Great New: My First Allotment

Well done for getting your allotment, you are on the way to a new eating experience.

Now you have dug over some of it, its a good idea to leave it and let the frost break the soil down, there are winter crops you can sow, but if the plot has not been used for a while it might be as well to finish the digging, you could spread manure over it and leave it, let the worms take it down into the soil for you........ if you decide not to do that but leave it till the spring you need to watch what you are planting because some things do not like growing in freshly manured soil. We use well rotted horse manure, which we get for free, try a local riding stables, they are often happy to have the stuff taken away if they do not use it themselves. We also use pellted chicken manure which is available from all good gardening shops, including I think B & Q. Get yourself to the library and get a couple of books out, Geoff Hamilton and Alan Titchmarsh spring to mind, and also watch gardeners world on TV you will get tips on veg growing there.

We have just taken over a new allotment but are going to have it rotovated, will cost us £30 but figure its worth it for us.........if you have a shed on the allotment fix up a water barrel to take the water from the roof, it comes in handy..... we also collect sheep manure when we are out walking,and drop it in a barrel of water and leave it for about 2 weeks, then dilute it half and half with water, use as a liquid manure when watering. Rhubarb will grown well, if you like it, in the side of your compost heap, it is a very greedy feeder requires lots of umph to produce a good crop.......grow thiings that are expensive to buy, we do not bother with maincrop spuds, they are cheap to buy a bag, but do grow salad and early spuds, spuds will also help to break up the soil, they put down deep roots which break up the soil, we always grow spuds in the first season on new soil.

Look at using a deep bed system, you can grow more on less soil using this method, you will find info on this on the internet, we have beds the width of the plot, but only 2 foot deep, that way you can reach in from either side without treading on the soil, it is also called the no dig method, we were given some weed suppresant fabric which we cut in half and laid between the beds, covered with wood chippings it makes good paths between the beds. Also look at companion planting to ward of nasties, and a rotation system to ensure that you do not grow the same crop on the same piece of land in the second year, we number our beds. There are plants that do not like growing together........phew, I could go on for hours, one piece of advice, do not go crazy and grow too much or buy yourselves a hugh freezer, believe me I have been there, done that AND got the tee shirt.........

Ooh good luck!
Im just getting into the veggy thing myself but am lucky enough to have the space in our garden.
Here is an excellent site that I visit time and again

Im slightly addicted to sites about veg growing at the moment:p

Early potato's are harvested in early summer they include salad potatos and jersey royals, late potatos are main crop which are the ones you eat through the winter and are harvested in late summer.
If you are desperate to plant soemthing you can put in garlic up to the first frost, do not use garlic from the supermarket but specially prepared bulbs from somewhere like Thompson and Morgan, the garlic will benefit from being kept in the fridge for a couple of weeks before you plant it. You could also plant winter onions. The garlic will be harvested in July and should give you a years supply, it needs to be strung and dried off for about a month before you use it.

Onion sets are available now at all the garden centres and can be planted now for harvesting next summer. Onion sets are like a very small onion bulb.