allotment - its all going wrong :(

[barefootlinzi]

I feel disheartened, nothing has happened to my newly aquired allotment since we got it last month. We put raised beds in but compost to fill them has turned into such an issue. We want to get it from a green waste recycling plant 25 miles away where it is sold cheaply and loose, so we need to collect it with a trailer. We neither have a trailer or a towbar, and was going to pay our local handyman to to this for usbut he has hurt his back and cannot drive, we have been away so its still not been sorted and I get more pregnant by the day and less able to dig and work hard on the allotment! My seeds that i have grown on my window sill are getting bigger and bigger waiting to be planted on the allotment, my spuds are still chitting and my strawbs are threatening to flower!!!!! So I am panicking a little!

[growingthings]

to you, I fully understand that impeding sense of urgency as soon you'll need both your hands for you new bundle.

Can you rally a working party of friends? Perhaps bribe them with a big pot of chillie and jackets potatoes? Thats what Hubby and I do when theres a job that wants doing by more than the two of us.

I admit that sometimes things don't always turn out exactly the way we hoped but it certainly lessens the work for us!

Good luck with the getting organised. Writing a list also always works for me, it breaks the big things up into more managable pieces and then you start feeling like you are achieving things again.

Lorna x

[Green Aura]

While you're waiting for your big load, could you get a smaller bag and just start one end of one of your beds? It will just give you that sense that somethings happening.

You don't need to waste money on compost for your spuds - they'll grow in, and improve, any old soil. So get those in one of the beds as well, then things will certainly look like they're coming on!

[happy place]

i would agree with green aura just plant the spuds in their bed and if your delivery of stuff arrives just pile it on top rember spuds need earthing up so it wont matter if you import that earth or drag it up the side

[Peggy Sue]

Yes getting a little soemthing in the ground does wonders for the soul!
Broad beans will grow in anything too, get them in!!

Count yourself lucky things are coming on so well on teh windowsill, mine are looking a bit bleak this year- not sure if I got a job lot of poor seeds, they don't like the house temperature or the compost or what! They all seemed to germiante thn die