New Allotment advice needed please

iscamaid

I have been given a half sized allotment this week. I am a bit daunted as it is currently covered in grass. Luckily someone has covered it in tarpaulin weighed down with tyres. I have a couple of questions which I would appreciate advice on.

Several people have adviced on clearing the grass. All seem to say do it a bit at a time. Some say rotivate others say clear the grass and weeds first. One says use a large hoe and skim off the top layer and another says use Round Up then wait a week and dig the lot over. Help I am now confused!

Once cleared I want to grow a bed of easy, disease free, low maintance flowers suitable for cutting for the house. Can anyone suggest any ideal and cheap plants. I would prefer hardy annuals so any outlay can be reaped over the years. I thought Dahlias, though even in the T & M catalogue these seem expensive. I have a garden at home but these are low shrubs and bulbs so I do not tend to use these for cutting and so have little experience here.

I also want to grow soft fruits, I love fruit ice creams, crumbles and jams. They are expnsive in the shops and often, such as blackcurrants and gooseberries, unavailable. I have looked in the garden centre and small bushes start at around £5. Does anyone have any advice on how I can get fruit bushes cheaper and good beginners varieties?

I would love any tips from experienced gardeners.

nodwah

Flowers for cutting - watch Gardener's world on Friday - they're doing a cutting garden this year.

Fruit bushes - Lidl or Aldi - brilliant plants when there's a special on an ususally something like £2.99

as for your grass - do which ever suits you best. Personally i wouldn't want to use weedkiller and I would just lift a bit at a time. Bits of turf that you dig up or skim off can be put in a pile to rot down ( upside down and takes afew years)

Lotus-eater

As long as you understand about blackcurrants and gooseberries, you will wait for about 2 years before they start to fruit and it will be a year or two after that, till they start producing it in any quantities.
The cheapest way, is to walk around the allotment and find someone with bushes already, ask them if they will prune them later this year and ask if you can have some prunings as cuttings. Or ask if they would be kind enough to let you have some cuttings anyway.
Or, I've just bought a couple of whitecurrants from a shop called QD, they have them at £1.99. I looked at Wilkinsons, they have various small fruit bushes at £2, but they all looked awful.
There maybe somewhere online that does them cheapish.

Any varieties will do.

valentina

I would clear a smallish area by hand digging (dig up the weeds, or skim off the top if it is just grass and stack it as nodwah says) - do this asap (it will be hard work), then sow some hardy annual seeds, rather than buying plants. If you have the space at home you can make a start by sowing seed in trays and taking them to the allotment when you have cleared a patch. Here's a link http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/basics/techniques/growflowers_cuttings1.shtml

[Deleted User]

We`ll be exchanging on a house soon, that comes with a half size allotment. I am in my 60s now and we downsized 6 years ago to a house with communal gardens where everything is done, so all my garden tools, everything, was given away.

We will be starting from scratch again and I am really looking forward to it. For 30 years I grew almost all our veg and soft fruit galore but I realsie that I will not have the strength that I used to have.

I have ordered the most basic tools but the best quality ie sneeboer as a belated birthday present I will be gardening mainly organically after the initial ground clearance as there is no way I am going to be able to start from scratch on my hands and knees and anyway at my age I want a quick start. So glyphosate here I come. I own to never having used the stuff so any tips would be welcome

Is it best to spray and then cover with weed suppressor or spray and then re-plant straight away or spray and dig out what I can. I bear in mind that the `new` thinking is for minimal digging and potentially raised beds in the future

In the past I created my `allotment` at home by skimming of loads of grass and leaving the turves to rot upside down over time but that was then. If I use glyphosate, will the grass just die so I can chop up the top few inches?

Organic gardening will follow but all in good time

snowball2103

I was in my local Tesco on Friday and they had various fruit bushes for £2.

Zazen999

kittie wrote: »

We`ll be exchanging on a house soon, that comes with a half size allotment. I am in my 60s now and we downsized 6 years ago to a house with communal gardens where everything is done, so all my garden tools, everything, was given away.

We will be starting from scratch again and I am really looking forward to it. For 30 years I grew almost all our veg and soft fruit galore but I realsie that I will not have the strength that I used to have.

I have ordered the most basic tools but the best quality ie sneeboer as a belated birthday present I will be gardening mainly organically after the initial ground clearance as there is no way I am going to be able to start from scratch on my hands and knees and anyway at my age I want a quick start. So glyphosate here I come. I own to never having used the stuff so any tips would be welcome

Is it best to spray and then cover with weed suppressor or spray and then re-plant straight away or spray and dig out what I can. I bear in mind that the `new` thinking is for minimal digging and potentially raised beds in the future

In the past I created my `allotment` at home by skimming of loads of grass and leaving the turves to rot upside down over time but that was then. If I use glyphosate, will the grass just die so I can chop up the top few inches?

Organic gardening will follow but all in good time

You can still start with grass and be organic; just cover with cardboard, weigh down with bricks/soil/milk cartons filled with water and plant through. The grass dies down underneath and you can weed in dribs and drabs as you harvest.

Also, to make it even easier; make paths and cover with weed fabric and only walk on these...or just leave these as grass and cover smaller beds and plant through the card.

Perhaps look up 'no dig gardening' and start with the card [or newspaper] base and work up.

If you do it like this - in essence the only tools you need are a bulb planter and a long dibber to remove weeds as you go.

amcluesent

Glyphosate the whole lot, repeat in a couple of weeks.

>I would prefer hardy annuals so any outlay can be reaped over the years.<

Do you mean perennials?

[Deleted User]

Zazen999 wrote: »

You can still start with grass and be organic; just cover with cardboard, weigh down with bricks/soil/milk cartons filled with water and plant through. The grass dies down underneath and you can weed in dribs and drabs as you harvest.

Also, to make it even easier; make paths and cover with weed fabric and only walk on these...or just leave these as grass and cover smaller beds and plant through the card.

Perhaps look up 'no dig gardening' and start with the card [or newspaper] base and work up.

If you do it like this - in essence the only tools you need are a bulb planter and a long dibber to remove weeds as you go.

I like this. Many thanks as it now seems less daunting

Sally_A

If the grass is long, first strim it as low as possible (please wear goggles, as there could be lots of rubbish hidden), rake off the strimmed cuttings. Then see what you're left with, if it's couch grass, ie a really invasive grass that spreads by runners it will be really matted - again, rake over viciously to pull out what you can. After that it's hard work, namely hand digging to remove all the roots.

Good Luck!

PS. Re the proportion of flowers to veg, have a quick look at the terms of the plot; some sites are a bit sniffy if there is little edible produce grown.

Zazen999

kittie wrote: »

I like this. Many thanks as it now seems less daunting

No problem; I do this for a living now so helping people to get veggie plots up and running with as little effort as possible helps me just as much as it helps them