Garden And Gardener » allotment

Chas and His Rock’n’Roll Allotment

Sarah — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:05:33 +0000

Chas and His Rock’n’Roll Allotment is a book by Chas from Chas and Dave.

Chas and His Rock ‘N’ Roll Allotment
features a series of vignettes and anecdotes about his life as both a famous musician and amateur gardener. –Welwyn Hatfield Times

This has to be the most hilarious gardening book I’ve ever read. –Mike Hallowell, The Shields Gazette

Judging by this book the cheeky Cockney musician seems to be at home as much in the allotment as he is on stage. –Rural Life Magazine.

Chas and His Rock n Roll Allotment is a gardening book like no other. Written by Chas Hodges, better known as half of musical duo Chas and Dave, the book is full of funny stories and anecdotes interspersed with the author s tips for growing your own . The book is aimed at the novice gardener and aims to prove that hoeing and sowing can be an enjoyable way to while away an afternoon and that tending a garden should be fun, rather than a chore. Chas s pearls of wisdom are drawn from personal experience of getting his hands dirty, rather than text book gardening techniques, and his light hearted approach makes the book an easy read. So if the idea of Sunday roast accompanied by your own home grown vegetables appeals to you, this book tells you how. And if all that digging proves to be just too much, you can always settle down with a pint of beer and enjoy the tongue-in-cheek humour of a born raconteur.

I think that means he knows how to rabbit.

Freecycle for free garden tools

Sarah — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 11:22:38 +0000

If you’ve just got a garden because you’ve moved house, or maybe you’ve just got to the top of the allotment waiting list … and you need some garden tools, where can you get some for free?

You should ask neighbours and friends if they have any old tools they don’t need any more. Check your local freecycle – there are some amazing people out there who’ll have a rummage in their shed and see what they have spare. Be prepared to travel though – check your own nearest group first. For me this is Oldham Freecycle, but I also subscribe to Manchester Freecycle too as it’s very close by and sometimes things listed there are closer. Keep an eye out for tools – but a polite request is always worth a try!

Find your nearest Freecycle group in the UK here (It’s also international)
We’ve used it to get rid of plants, an old lawnmower, and even rocks!
Polite reasonable requests always go down better with people. Ask for something too extravagant and people will think you’re being cheeky.

Caliente Mustard

Sarah — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 10:41:31 +0000

Caliente Mustard – Bred specifically for green manure and biofumigation, Caliente Mustard is ideal for improving soil structure and suppressing soil disease and weeds. For overwintering sow no later than mid-October 200g covers approx 120m2 1kg covers approx 600m2

Too late for overwintering this year

Allotment boost

Sarah — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 14:57:28 +0000

MORE families will have the chance to join the ‘grow your own’ revolution after an allotments’ society received a cash boost.

Heage Road Allotments in Ripley has been granted £3,500 to redevelop a patch of ‘unmanageable’ and ‘overgrown’ land on the site thanks to the Big Lottery Fund.

The 900-sq yard patch is currently being covered in tonnes of topsoil, which will open up the popular allotment site to six more local families by March 1

New allotments

Sarah — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 15:52:18 +0000

Cambridge is to get 67 new allotment plots after the city council allocated £15000 in funding from its arts, sport and public places budget

Frugal Soul website

Sarah — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 22:11:28 +0000

This site belongs to a friend of mine. She’s just started it and only has a few articles on at the moment but it’s a really great site and I’ve enjoyed reading every post so far! Frugal Soul is well worth a read if you’d like to save money and enjoy the idea of being more self-sufficient.

Her and her family have an allotment so will be posting plenty of useful and interesting articles about that!
Enjoy!

Allotment 2011 – a timelapse

Sarah — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 14:02:46 +0000

Sadly not of mine, but what a great idea – regular photos of this allotment put together in a timelapse.

