New allotment excitement

kinkyjinks

I'm so excited, I was offered an allotment last week and have been to see it today. I was all ready to be faced with an overgrown plot and my plans have been based around months of digging and very little production for the first year. However, I was given a choice of 3 plots. The plot I've chosen looks like it was planted with various things last year so I'm guessing that it won't take the months of digging that I'd planned for.

So my newbie question is...what's the best way to go? I know that the bottom part of the plot had potatoes planted last year so I'm planning on maybe planting my soft fruit bushes in that area. Should raspberries and gooseberries be planted in pots? Are they best supported by canes? Will they take over my plot if I don't grow them in pots?

As for the rest of my plot, should I just dig up the crops that have been left and plant potatoes as I go? When do you stop sowing potatoes? I know that potatoes are the best crop to break up the ground but if I plant poatoes on all my plot, doesn't that mean that next year I can't grow any? I would like to grow potatoes every year. Apart from that the main aim of this allotment is to grow things that are either not readily available in shops (like different varieties of carrots and tomatoes) or things that are beyond my regular shopping budget, like asparagus and the soft fruits.

The lady that gave me the allotment mentioned green manuring some of it for the first year but I don't know what she means because like I've said, my plans were based around an overgrown nightmare of a plot. Any advice, forum links or book recommendation would be appreciated. TIA

Wookey

Gratz on the lotty, green manure is basically the growing of a crop with the intention of digging it all back into the soil to act as a fertiliser for the following season.

conradmum

There's no need to grow potatoes across the plot to break up the ground if it was cultivated last year. This would normally be done if you were converting a lawn to a veggie patch, or if the ground had been compacted by building work for example.

Have a close look at what's on the plot already. There may well be some crops from last year that you can harvest, such as leeks or purple sprouting broccoli.

If the weather is good and the soil isn't wet, you can start digging over the ground and taking out the remnants of the previous crops. You can use these to start a compost heap (three wooden pallets nailed together to contain the heap is fine - a bit of old carpet as a 'lid' is even better). Be careful not to compost any pernicious weeds such as couch grass or bindweed. Google these on Google images to see what they look like. These can be left to dry before burning or soaked for two or three weeks in water to kill them before adding them to the heap.

Get yourself a good book such as the Hessayon Expert Gardener book on growing vegetables - or another I would recommend is Bob Flowerdew's No Work gardening (or something like that!) to stop you making time-consuming mistakes.

How far is your allotment from your house and how often do you - realistically - imagine you will get down there? Restrict yourself to only growing those things that can be harvested as frequently as you'll visit. Sorry that sounds a bit confusing! For example, asparagus and runner beans should really be harvested every day at the height of their seasons, so there's no much point in growing them unless you can visit at least every other day. Both will stop producing if they aren't harvested regularly.

(Another warning about growing asparagus is that it's an expensive luxury vegetable that tastes divine when picked fresh and is a great temptation to the human rats that may frequent your site!)

kinkyjinks

conradmum wrote: »

There's no need to grow potatoes across the plot to break up the ground if it was cultivated last year.

Have a close look at what's on the plot already. There may well be some crops from last year that you can harvest, such as leeks or purple sprouting broccoli.

Get yourself a good book such as the Hessayon Expert Gardener book on growing vegetables - or another I would recommend is Bob Flowerdew's No Work gardening (or something like that!) to stop you making time-consuming mistakes.

How far is your allotment from your house and how often do you - realistically - imagine you will get down there? Restrict yourself to only growing those things that can be harvested as frequently as you'll visit. Sorry that sounds a bit confusing! For example, asparagus and runner beans should really be harvested every day at the height of their seasons, so there's no much point in growing them unless you can visit at least every other day. Both will stop producing if they aren't harvested regularly.

(Another warning about growing asparagus is that it's an expensive luxury vegetable that tastes divine when picked fresh and is a great temptation to the human rats that may frequent your site!)

Thanks, that's exactly the kind of reply I was hoping for. I'd forgotten about purple sprouting brocolli and have put that on my 'to grow' list. The allotment is about 15 mins walk from my house and I'm planning on going at least every other day. My end aim is to keep chickens so I need to prove to myself that I'm dedicated enough to eventually go every day.

I'll see if my local library has either of those books :beer:

Hopefully there won't be too many of the human vermin as the site looks very secure but I'll have a word with some of the other plot holders and ask them if there's been problems in the past. Thanks again for the advice:D

valentina

Quote
"Should raspberries and gooseberries be planted in pots? Are they best supported by canes?'

Raspberries and gooseberries don't need to be in pots. Raspberries are probably best supported by canes. Gooseberries won't take over the plot.
You could also grow red, white and black currants; be prepared to net them to stop the birds eating the currants. We also have rhubarb in the fruit bit of our allotment.

thifty

I would think about where the water supply is too, put greedy plants nearest to the water so you dont have to walk as far with the water. I only started last june and my plot looks great but I still have loads to learn and I am loving it!
I have raspberries in the ground in a row with heavy stakes at both ends and in the centre. When they begin to grow I intend to put wire along the row and tie the raspberries in to the wire for support.
One thing I like to do is have a nosy at the more experienced plot holders and ask them why they do things a certain way. Be prepared to spend quite a lot of time having a natter! My neighbour puts his empty seed packets at the end of the row in an empty steradent tube which I think is a great idea, no faded seed packets to try and decipher and no need to write things down.
Only problem is I don't have false teeth like he does:rotfl:

LJM

congrats on the allotment if it were me id love to put in a lot of blackberry/raspberrys plus potatoes beans and peas but they are just my favs

conradmum

kinkyjinks wrote: »

Thanks, that's exactly the kind of reply I was hoping for. I'd forgotten about purple sprouting brocolli and have put that on my 'to grow' list. The allotment is about 15 mins walk from my house and I'm planning on going at least every other day. My end aim is to keep chickens so I need to prove to myself that I'm dedicated enough to eventually go every day.

