Grow Your Own Magazine

Hi Everyone,
A little advice is needed.
As from Saturday just gone I became a proud tennant of a spankingly brand new allotment and when I say brand new I mean it is a brand new piece of land developed into allotments and nothing has been grown there before (I live in Milton Keynes so it has probably been field just about for ever.).

I have never worked an alotment and I have started growing veg for the first time this year in the garden so I am very new to growing fruit and veg.

I am looking for a bit of advice as to where I start. The ground had been cleared about 2 months ago but the weeds are back and with all the rain and sun of late they are now about waist hight, with a few small brambles growing.

I am looking to get a book or two as reference to the basics like clearing an allotment, weed supression, pest control and the problems I am likely to encounter on the way as well as whats best to grow when and where, harvesting, etc etc etc.
Oh and I would like to grow organically.

I guess I have my work cut out if I want to grow anything this year let alone in the next month or two.

Any advice will br gratefully recieved.

Bassman.

'The Vegetable Expert' is a good one to start with, plus 'Grow Your Own' magazine, of course
Have a look in your local library, there must be something useful Also the various Forums and past threads on this website, especially Allotment Advice

Best of luck Geoff

Cover areas of your plot with weed supressing membrane, this will kill the weeds off, stop you from being stressed by looking at all the areas you can't work yet and generally make it look tidier.

Plant something, anything, so that you have something growing whilst you work on small sections at a time - believe me it works

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Suzie

Hi Bassman, i'm almost exactly in the same boat as you....spent my first day on my allotment on saturday. it was rotavated 9wks ago, so had plenty of weeds. i am going to cover half of it with black plastic for now and work the other half.....digging one bed at a time and at least getting some stuff in the ground, then as the season dies down, i'll work on the design of the plot then....so i'm not putting in any permanent structures now!.
good luck with it....i've only been up there twice, but enjoyed it greatly!!.

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Finding Home

If you are allergic to the sight of black plastic like I am, you can get some big cardboard boxes - lots of shops give them away - and making sure you take out all the staples and remove all the sticky tape, open them up and lie them on the land. You'll need to weigh them down with something but the same applies to plastic. If you weigh them down with horse manure, so much the better! They will suppress weeds beautifully and will also rot down.

Try to clear one small area and plant it up - this is so good for you psychologically. You can buy a few plants in a garden centre, brassicas, courgettes, toms, you can still sow peas and beans. It really helps when you are doing all that hard work if you can watch a crop or two growing and take something home after a digging and weeding session. Make sure you don't do too much though, a bad back is a serious turn-off.

Good luck with it. Happy harvesting!

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Earth laughs in flowers. Ralph Waldo Emerson

www.vegheaven.blogspot.com

Updated November 30th - Mr Stinky's Excellent Adventure (and a Christmas Cake)

Thanks for the advice, Ive ordered a couple of reference books from Amazon but as always they dont cover everything so I'm sure Ill be posting a few more questions soon.

Oh is it too late to throw in some Main crop potatoes if I can get a bit of ground cleared sooner rather than later?

Cheers.

Spuds sound like a great plan. Read as much as you can and ask as many people as you can for tips and advice. then MAKE UP YOUR OWN MIND which you take. Garden the way you think best for YOU, not somebody else. It's your plot, enjoy it!

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If it ain't broke, don't fix it and if you ain't going to eat it, don't kill it

Hi Bassman,
I agree with comments above ...transform your plot in manageable chunks (little and often) and do read. Geoff Hamilton's organic book was our bible to start with, and also used lots of websites to get hints and tips.

I would decide immediately though if you want organic or not, and what you want to eat!

We took our plot over at the end of Feb this year and whilst we have lots of stuff growing already, we have also spent much of the time changing our plot from a chickweed-green patch of land to a rabbit-proof 8 bed unit (x5 rotational, x1 fruit and x2 perrenials). I know at least one of our neighbours grumbles that we "are wasting space and not setting our plot up properly", but it's how WE want, in a way WE think suits our needs. There will be as many opinions on how to manage your plot as there are plots on your site!

So decide what YOU want, give everything a go and enjoy!

