Need some motivation please!!!

rosie383

Ok. Thanks to all you lot on here I got some motivation and really want to make the allotment work this year.
After my adventure with a bite last week which had me almost unable to weight bear on my leg ( all calmed down now to a massive multicoloured bruise now thanks to some antibiotics), I was able to go up there yesterday.
I have 'surface cleared' about 2/3 of the plot of weeds and now just want some advice on what to do next please.
I am going to take advice from here and cover areas with cardboard to plant through, but I know I have a lot of digging to do first.
My question ( at last) is...... what is most urgent to get in the ground? I have potatoes ( Charlotte salad, and main crop King Eds). Courgettes, beans, peas, tomatoes ( seedlings not ready yet), beetroot. Should I get the ground prepared for the spuds first?

valk_scot

Yes, get the spuds in first. Then beetroot (direct sown is fine) and the peas, then start on the most frost tolerant planting. Some beans can go in now, some have to wait till the end of the frosts. Ditto tomatoes. Courgettes definately don't go in till all danger of frost is past.

Other things you could sow now....purple topped turnips, onion sets (late but do-able), carrots, salad leaves, spinach, herbs, brassica seed bed for overwintering brussel sprouts, broccoli and cabbages, summer brassicas such as calabrase and cauliflowers.

rosie383

That is so very helpful. Thanks Val.
I'm off skip diving this morning. A very helpful builder near me, with a skip load of old bricks has told me to help myself. So I shall. Still haven't managed to get any plastic/ tarpaulin etc to cover the bits that I can't cultivate at the mo.
I will take as much cardboard as I can find and dig where I want the spuds, then lay the cardboard with bricks on top. Going to use bamboo canes and strings to mark out some beds, rather than having a massive area.
Will also visit screwfix to get myself some gloves. Can't do another day with rubbish ones.

rosie383

:dance:I was up at the lottie this afternoon with mixed results.

On a positive note, one of the other allotmenteers gave me 2 pairs of new leather gloves!!!!!! Brill, I was able to do everything except the big brambles with no stings.

And I took advice from Valk Scot and marked off a couple of small beds and completely dug one of them and 'deep' weeded it. That felt very satisfying to do. It is just about 6'x4', but, hey, it's a start, and looks like I have done something.

On the not so positive side, I tried to put layers of newspaper down over cut down weeds, put cut-open tough plastic bags rescued from the skip, and bricks over that. Took me ages and is only about 2'x 15'. And even though it didn't seem windy, I spent ages trying to stop the blinking things blowing all over the place.
Think I may not do any more of that.
Found some spuds growing that I must have missed last year, and they are growing merrily away. Should I just leave them to grow? They should be ok, shouldn't they? I did pull one out accidentally, and it had perfect little new potatoes growing.

valk_scot

rosie383 wrote: »

Found some spuds growing that I must have missed last year, and they are growing merrily away. Should I just leave them to grow? They should be ok, shouldn't they? I did pull one out accidentally, and it had perfect little new potatoes growing.

It's not recommended to grow spuds in the same place in consecutive years. Spuds are very prone to all sorts of diseases and these build up in the soil very fast. "Volunteer" potatoes like yours are an even faster way of passing on these diseases to this year's crop and then your yield will drop catastrophically. So it's not good practice. Best to dig them up now and have some nice microspuds for dinner.

rosie383

Thank you for that. That will be a nice wee bonus then. Salad spuds for tea! Unfortunately the first bed that I marked out and dug, happens to be where there were some spuds last year. Ah well, will put something else there and plant potatoes maybe where the onions were last year.
Thanks for the reminder.

rosie383

Had a few tasty baby spuds with dinner today.
I treated myself to the Silverline digging hoe as recommended. Can't wait to get it delivered free tomorrow!!!!

Amarillo

rosie383 wrote: »

Had a few tasty baby spuds with dinner today.
I treated myself to the Silverline digging hoe as recommended. Can't wait to get it delivered free tomorrow!!!!

I have the digging hoe, came on Tuesday. It is brilliant and has made such a difference on our new allotment which is on the site of old brick greenhouses and very very difficult to dig. Two people decided to buy one today after seeing it in action.

rosie383

I'm so excited :Dand I can't wait to get digging when it arrives today. And how lovely is it to have rain? :j Hopefully the ground will be less like a brick today!

Then I will be on here asking for the best way to clean wellies as we have clay soil here, and I remember last year taking hours to clean wellies in the bath as I couldn't get the mud off

Sambucus_Nigra

Leave them to dry Rosie and then clack them together over a tray or a raised bed.