New Allotment!

[Welsh76]

Nice,

that looks to be in pretty good shape for this time of year (OCD aside). It won't take long to get 80% of that fit and ready and you can be more comfortable with the last 20% at your leisure bearing in mind the growing season is now limited and you are mainly prepping for spring. If you clean and dig the soil now you need to cover it either with green manure, weed fabric or cardboard to prevent a mass germination of weeds and keep it ready for planting.

Good luck, keep us posted and ask any questions.

I'm going to be digging it all over sometime over the next few weeks now that the soil is nice and damp and not too sticky!

I've ordered some weed matting (100gsm) to cover over the whole lot for the winter and that's being delivered on Friday so I'll be able to cover it over once it's turned over to try and keep the weeds at bay.

[Welsh76]

Last weekend I filled the car up with rotted wood and recycled that up the local tip, I've got 1 more car load of rotted wood which I'll be taking away Saturday morning then it's just one more trip up to the local tip to get rid of the last of the waste (bit of plastic, rubble etc..) then I can get cracking with the digging over.

I'm actually excited about getting the soil dug over and levelled, I have weed mat ready to go down over the top of it all.

Once its all dug over I'll upload some photos as it's the next stage of my progression! I've set myself a deadline of end of October to have it all dug over and the weed matting down.

I work next to a builders merchants and they owe me a few favours and they're providing me with all the wood I need to set out some slightly raised beds. And I plan on having all that down by Christmas.

[Welsh76]

Its been a hectic few weeks but I have managed to get to the allotment now and again to keep things progressing; at the moment this is what my plot looks like..





I was hoping to 'level off' the ground a bit more today but the snow and sleet we had here in South Wales meant that the soil was waterlogged and difficult to move around with a rake without it just clumping around the rake tines.

The soil at the top of the plot was about a foot below the path level and at the bottom of the plot it was about a foot above the path level (the soil had shifted to the bottom over the past 25 years of the plot), and I wanted to give it that natural slope of the whole allotment to help with drainage etc..

Next weekend I'm hoping to put some edging around the plot to stop the wood chip from spilling onto the path (when I put them down around the raised beds).

[Dalrimple]

looks tidy there now ,you have a blank canvas to work with ! good luck . atb Dal.

[lolie]

What a transformation. You've done and amazing job.

[Welsh76]

Another update..

I've been busy this past month and it was difficult trying to find some time over the Christmas holidays but I did manage the odd hour here and there; since the last update I've done the following:

- More digging and turning over the soil
- Put down some Blood Fish & Bone to put some nutrients back in the soil
- I put edging along 2 sides of of the plot
- Weed matting has been put down over the whole plot
- 10No. 6ft x 3ft beds have been put in place (in 2 banks of 5)
- 1 long bed (just for edging) has been put in (for my grape vine)
- The council turned up with loads of wood chippings so I've put those around the beds

Here are the pics..









The tree in the corner is a plum tree and its just too big to easily harvest the crop, it also overhangs 2 other plot holders and I'm sure they don't like the plums dropping all over their crops, so I'll be cutting this down. If it was semi-dwarf i would probably keep it but it's just too awkward and I'm not too fond of plums anyway.

The next task for me is to construct the wood and wire support for the grapes and also put in the bamboo canes for the peas (an easy job for the next week or so).

At the top of the plot I will eventually be putting in a small greenhouse (6ft x 4ft) and also some decking for a cold frame and some storage area. There is no rush for these but I'll try and get these done by mid March.

Most of the stuff I'll be growing in the first year will be done through the weed matting by starting them off at home then transplanting them to the plot when they're large enough to cope with the outside weather; although this may be a bit of a faff with onions and shallots etc.. so I may open up 2 or 3 beds (by cutting away the weed matting and planting direct in the soil) and I should be able to keep on top of the weeding for a couple of the beds.

It's coming together slowly..

[Welsh76]

Apologies for the lack of updates, I thought I lost the thread!

Since the last update I’ve done quite a bit, but the main things are:

- built Greenhouse
- built Cold Frame
- built Grape Trellis
- installed irrigation system (for greenhouse & coldframe
- built ‘hinged’ netting covers for strawberry beds

Here are the latest pics..

[Welsh76]

[nickdub]

excellent !

(PS what have you been doing in your spare time ? :-)))

[Chestnut]

Excellent work. I hope you get some good crops out this year - all the hard work you’ve put in, you certainly earned them

[chillithyme]

wow,you have really transformed you plot, good inspiration for me, started mine around the same time as you,I'm still getting there