After 3 years wait been offered and allotment!!

LilacPixie

Just had to tell someone. After 3 years on the council waiting list I have been offered and Allotment :);) :j:j

The council have decided that as their is such a high emand in my area for allotments that they will be reopening a site that was effectively mothballed about 15 years ago :eek: They have cleared the site of the rubbish such as baths washing machines building rubble and dumped tyres and are currently laying out the actual plots .

I dread to think what the ground will actually be like and the huge task ahead of me/us. We will be growing prodominantly fruits and veg for family use and I hope to have some herbs (in tubs) as well.

I have been thinking my little trowl that I use for my tubs and baskets will not do the job so too recomendations too please.

Does anyone have words of advice?

midnightraven3

:jcongratulations!!!

sorry no advice
i am a back yard gardener only
but you will have lots of fun, and loads of satisfaction from your new lottie

RHYSDAD

That's fantastic! So pleased for you after a long wait. We are doing a veg plot in our back garden this year and have to start from scratch as well. As for advice, well i'm no expert but i think long days of labour are ahead of you but it'll be worth it in the end. Enjoy!!

AuntyCat

Congratulations, hope you have loads of fun.

We've had ours 5 years and it's still a work in progress. Every year we try and add somthing. Built a shed from scratch, put in a patio area in an un growable spot, tidied an area with edges scrounged from a local scaffold company.

Advice - take your time, there's no rush (see above!!!).
Get what you can for free, freecycle etc, it's doesn't really matter what it looks like. Remind me of that on saturday when the new raised beds aren't perfectly level!!!
Try it, if it doesn't work don't do it again.
Enjoy it, it's very satisfiying and rewarding we love ours and are no experts, just learning as we go along.


Have fun.:j:j:j

matt987106

AuntyCat wrote: »

tidied an area with edges scrounged from a local scaffold company.

is that code for went around building sites borrowing scaffold boards :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

only joking :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

LilacPixie

I am so trying not to get carried away and i'm trying to think what I would like to do in our first year. I have patio potato bag things so thinking I will take them up there then maybe try and get a few raised beds going using scaffolding boards if i can source some for ease.

Davesnave

How exciting! Patience is usually rewarded.:A

Get some old carpet and put it over the bits you think you'll tackle last. That way, you'll be weakening the weeds there while you work on the rest. As others say, don't worry about doing the whole lotty at once, but concentrate on getting good results from whatever you can manage.

Do you really need raised beds? A lot will depend on your soil. After thinking about my new garden, I've come to the conclusion that the soil is too well drained to make that the best way forward. I'll put in boards to define edges though.

Thinking about the fruit aspect, if the allotments are still overgrown, you might find all sorts of things there from previous generations hidden away, just waiting to be discovered, though 15 years of neglect is a long time!

AuntyCat

The scaffolding planks were given by a local company by the manager, when the owner found out he wasn't happy!! Shame coz we only had a few.

Just bought a load off E-bay, can't remember how much but very reasonable.

Monkeysee_monkeydo

Congratulations LilacPixie, woohoo, finally you have an allotment. It's an exciting feeling of possibilities, only shared by gardeners.
You definately need more than a trowel. B&Q do the cheapest, good quality, gardening tools I can find and I would list my essentials for 'allotmenteering' as:

• Sturdy Spade
• Sturdy Shovel
• Grubber (long handle with a three pronged steel 'claw' on the end) Brilliant for weeding
• Secateurs
• Wheel Barrow

Oh and a good pair of boots and somewhere to go for a brew

WestonDave

First piece of advice is to spend a couple of session just absorbing what you've got. It may be as already suggested that there are some hidden gems already there - e.g. a rhubarb crown tucked away or some fruit bushes. Work out what type of soil you've got (clay, sandy etc), where the water supply is, what the slope is like and where the sun is best. You can then start to plan what you are going to do where (i.e. put the shed and compost heap in that boggy shaded corner), and have the water intensive plants like strawberries nearer the water tap. A few hours thinking and planning will save a lot of back ache in the future.

Its tempting to think that as you now have so many square metres to play with you have to make something of it this year. I would start from the premise that it will take you a year to clear the site, and that anything you actually harvest this year is a big bonus. If you start like that you won't get disheartened. Clearly as you clear a section you can plant things in it and experiment, but if you try to clear the lot and get things growing, you'll kill yourself and never see your family!

As for tools buy quality once, but only buy what you really need as often you can borrow - a friend of ours who is lucky enough to have an allotment borrows my petrol strimmer a couple of times a year to clear the paths - no point in him spending £150 on something he'll only use that rarely. Likewise I borrow another friends shredder as there is no point in me buying and storing one. Once the site gets active its likely (as its a dormant site) that you'll have a nice little community of new starters so you can help each other.

If you can't get carpet to cover sections to keep the weeds down, Wickes do cheap tarpaulins and also sell bricks individually - a couple of tarps and enough bricks to hold them down will go a long way to knocking back the weeds while you are waiting to clear sections.

irishwexford

Well done, Im sure you will enjoy it. We've had our two years now and freezers are full of fruit and veggies. I agree with other posters on the carpet bit. We managed to get ours from skips, also bits of wood which come in handy. We have taken on the one next door as well and filled a third with fruit bushes. If you feed it well it will replay you. I think a good rotation plan is important, this will include the following year as well which helped us grow both winter and summer greens using every available bit of space and keeps plants with different needs together.
Best of luck, you will get plenty of help on here.