Topic: How should I tackle my new plot?

[Tora]

I've just taken on a plot (this is my first allotment experience!). The plot is covered with long glass all over. I suspect it has been uncultivated for a long time, as there are many other vacant plots in the allotment.
What is the first thing I should do? Do I need to used a strimmer and then dig by hand? Or should I use a rotovator?
I'm planning to grow lots of vegetables this year so the plot must be prepared soon!

Hope somebody can help me! :'(

Thanks

[MikeB]

Hi Tora,

Try the Wiki, If you look at the top of the page just under the A4A title you will notice a row of buttons, one of these buttons is marked wiki.  Click on this button and it will take you to the wiki.  On the contents list in the wiki you will see 'methods of cultivation', click on this, than on the section ' clearing a new allotment '.

All the best

MikeB

[Roy Bham UK]

Hi Tora, I would strim it, rake and compost the grass/weeds mark out a couple of small beds about 6ftx 4ft dig them over removing weeds as you go bung in some fertiliser cow muck or similar leave until you have grown a few seeds then plant in April, this will keep the enthusiasum going whilst you tackle the rest of the plot.

Keep it pleasureable don't make it seem like a chore. ;)

[supersprout]

So agree with RB, make and plant one bed at a time. And just cover up or strim the rest til you're ready to deal with it  :) My arms must be a bit shorter than his though, over the year I have reduced the width of my beds from 1.25m (4ft) to 1m (3ft) so I can comfortably reach to the middle without treading on the bed.
An excellent thread on making your beds from gavin at http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/joomla/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,57/topic,439.msg4275#msg4275 - known as the 'lazy sod' method. Described in loving detail!
One of the old boys on our plot keeps saying 'just keep putting it (seeds/plants) in'. When it's been time to plant out and I haven't dug a bed ready, I have covered a bed-shaped space with compost and black plastic, and just planted through, and the plants seem to grow good and strong with no digging (even broccoli on new manure - see avatar). The old boy is right, just keep planting/sowing and something will come up!
Wishing you years of fun with your new plot ;D

[Tora]

Thanks for your advice!
I will start from a small bed then :) I'm itching to make a start ;D
No-dig method sounds very attractive! I like the idea of creating a raised bed that way. I imagine only drawback is the amount of mulch you need.
Can I use a fresh manure in a no-dig bed? Does it damage plants at all? I can get free horse muck from a riding school but they are all fresh, not rotted.

[supersprout]

If you can find a copy of Joy Larkcomb's books 'Beds' or 'Grow your own Veg', they will give you loads of ideas & enthusiasm. Lucky you wiv local stables - generally, pile muck in a heap and wait 6 months to a year, or layer it in your compost heap. You might get away with fresh muck under spuds and runner beans. And you can always grow squash atop your heap, if you start them in a pot of compost, so you won't be wasting space  ;D

[Tora]

Thanks, supersprout :)
I'll definitely get muck then. I'll try growing some squashes on my heap! ;D
I like Joy Larkcom. I've read only a few books but really loved them, especially 'creative vegetable garden'.

[ThomsonAS]

Hi Tora

This is my second year and I can assure you that it's a heck of a lot easier this year than it was last!
Good advice from others about digging a two or three manageable beds so you can get started.

The thing I regret not doing last year was to whack in a bag of spuds - I concentrated too long on incrementally increasing my patches so they were 'just right'.

I also learned to be an implacaple opponent of plastic sheet (I inherited a big patch of disintegrating blue plastic which I'm still picking out) and rubber-backed carpets and underlay ought to be banned - couch grows in and through it - and even when the ruber rots, a cruddy nylon mesh remains. (You can tell I am a connosseiur on this topic as well as picking out lethal shards of broken glass!). I ended up buying specialist black fleece at trade cost from my wife's friends' husband (a landscape gardener). Far cheaper than a garden centre!

At a low point (about May 05) all my organic aspirations went to pot (and my local council's 'loment Officer'  was on my case about slow progress since, unlike my retired 'lotment neighours, I'm lucky to do 4 hours a week).  Anyway, I bought some Instant Death weedkiller and sprayed  all the uncultivated bits and six weeks later, hired a rotavator and did everything that wasn't planted! Of course weeds came back - but, psychologically these were MY weeds not the previous person's!

