Allotments 4 All

Hi, after lurking for the last few months i have finally plucked up th courage to write. ???

I have just got my first ever allotment and am really looking forward to eating my own fresh veg.

I just have a couple of questions.... once i have dug up the weeds and sorted out my first bed i want to grow onion sets and garlic, would you put anything on the soil now or just leave it as it is and hope that the soil is better than it looks?

Plus my father in law has chickens and i have heard that chicken poop is good for some veg, but how do i use it, do i need to leave it for a while to rot down like horse manure (he uses straw as the bedding)?

Thank you all in advance. Laura g  :D

I'll leave your questions for someone else to answer Laura - but let me be the first to welcome you to our big family here on A4All. It's very addictrive and I'm sure that you, like me, will learn something new every day. We're sometimes a wacky lot too  ;D.

Tricia

Welcome to bad backs r us im not sure about about fresh chick poo but ive used the dried with good results

Hi Laura and welcome  :)

Chicken poo is *The Cream of The crop*  ;) My brother-in-law saves all his CP for me. I'm not sure if using it *Fresh*, might be a bit like new horse manure. I intend to use it on my plot and leave it to do it's job over winter.

Seeeeeee we don't bite honest  ;D.
Glad you joined us

Lauren  :)

Hi Lauren, welcome aboard...
;D

Welcome to A4A Laura, great site to visit. Good luck with your allotment.
Lorna

Welcome Laura, we are a pretty crazy lot but we have always got room for another like minded soul XX Jeannine

hi laura congratulations on your new plot, its very exciting. the first year i did onions i just popped the garlic and onion sets in with no additional extras and i had an ok crop. the following year i dug in some compost before planting and gave the garlic some ash from the bonfire in spring and the onions some chicken poo pellets (also in the spring). i dont know if that is right or wrong but i had a better crop - the onions were larger and the garlic had bigger bulbs. i dont know if the chicken poo helped or wether it was the fertiliser or even just the weather but i suspect that if you are overwintering then some extra help in the spring probably helps. i am sure someone like teegee would have a better answer and if he doesnt reply then check out his website it is very informative. http://www.thegardenersalmanac.co.uk/Indexes/index.htm. hope the link works. good luck and keep us posted. :D

Welcome, Laura, and happy allotmenteering!

hello! thanks for joining, look forward to chatting with you!
what are you planning on growing?
i'v had my lottie 2 months now and loving it!

Garlic, Laura? Start here - http://www.thegarlicfarm.co.uk/.

For both Garlic & Onion soil needs, Google Growing Garlic/Onions - & sift through.

Both like a lot of compost/mulch & both like fertiliser - but NOT fresh CP I reckon. Garlic likes N early on & K later.

Hey Laura - welcome to the mad house!  :D

We've had our plot since Jan so are still newbies, but it's been so great to eat our own veggies - albeit only onionns, garlic, potatoes and runner beans so far!

I'm sure you'll learn so much from this site, no question too big or too small  ;)

Good luck with the plot  ;D

Hi Laura and welcome to the asylum, like the others have said chick poop is meant to be the golddust of all poo, like sarah I throw chicken pellets in the soil but I 'm very sure someone on here said in another post that chick poop was the only poo you could use straight away, someone else will come along and tell you anyway, use the search button and type in cicken manure and it will show you past posts on the subject.  ;D ;D ;D

Thank you very much for all of your replies and welcomes.

took some pictures yesterday

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff91/CHUBSIESMUM/ALLOTMENT/DSC02325.jpg

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff91/CHUBSIESMUM/ALLOTMENT/DSC02324.jpg

I think i have a lot of work to do.  :-X

It is 240 ft by 16 ft (minus the side paths that i will have to put in)

laura g

Hi Laura, dont be disheartened, it will come on really quickly. I have spent a hour or so a day on my lottie, measuring beds one day and digging the next.
Mine end of July
Mine yesterday

Head down, bum up and dig, dig , dig

I dont seem to have a single nettle on mine... i believe that is a bad thing.

It seems to be thistle as far as the eye can see lol and just a little bit of bindweed thrown in for luck.

you will get lots of advice here Laura, I was advised not to rotavate due to increasing the number of roots for nettles to grow from. Decided to dig them our myself, then noticed a posting advising another newbie to rotavate!!!

If I was you I would rotavate and then go through the soil removing visual roots, if you can afford it then use roundup as this will kill anything dead but is expensive. Rotavating will give immediate results which will keep you encouraged. I will be rotavating the rest of my plot early next year and risk regrowth of nettles. Thistles I believe are easier to kill (could be wrong though)

Nettles are fairly easy to get rid of as they're shallow rooted. Just get them out and compost them; don't waste them by burning them as they concentrate minerals which other plants can use. Watch out for the seedlings.

welcome to A4A laura, and enjoy your lottie :)
plenty of advice here for us newbies!!!

Quote from: donlottie on September 14, 2007, 10:54:10
Thistles I believe are easier to kill (could be wrong though)

I can only speak for thistles of the creeping variety and they're a NIGHTMARE.
the brittle roots go down for miles and snap really easily, then you get new thistles from the tiniest fragment of root left in the soil. am still waging war on mine :(
but I will win in the end >:( ;D