Hi Gill

 Well I have done the soil test, it comes back as a PH reading og 6.0 - Acid.  Sorry its taken so long to get back to you! - for your info I will be away on hols for 2 weeks from 4th Sept, just incase you think I havent got back to you! but i will be checking my mail daily (when i can) up until that date.

Hope you enjoying the sunshine

Claire

Thanks Claire. I'll be on holiday from 10th so we'll catch up towards end of September.

Enjoy your holiday. 

Gill

really sorry but that was incorrect, I have come back to the soil test this morning and its clearly blue which indicates 7.0- neutral! I was obviously not giving it enough time to settle.

 Cheers and enjoy your hols too

Hi Claire

Thought I'd give you an update on the garden design.

Have all the basics on paper, I just need to out it in a presentable format for you.

We have had our front garden landscaped which took twice as long as expected and was a nightmare.

However, I now have a bigger flowerbed plus a new small one next to the front door

Will be in touch very soon

Gill 

Hi Gill

Good to hear from you!

Cant wait to see your designs.  Your garden sounds lovely too, I am jealous!

Look forward to hearing from you soon

Claire

Hi Claire

Have you received the book you've won for your thread? I won a copy in August, it has some excellent information and photographs. Some of the plants I'll be suggesting are in the book so I could list page numbers and photo references.

Hi Gill

No I havent, unfortunately I deleted the email by accident before i had a chance to reply...I will have to try and search for it I think as the book would be really good.  Any ideas if i can find it via this site? I will also search my outbox...

Thanks for reminding me

 Hi Claire

 Probably best to email Sarah B. 

Gill 

I hope you don't mind - I've just registered as a member on Gardening.co.uk, as I was hoping to find some ideas for someone else - but I came across your conversation and have enjoyed it so much.

I've been an enthusiastic but not very expert, or cash-rich, gardener for years, and after moving to Nottingham two years ago after retirement I took on a huge allotment earlier this year and have had a great time, and lots of satisfaction, growing and harvesting very good crops - largely down to the quality of the soil, I think.

 I do hope Claire gets lots of pleasure from her plot and that she really likes Gill's ideas. Can other people see the designs too? And will Claire keep Gill posted with progress.

 Did you both enjoy your holidays?

 Best wishes to you both, Marion

Hi Marion

Welcome to the site. Lovely to hear about your allotment and the pleasure you get from it. 

I'll probably scan in the design I've done for Claire and put it into an album on the gallery.

My holiday was great , thank you.

Gill 

Hi Marion

Yes I did enjoy my holidays thank you, I went to Thailand and Indonesia! in fact I wish I was still there!

 I will keep the site updated with my little garden's progress!! thanks for reading!!

Dear Claire

"The Garden" magazine has lots of reports of intrepid travellers bringing back exotic plant seeds to grow in the UK. Did you?

Welcome to the site Marion. You'll find a fair amount on allotments here (including Michael Rand's regular articles - he's a north London allotment holder), plus advice on growing fruit and veg.

If you have a specific question, you can get it answered for free from our team of experts. Best to tag it on the end of a thread on the same subject (use 'Search For' at the top of this page) or start a new thread of your own. Happy allotment gardening and look forward to hearing more from you.

(website editor)

Never thought I would ever get involved in one of these tecchie "threads"!!!

I read Michael Rand's "Close to the Veg", given my last Christmas by very supportive son who applauds  my allotment mania. I was so thrilled to discover he is still spreading the word. His book is both highly entertaining, informative - and inspirational.

 Have a good day - it's raining here, the allotment has lots of clay about 18 inches below the surface, so no digging today.

Hi Claire

At long last I have completed the design for your garden. I have uploaded it into a new album on the gallery called 'Garden for Claire'.

Please have a look and tell me what you think. 

Kind regards

Gill 

I enjoyed finding my way around until I was able to look at Gill's design. I wish I'd had her input when my husband and I bought our first tiny house with minute garden in the 1960's. I planted nasturtiums, thinking they'd bring some colour. By mid-summer they had completely filled the back garden!

 Gill's approach is lovely. It will be gorgeous to relax in the space when the plants are filled out and in bloom - and great fun to watch them flourish.

Good luck with it all, Claire,

Marion

Gill, your planting plan looks very well thought out. You obviously have talent in that area. Click on the link here for easy access to it and remember to click again on View Full Size (bottom right).

When you add a forum thread, the link tool in the list of icons at the top of it is very useful. Simply copy the URL you want, click on the chain link in the list of icons, paste the URL at the top where it says, then add the words below you want to represent the URL. Press submit and the link will appear in the thread, like this one above.

There will shortly be another icon inserted for adding images easily to forum threads.

Best of luck with your garden Claire.

(web editor)

Hi Gill

This plan is brilliant, thank you so much for spending the time to design it.  My mum is visiting me at the weekend and she is a keen gardener so i will be showing it to her too! Can I ask a quick question, what do you recommend for the spacing in between? perhaps paving?

Thanks again