Anyway - main message is do what's right for you - and listen to other folks' advice even if you then ignore it! The people on my patch regularly contradict each other but are generous in spirit, sympathetic and teach me something with every conversation!

Good luck.

Alastair

[Robert_Brenchley]

I agree that blue plastic sheet is a menace; it disintegrates in sunlight, and I'm always getting bits blowing through the hedge from my neighbour's plot.

[Tora]

I went to the plot today and cleared some rubbish! The previous plot holder collected everything and anything! There were lots of corrugated iron to suppress weeds... but bindweeds were still going strong under them! Bindweeds are everywhere. Also brambles.
Lowest moment for me today was when I found a nappy :o
There was something good though. I found a huge rhubarb plant in my plot! So chuffed about it.
Oh, I got some manure from a farmer today, 14 bags of it! It's got woodshavings but he said it's about 6 months old. Can I use it straight away when I have dug a bed? ??? Most bags look quite dark and don't smell at all but a few bags look quite fresh and have visible wood shavings in them.

[Sprout]

If it's 6 months old, it should be ok to use although the shavings will take a long time to rot down (may be a couple of years) so if you can sort through it and discard as much  of the shavings as possible that would be beneficial. If you've room, make another pile of the shavings for a couple of years time.

[supersprout]

You don't hang about do you tora! Sorry about the nappy, things can only get better now  :-\. Lucky you with a manure supplier, remember Xmas and birthdays lol

Agree with sprout's advice (no relation  ::)), put what's rotted and crumbly straight on your beds, the rest in a heap or in your compost bins. I have a great pile of shavings/manure dumped on my plot for communal use, which none of the old boys will touch cos they say it will be too acid to use. My purple sprouting broccoli is sitting on top of a great thick layer, perfectly happy in spite of all the tut tutting at planting time :D

[peterpiper]

get stuck in. seriously though, i took on an allotment 3yrs ago that hadnt been cultivated for a long time.
the first season i just dug and dug, got some early spuds under black plastic, they came up a treat, dug some more got out what twitch i could as well as the perennial weeds, got some more spuds in then dug some more i managed to get some beetroot in some sweet wills, dug some more got more spuds in got onions,shallots and glads in dug some more and guess what yep you got it more spuds . what i did with the spuds was instead of earthing up as the soil was clay and lumpy was wait till the spuds broke through them mulched with well rotted horse muck luckily i have freinds who have horses, i kept on like this with the mulching ,then when i harvested the spuds the mulch got worked in ,also as a note of interest it was fascinating to have the worms pulling the manure down into the soil. i even managed to grow a few pumpins for the grand-kids. keep at it and enjoy the fruits of your labours.

[Tora]

Thanks everyone. It's encouraging to hear how you all cultivated plots. ;)
Those broccoli look enormous, supersprout! Hope I can get broccoli like that next spring!

[Roy Bham UK]

My purple sprouting broccoli is sitting on top of a great thick layer, perfectly happy in spite of all the tut tutting at planting time :D

Sorry for hi-jacking but those are lovely looking P/S Brocs are those bottles in the image all that is protecting them? Mine have been chewd by local pigeons. :(

Is there any other protection?

[supersprout]

Thank you Roy  :) The transplants were covered in Enviromesh straight away to keep the cabbage whites off. They outgrew it in November so I sort of floated it on top of the beds to keep the birds off tied with elastic bands to the poles (see pic below).



The mesh came off in the third week in Feb, the birds don't seem to be interested now. The bottles are to protect me from poking my eye on the end of the cane  ;D

[Roy Bham UK]

;D Blimey that was quick ;D Thanks S/Sprout a lesson to be learned, keep on covering, I have fleece assuming it stays hole free should that be alright dya think? ??? ;D

[supersprout]

Well, I never used mesh before this year Roy, so will be definitely using again. I did invest in good metal pegs, you could make your own out of wire coathangers. I'm a devoted mesh addict now and the plot will have a ghostly pallor next year  ;D

Forgot to mention the final bit of tlc, I routinely take off the yellowing lower leaves, having read that this was a good idea to discourage whitefly too. And the pale brown stuff was a mulch of spent hops in September - mostly gone now (where? ???)