newbie allotment plot help

**Two_Sheds** · 03-02-2009, 07:54 AM

Originally posted by weed reaper View Post

Anyway the plot has had some work last year but I have researched the weeds and have found that the main one being horsetail

Hello and welcome.
Royal Horticultural Society - Advice: Controlling field horsetail

**Two_Sheds** · 03-02-2009, 07:56 AM

Originally posted by weed reaper View Post

How to plan my plot?
best way to manage it?

1) What do you want to eat?
2) what conditions does the crop need?
3) work out a rough plan on paper
4) get cracking

You can't expect to get it all right in your first year. There is no magic prescription for the perfect allotment - we all have successes & failures which vary from year to year.
It's like alchemy

**Eyren** · 03-02-2009, 11:53 AM

My advice would be - don't overestimate how much you can do! You may start out with great intentions, but bad weather or bad health at the wrong time of year can throw all your plans out!

If I was starting again from scratch at this time of year, my approach would be:

1. Cut everything down to ground level and cover the whole plot with cheap ground cover (black plastic, cardboard, whatever you can lay your hands on). Weight it down with bricks, plastic bottles full of water or similar. Then at least it will stay tidy for a few months, even if you are struck down with norovirus!

2. Make a plan and mark out the permanent beds and paths. If you don't walk on your beds, they'll need far less frequent digging to de-compact them

3. Uncover a bed and dig it, and plant it up. Rinse and repeat until the plot is finished

4. If I still had undug beds come May, I'd cut slits in the ground cover and plant them with squashes. Another option is to grow potatoes in stacks of tyres. Either way, you're making use of the space without needing to dig.

Hope this helps!

**weed reaper** · 03-02-2009, 12:01 PM

Thanks for the advice, I hope to double dig the plot and get some sand as its very boggy and poor drainage?
I want to grow: carrots- onions - parsnips - garlic - spuds - cabbage - and a few more..

I think the plot can have a double digging and sand and try and pull as much stuff out as possible.

The seeds are in the post to me so my kitchen will have to be a green house for a while.
I will need to look at growing time scales for these veg as then can have some in starting ready for when the others are ready and a staged growing cycle I hope?

**Eyren** · 03-02-2009, 01:45 PM

Good idea! I start most of my veg off at home, otherwise the slugs on the lottie mow everything down the minute it pokes its head above the soil

Not sure what to suggest re drainage - my lottie is at one of the highest spots in Cambridgeshire!

It's a bit early to be sowing yet, especially for a new plot, but time goes fast! Here's some times for you:

* Garlic needs to go in the ground very soon (by mid-March, say) or it won't split into cloves - you could maybe start it off in pots in the garden, though, and transplant it when you have the ground ready

* Parsnips - I'm new to these, but I think you can sow them late Feb onwards. They are slow to germinate and will need to stay in the ground a long time, but give a nice winter harvest after the summer/autumn gluts!

* Spuds - plant between mid-March and mid-April

* Onion sets - about the same time as spuds

* Carrots - sow several batches from spring to late summer to avoid a glut! They need a lightish soil though, so wait until you've got a bed well cleared - or use containers

* Cabbages - you can sow different varieties all year round. Start some summer cabbage off now, or wait until July and sow winter/spring cabbages in modules to fill the gaps after harvest

**Dottie** · 03-02-2009, 02:23 PM

Originally posted by Eyren View Post

My advice would be - don't overestimate how much you can do! You may start out with great intentions, but bad weather or bad health at the wrong time of year can throw all your plans out!

If I was starting again from scratch at this time of year, my approach would be:

1. Cut everything down to ground level and cover the whole plot with cheap ground cover (black plastic, cardboard, whatever you can lay your hands on). Weight it down with bricks, plastic bottles full of water or similar. Then at least it will stay tidy for a few months, even if you are struck down with norovirus!

2. Make a plan and mark out the permanent beds and paths. If you don't walk on your beds, they'll need far less frequent digging to de-compact them

3. Uncover a bed and dig it, and plant it up. Rinse and repeat until the plot is finished

4. If I still had undug beds come May, I'd cut slits in the ground cover and plant them with squashes. Another option is to grow potatoes in stacks of tyres. Either way, you're making use of the space without needing to dig.

