My First Allotment

[nick the grief]

Basically what you do is empty it all out & put the stuff from the outside into the middle & the stuff from the middle on the outside ..... bit like cricket

[gawdambugs]

Thanks, Nick!! 1 more question, then I promise I will go away How often should I do this as I want to build up my compost quite quickly

P.S. Its my birthday today!! Hoorah!!

[nick the grief]

happy birthday!!! you can do it as often as you like. it will speed up the decomposition as it lets air into the compost & mixes it all up. Some people have 3 bins& what they do is turn the stuff out of one into the next one & the when thats full start a new one, then you've always got a spare bin to turn stuff into. but you can get by with 2 just as easy.

[sewer rat]

Two hours too late but Happy Birthday GDB

[gawdambugs]

Me Again

Thank you rat!! Well, today I made a decision! Have been up my new allotment twice and it is in quite a mess and to be honest the whole thing is a bit daunting. I have contacted my council to come out to rotavate it. I know this some grapes have said this isnt the best thing to do- but if i try to de weed it and dig it all over myself, I would be there till I retire!!!!

I have decided that once it has been rotavated I will start planning where I want my veg patches to be and what fruit to grow.. I have an apple tree at the bottom so I am going to out a "thinking" bench under and am going to create paths out of slabs.

Got a couple of questions - once it has been rotavated and I have cleared out all the weeds, do I then add manure or just leave?

Also, I sowed carrot seeds in the only weed free patch that I have. The packet said "DO NOT WATER" - and it rained 2hrs after sowing them. IS this ok?

I have also sowed cauliflower seeds and out them on my kitchen windowsill. I made sure the soil was moist but it has now dried out... it is quite hot here today. Do I need to keep the soil moist or do I wait until the seedlings have appeared? When they do, how often do I water them?

Cor blimey, got a bit carried away typing

[Peter]

Don't rotovate, you will regret it.

You will never get rid of your weeds.

I use rotovators extensively and your HAVE to get rid of the weeds first.

Bindweed, buttercup and couch can all regrow from the smallest root fragment and guess what rotovating will do?

Right, it will take one two foot bindweed root and give you at least twenty-four new bindweed plants, you will never even see some of the fragments, but they will grow.

You have two options.
1/. Organic.
Stick at it with slow, methodical and muscular digging, removing every root you find. One of our old boys does this method, two hours every day.
2/. Pragmatic.
Use glyphosphate weedkiller (Roundup or Tumbleweed), spray the lot, leave two weeks, burn off the dead stuff, leave two weeks and repeat. Then rotovate. This is a start of plot operation, hence the label.

[noshed]

in the hours of darkness you might have time to read a book or two. I've found Joy Larcom's Grow Your Own Vegetables to be very helpful. But have a look in the library and see what they've got.
Personally this time of year I'd be inclined to bung a few things in and see how they go - weeds and all. Try spuds and later on, sweetcorn and beans.
I've found rebuilding the compost heap to have an amazing effect - lovely compost very quickly.