Topic: New Plot

[wardy4]

Good morning
I have just taken over a new plot. It needs digging over to remove weeds etc and has been rotivated a couple of time. I could do with some advice about what veg i can put in now or do i need to leave it until next year and just do some ground preparation.
Thanks

[EnglishRose]

I'm about as new to allotmenteering as you so am definitely not in a good position to be offering advice - instead I shall be lurking here to steal tips and ideas for my own new plot  ;)

I'm sure I read somewhere that potatoes are a good crop to put into a new plot as they break up the soil and that Kestrel potato plants can be planted at this time of the year.  I could be completely wrong though - can anyone else confirm/refute this piece of information?

[1066]

Congratulations to both of you on your new plots oh and welcome to A4A  :)

Well what to do now -
firstly there is a Wikki link on A4A which has loads of great advice on it
A couple of our members - AllAbout Liverpool and TeeGee have their own great websites which are packed with great info, photos and lots of practical stuff
Then there is us lot  ;D
Oh and there is a thread called Winter Gardening - it's at the top of the Edibles forum

So what to do now - lots of planning, I'd say
But you can order (or buy) garlic for planting out in Oct / Nov
You can look at sowing Broad Beans and Peas (check varieties) in Oct / Nov for over-wintering
Or you could check out some on-line suppliers for buying some plug plants to get you going - things like spinach and chard, winter salads, oriental veg etc. Still not to late to sow a few of these

Most of all - take lots of photos, and take time to enjoy your plots

1066  :)

[:(]

Its a fallacy that potatoes break up the soil, its you that breaks up the soil when you prepare the bed then when you dig them up. They do smother weeds on a weedy plot with the dense foliage. If you want Christams potatoes, its second earlies you plant at this time of year. If youre planting them in the ground you need to think when your first frost is likely and be prepared to protect them.

[Trevor_D]

Welcome both!

My advice to newcomers on our site is always to walk the ground, take photos and draw rough plans of what you think might go where.

Suss out the easiest bit to start on and dig it over thoroughly ready to plant onions & garlic in the autumn. (That way, you've got something growing and it's not all hard slog!)

Then you've got all winter to get an area ready for planting potatoes in March. Meanwhile, you get a third area ready for the summer stuff - courgettes, tomatoes, sweetcorn and things.

And don't just titivate a small square in the middle of a patch of weed! Start from one corner and dig slowly and methodically till you reach the opposite corner!

And enjoy it!!

[Digeroo]

Welcome wardy4  I have had an allotment for 18 months now though grew veg in the garden for many years.  I hope that you enjoy it as much as I do mine.  I started with concrete in the spring and planting potatoes was not easy, it was more of a case of chiselling out a groove and scrapping a little soil around them.   I was actually quite impressed how much easier the soil was after I dug them up.  I rather though they had done the work because I certainly did not.

I dug small rectangular narrow beds and planted things in them.  I did not have enough time to dig it all over so left lots of paths.  Then I put in potatoes and courgettes in the undug areas in holes and filled with manure.  My first plants were parsley from tesco I simply split the pot into four clumps.  I certainly did not have the energy or the persistance to start at one end and dig until I reached the other end.  I am a bumble bee and flit around. 

You can still sow chard and spinach though they do not get very big.  There are packets of  green stuff which will give you various leaves all winter.  Carrot Nantes Frubund is supposed to be ok.  Our local garden centre has pamphlets from T&M listing varieties of veg recommended for autumn sowing.  Spring greens are sown now. Last year I planted peas in autumn under plastic bottles and they were very slightly earlier than those sown in early march, there was not much in it.  But it was nice to see something growing and it was certainly warmer when I planted them.   Those outside the bottles were soon eaten by various pests.

I think that you should do a lot of preparation now so you can just throw things in come the new year.  I hate bare soil so tend to sow green  manures which grow slowly through the winter.

[EnglishRose]

Well, I don't know about Wardy4 but I quite like the idea of planting a few plug plants of winter salads, spinach, oriental veg etc once the first bed is properly dug over.

Is it possible to buy 'plugs' online?  If so, can anyone recommend particular suppliers / websites?  And what about buying potatoes, onions etc? 

[Wardy4: hope you don't mind me jumping in here with lots of questions, but I suspect that the answers are going to be useful for both of us  ;D ]

[Chrispy]

I had the same as Digeroo and spuds.
I could not dig the top of my plot during the winter, simply because it is so steep I can hardly stand up, let alone dig when it is wet.
As a result I ended digging channels in the spring and planting spuds.
I dug up the spuds a week ago, but the soil between the rows was still a solid lump, so in my experience spuds do not break up the soil, well not mine anyway.

I've got it dug over now, took a lot of soaking, and the loan of an azada.

I am with Digeroo about green manure, I sow as much as I can, much better than leaving bare ground over the winter.

[wardy4]

[Wardy4: hope you don't mind me jumping in here with lots of questions, but I suspect that the answers are going to be useful for both of us  ;D ]
[/quote]
Not a problem
Thanks for the welcome

I just need some ideas of what to put in this time of year basically i haven't got a clue but i am keen to give it a go.
I only got it yesterday so am pretty limited as to what i can put in now to get me going. if anyone has any ideas they would be greatfully received. But please try to steer clear of Latin names.
Thanks

[ipt8]

I also recently got a plot, so far have strimmed, well a clearing saw actually, the nettles, wild raspberries and cut down a large fallen elderberry bush and fallen sloe bush. Have sprayed the re-growth and get the rotavator this weekend.
Our allotments are a small private site neglected for years, taken over slowly and surprisingly each plot holder has fenced his/her own bit, or the bit they are using on their plot. I tried to get my plot neigbours to join up to save internal fences but they did not like the sound of the work involved.
I have some late cropping potatoes from Browns to put in asap, some carrot seed, and onion sets and garlic again from Browns for planting this time of year. They will all be going in as it comes as I need to get them in as soon as the ground is ready. I still have to fence it as well.
What ground I dont plant will have either green manures of which I bought a mix, including some home collected Lupin seed as I have very sandy soil, or will have manure and I hope spent mushroom compost put on for the worms to work at over the winter.
I have yet to work out cropping plans so I can decide which areas/beds to manure and which not to.

Our soil is an acid sand (greensand) so I have to add lots of compost, we also have no water laid on site so I have a bit of a challenge.
I have been reading two books which I highly recomend to you, the first is The Essential Allotment guide by John Harrison, and the second Grow Your Own Vegetables by Joy Larcom. Both are very good in their own way. I compared prices on ebay and Amazon and got good second hand from Amazon.