One month in...

Well the first month has been and gone in a flash of an eye!

Week three was the week of neglect as I managed to pop down once to do some watering as work and other things seemed to get in my way. While week four saw me clear and dig another bed. Not before time as my three sisters (sweetcorn, green beans and squashes) that have been growing in the cold-frame in my garden are desperately needing to be planted out. That is what I will be doing at the weekend hopefully!

I also witnessed my first notable bit of wildlife in the allotment this week (apart from worms and slugs and things). Under one of the mats keeping the grass down I saw what I think was a slow-worm - a lizard without legs. I think it was a slow-worm rather than an adder mainly because it was pretty slow when I moved the mat. It was a shame I didn't have my camera with me. perhaps i will come across it again. It can stay as long as it wants as far as I'm concerned as its diets includes slugs! Just as well as it is a protected species in the UK.

As expected I have pretty much only managed to fit in a couple of hours here down the allotment over the month, I'm probably averaging 2-3 hours a week. But I am pleased with what I have achieved, perhaps because I had low expectations in the first place. Starting so late in the season means I can experiment without expecting too much, and get things in order for a full season of growing next year.

Week Two: Freecycle is my saviour...

The second week saw me set about acquiring tools and other useful things that I desperately needed for my allotment...

Freecycle is my saviour, and a must for any allotmenteer. For those not familiar with freecycle it is basically a network of local message-boards that allow people to post lists of things that they don't want anymore for other people to come and take away. It works on the principal of one mans rubbish is another mans treasure.

That second week I picked up two double glazed doors (which I hope I will one day get round to making a cold frame with). A number of bits of old carpet, four pallets for creating a compost bin and a selection of tools including a hoe and a fork. A big thankyou goes to Malcolm who after dropping off the doors, kept me in mind and was kind enough to call me up and offer me some bits of carpet and the tools. As a thankyou please check out his website.

If I was desperate to dig a bed and start growing in week one. My efforts turned to stop things growing in the little time I spent down the allotment in week two. It being the end of May the temperature had shot up as had the grass and weeds. The old bits of carpet I got through Freecycle allowed me to cover most of my plot. I then attacked the rest with my rotary push mower. Hard work, but I want to see how long I can last without resorting to powered tools such as strimmers and rotovators.

Week One...

Well I had to start somewhere... First off I bought myself a spade. I am hoping to recycle and use second hand tools and equipment as much as possible on the allotment. However I figured with a lot of digging ahead of me I could treat myself to a brand new spade a Spear & Jackson number, with currently a third off at Homebase. With willful enthusiasm I got stuck in and started removing the turf from what will be my first bed.

By the end of the week I had finished digging the bed and was just about to plant some King Edward potatoes. When I was told by a neighbour that I would be lucky to get potatoes from my allotment over the next two years as they would most likely be eaten by something called wireworms. Well my bed was dug and the seed potatoes wer poised to go in the ground so despite the warning I planted the spuds and will keep my fingers crossed. The plan for the rest of this year is to plant small amounts of lots of different things and see what does well and what doesn't. The RHS say companion planting Marigolds may help keep wireworms away from tomatoes, so I may plant some near my spuds. Do your best wire worms!

The Beginning...

It was a Friday lunch time a couple of weeks a go. Checking the post, a key dropped out an envelope, on further investigation of the contents I was thrilled to find I had finally acquired an allotment. Well half an allotment as it happens, but its more than enough for me to fit into my busy life.

It was a surprise because I had signed up for one around 6 months ago. But as there has been a surge of interests in allotments over the last couple of years, like many areas there is a fair old waiting list in and around Tunbridge Wells. So much so in fact, that a number of growers couldn't wait their turn and took things into their own hands earlier this year...

I however, a much less militant gardener (and pretty much distracted by the one hundred and one other things that occupy my life) was happy to wait my turn. So it was that Friday evening early in May, after work I jumped on my bike and headed down to survey my new plot to check it out and take some photos.

My first impressions were that it was not as big as I thought it would be. But that feeling soon passed as I sat in the middle of it, on the grass (it was pretty much all grass, it hadn't been dug in a while). The realisation dawned that it was plenty big enough to start with, and that I was starting from the very beginning. I didn't even own a spade...

I hope the Allotment Monkey blog will record my progress over the coming months and years. hopefully it will also becoming a useful reference for myself and anyone else who stumbles upon it. A record of a young(ish) aspiring allotmenteer fitting his plot into his hectic life.