hello, new to this can you help? PICS

I'm not expert enough to help, but I would say spend this summer/autumn preparing the land and research autumn sowing. Sounds like a fabulous opportunity - good luck!!

MTA: Welcome to the Vine!

hi thanx for the quick reply. do you know how i can upload pics

jampot

The easiest way to add photos is use something like flickr, photobucket or another image hosting website. Then once you've uploaded the photos you want it's easy to copy the link and paste the link in the body of your post.

Like this:

http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l7...st/Lamb004.jpg

Or if you click the little icon that looks like a postcard of two mountains (just above the white space where you write your post) you can insert the image like this:



That's me by the way. Hello

NOTE: Seeds are on half price sale just now in garden centres, you may want to do item 4 sharpish!

For the following you will need to separately research, or ask, about:

Raised Beds
Crop rotation

You will need:

Sprayer for weedkiller. This may be a one-time use, so perhaps borrow one from a friend, or buy Roundup in a spray-tub-thingie (much more expensive that way, but if your plot is small enough that might do, and you only need to do it one time)

Fork, Spade, Hoe, seed rake. Suggest asking opinions on Brands / Types.

Garden shed, or corner of the garage.

probably a bunch of other tools too.

I recommend:

1) Clear the land.

I would spray with Round-up to kill everything. Spray anything which is still green a few weeks later.

I would do this (and the rotavate step (2) if you go down that route) for all four people's plots at once, thereafter each do your own thing.

Check out what weeds you have - particularly if you have Mares tail, Ground elder and Bind weed. If you have Mares tail, and maybe the other two, I would cover the whole area after rotavating / digging with mulching sheet and plant through the mulching sheet in the first year - covering the land for a year will go a long way to getting the weeds under control.

2) Rotavate it. Or dig it if you are up for that (you have got until the start of winter to complete that, so no rush).

Incorporate some manure (but make 100% certain that the animals were not fed on any hay/silage treated with the herbicide "Forefront" nor had any bought-in fodder that was treated with this; it persists through the manure and will kill your crops next year ).

Mushroom compost, spent hops, etc. are alternatives to manure.

3) Make raised beds. Do so based on either a 3-zone or 4-zone Crop Rotation

4) Decide what you want to grow. Order seed catalogues from Marshalls (or Unwins), Suttons, Thomson and Morgan and any others you fancy [their web sites will let you order a catalogue]. One packet for each vegetable you want to grow should do. Don't go too mad! seed is available locally, so you can buy more easily when you need it.

5) Draw a rough plan of what you plan to put where. Be careful to follow your crop rotation as much as possible

2-5) Somewhere between 2 and 5 make a compost heap. Your council may be selling Dalek compost bins for 20 quid or so. Alternatively get 4 pallets and stand them on edge and nail them together. Chuck any plant material that is not woody, diseased, and is not the roots of a weed that you recognise as being a Major Bad Guy on there. Don't chuck too much grass clippings at one go on. Cover with an old bit of carpet, or plastic.

When you know more you can work at the whole composting process, but a "heap" will do for now. Leave enough space on one side of the bin for access and to empty it. Plan to build a second bin next to the first for when the first is full!

Let the frost (if we get any!!) break down the soil, and in the spring it will be easy to just rake it to make a decent tilth.

6) You will probably have better results if you start your seeds off under cover - Kitchen windowsill, Conservatory or Greenhouse. Suggest researching that a bit, but obviously you can get to that in future years.

Consider buying some things as plants. You may have some failures from seed, given that you are a newbie, and you may well have more success starting with plants. Plants are more expensive. If there is something you really want then maybe buy a few plants and also sow some seed, and compare the two, but at least you are likely to have some crop if your seeds fail.

At the first opportunity (when the opportunity presents itself at a car boot sale, or from Amazon this afternoon!) buy "The Vegetable & Herb Expert" by Dr D G Hessayon. The single most useful, and most commonly recommended on here, reference book. It isn't hugely detailed, nor technical, but has stacks of information in a very sensibly laid out style.

You'll find quite a variety of opinions on how best to proceed. Of course it's entirely your choice but a lot of people prefer not to use weedkillers, even initially. Rotavating can also be a mixed blessing. It will mean your land is ready to plant very quickly but many weeds (such as couch grass and bindweed) simply regrow from every little chopped up piece!

I think the best things to consider initially are:

Do you want to be organic?
How much time do you think you'll have to work on the plots each day/week?
What sort of things do you want to grow?

Once you've decided the above, it should be easier to make choices about what to do next.

hey guys thank you for all your responses.
there is quite alot to consider which i didnt realise. i

I do think it is worth considering a one-time kill with Round-up, even if you then go the organic route. I think knowing the Provenance of your own veg. is key. You can weight up whether you think a one-time spray with Roundup is too high a risk, or not. Or at the opposite end of the spectrum spraying with every bug-killing-chemical man has ever made ... I try to use as few chemicals as possible, but have had to resort to a systemic insecticide to treat a sudden bloom whitefly in the greenhouse; the instructions say not to pick crops for 3 days, I am destroying all fruit that becomes ready for 7 days to be more on the safe side.

Roundup may contain some godforsaken side effect that noone knows about yet, but notwithstanding that it been around since early '70s and tens-of-thousands of tons is used every year, and as such it is currently regarded as being extremely safe [relatively to other such chemicals] and it is also very effective. (Notwithstanding that you should wear suitable clothing, and keep it out of any ponds etc where it can be toxic to fish etc.)

I'll climb off my soap-box now ...

well, what do you want to grow? Grow what you like to eat
Start small, don't try to do your whole plot over at once.
It is a huge amount of work, and you may decide to just have a lawn instead

Also, get Dr Hessayon's Vegetable Expert. It's only about 3 quid on amazon.

Not at all - just keep it as simple as you like. Now's a terrible time of year to start, 'cos all the weeds must look like even napalm wouldn't shift 'em. Still, it's not too late to clear a small patch and plant something you like - carrots, lettuce, herb plants, whatever. Alternatively, take all the time in the world to plan and start in the autumn.

Personally, I cleared my overgrown plot by hand, bit by bit and wouldn't touch weedkillers. Now in my third year and it's all looking pukkah and the frogs and bees and things are happy.

Bit by bit also means you can do it for a season or two before you are really committed to what you want to do and how. It all takes time and experience, so the first year at least should be about clearing away weeds, improving the soil and growing annual crops, so you aren't stuck with the inevitable mistakes you will make as your learn from experience!

For example, you will probably want to grow some permanent crops (like asparagus, rhubarb, soft fruit etc, maybe even one or more fruit trees if it's a big space) but you can't possibly decide where the best place will be until you've spend some time getting to know your plot, which bits get the most sun, which bits are too far from the water supply to grow anything that needs much watering etc etc Even something as simple as where to put the compost heap - you might change your mind after you've spent a season tripping over the shed every time you want to stick something on the heap. You might also want to put some raised beds in - but not until you have worked out where best to site them, what size and shape will suti you, and so on.

As for weedkiller, well my thoughts are that it isn't necessary if you don't want to use it. Rotovating ditto - not doing either on my plot. It just takes longer if you do it the manual way, at least in the short term! I am gradually covering over my new allotment to help kill off the weeds or at least keep things under control as I know I won't be able to dig it all this year - possibly not even next year! - and don't want to use weedkillers or any other chemicals. I'm not a crusader for organic growing, it's just what feels right for me.

Finally - welcome to the vine, good luck, and most importantly ENJOY it! When you first start it seems like there is so much to learn and it can really stress you out, but nothing you can do will ruin your plot forever, so just get out there and have a go