What Preps are you doing this week

[Le Mouse]

Well I'm not interested in an allotment because it's 'trendy', but because I want to grow food! I looked into a council allotment, but the waiting lists are really long and I'm realistic enough to accept that I may not be able to maintain something of that size. The garden plots at work are smaller and of a size I could manage alone if the quality of the ground were a little better! There's a community garden nearby too, but they provide the seeds which I don't like. I'm going to further investigate vertical gardening

[moocher]

Got a lovely Origo 4100 twin burner stove runs on denatured alcohol/meths
Always been interested in these,and this one was for sale on a forum, and price was reduced after a while so I snapped it up

Just got to work it out now

[moocher]

I gave my private allotment up as too far away,it was 8 miles and with newborn baby it was going to be hard pushed to keep it weed free,
Name is on list for local council one.

Re dahlias the tuber Apperently tastes like Jerusalem artichoke/celeriac
I have some seeds to sow this year.

[TwoDo]

Yesterday I went and had a look at the allotment site at work. I had a reply from the gardening club saying there are no marked out plots free, but that there is space to mark one out myself. I was really disappointed at that - the plot would only be mine while I was working there and my job isn't a permanent one. By the time I got the appalling ground into a state where I could grow something, I may well not have a job anymore! Also the security is rubbish. I could walk over the fence! Hey ho. Back to the drawing board.

You should consider taking the plot anyways. Gardening takes practice and if you ever have to do it and live off the output you'll be glad you had a trial run now. Start small, clear a bit, plant a bit, clear a bit more plant a bit more. Grow some stuff in tubs and pots. You could try seed-saving - that sort of thing also takes skill and you _have_ to do it to learn it. In the other waste bits around the site you could practice guerrilla gardening - see what works and what doesn't while you are around to keep an eye on it. Really there are lots of good reasons to take the plot.

Do not worry that you will loose the plot if you loose the job. You'll take the experience with you and besides, if you get on well with the other allotment holders, maybe they'll let you keep it until somebody else wants it (clearly nobody does now). Talk to them, make friends with them, learn from them. People look after one another if there is a personal relationship and lots of things happen on a nod and a wink.

Any perennials you plant (like rhubarb) can be later moved and split. They are not especially cheap so you buy a few now, multiply them, and take them with you when you go - essentially you could consider them a kind of investment.

Investigate no-dig gardening - that Charles Dowding guy turned a hard packed clay field into a productive market garden in pretty short order. That sort of thing is worth knowing.

As for security, when SHTF every (and I mean every) allotment no matter how secure will be constantly raided. It will not be possible to get much of a crop off due to all the theft. However, the skills you have cannot be stolen and the strawberry spinach you guerrilla planted in the far corner will still be there (it looks pretty darn toxic, no one would chance eating it and it self seeds like mad).

[Yorkshire Andy]

Need to reset the program in the CCTV cameras at the front of the house the council have been along today and ripped the old street light heads off and replaced them with megga bright LED units from yellowy white sodiums... great for us security wise it lights the front garden up great so great i might be able to ditch the IR illumiators

[TwoDo]

The garden plots at work are smaller and of a size I could manage alone if the quality of the ground were a little better!

Raised beds. Get some old pallets, knock them apart, and make some raised beds - or just do mounds. If you can grow food there you can grow it anywhere and that is something worth knowing. At the very least you'll learn how to compost and scrounge organic matter (leaves in the autumn, weeds in the summer etc).

[Le Mouse]

Raised beds. Get some old pallets, knock them apart, and make some raised beds - or just do mounds. If you can grow food there you can grow it anywhere and that is something worth knowing. At the very least you'll learn how to compost and scrounge organic matter (leaves in the autumn, weeds in the summer etc).

TwoDo, you ought to do motivational speaking (if you don't already )! You make a damn good case. I'll call the club chairperson and arrange a proper look round before I definitely say 'no way' - I had only nipped up there at lunchtime and looked in from the path. Also my first opinions had been formed by colleagues who had been quite negative about the site, so that fuelled my disappointment.

If I took it on, I wouldn't be short of organic matter - there's horses in the fields down the way!

Thank you TwoDo, you have made me think and that is a very good thing!

[Wildfire]

treated myself to a Jetboil Zip for mothers day just arrived love it

[Arzosah]

I agree, Mouse, brilliant posts from TwoDo! Great idea to see a learning opportunity, and maybe even keeping it after you leave the company itself. I especially like the ideas of containers and perennials - you can take them with you, after all!

A couple of bits of my garden really aren't ready for planting the salads that I'm looking for, so while the wood chippings are decomposing and adding their organic matter, I'm putting grow bags on top, and growing salad in there. Probably a bit *too* portable for where you are, Mouse, but maybe if they're held down with pallets, even they would be okay.

[featherstick]

Chipping back in to the allotment discussion:

I managed to side-step the waiting list at my local site. This is why:

The council has 3000 ppl on its waiting list (last time I asked). Of those, 2/3 will have moved away, changed their minds, split up or no longer want an allotment for one reason or another. Nevertheless, when a plot comes free, the council needs to write a letter to the next person on the list, give them a chance to respond, then write to the next person, give them a chance to respond, and so on until someone take a plot on. Then the new plotholder will probably kill themselves on the first weekend, realise it's hard work, and not come back. When this happens the council needs to inspect the plot, send them a non-cultivation letter, wait 3 months for them to have a chance to get the plot in order, send them a quit notice, wait another 3 months, cancel their agreement, and then start all over again.

I went to the local site manager, introduced myself, explained that I had experience growing, said that I'd be willing to be flexible, share a plot if someone wanted to cut down or with another new member, and generally convinced him that I know how to look after a plot and I'd keep it in good order. The result was I was turning sod 6 weeks later without ever having gone on the waiting list.

So the lesson is to show your face, get to know the manager, and be flexible.