Anyone got a rotavator?

[G-Man]

Hello

Wondered if anyone could help, we have acquired an allotment but it's a bit of a mess. Does anyone have a rotovator? Would you be willing to lend us a hand in turning the soil? We'll pay cash, or wine, or beer, or chocolate even!

Cheers

G-Man

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[Tim Lund]

Sorry G-man - I can't help. We have one, which used to be my Dad's, on our site, but it's strictly for members only.

But I doubt if a rotovator is what you really need. If your plot's a mess because it's got lots of weeds - such as bindweed, couch grass, thistles, dandelions, rotovating it is only going to help spread them, since these all grow vigorously from fragments of roots /underground stems. Rotovators come into their own when you've got a decent area of weed free ground, so make most sense for the sort of allotmenteer whose been carefully looking after the same ground for years, but whose back isn't quite what it was in his young days.

If you want to get on top of your new plot, your best bet is Roundup a.k.a. glyphosphate, and this is the time of year to be applying it. It works by being absorbed by the leaves and being taken down into the roots - but you will probably need at least two applications. It's not organic, because it hadn't happened to have been around when organic standards were defined in the 1940s, but it's much safe than some chemicals which are allowed as organic, e.g Bordeaux Mixture. It's also now out of patent protection, so in using it you're not handing over excess profits to Monstanto Inc - just normal profits, if you go for Round Up.

Other bits of standard advice for people taking over a new plot - especially one that is in a mess - is not to try to do it all at once - feel your way to how much you can actually fit into the rest of your life, and if you can't manage all you've been given, scale down - hopefully the management of your site will allow this. I reckon that you need to spend at least 2 hours a week from March through to October on 125 sq. m (5 rod) plot - but a fair bit more if you are still having to get on top of a mess. It also depends on knowing what you are doing.

When it comes to what to grow, potatoes are fairly easy, and satisfying to dig up, but best value in terms of giving you produce which is significantly better than you will get in the shop with relatively little labour input are soft fruit - raspberries, black currants. Runner beans, spinach beet and cavolo nero - a type of kale - are also good value, as is rhubarb - in a couple of years I'll be splitting up my crowns again, and I can let you have some.

If you do get some ground cleared now, it's worth getting in some Aquadulce broad beans - and take out the growing tips in about April - it really does save them from being decimated by black fly.

[G-Man]

Hi Tim

Wow! Thanks so much for taking the time to write this. Some stirling advice.

Thanks again.

G

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[foresthillresident]

Where is your allotment?

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[Tim Lund]

My allotment is here

G-Man has pm'd me to say where his allotment is, but obviously that's for him to reveal if he wants.

As you might guess from my response to G-Man, I think it would be cool to have a "Town Garden" where gardening experiences could be shared. However the response to my "Sydenham Harvest" thread has hardly been overwhelming.

My allotment is in LB Bromley, so part of the Bromley Allotments and Leisure Gardens Federation (BALGF), for whose web site I am also largely responsible. Neither it, or my own allotments' web site is very lively, although they are of use as places of record for minutes, rules, waiting lists, etc. I think this just reflects what happens at the typical committee meeting, where, although "horticultural matters" may be on the agenda, nothing is ever said, even though they are the whole point.

Recently we had a BALGF training day, in which I led a discussion about allotment web sites, but I wasn't trying to suggest they could become the place for lively discussion about gardening. I think it's more likely that such a discussion could develop here, bringing together people who combine an interest in gardening with being ready to write about it in a public local space, but not limited to people on one allotment site. Why not also people growing things in their own garden?

Something else to avoid - or at least to challenge - would be any kind of preachiness - what I described recently in a thread on www.se23.com as 'grow your own sanctimoniousness'.

I know of a few other allotment holders who post on these Forum, two of them also tenants at KHLGA, and a couple at another nearby site. If people felt it worth the effort, maybe we could try reaching out to them to get a "Town Garden" sub forum going, as we now seem to have a decent "Town Kids" Forum?

[foresthillresident]

How do you get an allotment in KHLGA if you live in Sydenham?

[Tim Lund]

Go down there on when someone from the committee is around - and this will be most Sunday mornings - and put your name on the list. Then it will get passed to me, and I will enter you on the web site, I will then send you a log on, and you will then be able to see how you are progressing up the list. Expacted wait time about three years. We are self-managed, like all Bromley sites, and don't worry about where people live - too much hassle. I'll pm you with the mobile for the secretary as well.