Community allotment open mornings

Sarah — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 15:14:22 +0000

Community Allotment, at Meersbrook Road, Friday mornings, to enjoy working together, learning about organic growing, and taking home produce (to arrange to come along, call Alison 2580599, Heather 2217284).

Listed here in the Sheffield Telegraph

This sounds like a nice way of encouraging people to come along!

Do you have a community plot on your allotment site? How is it run?

Lock up your tools

Sarah — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 15:05:49 +0000

More sheds on allotments broken into in the Newmarket area
Sheds on allotments are often targeted. What can you do?

First mark all your tools. Get a metal stamp and get your postcode stamped into them – put your house number on too so if items are found then you’ll be able to identify them. The beauty of them being garden tools is that you can cover up the mark with mud and no one stealing them would know it was on which means they are unlikely to notice it. Even if they do it’d have to be ground off which will make it’s own mark!

You can chain things up with bike locks or chains and a padlock too. By fixing tools together you’ll make them really hard to carry and whilst this might not put off someone it’ll make it so difficult to do that it’ll take longer and they might give up.

A steel shed might be more secure than a wooden one. You can concrete something to the floor and chain your tools to this. This would make it even harder to steal things.

New items added today at Tooled Up

Sealey Galvanized Steel Shed 1500mm x 800mm x 1900mm £220.95
Galvanized steel panels easily bolt and rivet together to form a rigid and secure shed. Single door fitted with cross bolt and eyelet that accepts padlock (not included) for additional security. Features a Skillion style roof. Supplied with bolt down…

Sealey Galvanized Steel Shed 1500mm x 1500mm x 1900mm £268.95
Galvanized steel panels easily bolt and rivet together to form a rigid and secure shed. Single door fitted with cross bolt and eyelet that accepts padlock (not included) for additional security. Features a Skillion style roof. Supplied with bolt down…

Sealey Galvanized Steel Shed 2300mm x 2300mm x 1900mm £407.95
Galvanized steel panels easily bolt and rivet together to form a rigid and secure shed. Single door fitted with cross bolt and eyelet that accepts padlock (not included) for additional security. Features a Gable style roof which gives extra water run…

Other things you could try – shed alarms – battery run but need someone to hear them. A busy site might have less empty time – but during the night would still be a risk. CCTV and lighting can assist as a deterrent and in identifying any problems – but ideally needs electric. Make friends with the plot neighbours and ensure they know what to do and who to contact if there are any problems on the site.
Take the neighbours some veg and fruit and they might act as the deterrent you need!

Garden Buildings Direct just added these new products

BillyOh Deluxe Padlock and Hasp £12.95
BillyOh Deluxe Padlock and Hasp

BillyOh Deluxe 50mm Padlock Protector £39.95
BillyOh Deluxe 50mm Padlock Protector

BillyOh Garden Storage Box Wheels with Seat – Small £64.90
BillyOh Garden Storage Box Wheels with Seat – Small. This no maintenance and easy to assemble plastic storage box is a great value way to help sort out your storage needs. It is weather-proof and lockable. It has built in integral wheels to help you move this plastic storage box easy without fuss. Its great colour scheme is also sure to delight anyone who buys it.

Sometimes you’ll get problems with vandals on the site and it’s important to make sure it’s as hard to get on as possible and keep the boundary secure. Ask your local crime prevention officer for advice about what you can and can’t do to keep people out.

Hasp and staples are a secure way of using a padlock on the door of the shed. Use one that hides the screw holes making it harder to get off. You can reinforce the door of the shed too to make it stronger but remember a wooden shed is only wooden – but making it noisy when it breaks means it might attract attention.
Don’t forget your padlock key when you go to your plot though otherwise you’ll have a fruitless journey!

How gardening helps Alzheimer’s sufferers

Sarah — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 10:01:28 +0000

Fantastic article on the Telegraph – How gardening helps Alzheimer’s sufferers – By Bunny Guinness

As well as being good for the body, gardening is also good for the mind.