Petrol/ battery strimmer?

[pixieface]

We are not allowed to use cardboard, carpet or anything of the like, its a big no-no with our local council. We have covered a large area with black plastic to try and get the weeds to die down, we have decided to leave the beds we do not need to cultivate for now and dig them in the autumn taking out as much of the weed as we can, then leave them fallow, redig in the spring and plant.......it is taking us all our time right now to keep what we have planted weed free and get the rest of our stuff planted, we are almost there, we just have celery and leeks to plant.

We have harvested enough strawberries for one supper, the gooseberries are full of fruit and should be ready soon......... We had to heavily water the fruit trees which we transplanted, I am not expecting much of a crop this year as we moved the trees late last year and they will not really have settled in. We have water butts on the allotment there is not hosepipe ban here and we have water at the allotment tap so we are using that for the time being, keeping the water in the butts until we have to use it.

At home we have lettuces tomatoes , courgette and beetroot in grow bags as well as various herbs in tubs......one pot is planted up with climbing beans and sweet peas, the other just with climbing beans.The old strawberry bed is full of fruit, they are in their 3rd year so will be taken out this year, we plan to take more runners off for the allotment. We have been given a melson plant so are planting that in a pot, it will need a lot of water if we are to harvest any fruit.

Water at the house is a problem, we are having to use the water fromwashing up etc and the shower, I put the plug in the bath and then ladle the water out using a car sponge to get the last of the water out, we use this water on plants in the ground, plus the raspberries and rhubarb, the rest of the stuff gets watered with water from the butts, but I do wish it would rain, we are on a water meter and cannot afford to water with tap water.

Right now we are happy with how things are going, I may decide to hire a strimmer in the autumn depending on how much we have to cut down. I am afraid I do not trust either if us with a sythe although I realise it would be a good option. I used SBK on the brambles that were coming through in the area we had laid out as a seating area and it seems to be working, on the rest of the allotment we have as far as possible cut them back and dug them out, everytime I see a leaf poking through I dig down and pull back as far as I can and then cut ot off. Right at the back of the allotment we have tied the brambles in so we can harvest them, also we needed a barrier, at some time in the past the allotments were broken into and the two trees at the back of us were burnt down, so that is where we are training in the brambles and hoping for a reasonable harvest. I picked elderflowers from an adjacent unused allotment and made a batch of elderflower cordial, which has been very welcome these last few days.

[Lucy Robyn]

I used a sythe in my brothers garden (meadow area)in France, it was lovely to use and really easy. I fell in love with this tool.

I have thistles and nettles on the "wild" part of my allotment, will a slasher do the job? I (read my husband) want to use an inexpensive hand tool to keep them under control before covering with a mulch. A long handled tool will be better for our backs.

I've only had the allotment for 3 weeks or so and been very busy, sorry for being absent from the forum folks.