Finally......an Allotment!!!

oldtractor

make lots of compost and have lots of fun.

orchidpepper

Magic!

Thanks for all your replies.....one more question though........after reading how some of you seperate your allotments into beds, what do you use to seperate them? slabs as paths? carpet? strimmed weeds? looking for a quick solution for year one and then will find something suitable for year two.

Luckily there is a discarded sheet of plywood lying in a perfect place for me to dig next! I'm going to move it along to kill the weeds where I want my next bed while I dig then plant the place where it was.

weeds etc are 2 foot high and are 50% jaggy things! thick gloves are next on my list. I have a foundation for a shed but no shed so...... I'm going to build myself one. I've started gathering materials and am looking forward to getting started :-)

Is there any way to post pictures on here?

I LOVE looking at pics of other peoples and thought we could all share?

Gx

notenoughcash

A little advice based on my own allotment experience!

We got our allotment approx 18 months ago, the front 1/3 had not been used for 3 years, the back 2/3 not so much as walked on for about 12 years, although one of the old fellas further down thinks it may be nearer to 20 years. Why we waited over a year to get it I have no idea if it was so neglected, but that's another story!

Any how, the weeds were 5ft + high and consisted of brambles, bindweed, teasle, nettles etc etc. Digging was virtually impossible! I managed to pester the council in to strumming the lot down to ground level and begged some large tarp sheets from other allotmenters to cover the ground and stop the weeds from growing up high again. We then worked away at it a square foot at a time, literally.

The best tool we bought was a mattock, about £18 from b&q, which is similar to a pick axe and the husband bashed up a square of ground at a time which I then sat and sieved as much root out of as I could. Long process but definitely worth it.

We now have 1/3 with potatoes, cauli, cabbage, turnip, lettuce, various squash and leek growing nicely. 1/3 is still covered with tarp to dig over this autumn and the final 1/3 I am in the process of sectioning in to edged beds for which we have used some old laminate flooring.

The key is a bit at a time, cover what you can't manage and just keep trying!

mrs_moneyspinner

Hi everyone I got my allotment in February after a 4 yr wait and have potatos, lettuce and tomatos doing well - sheltered spot under tree - sunny but protected. Beetroot and radishes very small and runner beans just not growing much - very slow..... can I plant out of season? would like to plant more potato and beetroot this year (like now) too try and get a better 2nd crop for late summer/early autumn? also what would you be putting in where the potatos have been? I don't like leeks by the way! thanks folks

Sambucus_Nigra

Don't like leeks? Shocking!!!!! Perhaps it's just shop bought you don't like?

You can get sowings in of:
Beetroot, spinach, winter lettuces [put a cloche over them in October], dwarf french beans, runners [I sowed some yesterday], Chinese salads like Chinese cabbage, mizuna etc. Also, I'd sow some red cabbages, kohl rabi, kale, swedes - um can't think what else I've sown recently apart from the above.

You can also - when you are taking the armpits out of your tomatoes - put them in compost, let them root for a week, then plant them out in their own space. You can get toms off these but they will be much lower to the ground than usual so put some shredded paper or straw under them so that the toms don't drag on the floor.

And, you can sow Japanese onions, round peas, broad beans now, to be grown overwinter, and put onion sets and garlic in in September for next spring/summer.

If you have dug a bed over and harvested things and haven't anything to put in it - try a green manure. I heartily recommend Crimson Clover or Phaecelia. Let a few plants flower round the plot for the bees [just don't dig in one corner next year]. They go mental for Phaecelia this time of year. Or Caliente Mustard to clean the soil up a little but beware it's a brassica so if you have had brassica problems do it in line with your crop rotation [see below].

If you don't want to plant anything in there I heartily recommend covering with this product. A little pricey but it does the job. You can leave it in place in the spring and just plant through next year's crops.

You can put anything in where the spuds go - leeks or onion sets are good as the soil has just been dug over. But it depends on your crop rotation.

Here's one I found earlier that would be easy to follow.