allotment inferiority complex!

[Rosendula]

When we decided to put raised beds in our front garden I got straight to work (it took me about 18 months! lol.) I dug out all the old fruit bushes, bay tree, collapsed rosemary hedge, cut down the hazel and dug over the whole lot. When it was bare, people said how nice it looked (when it was full of lovely, productive fruit and herbs they used to snigger and ask if I'd found any bodies in there, and one bloke [a gardener!] would even yell at me to get the bushes cut down - just before they started to fruit). Anyway, OH was meant to be doing the timer frames for the raised bed, but I knew if I waited for him I wouldn't be growing anything for a couple of years, so I started making them without edges. Well that made people snigger a lot because they really did look like graves. And every so often I would add another one . But when people mentioned it to me (in that I-really-mean-it-but-if-you-say-you're-offended-I'll-say-I'm-only-joking sort of way) I smiled sweetly and pointed out there was room for one more. OH felt uncomfortable about it and got of his rear-end pretty quick to put some edges round, which the neighbours now seem to approve of, but having no edges, and a vacant spot was quite a nice position to be in .

[pops]

rofl! ty for the giggle rosendula :)

[Millymollymandy]

Rosey!

Pops I hadn't thought about kids (not having any!) so how about some cheap string just to mark out where the edges/paths are for the moment? I used a combination of string and bamboo canes to start with otherwise I wouldn't know known exactly where my 5 beds were until things started to grow and the paths got well trodden down.

[redglass]

When we decided to put raised beds in our front garden I got straight to work (it took me about 18 months! lol.) I dug out all the old fruit bushes, bay tree, collapsed rosemary hedge, cut down the hazel and dug over the whole lot. When it was bare, people said how nice it looked (when it was full of lovely, productive fruit and herbs they used to snigger and ask if I'd found any bodies in there, and one bloke [a gardener!] would even yell at me to get the bushes cut down - just before they started to fruit). Anyway, OH was meant to be doing the timer frames for the raised bed, but I knew if I waited for him I wouldn't be growing anything for a couple of years, so I started making them without edges. Well that made people snigger a lot because they really did look like graves. And every so often I would add another one . But when people mentioned it to me (in that I-really-mean-it-but-if-you-say-you're-offended-I'll-say-I'm-only-joking sort of way) I smiled sweetly and pointed out there was room for one more. OH felt uncomfortable about it and got of his rear-end pretty quick to put some edges round, which the neighbours now seem to approve of, but having no edges, and a vacant spot was quite a nice position to be in .

This reminds me of a story told me by a friend...she and her husband were on some snooty private housing estate and the neighbours came round to complain that the front lawn wasn't being trimmed often enough. So her husband dug it all up and put in potatoes. I giggle every time I think of it. Pity neighbours aren't more supportive (or less dumb) sometimes. Fancy bullying someone to cut down a bush that was about to fruit.

Re the allotment: Pops, apparently a huge number of people give up in their first year and I suspect that's through overdoing it. Try not to let your super-achieving next door people get you down. The man on the plot next to mine went to agric. college and does everything better than me - his crops are always ahead of mine - often he gives useful advice but I still have to live with my general inferiority.....I thought your idea of edging with roof tiles was brilliant. I've got some lying round here - at last there's a use for them.

[Geebogs]

Hey Pops,

Don't let it get you down, as has been said, you get what you want out of the allotment, and self satisfaction in knowing the hard work you've put in.
We're the same (a bit), we took over our plot in November last year, and it hadn't been touched for well over a year. It's still a bit rough and ready but we've got some stuff in and, most importantly, we've really enjoyed it.
The plot directly next to us is immaculate, leveled out as flat as a tabletop and everything growing in arrow straight rows (I kid you not). Talk about intimidating! Also the plot across from us is owned by the site's representative and his plot looks great. The good thing is we get loads of advice on what grows well at the site.

About the scaffold planks, don't buy them. We heard somewhere that for health and safety reasons, cracked/damaged planks can't be used, and a quick phone call to the local scaffold yard saw us coming home with 8, 5' planks (that actually looked to be reasonably good nick) and I soon had some raised beds up in the garden.

[pops]

thanks so much geebogs and redglass - i'm making friends with everyone now and they're all lovely (and i was told on the sly that the couple that caused my inferiority complex did have loads of big burly mates come round and do all the building of beds, sheds and glorification anyway! :D )