New Allotment!!!! What to do this year?

cubegame

Hello all.

My better half and I have just been allocated an allotment after just over two years on the list. The tenency agreement is in the post and it should be ours from next Monday.

We're getting a 2 rod plot (50 sq metres). I know this is quite small but our town council is cutting all the plots down to this size.

Anyway, the site is brand new and allegedly ripe for planting on. The council have cleared soil away and bought in fresh top soil.

What could we plant this year though? Is it worth trying anything from seed or should we see if we can pick up come cheapy plants from nearby garden centres.



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valentina

In the autumn you can put in over wintering onions - buy them as sets. Also garlic can go in in the autumn. If you want to, you can grow broad beans (check the packet, make sure they are suitable for over wintering).
I am going to put in a crop of green manure this autumn too, on a bit of the allotment - never tried it before but it's supposed to improve the soil when you dig it in.

cubegame

valentina wrote: »

In the autumn you can put in over wintering onions - buy them as sets. Also garlic can go in in the autumn. If you want to, you can grow broad beans (check the packet, make sure they are suitable for over wintering).
I am going to put in a crop of green manure this autumn too, on a bit of the allotment - never tried it before but it's supposed to improve the soil when you dig it in.

I've got loads of green manure seeds which I got at the BBC Gardeners World show for this purpose! I was planning on sticking it over all the unused ground.

GreenFly_2

Congratulations on your new plot

Make sure you dig the green manure in prior to it flowering or you may have an unwanted weed. Also be careful with mustard as this can enforce clubroot on your brassica's apart from that I too am trying some green manure for the first time this year.

This Autumn I plan to grow autumn sown broad beans, Japanese onions, garlic and I also plan to put in my raspberry canes. Now is also a good time to ask friends if you can have any of their unwanted strawberry runners. Take the runner and lay it on some soil in a pot using a stone or wire to fasten the runner down and if your lucky you will have a free strawberry patch next year. Its also not too late to put in some spring onion, radish, lettuce & rocket as well as some beetroot. You can also think about your spring cabbages. Not much to keep you busy!

Good Luck and happy allotmenteering!
GF

gillian62

Mr Fothergills have a choice of 3 or 4 green manures for £1.65 per packet (quite large packs). I saw them at our local garden centre yesterday. They may be worth a go for overwinter.

PollyFlinders_3

Marshalls sell some quick-developing veg that you can just about get away with planting in early August. Their website will give you more info. We tried their peas last year and although they didn't produce last autumn, we left them in the ground and got a lovely early crop this year.

Let your fellow allotment holders know that you're looking for raspberry/gooseberry/blackberry bushes and you may find they'll be generous with their spares when they cut them down in the next couple of months.

We'll be planting some overwintering brassicas this week too.

[Deleted User]

I have a new allotment too but it is absolutely ROUGH and extremely hard to clear, so I am tackling it a strip at a time. I managed to get some good sturdy leek plants last week so they have gone in. I have done the planning on paper and semi cleared another piece in a different area and am planning on putting in winter cabbages and various broccollis and they will arrive in about 10 days. I have to take short cuts this year so have just cleared and loostened the surface for the brassicas and I intend to plant through black weed fabric and to cover loosely with environmesh. The ground really is a booger to deal with so I am compromising at the moment

I have planned for on paper and ordered rhubarb, gooseberries and some soft fruit for oct/nov delivery so I`ll be on my hands and knees again for the next few weeks

kinkyjinks

cubegame wrote: »

Hello all.

Anyway, the site is brand new and allegedly ripe for planting on. The council have cleared soil away and bought in fresh top soil.

What could we plant this year though? Is it worth trying anything from seed or should we see if we can pick up come cheapy plants from nearby garden centres.

Hi there and congratulations on your new lottie. If you check the Fothergills website and look at vegetable plants you'll get a rough idea of what plants you will be able to plant now. For example these purple sprouting broccoli plants are due to be shipped out sometime this month. My local garden centre were also selling these last week and worked out a lot cheaper but I never saw them until after I'd placed my Fothergills order:(

serena

I would suggest having a think about what you want to put in next year - for example, where are you going to put potatoes in March.

I have been caught out in the past by finding that I've stupidly planted a row of overwintering onions slap bang in the middle of where the potatoes need to go!

Are you planning a shed? Compost heap? Fruit? Paths? Mark where these are going.

Fruit is best planted between November and March, so a good job for the winter.

Then you should have a better idea of what space you have to play with.

I have divided my allotment into fourteen beds, which run across the allotment from side to side, with Mypex paths (at the time I did this I had little ones and they needed somewhere non-muddy to trot about). I haven't made wooden edges because it's very expensive. I add compost or manure most years, and this raises thte level of the soil anyway. I have:

One flower border - perennials, just because I love them
Three fruit beds (raspberries -compost bins on one end of this- gooseberries, blackcurrant, redcurrant and blackberry)
One shared strawberry bed and bean frame
One currently fallow as weed infested, and I'm trying to thoroughly clean it
Eight vegetable beds.

The vegetable beds work in pairs - two potatoes, two early crops followed by overwintering, two main summer, and two late summer. crops.

As well as the plants suggested above, you could try sowing:

early carrots (Early Nantees), beetroot, baby turnips, lettuce, mixed salad leaves, French beans,spring onions, radish and rocket all for autumn.

Spinach or leaf beet, swiss chard, winter spinach, american cress, lamb's lettuce, endives for over winter or early srping.

Oriental vegetables: red mustard, pak choi, mizuna, mibuna, mooli. Cover these with fleece after sowing to keep flea beetle off.

There are some excellent articles on Sarah Raven's website with suggestions for late crops and salads.

cubegame

Some great tips here. Thanks.

Today's the day though.......we'll be heading over to see what's what after work for a couple of hours. Hopefully it won't be too hard to get started!

steve5181

I finally got my first allotment about 6 weeks ago and have been hard at it putting paths in etc. I turned over a bed yesterday and broadcast mustard seed as a green manure and raked it in. Im a bit confused as to my next move do i leave to grow and then cut down in 4 - 6 weeks time and leave the roots in over winter or do i just leave it alone and allow it to die over winter and dig it in in spring??? .

Also i have some Winter Tares which i hope to use in the next two weeks do i treat them the same as the Mustard Seed?