[growth]

[kaberett]

Apparently I haven't posted any photos of the allotment since last August, whoops.

Here we are back in March, having just unloaded All The Allotment Bits from the van:



The fennel and the spinach are soldiering on, the artichoke is knee-high, the cherry and the Ribes various are completely bare, there's some wooden greenhouse staging in an ungainly pile and a sideways water butt, and the raised beds are covered in piles of disarticulated greenhouse skeleton (and, further back, a pile of greenhouse glass stacked with bubble wrap). Since last you all saw, I've constructed a set of bamboo poles for peas to climb up (not that they managed it, because Slugs Happened).



Two weeks later, ewt risked life & limb to help me get the greenhouse skeleton largely rearticulated, less the roof ridge and rafters. The artichoke's got a little taller and the pak choi (around the bean poles) are even more enthusiastically in flower. I've shuffled the compost bin slightly to its final location. The jostaberry behind the greenhouse is starting to come into bud.



I apologise for how incredibly ridiculously blurry this photograph is, but we were Very Tired and Wanted To Go Home: Adam had spent a lot of the afternoon and early evening helping me glaze the greenhouse (he did all the roof bits), and I'd been Illicit Concrete Alex (shh). The jostaberry is now thoroughly in leaf, as are the raspberry canes; the artichoke is waist high; and the cherry's starting to flower.



This evening, right before leaving: the cherry is magnificently and riotously in bloom, I've tidied the plot a little, the greenhouse is increasingly full of Stuff I need to wrangle, and in the foreground is the start of my new raised bed edging. I am hoping to get it finished over the rest of the weekend (and the plot therefore substantially tidied up, and also several rows of root vegetables sown); should I achieve this I will take a Bunch more photographs and demand praise from you all.

I'm really pleased with how it's coming along? This is the very first plot you see when you enter the site, which fact I am occasionally a little daunted by, but I am making progress and I sincerely hope sorting the raised beds out will facilitate a bunch more.

Comments

[worlds_of_smoke]

So, excuse my brain, but... what exactly is an allotment? XD I mean, like... the mechanics of it. Is it a massive community garden and you get a spot to grow things in?

(I am super jealous, btw. I can't even keep my succulents alive. XD)

[kaberett]

OKAY RIGHT.

I am not entirely clear on what "a community garden" is, but: here's more than you could ever want to read, but tl;dr my allotment site is owned by my Borough Council; I rent a six-pole plot (~150sqm) for ~£75 per year (including water). The standard size is ten pole (~250sqm). I'm to keep at least 75% of it in cultivation (which I'm working on!); I'm in theory allowed to keep small livestock (hens/rabbits/bees/etc), and can grow anything I like (within reason, subject to legality and invasive species etc). Borough residents are given priority and preferential pricing, in general you'll be higher up the waiting list if you don't have access to a garden of your own you could be growing in, and allotment sites are often protected by law (i.e. they can't just be redeveloped into something more profitable without jumping through a lot of hoops).

There's another 20-30 plot holders on my site. It's generally accepted that you Don't interfere with other people's plots, but in practice you get friendly with your neighbours and invited to pitch in & share the proceeds. (In fact I am under strict instructions to make off with some of my neighbour's rhubarb because they have TOO MUCH OF IT.)

Is that a good overview? Should I ramble more? :D

[worlds_of_smoke]

That's definitely a type of community garden! :) AFAIK, most of the community gardens around here aren't split into plots or rented out. I imagine it might be different in bigger cities. But here in Columbus, the land is free and people in the neighborhood work on the garden as a group. I'm not sure how they split the proceeds. They may split them between the families that work the plot, among the neighborhood in general, or just be "take it if you need it" type gardens. You usually find them in lower income neighborhoods, though I know that at least one downtown church that has a small garden.

The ones at the Conservatory are pretty much exactly like your allotments, though there's no preference for who gets a plot. They're just rented out to whoever can pay. (and the prices are a bit ridiculous because it's also used as a fundraiser for the Conservatory. I want to say it's $200 a plot per season?) Even restaurants can rent a plot if they want to. But you rent a small plot (which is more like a long raised bed rather than a big plot of land) for a growing season and are required to give a part of your harvest to the food bank. Everything else is yours. And everyone keeps out of everyone else's plots.

I think the main difference is that you can't keep any small animals in any of our gardens and I don't think that any of the community gardens are protected by law. Even the Conservatory could sell the community garden land off if they wanted to.

[ironed_orchid]

The greenhouse looks so good!

[kaberett]

I AM SUPER PLEASED. (Particularly because I didn't actually end up measuring it to check it was square and level before glazing -- I just eyeballed it and then shuffled the frame around a bit as necessary. >_>)

[vass]

Thank you so much for posting this. I've been wanting to see, and the time lapse photography is great because one can actually see the plants growing.

It's coming along beautifully, and I am SO IMPRESSED. I love what you've done with it.

[kaberett]

<333

[chiasmata]

Aaaaaaaah, look at it! Amaze!

[kaberett]

VERY EXCITE. Today's plans-with-friend have (expectedly) fallen through, so I'm going to drag A down to the plot with his laptop (for moral support) while I get the beds ACTUALLY BUILT. Is the idea. :)

[hydrangea]

It's absolutely gorgeous! I sorta want to reach into the pictures and petpet all the pretty growth.

[kaberett]

:D

I am v much enjoying getting to Touch all of my Plants. (And my next plan is a sun lounger/deck-chair type thing, which obviously I'm going to call a chaise longue, because actually when I want to take a break at the plot it's mostly because I need to lie down for a bit, so I had might as well Do So In Style...)

[cesy]

So great!

[khronos_keeper]

This is so awesome!!! I'm so excited for you!

Hoe, me?

[hairyears]

We should get around to getting one of them...