Author: Adam Leone

Hello my name's Adam and I'm a 20-something gardener, blogger and proud allotment holder here in London, UK. I love growing my own vegetables and experimenting in the the kitchen. My ideal Saturday or Sunday includes working up a sweat at my allotment in the morning, followed by a cup of tea admiring the views. I've had an allotment for around 10 years now and I show no signs of stopping.
Allotment Diary

Introducing a seed price comparison page

by Adam LeoneLeave a Comment on Introducing a seed price comparison page
Introducing a seed price comparison page

As the early evenings have drawn in I’ve been quite busy on the blogging front, building pages that I’m hoping readers will find useful.

First I began working on a Plant A-Z page that can be found here. As I was building that page and compiling all of the information with regards to sowing, planting and harvesting I found myself searching for seed prices, which can be found in the sidebar of each plant page. 

Then I thought to myself, hang on a minute, all of this needs to be in one place. I did a quick search online to see if there were any outlets or sites that compare seed prices and I couldn’t find one – so I thought I would build my own. 

Check out the seed price comparison page here

Prices being compared

I’ve started with comparing the prices of these five seed retailers and manufacturers, and I’m only comparing the prices of seeds that I’ve grown in the past. Each time I grow a new variety, it’ll get added to my Plant A-Z page and Price Comparison page. 

The prices being compared are all prices that can be found online, rather than in store and they all reflect the same seed packet size. 

And it goes without saying – but these prices don’t take into account any promotions that are in place, nor do they take into account postage.

Thompson
& Morgan

Mr. Fothergills

Dobies

Suttons

Unwins

If you’re a seed manufacture and want to be included in this seed price comparison, reach out and contact me here. 

What’s next? Subscribe to a monthly buying guide of course! 

I can put both my Plant A-Z information and Seed Price Comparison information together and start publishing buying guides via newsletter each month starting with January 2019 – so that you know the most cost effective place to purchase seeds for the month ahead.

If you’d like to receive a copy each month – use the form below (you’ll also see a pesky pop-up every now and then as well!)

I hope you find this useful, and if you spot an update to any seed prices, feel free to let me know here (I’ll also be checking at the start of each month)

Who knows, if this takes off over the course of the year I might just compile all of the data and publish the most cost effective seed price manufacturer 🙂

Allotment Diary

Introducing my plant A – Z

by Adam LeoneLeave a Comment on Introducing my plant A – Z

I’ve created a plant A -7 page complete detailing how much seeds will cost, and when you need to sow them.

  • Cultivating mint

I’ve grown a lot of different types of the same fruit and veg over the years and during that time, I’ve tried to blog about how, why and what I’ve planted, along with any problems I’ve come across.

Continue reading “Introducing my plant A – Z” →
Allotment Diary

Wonky beds or allotment chic?

by Adam Leone1 Comment on Wonky beds or allotment chic?
Wonky beds or allotment chic?

Not so long ago, actually maybe toward the end of last year and the beginning of this year I decided to merge some beds together to get more growing space and add some edging to the borders. It was part of my first plan of trying to rejig things on the plot.

As usual with these sorts of attempts, I think I gained top marks for effort but fell down at the execution stage – although I am my own worst critic. Although I tried to keep everything straight, it just didn’t happen.

I would probably say I fell down at the execution stage because I am notorious for not measuring things out properly or not even using a guide or a measure at all – so it’s no real mystery.

I’ve defended my inadequacies by using lines like “It’s meant to be like that, it’s allotment chic.” or “I’m going for the rustic look.” The truth is, I didn’t use a tape measure.

Don’t be fooled by the following pictures, the beds are actually super wonky, these images were taken earlier on in 2018.

Raised bed 1
Raised bed 2
Raised bed 3
Raised bed 4

Once I completed a few beds, I never bothered to change them until I decided to start again…again.

I’m about a quarter of the way through making drastic changes to my plot and I thought I would start to do things differently in how I’m building things – and it’s not really a major change in method… I’ve started using a tape measure and the results are showing.

I’m also using plastic sheeting to keep everything covered and weeds at bay and because the sheeting is 1 meter in length, this has also been a good way of keeping everything in line and much more squarish.

img_20180901_154914
Carrot Tops Allotment plastic sheeting

It’s a complete working progress and each time I go to the allotment, I go with the mindset that I can create a new bed, and it’s great to see it all come together slowly.

I feel that I’m slowly winning with the war against marestail and bindweed.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The other evening I got to the point whereby I found that I was working with different pieces of wood for the edging. I decided that a great trick to try and keep everything straight as you’re laying the edging is to first make sure that at least one edge is straight.

After that, use a piece of wood or a guide to the width that you want it and use that to keep everything the same length-ish. If necessary, dig out a little bit extra for the edge as you can always backfill what you’ve dug out.

Granted this isn’t an absolute perfect method, but it does the job for the allotment and you do end up with more or less straight, or even edging for your beds.

One of the tips is to use the guide at the same point, so in this case I was using the guide at the joints where the pegs hold in the edging.

Carrot tops edging 2
Carrot tops edging 1

In the end, it begged the question – wonky beds, or allotment chic? What do you think?

How do you keep everything straight on your plot? I would love to know what tricks are being used out there.