Allotments 4 All

I've weeded it the best I can, and just need to finish digging it over. Is it good enough for planting spuds in?

What do I need to mix in? Fertilizer? If so, do I line the hole where the spuds go with it, or just place it on the surface of the soil?

Also, can I plant peas up a frame where they grew last year?

Yes bed looks fine for spuds - you could just dig trenches for the spuds rather than dig over the whole bed - but swings and roundabouts really.  Fertilizer?  sprinkle some fish, blood and bone in planting hole/trench

Legumes are part of rotation, so would be better to grow elsewhere this year and use that space for brassicas - but if you really don't have anywhere else ready then use the same space and make an early resolution to practice crop rotation next year ;D ;D ;)

Yes and yes, with the same proviso...  :)

Without knowing your soil and what nasties might be lurking under the nicely cleaned surface I'd say the bed will be fine for potatoes.  Like SMP1704 I'd trench, add fish, blood and bone into the trench and displaced soil and then plant the potatoes about 8 inch deep in the broken up bottom of the trench.  I'd also add a good layer of well rotted manure (you'd probably need about 3 bags for a bed that size - my local GC does 3 bags for a tenner) and then back fill with the displaced soil.  You'll need to feed the potatoes once they emerge but the manure and FB&B will give them an excellent start.

You'll probably get away with the peas and beans for one year - unless the last occupant made a habit of always growing their legumes in the same spot.  If that's the case move the framework to a different spot.

Is it really worth spending 10 quid on manure for potatoes? I thought potatoes grow just about anywhere,although obviously they will grow better with some pampering.

Its never good spending a tenner for manure.

I never pay for sh#t, the soils fine for spuds, the peas like the spuds next year should keep moving in rotation but runners will be fine in the same place.  ;D ;D ;D

You're not growing many then?

Quote from: ACE on March 31, 2009, 18:37:05
You're not growing many then?

I'm having two beds, and this is the first one ready.




I have weeded and dug it over, but there are still quite a few big lumps. I've tried to bash it up as much as possible.

I have also put fertilizer on the top and watered it in lightly.

What else should I do?

I plan to dig a hole for the spuds, put in a little compost, place the spud on it, then fill the hole up with compost. Is that ok?

Should I put some more fertilizer at the bottom of the hole, too?

Thanks......again!

I trench mine, personally... a trenching spade then back filled and ridged with the chillington hoe... Sadly OH has to do them for me at the moment...

before


after

Do you need to earth up after trenching?

Yes, a bit. Probably over do the ridges at this stage... but they settle a bit while the spuds are coming up.

I know you can never have enough muck, but if you cleared the plot it must have been fallow for a while. Don't overdo the manure just yet. No need to fertilise each plant, as Saddad says dig a trench, place the seed spuds, overfill the trench and hoe up nice and tidy. The nourishment will get to where it counts, when it wants to.

Howdoyou (or your OH) get your rows so straight? My plot neighbours do,too, but mine are a mess!

I grew spuds fairly successfully just in a foot of raw fresh manure for the last two years covered over in straw.  Never does them any harm.

You can pick up fresh manure, usually bagged and free from most riding stables.  They're always trying to get rid of it!

I'm intending to do a manure run in my little fiesta perhaps tomorrow and will pile it up in a corner of the plot to rot down.  I tend to plant a squash (like a pumpkin or similar) into it as well and they absolutely love the heat.

We work off a scaffolding plank Caroline...  :)

Quote from: tim_n on April 03, 2009, 09:56:00
usually bagged and free

Lucky you! All the stables round here expect you to bag it up yourself- can't really complain since it's free,though!

So do I, saddad!  To be honest I think it's more that my soil isn't aswell-prepared. :-[

A touch of OCD probably helps then...  :-X

I've put my 30 Maris Peers in:

How does that look?

I decided against trenches.

The problem I had was mounding them up. The soil on the top has turned almost to concrete and it was tough to get it into mounds. I'm really worried about how I'm going to earth up, as there is hardly any 'spare' loose soil left. Can I earth up with multi purpose compost? Or should I use the compost from my bin?

we use grass clippings, leaves, old compost, even a newspaper collar covered in grass clippings to keep it down,  ;D