Hope this helps!

Very sound advice and I can confirm that it works, as that's how I got my plot complete and productive within a year. This year will be spent putting in 1 or 2 more structures for fruit growing, but as all the beds are complete it's now just a case of planting up and harvesting this year. I loved the whole process of planning, organising and constructing my plot, just as much as the actually sowing, growing and harvesting.

**Dottie** · 03-02-2009, 02:32 PM

The idea of double digging sounds like it excites you, so my advice is do what excites you. If your getting pleasure from it, then you won't mind the weather or whatever else is going on. Have an overall plan of where your heading, but then just do what feels right for you.

**GreenPete** · 03-02-2009, 02:38 PM

Horsetail grow on poor damp soils, If you've got a lot of it that could be telling you something. You've got a plan to improve the drainage, all you need to do is to get some organic matter in and feed the soil. Don't worry too much about trying to remove every bit of the horsetail, once the soil is improved it won't be able to compete with the plants you'll be growing.

**Digger-07** · 03-02-2009, 03:09 PM

Originally posted by GreenPete View Post

Horsetail grow on poor damp soils, Don't worry too much about trying to remove every bit of the horsetail, once the soil is improved it won't be able to compete with the plants you'll be growing.

You must have a different spiecies of horsetail to me Pete

**GreenPete** · 03-02-2009, 04:07 PM

Originally posted by Digger-07 View Post

You must have a different spiecies of horsetail to me Pete

Maybe I should have said it flourishes on poor damp soils, referring to weed reaper saying it is the main weed growing on his plot. It is slow to react to soil fertility that's why it's best suited to poor soil where it has less competition. Once a soil is more fertile it has a job to compete and not having true leaves it's intolerant to shade.

**snohare** · 03-02-2009, 05:41 PM

Given all that, and the RHS saying that if regularly mown it will not persist, why not create one area with 2 ft high raised beds where the base is covered with a barrier like Myplex or thick layers of newspapers and the paths are kept in clover which is mown ? Between mowing and shade, that should be low maintenance for keeping down the horsetail, and the rest you can double dig at your leisure. (If you know that concept !

)
Once you've started digging, you will have a much better idea of how much you are willing/able to manage - if you start finding wires in the ground for example then it's going to slow you down a fair bit.
Always have a Plan B.

**weed reaper** · 03-02-2009, 06:00 PM

This is great information thanks to you all.
I was only thinking of double digging to add sand and muck to also airate the soil some.
I have some landscape fabric ready and the raised beds sounds a good idea.

The growing advice is really good as it helps us plan.

The snow needs to melt and go and the Sun needs to come out so I can get on now.

Plan B would be just use deep root weed killer and cover and leave this year.

I want to get going on it keen as mustard I bet your all saying that won't last.

How does the Garlic work break a full bulb up keep in a dry dark warm place and shoots will come and plant then directly in the ground?
Or is it more involved than that?

**Eyren** · 04-02-2009, 11:21 AM

Originally posted by weed reaper View Post

How does the Garlic work break a full bulb up keep in a dry dark warm place and shoots will come and plant then directly in the ground?
Or is it more involved than that?

Break up the bulb, then plant individual cloves in the ground straight away, about 4-6in apart and with about 2in of soil above the tip when buried (make sure you plant them pointy end up, like other bulbs!). Weed regularly but otherwise just ignore until June/July, when it's time to harvest

I grew loads last year - we're still eating it! - and blogged about the drying process

**weed reaper** · 04-02-2009, 05:07 PM

Originally posted by Eyren View Post

Break up the bulb, then plant individual cloves in the ground straight away, about 4-6in apart and with about 2in of soil above the tip when buried (make sure you plant them pointy end up, like other bulbs!). Weed regularly but otherwise just ignore until June/July, when it's time to harvest

I grew loads last year - we're still eating it! - and blogged about the drying process

Wow having to harvest with the moon cycle that's wicked

Thanks Do I get them to shoot before planting as have garlic bulbs split was gona put in a container and put understairs as boiler there and dark for them to sprout?

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