Let us know how it all progresses??
P17B

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Will do, should be able to spend a bit of time on the Allotment after next week as Im giving my son a hand with GCSE revision till then, at least it gives me some time to plan the attack.
I popped along last night to see if anyone else had been working on their plot and out of the 28 plots 1 had cut down all the weeds and one had started to cut down the weeds (i saw him the day before working away with a small strimmer) but looked as if he gave up a foot into it.
So looks as if I wont be too far behind.
I am gagging to get started though!

Take your time, seek advice (see, already you have the basic idea ) and above all, plan carefully but not obsessively. If you are cunning, five minutes spent thinking through all the steps before you start will save countless minutes of wasted time and confused efforts.
Not for nothing do they call them plots.... Half the fun is thinking about what you are going to do.

My first tip would be always to keep in your mind that allotments are long-term projects and that it will take years to get a brand new plot how you want it, so don't worry if you've not got the perfect show allotment (we're at work, so don't stress if ours isn't as weed-free as our retired neighbours)

The next would be, as has been said before, to cover large areas and to work a small area at a time and not to get discouraged as it can see daunting at times.

Third, I would make sure you find somewhere you can get a supply of organic matter (we pay £120 delivery for a very large trailer full from a farm) each year and add this to your soil - remember the adage 'feed the ground not the plant) - this will improve your soil structure make it easier to dig in future years.

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'People don't learn and grow from doing everything right the first time... we only grow by making mistakes and learning from them. It's those who don't acknowledge their mistakes who are bound to repeat them and do no learn and grow. None of us are done making mistakes or overflowing with righteous wisdom. Humility is the key.'
- Thomas Howard

I gradualy built up a gardening book collection, quite cheaply, by checking out the charity shops at every opotunity. every where we went we went on a book hunt.
You can gain lots of info and different idea's and they always act as reference point.
All the best to all,
Fred P

Congratulations Bassman, firstly on getting hold of an allotment, but also in finding this place -t'Grapevine.

Of all the resources available to me, I have to say that the advice, support and guidance I've received here has surpassed any I've read in books or on other website. Collective pat on the back to all of you.

Like you, I am new to gardening - having never grown anything before I started last year.

I concur with the advice given so far, and would say that for me, the most useful is doing a bit at a time and not looking at the plot as a whole - daunting even for an expert I'd wager.

You'll read lots about planning and organising, but for me the best thing was getting stuck in. When embarking on any journey you first need to know your destination and how you're going to get there - the same applies for me when gardening.

Those of us with previously used allotments are at a light advantage in that we can utilise local knowledge passed down about that particular allotment - types of pests/diseases/problems that occur. With your site being brand new it's a learning curve for everyone.

Good luck with the journey, be sure to stop every now and then and take it all in - enjoy it.

Quite a few, myself included, keep a blog of what we're doing. It allows others to see what you're doing, and offer advice, but also allows you to look back at what you've achieved during the time. For me, this gives me great encouragement at low times.

Don't get het up about having the "ideal" plot - each is different, that's what makes them so great.

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A simple dude trying to grow veg.

http://haywayne.blogspot.com/ - Updated 30th November

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Congratulations Bassman, I too am in Milton Keynes in the Wolverton area. Although my 3 plots are on an established site, my particular plots hadn't been used for at least 10 years according to the established holders. It was a waste land, literaly.

The advice of covering areas that you are not realistically going to work immediately is sound.

I have some spare plants you can have, there are not many but you are welcome to some Toms, Brussels, Caulis and Cabbages to get you going.

Just drop me a PM

I'm sooo jelous! My town has a 3 years waiting list for allotments! - Get those seed potatoes in - mine are growing well in pots!

Thanks to everyone for the great advice, It is all apreciated.
After working the majority of the last couple of weekends cutting down all the weeds to ground level I understand that things are going to take a long time to get going and to work areas a bit by bit.
I have dug over a very small portion of the allotment so I can put down one or two plants to view, nurture to keep me enthused (there is no water on site at the moment so I could only manage a small area anyway) whilst spending the majority of my time over the next 6 months in ground preparation.

Thanks for your offer Stacey Steve, that is very kind of you, a PM is on its way.