"Christina Websell" wrote ...


I have a paddock down in the village, a mile and a half away that I kept
goats on for many years.
Since my last goat passed away of old age quite a while ago, I have hardly
visited it, it was very overgrown and a target for flytippers as a public
footpath runs along oone side.
A few weeks ago my brother suggested that we cultivate it as a family and I
was very pleased, as 1/3 acre of nettles and brambles was too daunting for
me.
He has a friend with a mini digger and he was pleased to have a chance to
play with his boy's toy, so they spent a whole day clearing about half of
it ten days ago and making a path towards the tap, yes, it has water on
site!

We'll be able to grow organically as never a touch of chemicals has ever
gone near it since I bought it in 1982ish.
I've had an enquiry from a beekeeper who would like to have a few hives on
there and will visit him to discuss. I'm likely to agree to that. He also
wants a plot and I will probably say no to that atm.
I spent a nice few hours down there today with my brother who has the week
off work, me sowing salad vegs (just lettuce, radish and spring onions for
now) on a bit my bro had dug over, removed all the nettle roots from and
raked to a fine tilth, while he dug another bit over to make a separate
bed.
My garden at home is large in area, but long and thin and shaded by trees.
I try to grow veggies but they certainly suffer from the shading and don't
do very well.
The paddock is wide and open, no trees, plenty of sun.
This will be wonderful, if my bro maintains his interest. He has 3
children under 12 to feed so he probably will.
When the digger was there all the neighbours came out of the woodwork.
"Can we have a plot, buy a bit?"

I was in a desperate situation when I bought this land. I had a rented
place with stables for my goats and suddenly the owner gave me 3 months
notice to quit as he wanted to build there. I had seven goats at the time
and the only land available was this piece. The current owner of it had
been refused planning permission on it so he was up for selling it, but
like villages are, the word had got around that my goats would soon be
homeless.
I ended up paying half as much as my house cost at that time for it and had
two large mortgages, more so as I had to pay the loan for the land off in 5
years.
I'm not inclined to let plots off for 10 quid a year or whatever is the
going rate, more so because I discovered that if I do I need liability
insurance.

Hey, I'm really excited. I want to grow everything that I never could in
my shaded garden!
However, it's quite rough atm. Even the digger did not get rid of some of
those dreadful tufts of grass and there is huge heap of the ones that it
did. 20 yards long and three feet high. Will this rot down to grow
courgettes in? she says hopefully.
We haven't attacked the brambles yet. 50 yards x 15 yards at least. How
to do it organically as that's the way we want to go? I suspect slash and
burn.
Now if I still had goats, not a bramble will live as they love them.


You may be interested that the full price of allotments in Runnymede BC is
£13.80 per sq Rod (Pole or Perch), effectively 5 metres by 5 metres. And
that is cheaper because we pay by DD. We also get a 50% reduction for being
old farts so for us it's "just" £6.75 a sq Rod.
At full price a standard 10 sq Rod allotment would be £138.00 per annum.
Water is available although no hoses are ever allowed, they don't do much
else for us except inspect every 3 months and write if they see an
uncultivated plot.
Those prices may change your mind about the financial consequences of
renting out bits although you may need parking/fencing/ and strict
inspections to throw off any useless gardeners.
BTW the bees will need a 6ft high fence around the hives so they fly up and
away not into people.
--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK