Topic: New Allotment Holder's queries

[daveandtara]

crikey wardy!
that looks nicer than our garden  :o
we've still got a whole section uncleared and now i'm thinking wendy house for baby, kennel for dog, sunbathing area for me.........the list could be endless.
any ideas for something to amuse a stroppy teenager?  ;D
Tara xx

[amphibian]

That sounds lovely Waggi.  Here' s my recreational bit which is just weeds mowed  ;D   We tether the dog on it, have the family round for food and drinks, well mostly drinks  ;D  We have the cooking area by the shed and it's just a lovely relaxing bit where we can put our sun chairs, listen to the radio and fall asleep if we want.  We did get some funny looks from fellow plotters who urged us to weedkill it then dig it up and plant spuds.  The plot is massive so we thought the best thing would be to have a garden space to relax.  I think we've done right.  We love it and have been planting round the edges today.  Comfrey plants right up to the hedge and we hope to have some fruit trees on it.  :)

My word, how many perch is your plot?

[linesman]

call me stupid but whats a perch don't have a lottie just a very large garden 25 meters by 35 meters

My word, how many perch is your plot?

[Robert_Brenchley]

Same as a rod or pole. 5 1/2 yards, or a square pole is 30 1/4 aquare yards. If that helps. That would make my plot approximately 20 perch.

[amphibian]

call me stupid but whats a perch don't have a lottie just a very large garden 25 meters by 35 meters

My word, how many perch is your plot?

A [square] rod/pole/perch is about 25 sq metres (although my local concil handbook incorrectly has it down as 81 sq metres  :o

[flowerlady]

I put up a post in 'Basics' about banana skins, 'cos I would love to get a better underestanding about their properties.   So hope you can all help me with this - pretty please  ;D ;D ;D

But have also found the following:-! 

Use this to repel deer, rabbits and shrew. ;)

1 tablespoon blood meal
2 gallons warm water

Mix well. Pour into a sprayer and coat plants and trees. Apply regularly when plants are not vulnerable.

Warning:  Excessive application may burn plants, so be careful with amounts.

[amphibian]

I put up a post in 'Basics' about banana skins, 'cos I would love to get a better underestanding about their properties.   So hope you can all help me with this - pretty please  ;D ;D ;D

But have also found the following:-! 

Use this to repel deer, rabbits and shrew. ;)

1 tablespoon blood meal
2 gallons warm water

Mix well. Pour into a sprayer and coat plants and trees. Apply regularly when plants are not vulnerable.

Warning:  Excessive application may burn plants, so be careful with amounts.

I might try that.

Apparently rabbits are never seen at our allotment, though pigeons and deer are a problem. I take it that deer are easily put off by the smell of humans, I remember a deerstalker, on TV, talking about them getting a wiff and bolting. I might try hanging human hair (or maybe allotment vandals' heads on spikes, a double deterant) around my crops.

[amphibian]

We dug in a deep bed today 5x20' it was very hard work as the soil (a clayey loam) had become quite compacted after 6 years without being worked.

The plot is fairly weed free, basically just being turf and docs. The soil breaks down to a nicely flocculated tilth.

I have been assured by my neighbours that I definately picked the right plot, and that it is much coverted, but while breaking the soil down I was astounded at the complete lack of roots in it, basically it just had a very deep rooted turf, which I broke up and inverted on the subsoil, under a foot of topsoil. I found we have a very shallow bedrock of green sandstone in some places, no more than 14" down.

I was just wondering why it might be that our plot should be weed free, after such a long time out of use; neighouring derelict plots are very overgrown with brambles. In the whole patch I only removed two dandelion roots, what would cause a plot to stay weed free?

We had plenty of earthworms, and I was glad to see an army of beetles.

I also discovered a couple of mole hills at the bottom of my plot, is the furry critter likely to prove a serious menace?

[redimp]

14" of soil in places.  That's what we say but that's when we discover a deep bit.

[amphibian]

There is a patch at the bottom of my plot that I think may be couch grass, but I must confess I'm not quite sure how to positively identify this. Does anyone have a good way of telling?

[redimp]

Long white roots.

[Robert_Brenchley]

The roots are close to the surface, unless they've been dug deeper, yellowish white, harder to break than many, and have nodes at intervals which new plants will soon sprout from. If you're not sure now and it is couch, you'll soon be certain!

[tamsin]

 

[any ideas for something to amuse a stroppy teenager?/quote]

I get mine to do the watering, put up posts, dig and put plants in. Nothing like training them up for my retirement!  ;D

[amphibian]

Right, I have discovered that the patch I dug over yesterday was a fluke, everything I have dug today is pure couch grass.

I have been lifting the turfs and I am going to stack them up and wrap them in plastic, I will then dig and de-root the soil in my beds, I was going to leave the pathways as grass, but as I now know it is couch, I am going to lift the turfs, cover in plastic and then lay paving slabs. I am going to dig a trench around the plot and edge my whole plot with half paving slabs.


Is this overkill, or am I wise to take it that seriously?

How bad is couch, is it easier to deal with than bindweed?

Will couch yield to hoeing, given time?

Is there owt else I can do?

[Svea]

i remember reading here that couch grass does not like being mowed. so that may be your plan of attack. there are a couple of people who have couch grass paths
unless you are sure about the paving slab paths, i would stick with 'the devil you know' :) you may get very fed up otherwise with the hard work. dont lose the fun!

[jennym]

My plots were covered in couch grass when I took over. I adopted many methods in different areas to get rid of it. Here they are:
Dig up all the grass and stack it up (upside down) in a really high heap for at least 3 years. The plant in the clean soil.
Dig up as much as you can and sow turnip seed really thickly, then rotavate in. Did this twice. Some still came up but only in small patches.
Cover with high quality woven plastic membrane for 2 years (some still came up the year I removed it, but weaker)
Rotavate once a month from March through to October, two years running. Surprisingly, this did not seem to make the problem worse, (as I have read here that it does) it came up but again only in weakened patches. Earthworm population appeared to recover too.
Apply a glyphosate based weed-killer such as Roundup (I used the Ultra 300 version) in Mid May, then scraped off the dead grass after about 3 to 4 weeks and dug and planted veg. This was the most effective and quickest method.
Once the soil was clear I made sure that something, anything, was growing in it. I started sowing poached egg plant, (Limanthes dougasii I think) and find that this is good to keep the ground relatively clear of the twitch.
Hope this helps.

[amphibian]

My plots were covered in couch grass when I took over. I adopted many methods in different areas to get rid of it. Here they are:
Dig up all the grass and stack it up (upside down) in a really high heap for at least 3 years. The plant in the clean soil.
Dig up as much as you can and sow turnip seed really thickly, then rotavate in. Did this twice. Some still came up but only in small patches.
Cover with high quality woven plastic membrane for 2 years (some still came up the year I removed it, but weaker)
Rotavate once a month from March through to October, two years running. Surprisingly, this did not seem to make the problem worse, (as I have read here that it does) it came up but again only in weakened patches. Earthworm population appeared to recover too.
Apply a glyphosate based weed-killer such as Roundup (I used the Ultra 300 version) in Mid May, then scraped off the dead grass after about 3 to 4 weeks and dug and planted veg. This was the most effective and quickest method.
Once the soil was clear I made sure that something, anything, was growing in it. I started sowing poached egg plant, (Limanthes dougasii I think) and find that this is good to keep the ground relatively clear of the twitch.
Hope this helps.

If I remove the turf, and clear the soil as best I can then just pop my veg in, and hoe, hoe, hoe -- what will happen?

[jennym]

Hoeing doesn't really work with couch grass, as it is very tough, and it sends out runners under the surface, and each little bit of the root that has nodes can root again. You need to dig it up if it comes through. But do clear the soil as best you can and plant. By planting things you will firstly be encouraged to keep having a go and you are giving it some competition.

[amphibian]

Hoeing doesn't really work with couch grass, as it is very tough, and it sends out runners under the surface, and each little bit of the root that has nodes can root again. You need to dig it up if it comes through. But do clear the soil as best you can and plant. By planting things you will firstly be encouraged to keep having a go and you are giving it some competition.

I'll be going up to the allotment atleast every other day. So if I thoroughly clear the soil I am using, and cover the rest--will I be able to get on top of it sufficiently to get everything I want to out of the plot? Which is basically enough veg to feed my family.

[jennym]

If you spend that much time on it - you'll definitely make a big impact on your family diet.
I try to supply all we need - there are 3 at home now and I do tend to run out of some things around March, but work full time so can't spend as much time as you.