Allotments 4 All

OK - me again - I haven't even paid for the plot yet (that's next week's job!) but DH paced it out for me today so I can start planning it & I have started doing a 'best scenario' plan (ie one for when the site is in full use). It will probably be a few years from now before it is all in place, but I figure it will make it easier to decide which bits to dig over first if I have an idea what is going where!

The plot is (very!) roughly 112 feet by 26 feet and is on a slope that faces north east(ish). So far on my plan I have compost bins, a space for a manure heap and a leaf mold bin at the bottom end of the plot (next to the track for easy loading & unloading). I am planning on using the back of these to grow some things against (fruit maybe?) as that will face southish. Right at the other (top) end of the plot I will have a shed (& a water butt) with a cold frame behind (again to use the south facing wall of it) and seating area with a small bed for ds to play around with when he is older and a little pond to attract frogs etc to help with slugs (lots of things I have read tell me this is a good idea so I will just have to get over my fear of frogs I guess!!) Does that sound OK so far? Have I missed anything?

And then there's this huge gap in the middle !! ??? How on earth do I decide how to divide it up? I am guessing I need to do lots of reading & find out what it is I want to grow and work out how much room I will need for each crop & therefore how big the beds need to be to accommodate them for each rotation? And then there's the permanent planting & how much room for those as well - blimey at this rate the planning is going to take just as long to do as the clearing!! :o Are there any good books the can help me with all this. I already have the allotment handbook by Caroline Foley, The new vegetable and herb expert and the fruit expert  and Geoff Hamilton's The organic garden book. I guess I should be busy reading them instead of bending your ears - but this is slightly quicker & easier!!

Thanks in advance

Saz

i would recommend joy larkcom's grow your own vegetables.

oher than that, make three or four rotation groups, allocate roughly the same amount of space to each (potatoes/nightshades, roots, brassicas, legumes, alluims are your main groups)

last year's secnario:
i have 6 beds for rotational veg, i.e. not permanent stuff.
i have roughly divided that up into 3 groups with 2 beds per group.
my groups are: brassicas bed 1 and 2 (1 has cabbages, sprouts, PSB - long term stuff, overwintering etc; 2 has summer broccoli, rocket etc)
potatoes and roots bed 3 and 4 (potatoes and parsnips in bed 3; bed 4 was a 'surplus' bed)
beans and alliums in beds 5 and 6 (5 had garlic, spring onions, chives, lettuces; 6 was entirely covered in beans)

the surplus bed 4 had squashes in it - they dont fall into a rotation group. i also had non-rotational things in other beds where i could fit them in - lettuces, scorzonera, and celery and celeriac which could go with roots, or anywhere else

that's what i did last year. this year i have upgraded to a whole allium bed, and made the mistake of having almost 2 beds of potatoes - leaving me short of space for other things.
plans are only woring if you add flexibility :D

If you plant to grow on beds (Pauline Pears 'Beds' is a great primer) you can measure out your space and mark all the beds and paths with stakes and string ;D ;D ;D This will mean you're walking on paths and not beds right from the start, and dividing up the space into beds somehow makes the large empty space less intimidating. It also gives you the flexibility - as svea says - for growing what you might fancy in a given year, which might be different to the previous. Make sure your string is visible or you will end up tripping all the time ;)

Right, I think I am geeting there slowly with the plan...I have also just joined HDRA so loads of more lovely info to digest in their members area ;D. The only thing I am struggling with at the moment is finding out how much of everything to plant. How do I work out what we (as a family of 2 adults & one toddler) wil need & what yields I will get from different veg? Once I know how much of eveything I will need I can then work out how much bed space to allow for.

Sorry if this is a daft question - still feeling a bit 'green' about all of this ;)

TIA
Saz

Hi sahzig
Wanna plan? ;D

Decide what your family wants to eat off the plot (e.g. I grow a few new and salad potatoes, but buy sacks of maincrop direct from the farmer; other A4a-ers aim for self-sufficiency in spuds)
Calculate roughly how much the family will want to eat in a week over its season
Find a table of veg yield in a good book, e.g. in
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0715317814/202-0411622-2192660
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1580082335/202-0411622-2192660
and you will know how many plants you need
Figure out how much room the crop will take up (you can often crop twice on the same ground in a season)
Decide whether you're going to get value-per-square-yard from the crop

I have learned from experience that I want brassicas all year round, but need only a few, so it's better for me to buy a handful of 5p plug plants locally than raise from seed and grow a forest of broccoli because I can't bear to 'waste' the seedlings :-[

It's not an exact science - you will always have gluts and crop failures. Enjoy learning from your mistakes ;D

Think about what might be involved in storing/preserving/freezing gluts so you are always prepared. Your neighbours will be buying ten runner beans from the supermarket - you'll be going home with a carrier bag full!

Plans?????

So thats were i have gone wrong..  ;D ;D
i just wing it as  I go  ;)