I got a small allotment during lockdown. I live in a flat, so was feeling trapped. I also wanted some form of exercise and something to focus on. I can't say it's been easy. I've had a few falls due to very bumpy ground (mole issue!) I have also had to learn to do little and often, or just nothing at all. I had to call a neighbour to pick me up one day as i simply couldn't move. That was depressing! Some days I just sit on the plot and listen to the birds. It helps. The hardest part is the watering on very dry days. I do have water butts but they empty very quickly. Unfortunately the water tap is a bit of a schlepp from my plot. Carrying full watering cans back and forth hurts like heck! So I'm so glad it rained today!
Wishing you all a peaceful pain free day.
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Blackberrywine
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Well done with your allotment, it looks a beautiful, peaceful place. Is there no way you, or maybe someone more able, can run a hosepipe from the tap to fill your water butts, and then put it away again? That’s how I fill mine, although they are at the bottom of my garden.
Thank you. Unfortunately hosepipes are not allowed on our plots. It would have to be a huge hose too as quite some distance. I guess I could fork out for one of those huge water collector things.
I’m the same, my hubby put our name down during lockdown. He only helped the first year, we’ve been doing it for 3yrs now. Although I do it alone now. Like you I struggle with filling the watering cans, I forgot to go yesterday evening to water everything, so was glad to see it rained overnight. I do struggle with the weeding, I have ankylosing spondylitis, and have a lot of fusion. I rely on a kneeling pad that turns the other way to a stool, so when kneeling I can use the legs to get back up. It’s definitely a good form of stretching. I’m fortunate that mine almost backs on to my back garden, so don’t have far to hobble. I’ve found with the changeable summer, things are taking longer to grow. Your allotment is looking lovely, I might have to consider raised beds for mine. Enjoy a day off relaxing 🤗
I have the same issue as you with regards to spine. My knees and hips are rubbish too. I can't kneel any more. I have a couple of raised beds and some massive pots...I mean massive! I'm actually growing some celeriac in one of them. I had an issue of voles underneath one raised bed so had to sort that out. Pesky critters! They love my plot. I don't kill anything, don't think I could bear to do that...I just disrupt them a bit. They just laugh at me!
I might try that stool you mention though. Can I ask what type you bought? I'm a bit worried I might not get up again, but it's well worth a try.
I have issues with most joints, both kneecaps are partially dislocated, but thankfully with the thick foam I’m able to tolerate using the stool. Impossible on hard surfaces. This is very similar to the one I have.
I bought my husband one of those stools before he had his hip replaced. I use it all the time now. It puts me in a perfect position for weeding and doing things at ground level and when using it as a kneeler the hand rests are perfect for helping me get up again. I haven’t used it to sit on though so I couldn’t say how steady it is but I really do love it for weeding and planting out. It is one thing I would definitely replace if it gets worn out and past it ( gosh that sounds a bit like me some days🤣)
I really need to purchase another one. I used to use it in the garden, then when I hit the allotment, I took it round there. However I cannot get up moff the ground, unii look Ed’s I have something up use to pull up on, I’ve got a lot of fusion and stiffness as part of my AS. It’s meant not being able to weed in the garden, so that’s hubby’s job, but if I get another stool I can help 🤪👍
I’ve been really careful getting up off the ground since the day I was taking photos of the cat next door eating some catmint in the border and I gave an almighty push with one leg and flew through the air backwards. I landed on my bottom on ground that was like concrete, so tailbone first, back and then my head bounced off the ground. I’m sure I actually saw stars. Unfortunately I fractured my sacrum which was pretty painful at the time so now I am really careful getting up from ground level and the handles are really helpful. My husband seems to really enjoy weeding - he grew up in a flat so he needs a bit (a lot) of guidance about what is a weed but he is much more persistent than I am when it comes to weeding. He managed to eliminate the ground elder I introduced fr9m a clump of s9mething I got from mt elderly aunt.
I use the one with folding metal legs: if you turn it upside down you can use the base of the legs to hoist yourself up with if your hands wrists not too bad. Either way up they are amazing pieces of kit and I use it more than anything in garden, sitting or kneeling. 👍
PS the allotment looks beautiful OP, I am on waiting list and my friends hubby just sits in his with his phone bird song app and ids them all, lovely and peaceful. ☺️
How funny you should mention it...I have just this minute unpacked the very same one. I decided it looked quite sturdy. I hope you don't have to wait long for your plot. 😊
Thank you so much, 4 years but I just want to be fit enough to use it lolz. I am luckier than others tho, I have a long (for a city) south facing garden so can’t moan too much. My daughter in a flat is waiting on hers too; I’d be pleased if she got there first.
