Topic: Allotment Newbie!

[Munchkin]

Hello there!  we have at last arrived at the top of the council allotment waiting list (took 2 1/2 years!) and will hopefully have our patch this week.  I am posting here for the first time to ask for your advice on what to do first - we are really keen to get going and produce some sort of crop this year but knowing us we will charge in all guns blazing and make mistakes!  the plot is overgrown and has apparently been sprayed already by the council, it has a shed and we would like to grow veg as organicaly as possibly so that we can give our baby boy the best.  We want to get the soil ready as quickly as we can - any tips?

Many thanks

Helen

[westsussexlottie]

What type of soil is it?
What has been grown on it before?
Try to find out where previous crops have been from other lottie owners.
Ask other lottie owners if there are any known problems with the site - e.g onion white rot, eelworm etc....

You could use the no dig method to get going quickly this year  - I would suggest squashes are a good bet as they romp away.

[philcooper]

......we will charge in all guns blazing .....

Helen,

Welcome aboard, you'll get lots of advice here (some conflicting but, in that case, as you have a whole allotment to go at, you can try a bit of each of the ones you like until you find the best one for you).

The best advice is not to charge in! Work out how much you can do on a sustainable basis (ie week after week) - many an enthusiastic new allotmenteer has given up after overdoing it in the early days (when I'm afraid the results don't come quick enough).

You've got time to plant salads that will harvest this year and overwintering crops such as winter and spring cabbage, sprouting broccoli, Brussels sprouts and leeks.

But first you need some clean ground. As you are keen to go chemical free then it will be either hard work or  a long job.

Hard work in digging and removing all the perennial weeds

Slow if you want to starve 'em out by covering with a light excluding cover (old carpets, cardboard, black polythene, a thick covering of mulch such as grass cuttings) This will reduce the weeds by next Spring.

Some "cheat" by using glyphosate in a one off go at clearing the weeds (there are differing stories on how long the chemical persists in the soil - it certainly doesn't break down immediately as the suppliers say!).

I split my plot into 4' by 5 yard beds (they don't need to be raised - this requires extra effort) with 18" paths between, this allows:

you to see the progress you've made
you to work on the beds without standing on them (avoids compaction of the soil and means you can work on them when the ground is to wet to stand on)

Sorry if this sounds gloomy, but if you do a proper job by working at clearing small patches (another reason for the bed approach) of all weeds you will build up a productive and rewarding plot that you can maintain for many a long year - until the boy can take over from you  ;)

Hens are good ground clearers (and do all the work!) so if you site allows them and you can borrow/buy an ark with 3 or 4 birds they will clean areas quite quickly and produce eggs - see the thread on hens

Good luck

Phil

PS take some before and after photos - then you'll feel even better about what you've acheived!

[Svea]

i totally agree with phil

don't get disheartened - clear a small area, and plant some (shop-bought?) plants you like: tomatoes, peppers, runner beans? stuff you can start yourself directly in the ground now are squashes/pumpkins, beans, all kinds of salad things, radishes, kohlrabi. also start of brassicas for overwintering.

plant and sow a little as you have cleared some ground - but maybe have some idea of a rotation plan also in your head rather than plonking things wildly left, right and centre?

i recommend joy larkcom's "grow your own vegetables" as a good all round guide to organic veg growing, incl. hints on rotation and all kinds of techniques. the beds that phil has described are a good idea - i have divided my little plot into just such beds (though not 5 yards long, alas! :()

all the best, and yes, do take pictures of before and after week after week (or month after month)

little and often, repeat after me: little and often.....

svea :)

[cheddarpaul]

Welcome to the mad world of the lottie bunch.

We got ours 2 weeks ago. Its about 30m x 3m. I managed to beg use of a rotovator and went over the plot a couple of times. Following that there was a couple of hours of raking and hoeing to tidy it up further. I have covered over about 1/3 of it with heavy grade tarpaulin as that will give me some breathing space (should keep some of the weeds down).
With some of the remainder I have put in some runner beans, carrots, cabbage, salad onions and lettuce. That still leaves me some room for more veg but following advice on here I will start to plants some veg for the autumn/winter.
Good advice is not to rush into it or try to do everything at once. At the same time I got mine lottie another 9 or 10 people got theirs. Some have gone hell for leather rotovating, raking, hoeing, putting in nice neat gravel walkways, buying new sheds and generally doing everything except getting stuff in to the soil!
See what people on the lotties near you are growing. Talk to them, ask them any question you like. I have found that they have always been able to give me advice or dos and donts and are happy to spend a few minutes passing on their experience.
Plant what you like to eat too. Its no use planting stuff for the sake of it.
Most of all - enjoy it. When I get up to my lottie I just watch the countryside around me (I have views over Cheddar Gorge and the Mendip Hills), enjoy the clean air and dream a little of eating the first thing from my very own lottie.

I am sure you will enjoy it...

