Keeping an allotment??

Frith

I have an allotment with half fenced off for my hens.

I!!!8217;m quite lazy so the rest is 4 rows of raspberries and a raised bed of strawberries plus 3 soft fruit bushes.

I then grow things that are easy but quite expensive to buy so courgettes, squash and lots of pumpkins.

Rainbow chard is indestructible so I!!!8217;ve still got a row of that growing right now.

Planted a square of sweet corn this year too.

Also quick are mixed salad leaves, potatoes, onions and garlic.

[Deleted User]

I have decided to only grow veg which are easy this year, the fruit looks after itself, all I have to do is fertilise, prune and pick. I am on my own so have quickly learnt not to grow too much of any veg and not to grow tall brassicas which need to be staked, or leeks because of leek moth and/or rust.

I do rotations in a book, which I keep year on year and only take one crop from a bed, which I then sow with green manure, chop and cover. I put garlic and shallots in from previous crops and do that in november. Parsnips are important to me, I dig up before the frost as I don`t like sweet and then part roast and freeze. I don`t eat potatoes.

One 8 x 4 bed will, this year, only contain green cabbage, red cabbage and swede. I used to grow red drumhead but that is now too massive for me, so kalibos it is. 3 moonlight plants this year just for fresh beans, I hate frozen green beans. Two mini cucumber plants because they can be cooked as well as juiced. I grow fordhook giant chard. It isn`t giant but does not bolt like the others

I have experimented with my gooseberries and am growing them all as standards, staked with metal poles. So I can sit below the canopy and pick easily

Floss

Fuddle am with you on the importance of a seat in the sun & fresh air.

We're lucky to have free unlimited horse/donkey manure on our site and the other sites across the town...guess it pays to have one of the highest populations of horses per square mile of town + our seaside donkeys!

Well_Preserved

I would definitely keep it if you!!!8217;ve more time now. My main advice would be, make sure you plant something as you clear, to combat the weeds. The guy who has the other half of mine keeps clearing it, then not getting down again for a while and he!!!8217;s back to square one. Potatoes, radishes, lettuce, all would do. Then make sure you are growing stuff you like! I!!!8217;ve found L*dl a good source of cheap & sometimes unusual seed, & sometimes Al#i have reasonably priced plants that do pretty well - from plugs to fruit trees.

sazzlebgood?

agree with well preserved, put something in as you clear as it keeps your motivation going. We also have a bloke next to us who spend weeks clearing, putting a few bits in and then doesn't come for months on end and then spends weeks clearing. This has been going on for years.

katkins78

I am in a similar situation, had my daughter just over a year and a half ago and a lack of time and inclination meant that my plot had partially reverted back to a wilderness. I ummed and aahhed about giving it up but just couldn't do it

Last year I covered a large portion of the plot in cardboard/plastic and I have been gradually clawing back beds. I decided against growing crops I could buy cheaply and that I couldn't discern any difference of taste between shop bought and home grown. I won't bother with onions, garlic, maincrop potatoes, cabbages and carrots but tomatoes, sweetcorn, courgettes and new potatoes are on my must have list.

I can't buy some of the crops I am enthusiatic about: immature broad beans, interesting sweet squash, heirloom tomatoes, just picked peas.

I also grow some things purely for economic reasons; salad leaves, runner beans, spinach and chard have big yields from a tiny packet of seeds- infact my annual allotment rent is the equivalent of a bag of shop bought salad leaves each week.

I've wittered on a bit! Good luck and I can highly recommend "The Great Vegetable Plot" by Sarah Raven for a bit inspiration.

[Deleted User]

I don`t dig my beds, I find that growing green manure and laying down hm compost gives me a lovely fertile bed, the worms do the work. I don`t use any animal manure, just comfrey from my comfrey patch and compost. I have superb veg

Lydia42

Huge thanks to all who replied and gave advice.

My daughter and i visited at the weekend and cleared the shed of all the spider webs and tidied up. The sun was glorious and along with all your comments about the mental/health/well being improvements I've decided to keep the plot for the year. It's paid for so would be silly not to.

Sitting on the bench up there in the sun and watching my daughter (having excitedly helped sweep and tidy the shed) dig in the mud telling me that i wasn't allowed to ever fill her mud cake hole in made me realise exactly why i got the plot in the first place.

I'm excited to see what the year will bring xx