I now have an allotment yay!!

blondy24

I now have an allotment after waiting on and off for quite a few years. Any ideas what would be the best things to plant at this time of the year and any good tips. We will be going to the allotment either tonight/tomorrow to see what it's like then starting to prepare it on sunday. Soooooo excited..... :j

Rummer

Congratulations on your allotment! I imagine you are over the moon!
As for what to plant, I am not sure there is much that can go in atm but it would be a great opportunity for you to prepare the plot for next year!

Pictures would be great

angelavdavis

Congrats on the plot! We have had our plot for just over a year and love it!

You can order garlic, shallots and onion setts now to plant in September/October.

Not sure where you are in the UK, but you should be able to plant chard, beetroot, salads, radishes, spinach and pak choi now if you are quick. You can always start them off in pots while you are preparing the beds.

You should be able to plant fruit bushes and trees also soon (if trees are allowed on your allotment site).

blondy24

Hello, thanks for the responses so far. Well we eventually got round to going to visit the allotment yesterday and blimey what a mess. The allotment is covered in weeds which must have been growing for at least a few months (I will take some pictures next time we go). So we have a lot of work ahead of us, we were going to start later this afternoon but OH has a bad neck at the mo so will wait until the weekend probably.

We live in Gloucestershire, however do most people go to their local garden centre/homebase to get their seeds or buy online? I am also going to grow some veg in the garden next year.

Thanks

notatvstar

We've just put in some spuds for Christmas and we're going to put in some over wintering peas for an early crop next year. With spuds I buy organic whoopsie ones from the supermarket as they will chit and are far cheaper than garden centre ones. I don't keep seed as I grow a lot of different things (which is frustrating). I keep the seeds I buy for ages though. I have bought seed that has been discounted due to going out of date, but when sown they've germinated OK.

Good luck with it and enjoy

angelavdavis

If you shop at Tesco, you can exchange £7.50 worth of clubcard points towards a £20 voucher for Thompson & Morgan.

Alternatively, Alan Romans is also a good place to order online - much cheaper than most shops although Lidl are another good option but don't stock seeds until closer to spring planting.

Check with your allotment association to see if they place a large order with Kings Seeds - a popular choice for allotment associations.

3v3

blondy24 wrote: »

Hello, thanks for the responses so far. Well we eventually got round to going to visit the allotment yesterday and blimey what a mess. The allotment is covered in weeds which must have been growing for at least a few months (I will take some pictures next time we go). So we have a lot of work ahead of us, we were going to start later this afternoon but OH has a bad neck at the mo so will wait until the weekend probably.

We live in Gloucestershire, however do most people go to their local garden centre/homebase to get their seeds or buy online? I am also going to grow some veg in the garden next year.

Thanks

Congrats on your allotment :beer:

Take heart: this time last year I moved to a house with a 1/4 acre garden (of which, the furthest 1/3rd had been left to rot/weeds/nature for the previous goodness knows how many years!). We cleared all the weeds last August and incinerated the lot. This Spring, they came back with a vengence, so we repeated the pull/dig out/incinerate routine. Now we keep on top of the weeding daily, have put out 6 8x4 raised beds in one area and other things too.

It is a lot of work, initially, to clear the ground of your alloment space, and it will always be a task to some degree to keep it weed free, but I just know you are going to have a great deal of fun, and food, in the years ahead

Hope OH's neck recovers speedily (ouchie!)

ALIBOBSY

Regarding cheap seeds for next year watch out for any seed sales shortly, many places slash the prices of this years seeds to get rid-but they have planting dates of 2012 or longer, and most seeds will keep for years as long as they are dry and cool.

We get most of our seeds from Aldi/lidl when they do their seed sales in spring. netto used to be good but they are going. Most of the pound shops do good cheap seeds and some of the basic supermarket ranges are also quite cheap, but not much choice in varieties usually. I usually see what you can get cheap and then have a couple of online sites I use. I reckon the most I paid this year was about 70p, but most were alot less.

ali x

timmmers

Hope yours is tamer than mine is. Just digging it now. had to use hedge cutters to get the thing to ankle level lol.

I invested in one of these monkeys http://www.amazon.co.uk/Silverline-GT52-Digging-Hoe/dp/B000LFXV2I and compared to digging with a spade it's a joy to use and makes mincemeat of the ground no matter how bad it is. They are also called azedas ..3rd world farmers use them everywhere, seems just here that not many do. Best tenner I ever spent, I can dig with one arm even with the thing.

Good luck, enjoy the remainder of summer...like me you'll probably be racing to avoid the reall bad weather :)0

berries

Wow!! That look's a must have tool!! Will have to see how my pennies are doing I really could do with one of these's!! One bent forl and a broken spade!!! Silly Q how do you use it?? Like a spade?? Yes I am a complety novice to the greenworld!! Lol!!!! I've got big deep rooted weed's to deal with!!

sancho

Me and a friend have had our allotment for about 4 weeks now, it was untouched for 3 years= 250 sq m of 4ft weeds. Didn't take a picture the very first day, but this is after a couple of days



With plenty of hard work we've finally got some sort of infrastructure laid out and are nearly ready to plant the first crop (raspberry canes donated by some people a couple down) just waiting for the netting to arrive to go onto the structure you can see in the picture





Don't lose heart op, I feel your pain!!