Allotments 4 All

I got my allotment about 2 weeks ago, before I went on holiday and sowed some seeds etc in trays before I went so I'd get them started.

It did have grass, nettles and dock - knee high but this has now been strimmed by the council and black plastic is down over about 3/4 of the allotment. It is about 10m by 10m.

I started seeds off in trays and also put some onion sets into some trays to start them off.

Looking at the size of things, it looks like I really need to get the onions, shallots, beans and peas into the ground. (the bean plant is about 2 foot high - in a 3 inch tall pot - was the only one that survived slugs earlier in the year!!) The peas are about 4 inches tall.

Obviously I also need to clear some space to put them in.

Should I clear and plant in stripes across the entire length or squares?

Any hints on getting better onions, beans and peas.

I've  been gardening for years but not really grown veg before.

Hopefully the rain will clear for long enough to get down there and do something. I'm getting quite frustrated with the waiting.

Also any allotment etiquette I really should be aware of??

Hello

I would say you need to have a master plan set in your mind about what you want out of the allotment. There seems to be 2 ways of doing it. Either use the whole plot, or divide it up into beds. Possibly raising the beds in time.

I would leave as much covered up as possible and only uncover it when your ready to start removing the weed roots a digging it all over.

We have go for the raised bed option as we think it helps to keep it manageable and the thought of digging the whole lot was just way to daunting. Even if you did hire a rotavator, still a lot. We divided our lots into 10 beds all 2m x 5m, and we sow in 2m strips across the beds. This we find is nice and easy to hoe out weeds and to reach into to pick produce without walking on the soil.

If you can, cover your beans and peas with netting while small or the pigeons will attack.

Talk to your allotment neighbors, i bet they will be nice. In terms of etiquette, don't launch slug and snails in there direction and keep weeds under control. If weeds get to flowering stage, you don’t want to be responsible for letting weed seeds flying everywhere.

Good luck digging the stinging nettles roots out. There a bit of a hand full. We had some 5ft long.

My biggest tip learned this year (my first year of growing things) is to carefully net and support peas- even when they got quite big ours were still savaged by the pigeons! Good luck and hope you get some more advice from the more knowledgable members.

If you have had all the rain hire a dinghy to view your plot!
;D

Or wade in and pull the plug

My friend and I dug over for about an hour and a half on Sunday (whilst hungover). I was hoping to get back later in the day to plant the onions and shallots but didn't get there because I stayed out too long at lunch... and its raining today (again).