[Svea]

PS: don't forget - even if you do cover some of the ground in a mulch to let the weeds die - you could dig out planting holes and mix some compost into that - then plant things like squashes or other plants through the mulch into that planting hole. you get a crop and still the weeds will (mostly) die back around...

hope that makes sense.....

[maz]

Hello munchkin.  ;D 

I cant argue with what the others have said but I just wondered what the council have sprayed your lottie with?   ???

[Roy Bham UK]

 ;D Can't add anything more to that other than Welcome ;D ;D ;D

[dibberxxx]

welcome munchkin   :)

[Dirkdigger]

Only problem Munchkin with this site is its addictive. People are so friendly and advice freely given. I'm a newbie myself getting my allotment in Feb this year. All the advice I would reccomend is a little and often. Apart from that if you follow the preceding advice from the other members you wont go far wrong.
Welcome on board!!! ;D

[Munchkin]

Thanks everyone!  your advice is very much appreciated.  We plan to get stuff in the ground as soon as we can.  The lady at the council was not sure what they sprayed the plot with (good start!) but we will be trying to be as organic as possible I'm sure it will be a steep learning curve!

Helen

[kitty]

welcome munch!
don't give up!
thats my advice-and before you know where you are you will see something for your hard work-we noved to our house which had stood empty for lots of years and the garden is a corner of a farmers field-hillocky-full of couch and grass and nothing else over the past 4 months we've transformed it into a nice looking allotment garden-theres still LOTS to do-but we did a bit at a time-and we learned ver early to concentate on the bit we were doing-not to look at thewhole patch which could be very off putting!
little and often-and i found a good way opf going on is to have small goals-like-'right-today i'm going to clear and dig a patch 6' square and plant cabbages!
also-do buy some plants-its a great spur to clear a bit and get them in!
best of luck-you can always stop for a cuppa here-roys got a kettle-sveas got the biccys!
kitty ;D

[ellkebe]

Munchkin I'm new myself so don't really have any sage advice, but I do agree that little and often seems best - with lots of stopping to admire the view, have a chat, have a cuppa etc  :)  So far I've done rather more stopping than working so perhaps I'm not the person to listen to!!  Most important of all - keep it enjoyable  :)

[slugcatcher]

Nothing to add except just enjoy yourself dont treat it as a chore if you dont want to do anything that day just sit and look at what you have done




Ron

[wardy]

I agree with Slugcatcher - you can take time to just sit and look (even more enjoyable with lager in hand).  You don't have to flog yourself to death  ;D

My allotment is still a mass of weeds but we keep mowing them (well not at the mo at we broke the mower  :o) and I have put loads of black plastic mulch down.  It's doing a great job and I think I'm going to plant through it as someone suggested on this thread (without digging it first) I've got a bulb planter so I'll use that.  My plot is so weedy that someone has suggested I let the squashes grow on those parts.  Sounds good to me  ;D

I know I should deal with them but have a rotten bad back again and don't really like weedkiller because of doubts about residues on me food  :)

[smartie]

Hi everyone!
I too am an allotment newbie and today is my first visit to this great site. All of your answers are providing me with an absolute wealth of information, although I must admit I am still feeling a tad overwhelmed! So much info, and where to start.....?!!
Just wanted to say keep up the good work all, I feel I am learning already!!
Thanks  ;D

[purplegirl]

Hi Claire,

I'm a newbie too! Welcome to the site. It's nice to be on a forum where the people are so welcoming  :D

[markyb23]

Hello everyone,
                          just  thought I'd say hello and welcome to all of the newcomers.Best of luck to you all.
  I'm fairly new to allotment gardening myself.The advice that I would offer is; Do your own thing and learn from your mistakes as you go along,but,at the same, be prepared to learn from other people who are willing to share their knowledge with you.There are a lot of really helpful people on the A4A site.
  If you've got a lot of digging to do,it's worth investing in a good spade that you are comfortable with.
  Potatoes are  a great crop to start off with as they're easy to grow,keep the weeds down and give you a lot of satisfaction when you come to dig them up.
  Don't let the occasional disaster get you down,there's always next year.
  Take it steady,grow what YOU want to grow and enjoy youself.
     All The Best-Marky.B. :)
 

[redimp]

I am a newbie too with a weed ridden site and look at my number of posts already - maybe have my priorities the wrong way round - chock full of theory without having enough practice - I blame the weather  ;)

[joniandmoss]

HI everyone, we have just got our allotment this week and are so excited about it. Moss has had a share in a lottie for about a year and has done lots of work, but we have just acquired our own on another site which is very friendly and more our thing. We have just read thru some of these posts and are pleased to read so many tips.
Our plot has a really ramshackle shed thats full of junk and falling down, altho we're  keen to build something else . We dont want to buy a shed, we are also keen 'skip dippers' . Anyone suggest materials they have used (other than the obvious wood) or a source for supply of corrugated sheets or even where we could find discarded ones- do they get discarded from somewhere like railways or something? We have so many questions I think I will post them seperately....