Yes this is the same, you have the thick kneeling pad, then the legs you use to push back up. It also stores my secateurs etc in the seat. Then once up, turn it back up to become a stool to rest 😂
Lovely looking allotment darling. Our pumpkins, courgettes and marrows are going crazy. It is good that you had help when you couldn't move. You would struggle to get someone to come into our allotment to rescue us as the gates are locked every time someone goes through them. xxxx
Oh wow...your dahlias look gorgeous! Mine have struggled a bit due to snails and moles, but are finally starting to flower. Fortunately my plot is quite near the big gate and is not locked, so easy for friends to pootle round with the car. I do worry they might end up locking it as every year we get theives breaking into sheds.
I love your allotment Blackberrywine. It is looking amazing. I see you have made a fruit cage. We’ve just done that. I wanted to keep the cabbage whites off my kale and broccoli plants.
We ended up buying a very cheap gazebo from Go Outdoors and cutting it to fit over our raised beds then buying the butterfly net to put round the sides and over the top from online. It works a treat and I like that I can get inside it.
Have you thought of visiting a camping store and looking at roll along water containers - or even look on eBay? That sort of thing might help. I think you might be able to get pumps to pump the water out too but I’m not 100% sure on that.
Thanks so much! Yes, I have one of those roller things but the paths leading to plot are very uneven. It's a bit hopeless. It's tricky getting wheel barrow down to collect woodchip. The path needs levelling really.
Looks good and enjoy the fruits of your labour. I’ve a big garden and trees which give me great pleasure. I birdwatch too and you’re so right , nature is lovely. We got our first early greengages to be picked tomorrow and first crop apples are nearly ready. It’s lovely to see the blossom and then get to eat the fruit, Gardening is such a lovely thing to do, I now grow mainly flowers but this year some are very late like the Fuchsias and I’ve started a wild flower and grass area with bee bombs. It has yet to really get going but should be really wild next year.
Do you know I reached 58 (now 62) without ever gardening. I never had time before, and mostly lived in flats. It's a real joy, if somewhat painful at times. I'd sleep down here if I could get away with it! 🤣
Gardening is so good for your well being too, I love being in mine and also have one of the kneelers with handles which I am using more and more, better safe than sorry, as my mum used to say.
I grew up on a farm, married a son of a local farmer but the husband hated farming so went to uni to do Engineering. He never understood why his dad had 600 acres of potatoes, he paid woman to harvest but still grew some in his garden. He also liked horses but had the same view of sheep as Clarkson which is a series he loved watching as it shows just how hard it is to farm. Why get up at 4 am to milk cows which is then sold for less than the cost of production. And although until his dad retired he liked the big boys toys of the combine it never made him want to take over. We are lucky and enjoy a garden that we've had now for over 40 years but I still change stuff. Two years ago we grubbed out old trees and replaced them and this year I put an Amelancia in a front lawn. It's going to look lovely next year. The blackberries are ripening now so I'm going to get a few bags for the freezer and look for some Quince in the hedgerows to make marmalade. I do sloe gin as well. I love the concept of free food, and Aldi have planted over 2000 acres of apple trees nearby that looks really lovely a new orchard rather than the usual harvest of houses and also a vineyard is being planted as well. We're on chalk so grapes do well in my garden but not enough to make wine. Pain is relative isn't it? if you enjoy an activity its so worth the effort. I admit I like traditional jumbled gardens, no white garden for me it a hotchpotch of stuff and lots of roses. I do cut them and grow dahlias for indoors as they do well. I feel cheered up by your heartening post and thank my lucky stars to be able to enjoy simple things.
I'm so happy you feel cheered by the post. I try (mostly!) to be positive. Sometimes my halo slips! 😆 This year I Had an amazing crop of potatoes! I can't eat them but par boiled and shoved in freezer for guests and family.
Interestingly today I'm too wiped out to do anything on the plot. I'm sketching and listening to pidcasts instead. Annoying as I want to sow a few carrots. Hey ho.
I’ve got a couple of amelanchier in our back garden. They are two different varieties but I love them both. Another name for them is the June Berry and the birds just love them. As soon as the berries come on there they are eating them, everything fr9m big fat wood pigeons who actually dangle upside down to smaller birds. I believe you can use them to make jam or jelly but our tree has grown too tall to harvest and the birds get there first. You will love your tree, it gets lovely blossom, followed by the berries and then beautiful autumn colour. It’s a smallish tree for the garden and one that I can definitely recommend planting and so many birds love it.
Thank you I just saw it when Charlie Dimmock planted one and thought I’ll get one. We took out an old weeping bronze beech that had past its best by a long way and the amelanchier is a lovely cup shape. I’ve got a few trees in the back garden and would like a magnolia but they won’t grow here. My azalea is in a huge pot and is ok but again won’t grow well on our chalky soil. My eucalyptus had to be felled last year as it got too big and it was sad as the smell was lovely, the bark smelled of cinnamon but my husband said it was getting dangerous had we’d pollarded twice. We picked our greengages today. Some for friends and family, the rest I’ll freeze for the cold months to come. Apple picking on Friday as the Katy’s are ready and the bottom of my garden smells of fruit. Summer’s pleasure is home grown or wild fruit. Blackberries are everywhere and I’ve got the gin in for sloe gin too. I buy cheapest so got on duty free a few weeks ago.