I'll see if my local library has either of those books :beer:

Hopefully there won't be too many of the human vermin as the site looks very secure but I'll have a word with some of the other plot holders and ask them if there's been problems in the past. Thanks again for the advice:D

You're welcome.

Call me cynical but you may find some of the other plot holders to be light fingered themselves. Most non-gardeners probably wouldn't recognise half the things you grow so they're less of a threat (except for vandalism and general mischief of course.) I'm giving the worst case scenario of course. Most likely you won't get anything stolen or damaged but it's always wise to be aware of these things.

bottlehalffull

Draw a plan and write down what you can work out was grown were.

If you're planning soft fruit get that in now.

Cos of the bad weather the seasons are a bit late - so you've got some extra time to prepare.

kinkyjinks

Thrifty I was really lucky when I picked my plot because I've got a water trough at the top of my plot but will place the thirstier plants at that end, good thinking.

LJM I'll give the blackberries a miss but only because there is an abundance of wild ones in my local area, but peas and beans are on my list too

Conradmum :eek: Then they'd best watch out for my asparagus cutting knife lol. It's something I never considered but at least I'm aware it could happen now.

Bottlehalffull Tomorrow is the start of my allotment life and I can't wait. I'm going to take my tape measure and divide it into 4 sections, for fruit, root veg, brassicas and legumes. I'm really hoping that I'll be able to see what has been planted last year. It's a shame because it looks like it was really well looked after.

I'm guessing now I have a list of what I'd like to grow, the next step is to find out when I can plant things. Is it ever too muddy to dig? We've had a fair bit of rain lately but I'd like to get started. And should I lift all the old things or dig them back into the ground? Can you tell how new I am?

kinkyjinks

Well I've been working hard and had a fair bit of help from the OH and bribed the 2 DS into digging 5 6'x6' beds between them for £5 each . We had spent a few hours forking the weeds out of 2 of the beds when the secretarys OH came along in his tractor and offered to rotivate the whole plot for us but even better he said he'd do it for free :beer:. How nice was that? He also gave us some Jerusalem artichokes to put in the soil straight away as he said they help break up the ground the same as potoatoes do.

That then put me ages ahead of the plans I'd made so while I decided on our next plan of action we planted potatoes in the area we had started to dig over. This is where I'm a bit confused about the best thing to do. I've divided the plot into 4 areas and have worked out a 3 year crop rotation based on what was planted where last year. But about 3/4s of my plot was newly created last year and there's a huge difference between that soil and the soil that's been worked for years.

The top half has the Jerusalem artichokes, potatoes and a few onions planted in one area and the other area has an inherited rhubarb plant and gooseberry bush so I was going to use it for salad stuff, herbs, fruit etc (Photo's here to give a clearer idea). I've ordered 50 brassica plants so have to prepare that area next. In that area I'm going to have a lot of space left over but had decided I was going to grow some Fenugreek as a green manure.

The final area is the one that is giving me the most problems though. I had planned to grow all the other veg there this year and then next year it has to be root veg. But the ground is awful and getting worse. This area is below where I've been planting my root veg. Today I started to fork over the newly created part of the plot ready for my onion sets. It took me about 3 hours to fork 2 4 metre rows 3 times because there were so many stones. Most of the time I was having to dig them out because my fork was only going half way in. Most of them are really big bits of that orange stone that kids used to draw hopscotch beds with. Even after digging the stones out and forking the rows 3 times I was still pulling out big bits of the stuff but I was assured that they wouldn't affect how my onions grew.

I know that I could make life easier for myself in the short term by going ahead and planting my other veg there because the veg I'd planned to grow there will probably be fine growing in a stony area with plenty of feeding but I keep thinking that's quite short sighted. The new plan I'm toying with is covering this whole area with black plastic that another of my kind neighbours has offered to give me (the plotholders next to me donated a watering can to me too:D). I'm also aware that there were doc leaves and thistle things growing and all their roots have now been chopped into tiny pieces and without using round-up I KNOW they're going to come back. If I uncovered it a little at a time and worked at removing all the stones and roots then sow some of this as I go I'm guessing it would be much better for the root veg next year. If the plot was just created last year then I doubt there's a lot of nutrients in the ground.

What plan sounds the best one? Plant my sweetcorn and squashes etc that I'm nurturing on my windowsills where I planned to put them this year and just remove the stones when I begin preparing the ground in the autumn/winter. Or plant them where I wanted the salad stuff etc this year and work at the other area to get it into a better condition for next year? How big a difference does stony ground make to crops other than parsnips and carrots? Am I thinking/planning too much maybe:rotfl: At the moment I've got so much bare earth I hadn't planned on that I just don't know what's best.