Allotments 4 All

Hi everyone, my lotty has clay soil so for the last couple of years I have sown most of my crops at home, raised them on until they are strong plants then transferred them to my allotment. I havent wanted to rotovate like many of my fellow plot holders do before every sowing.
I have mobility issues so cant hand dig the clay to add stuff to get better soil etc. I am slowly creating raised beds which I add new soil to & these areas are now great for direct sowing but i still have a very large area left to sort out.
Does anyone know of the best varieties of veg to sow dirct into clay soil?
This year I want to try to sow as much directly as possible.
Many thanks
Jane

I think most things will grow as long as you let the soil warm up first. I tend to direct sow as little as possible myself.

Hi Robert thanks for replying so quickly. Do you think if I covered a small area with cardboard & then made a pvc covered frame over the top it would warm the clay up sufficiently to sow directly by the end of this month?
I would like to experiment abit to see if I can sow more things directly because I dont drive & my mobility is getting worse so carrying large trays of plants to my lotty is getting harder. luckily my plot is in walking distance so I manage to get my tools there by taking them in a wheeled shopping trolley but young plants wont survive this treatment. (I cant leave my tool at the site as they are stolen).
I know the real answer is to make more raised beds which I plan to do but I guess I would like to be sowing something sooner rather than later.
Jane 
 

You don't need the cardboard; a cold frame would do it fine. It's an old trick, leaving them in place for a few days before planting, to raise the soil temperature. I'm inclined to do that myself, to get a row of lettuce in. Leave the frame in place until the nights get warmer.

Hiya, Jane,
I know how you feel, I'm getting less mobile, too  :)
I make a small trench and fill with potting compost, water, sow the seed, cover with dry compost and cover, if necessary
I'm lucky, my OH has built beds for me but we have 2 flat beds on the new plot. I've sown spring onions, radish and mixed oriental salad so far  :)

Thanks so much Robert, I will definitely be trying the 'old trick' then  ;)

Thanks for the tips manicscousers :)    I will give this ago too.

Im determined to keep going at my lotty despite the hospital telling me to give it up 18 months ago ::)
My plan is to carry on ignoring the poxy arthritis for as long as I can xJane   

You don't have to dig stuff into clay - you can just put it on top and leave the worms to do the digging for you.

If you popped half a tesco bag of compost on a bed each week, it would eventually all get a nice mulch.

My "wheels" consist of shopping trolley wheels with one of those recycling boxes tied to it.  Its pretty good for carrying pots of plants (put them - in their pots - in a bucket for extra safety and pop the lot into the recycling box).  I got fed up with carting my tools backwards and forward and use a black dalek compost bin to keep them in.  No one seems to want to pinch compost.

Quote from: manicscousers on March 19, 2011, 15:32:12
Hiya, Jane,
I know how you feel, I'm getting less mobile, too  :)
I make a small trench and fill with potting compost, water, sow the seed, cover with dry compost and cover, if necessary
I'm lucky, my OH has built beds for me but we have 2 flat beds on the new plot. I've sown spring onions, radish and mixed oriental salad so far  :)

I have tried this on my horrible clay - it works well but unfortunately you can't cover the whole plot.

But without covering there is a tendency for the rain to make the compost settle and then fill the depression - the resulting rill (unless it is impossibly level) will wash the compost (and seeds) away.

Fortunately though - if you tamp the compost well and put 1cm of sand or fine grit on top of the compost it will tend to protect the compost and seeds from ordinary rain - making it possible to use this technique on the whole plot.

I should point out that the width of the trench doesn't seem to matter - it needs to be at least 5cm deep, preferably 10cm - but it can be as narrow as you like to conserve compost and sand.

One more thing - to cope with really heavy rain you would need to include enough sand to make the trench as dense as the clay (but not as claggy) - but that's too much trouble...

Fortunately again there is a solution (from African traditional methods) - until the seeds germinate you can use a cover that isn't transparent - eg. a plank. But you need to check under it regularly - twice a week at least to make sure they a) don't spend too much time in the dark and b) to make sure the slugs under the plank don't find them all.

Good Luck.

Cheers.

Good luck.

I have heavy clay soil as well. I can dig, but prefer not to because it does my back in and wears me out. Mr Aqui double dug it all for me when we moved in and now I just mulch and plant. I've mulched some areas over winter and now the soil underneath is lovely. Unmulched areas are horrible, with a hard cap over the top. I have to put the fork in and wiggle it about to break that up, then I'll mulch in a few weeks, when it gets warmer.

I also use a lot of green manure on unused areas. I've got phacelia coming up everywhere (which has a bonus of looking lovely and the bees adore the flowers). When I need to plant an area I just pull it up and chuck it on the compost. Or I think you can put cardboard over it if you don't need the space straight away.

For root crops, I sow direct into a small trench (just scrape it out with a hoe or trowel to about 1in deep) of potting compost and then sow into that. Sometimes I've even just given it a very thin mulch with homemade compost. I've had pretty good success with smaller carrots (early nantes and red channtenay) and my parsnips very better than I thought (although not brilliant). I've found beetroot works well like this too.

good luck!

Thanks everyone for the tips.
I havent used green manure crops yet but think I will have a go later on this year.

Aqui - what do you use for mulch? I was wondering if grass cuttings could be used fresh on the clay in this way?
Thanks
xjane

A layer of fresh grass cuttings on top of a potato ridge can form a good mat.. but it's not good for seed sowing...  :-X

Hi Saddad I use grass cuttings to 'earth' up my spuds since digging the clay became so difficult for me. It has worked really very well, keep weeds down, kept moisture in, kept sun off spuds etc. Didnt even create a slug problem (I had worried they would find a home in it all).