too. Learn to recognise the baby seedlings of all the horrors you’ll find on your allotment.
This is one reason you should always sow in straight lines too. This is an aid to helping you spot which ones aren’t seedlings.

Have been reading about this idea of using straw bales to grow plants on.
This article on the telegraph describes the process

I’ve spotted somewhere selling straw near me but need to convince someone with a trailer to go and get me some!

This article in the guardian tells how this place is using straw bales for a urinal!

There’s some great photos of straw being used as mulch on this forum
‘Extreme mulching’ comes from Ruth Stout’s work – Ruth Stout books at Amazon

Fab pdf about mulching here