Your garden sounds amazing! I’m sure your amalanchier will do ell on your chalky soul, it is very, very chalky where we are. I met someone on a nature reserve recently who was very sniffy about it - because amalanchier arenot a native species but believe me our garden birds love it.
my runner beans haven’t produced much flowers and no beans at all - herbs are the main thing we can grow and my main contribution is to direct operations.
Beautiful aren't they. I grow them every year mainly for the height and flower. I don't actually eat many vegetables, but share them with family and friends. Because it's a small space I grow most things vertically. I like the tame jungle look. I'm growing 2 angelica plants and some globe artichokes this year...they grow massive! People will have to send out a search party to find me soon!😆
There is an insect that nips the back of the flowers so the bean doesn't develop. Stick beans were grown here by the hundred of acres. The insect got them and it then became impossible to grow again. I don't know what it was called but like Box moth it seems to be because of global conditions changing. Here the pong of coriander is awful but I don't like it anyway. And roses have replaced some wheat fields. Now that is lovely as you walk along the road, the smell is wonderful. x
I think that everyone is struggling with things this year; someone on the next road always grows lots and I've noticed that his are way behind. I'm growing everything in pots this year (haven't sorted out a veg plot yet) and have got some climbing french beans but also some dwarf runner beans which are specifically for containers. Lots of flowers on them and a few tiny beans developing. Maybe that would be an option another year as you can move them around to follow the sun 😉
Try for stick beans and re tomato’s this is a good tip. Dig a well or trench plant around the baby plant and fill with sheep wool dirty preferably and compost will work too then keep the well around the plants to get water well down into roots. My Italian friend taught me and gave me a tomato smasher in her will. Don’t laugh it was a joke in addition to other stuff but it really works. You simmer the toms for a couple of hours then pour into smasher. Then turn the handle and one way comes pure juice the other skins and pips. Then bottle to last for a year. It’s great fun !
Same here, I planted fine green beans and they have just been a disaster. First couple of lots of seed didn’t germinate, think I planted them too soon, I bought some small plants which are very slow to do anything then I planted more seeds that came up, I left them outside in their tray and the slugs ate them all, more determined than ever I put in more seeds which have come up they are still in their tray which I have put up off the ground and I sat the tray on an upturned plant saucer with a moat of slug pellets. So far I’m winning and all the seedlings are still there. Hopefully when they are bigger and stronger I can plant them out and they will be safe.
That looks lovely - it’s a perfect size and it looks like you have lots growing there.
I struggle with carrying watering cans too, they’re just so heavy. I have 3, and I’ve now resorted to filling them and putting them in the wheelbarrow to move them. Water does slop out but I tip that on the bed when I get there. Easier for me than carrying them a distance X
It’s heavy but it’s not the dead weight of a watering can. If you manage to load it right and get the weight right over the wheel, it’s light as a feather! 😁
You should be very proud of what you’ve achieved - it looks really beautiful! I used to have an allotment but gave it up owing to a house move :0(. Luckily there was a small shed and hubby ran guttering along it and connected it to a water butt, which meant I didn’t have to trek up and down to the tap. I have one of those seats mentioned above too - it’s really good in the garden.
Thank you. I am quite proud of it. It was a complete mess when I got it. It's taken 4 years to whip it into some sort of shape. I use a lot of free woodchip!
What a lovely allotment!You can use those kneeler the other way up as a stool. I sit on mine and weed from there. I haven't been able to kneel since my knee replacement, though I'm going to give it a go.
Looks lovely can relate to how hard it all is, my garden is larger than the average. I now have a gardener he & his helper just arrived, they're helping to reduce the "jungle " my garden has turned into. Like you have water butts in different places but still hard so tending to carry half full watering cans these days.
Still least it's giving us exercise and natural balm which is good for us. 🌼🦋🐌🐞🥒🍓
Yes it soon becomes a jungle doesn't it. I have a wild area beside my plot. If I don't strim that back every three weeks I'm in trouble with weeds. Bind weed is horrendous this year!
I think growing things is huge therapy. I make paintings now I can’t easily garden due to disabilities. If anyone wants to see/share cathielloydart.com. I don’t sell just share
Looked at your work, its very original and a loose style of painting which I like, I enjoy doing textile art and belong to a small group where we have each done a David Hockney painting using fabric and stitching. so good to have a hobby.
Thankyou. I do a regular email posting to anonymised recipients as part of my OCA degree show, so if you like looking at it you're welcome to join. And Hockney is. great - my paintings are now mainly iPad - and its great if you're a tad limited physically - less setting up and very portable. Your group sounds greatx
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