Dummies Guides to Allotments

My gardening knowledge is very limited, yes I have done my share of hard landscaping and grunt work, trimming hedges and cutting grass, and there has also been the obligatory growing of tomatoes in pots over the years especially when my daughters were little and they loved helping me water them and harvesting them.

But last year my brother-in-law Keith gave me a few excess plants from his greenhouse, and I also grew potatoes in garden sacks, 2 x cabbage, 2 x cauliflower, runner beans, my spring onions and beetroot didn’t amount to anything, but I really enjoyed eating the result of what did grow.  Keith took my pepper plant in a pot to his greenhouse last week as the weather is turning, and I would like to see if it will mature and produce edible results before it dies from frost attack.

It’s kind of Keith’s fault that I have the allotment as I went down to help him mark out his plot as it was so overgrown and the boundaries were not clearly defined. In addition the local authorities are splitting a number of plots making them half the size.

He informed me that when he selected his plot that there were still three plot available, so I put my name on the waiting list thinking that I may be lucky next year. Turns out that the plots were so overgrown that people on the list didn’t want them and I accelerated to the top of the list and obtained Plot 1A which has the least amount of growth and hopefully debris

I’ve since met Andy (also 54) who took on a plot with 8ft high brambles over the back half and this weekend he cut his way in and to his surprise found an 8 x 6 feet shed against the rear fence full of debris and tools from the previous tenant.

So knowing that my knowledge of growing thing is limited I have purchased the three books at the top of the page to help

The Dummies Guide to Allotments has a RRP of £15.99 I picked up a new copy from ebay for £11 with free P&P.

The Essential Allotment Guide & Vegetable Growing Month by Month were £5.99 each with free P&P, however at the moment they both come signed by the Author and with four packs of Sutton seeds each.

Result two very informative books costing £10 which came with £25.80 worth of seeds.

I've ended up with

2 packs x Sweet Peppers F1 Mohawk

2 packs x Carrot F'Maestro

1 pack   x Tomato 100s and 1000s

1 pack   x Tomato Gardener's Delight  

2 packs x Onion F1 Santero

Check out http://www.allotment.org.uk/toolshed/our-books if you want to buy the books and get the seeds