I have claimed my new plot in the community garden!

I have "claimed" my community garden plot & have been out there doing bits of gardening work. Fortunately for me, the plot was worked as recently as last year & the former "owners" ?"occupiers"? No, I guess "gardeners" is the term. Anyway the former gardeners improved the soil several years running. This news came to me from 3 other plot gardeners in the community garden. Apparently it is an enviable plot. Since the snow has only just melted, at this point it is a mucky mess but I am still pleased.

 

Great news and congratulations. I've seen some allotment here, very quickly while travelling around here and they are cool.

 

Good for you Cayuga. Now the fun begins.

 

That is fabulous news! Happy Gardening

 

That is great news! Please post pictures.

 

Thanks all. I'll take my camera out today & get some photos. The garden has a spring down in the woods & a piping system with a hand pump to bring the water up to the garden. One of the community jobs I have helped with is cleaning out the spring so the pump can work. It is a delightful little pool just FILLED with watercress! I raked & raked pounds of the stuff out & have put in in a hole in my plot for compost. I took some home too my our parakeets. They have not encountered watercress before & took a dim view of it, but I am sure they will warm to the idea soon!

 

No watercress salads or sandwiches?

 

2ofus...I was told to be careful of tiny little bugs on the watercress....to wash it very carefully. That kind of put me off the watercress for myself.

 

My daughter & I spent the afternoon in the community garden today. Although the soil has been improved, it is unfortunately full of weeks. Apparently the garden got away from the previous tenants last summer, so it is full of perennial weeds Quite a lot of start up work, but it is still a great plot. Here are some initial photos.

This is our plot, 20X20 feet. That first row has peas planted in it.


This is some watercress that I pulled out of the spring....I harvested some for our pararkeets, the rest I will turn under in the garden for compost.


We met Christina, a fellow community gardener. She has an amazing garden & is a fount of knowledge. I was going to put her photo in, but realized I did not ask her permission, so I guess not!


Shot of other plots


More community plots.

This is the pump area. We pump water up from a spring some 40 feet away. It is a hand pump & then we lug the water to our own plot. I have a little red wagon that I will bring for hauling the water.

That's all for now folks!!!

 

It looks like you will be busy...enjoy. Weeds grow so quickly, it doesn't take much for them to overpower other things. I just wish my flowers would grow that fast. What I chuckle at is when I take a flower picture, once in a while you will see a tall weed in the background that I missed.

 

Sherry, That sounds like a lot of my pictures! Cay. it looks like you are having a good time with your allotment and it is nice to meet someone with a lot of knowledge. It sounds like you are really enjoying it.

 

2ofus & Sherry, thanks. Yes I am really enjoying it. We've gotten the peas in & they have (finally) begun sprouting. It is a very late spring here. My daughter & I did more work on the plot today, mainly removing YET MORE weeds. Tough go, but the soil is FULL of worms.

 

Hello There Cayuga,

I don't know how I missed this super posting, but I did.

Well, that was a big day, wasn't it! Your new lottie looks good to me. The soil colour looks nice as well. Are the peas that you planted low-bush sort, or the tall type?

What are your plans for the rest of the lottie? It's a good plan to use the water cress for compost.

It is good that you have made friends with a fellow allotmenteer with a lot of experience. That is going to be a big help to you when things really begin to roll. It is really handy to have a pump there, and since you called it a spring, I assume that it is not city water...and that is good.

So mate, what's going on with the those things that look like soccer goals? Bean or pea racks? Some sort of protective structures?

Thank you for posting these piccies, they give a pretty good idea of the lay of the land and what you will be working with in terms of a plot.

Anyhow--good luck and congratulations !

 

Thanks Sjoerd. Our community gardens pale in contrast to your lotties. No permanent structures, much smaller plots, etc. But I am indeed quite excited about it.

We have winter squash seedlings in the basement to go in, lettuce, beets, beans (pole & bush), cantaloupe & carrots. That is the plan thus far.

Did you see the posting about Kugelkultur? I thought I would try it in the far couple of rows. Right now, the garden is divided into rows. I would like to create raised beds in rectangle shapes.

Thanks for your comments. How is your lottie doing?