I have a big favour to ask you all and that is to give your honest and much appreciated opinion. Please feel free to drop me a private message to my email address [email protected].
Me and my Dad have been talking about opening up a small business since before Christmas now and for a few months we have been planning and jotting ideas down including setting up a website, blog and designing products. The shop will be called ‘The Allotment Gardener’ and we will be selling handmade and vintage items with gardeners in mind. There will be vintage items such as pots, galvanised tubs, sieves, containers, enamel ware, jugs and tools etc. We would also be crafting wooden dibbers, plant rulers, boot scrapers and tool racks as well as sewing jackets, shirts, aprons, bags and tunics.
We were simply wondering what you guys think, would you buy items like this and how much would you spend for a handmade item? We would always try to keep the cost as low as possible, taking in account the price and quality of fabric, the time it took to make etc. Here’s a few rough prices: Jackets would be £95.00, tunics and dresses £50.00, shirts £55.00, bags £19.00 upwards, Dibbers £15.00, Notebooks £15.00.
We just wanted to do a bit of market research before diving straight into making all the items, because obviously you are who we want to be making these items for and we don’t want to get it all wrong 
For now though, at this precise moment I currently have 4 hessian harvesting bags for sale. I made one for myself last year and it’s proved so handy! You can harvest and carry flowers aswell as vegetables, use it as a groundsheet when pruning fruit bushes or weeding and also use it as a small log carrier. I wouldn’t be without mine so I wanted to create some more to share with everyone. They are 75cm square, have a handle on each corner and are made from superior hessian. They are £19.00 each with £3.00 postage to the UK (£4.00 EU and £5.00 Everywhere else)
The bottom three photographs feature my own bag which has been used for the past 7 months. The photograph below is a brand new, freshly made version.
If you are interested in buying one then please comment below and I will send you an email and we can proceed through Paypal. There are 4 currently for sale right now but I can always make up some more
x
For Christmas I made my Dad one of these little A5 journals so that he could write any notes, ideas and lists down whilst on his allotment. Of course I just had to make myself one and so far it has proved very useful indeed, it has my seed list in, my plan, my to-do lists and I’m sure by the end of the year it will be jam packed!
Spring is just around the corner and I am giving you the chance to win your very own allotment notebook so you can get planning for the year ahead. It’s made from real leather with ‘Allotment Notes’ stamped on the front and there is a grey cord to keep the book shut. There is a pen holder inside as well as some handy little pockets.The best thing about this journal is that the notebook is removable so it can be used every year, just simple replace the A5 notebook once it is full to the brim with all those important notes!
All you have to do is simply comment below with your full name and one reason why you are excited for Springtime to arrive.
I will draw the winner at random on the 1st of February 2015.
Good luck everyone! xx
The harvesting season has started nice and early this year, infact I have already harvested all my peas and all the broad beans! The potatoes are dissapearing rather quickly too and the strawberry season is officially over. Everything else on the other hand is growing really well, theres a few baby borlotto beans, baby pumpkins, green tomatoes and the cabbages are extremely large. I also just sow more seeds and planted out some leeks so I am ready for the year ahead. Which brings me onto my new sewing project to make the perfect harvesting bag. Now I saw a photograph of this bag online and fell in love but I certainly didn’t fall in love with the price tag of £38.00. So I raided my fabric stash and grabbed the scissors determined to make my very own version, after 30 minutes my bag was complete and I couldn’t wait to go up the allotment to try it. It just so happened that I was going to be harvesting the last row of my potatoes the next day so it was perfect timing, and it worked a treat. It is simply a square of hessian with matching bias binding around the edge and a handle at each corner. So simple yet unbeliavably handy and beautiful at the same time.
I am already the lucky owner of a large vintage trug and a mini vintage trug and I adore them, however I often find that when I take a harvest home I forget to take the trug back to the allotment with me. The great thing about this bag is that it folds up small and it can be stored easily away and because it’s made out of hessian it’s very hard wearing. It looks suitably rustic and it doesn’t matter if it gets dirty at all, infact the more used it looks the better I think. I am planning on making a few more to have as spares in the allotment shed (and maybe make a few for my Dad too!) But the best thing about this bag has to be the price, it cost me a mere £3.25 for the metre of hessian fabric and thats it!
Gardening is not my only hobby, I have been sewing now for nearly 3 years after dusting off my late Grandma’s sewing machine and attempting to teach myself to sew (although I did run over my finger once with the needle!) I really enjoy sitting down behind my machine and producing beautiful things like clothes that actually fit me at the end, I think thats why I love my allotment so much, all the hard work and tears and you get yummy food at the end! I decided after a long time away from my beloved Brother sewing machine that I would sit down and sew something for once, so I did
As you well know I like to make things look pretty, hence the purple shed and 1950s kitchen cabinet! Therefore I made some bunting to hang in my shed and some seat cushions because those metal chairs are painful to sit on in the winter. And while we are on the subject of pretty I added some lace and pompom trim to the cushions and the best thing about it all? They match my patchwork curtains! (As you can tell this is pretty much a girls shed, no boys allowed!)
Back to the homegrown part and I’m pleased to say the carrots I planted rather late in August were a success! Some of them were a tad small but I am just so chuffed that they actaully grew. It was such a beautiful day today, its just a shame that the gorund was so wet! I did manage to level the ground where my tomato and gherkin trough will be moving to next week though
