The Laybury's allotment project

Hi there, my girlfriend and I have just joined this site in the hopes of keeping up our allotmenting spirits! My mum's had a full-plot allotment for the best part of 10 years now, and when i was younger, I would help out every so often. She went in on the plot with one of her friends and after a year or two, with very little being done, the friend managed to put a fork through her foot and never returned.

Jump forwards to now and my girlfriend (Username: Laybury - just joined with me) and I have started helping out on the plot and my mum has very kindly donated an area roughly 8x5m to us to use. She'd left plastic covering down over around 1/4 of this area so there were very few weeds on the part we're using, but there were still a considerable number to be dug up.

We dug over the plot and my perfectionist girlfriend has made very intricate plans on what goes where and various other things. We've now gone on a week-long holiday and miss the allotment considerably. When we left for the holiday, we'd put a majority of our crops in, with some that still need planting and sections freeing from remaining weeds.

Pics to come when we get back from our jollies.

Some of the problems we have on the site is Mare's tail, docks, NETTLES- MILLIONS OF NETTLES, and probably the most dangerous of all is the giant hogweed growing along the banks of the stream at the side of our plot, which has so generously seeded on our site. I've counted 7 established plants between our plot and the communal tap, which are getting a full treatment at the glysophate spa, courtesy of Roundup.

Some other issues we seem to be having is slugs. Lots and lots of slugs. Our peas, broad beans and mangetout were all nibbled literally within hours of being planted out. We have put down slug pellets, but these didn't seem drastic enough and we weren't to keen on the idea of using chemicals on edible plants (hog weed is an entirely different story!). We also have a (surprisingly tame) wild rabbit hopping around our plot and are worried that once things start to come up they'll be eaten too! Ferrets, foxes and pigeons are also all serious threats too.

We'd be really grateful to hear any feedback or tips and tricks that worked for any of you as this is our first serious growing season and we are eager to learn. Also, we really look forward to simply sharing our gardening experience with all of you, especially as our allotment is so secluded.

Thanks for reading!

 

to GC @Mr Laybury & @Laybury

I don't have an allotment (but plenty on here do) but I was struck by your highlighting of millions of nettles. Don't think nettles think: fertilizer (or, if you are of a mind, think soup!). Plus, nettles also bring in some insects. What struck *me* most were the words: mare's tail
Now that is one beastie I'm am so very glad I don't have in my new garden. I spent four years with it in my previous garden and, no matter how hard I tried, it grew and grew! It is a pre-historic weed and a tenacious blighter Give me nettles any day
Slugs? Set beer traps and then, when full of dead slugs, empty it into your compost bin and ... repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat. Others may suggest going out at night with a head torch and picking them up and relocating them ... but, slugs are like homing pigeons and they would need relocating a distance away (can't quite recall how far though)
That's about as far as my experience goes.
May help our members when offering you advice if you put your location in your status - doesn't have to be too specific but general area would be helpful.
Good luck with your allotment and wishing you many happy and productive garden hours ahead

 

Ah thank you. We didn't even think to mention our location! We're in Chester in the NW, England. I've heard of beer traps before and wasn't too keen as emptying them didn't sound like the best of jobs but its looking now like we don't really have a choice so it's definitely something I'll try. We were also wondering about using Nemaslug but apparently it can work out quite costly in the long term as they don't last very long. Would love to hear back from someone who'd used it before.
Most people are surprised at the mare's tail. It's a massive pain because you can't even dig it out without spreading a couple hundred more spores everywhere! Luckily it is more around the edges of each patch, rather than actually in the centre of any of my plots! Nettles were a massive pain to remove but thankfully we haven't seen any come back. Wish we could say the same for dock leaves as they persistently seem to be popping up, right in the midst of my carrots and beetroot!
I did consider nettle soup... but most of them were dead and I didn't really fancy foraging for edible nettles whilst also trying to make a usable plot!
Lovely to hear back from you and thanks for your tips!​

 

Welcome to Gardeners Corner

 

As above, not much nettle regrowth. I think we did a pretty good job of getting out the roots for them. We've kept a little border around the edge of our plot within the hedgerow with nettles growing because like you say M, good for insects. The chap on the plot next to us has a bee hive so we're bearing those in mind with almost every plant we put in and dig out.

 

Welcome to GC Mr Laybury &Laybury

I don't have an allotment but I am trying Nemaslug for the first time on a border in my garden,it would be too costly to use it all over the garden,it'll be interesting to see the results...

Here is an interesting link put on by JWK one of our members, worth thinking about

 

That's fantastic. Definitely going to give that one a try, even if we do buy NemaSlug, it'll be brilliant to hunt the blighters down and incubate some more to keep the levels up at a later date.

 

Hi JWK
Being the excitable newbie gardeners we are, we saw our seedlings becoming a size they would need planting out at, and planted them out. Very little hardening off was done, and coming straight from a south facing conservatory to the open plot probably wasnt the best idea in retrospect. We'll be hardening off most other things (except our runner/french beans because they've overtaken literally the entire room) prior to planting.

Yeah, we've heard that phrase before and at least we're down to 6 years now. Yippeeee! With the number of plots on the site that look overgrown, i reckon we'll be lucky to ever get rid of them though.
As for foxes, I havent seen any on site yet, but i know there are a few in the local area. There are a good few wooded areas nearby, and a lot of careless uni students too. I know that another plot holder is keeping chickens though, and I haven't heard of them being eaten yet, but who knows. One day one of the foxes might decide he's had enough unikebab, wok and go, and dominos.

 

Went down about 4pm today straight after coming back from our holiday! We literally could not believe how quickly the mare's tail had replenished itself! After unsuccessfully trying to remove each plant with it's root system intact, we took the advice to simply chop the plant as close to the ground as possible as soon as we see it in order to try and 'tire the plant out'.
We did this last Friday before going away and returned to these:

And these weren't even the larger ones!
The amount of weeds on our plot at the moment is just shocking. We're really looking forward to going down tomorrow to have a proper weed around our mangetout, peas, broad beans and runner beans. Unfortunately, the leeks, spring onions, carrots, beetroot and parsnips are still too small to decipher weed from seedling!
I also had to dig several dock leaves with established root systems out of my vegetable bed, which I really didn't expect to have to do so early after only turning over and thoroughly weeding the entire plot by hand a month or so ago.
Despite all this, it was a wonderful surprise to come home to these:

Our climbing and runner beans! When we went away just under a week ago they had barely even broken the surface of the soil. Think this definitely proves the benefits of having a south-facing conservatory! Just another job to do tomorrow planting these out.

 

Ok so a few pictures from around the plot today and over the last few weeks.
This is the part of the plot my mum has given to my girlfriend and I. It's not much, but it'll do for us for this year.
This is behind our archway. On the left of the board, we have around 20 mangetout, with 4 leafy lettuce inside. On the right, we have our pea plants. To the right of this, we have our onions. At the top of these rows are three rows of first early potatoes (Winston and Maris Bard), with babycorn planted in the cloche.



Inside our archway, we have broad beans, sweet peas, and runner beans (which are not in this outdated picture). The archway we made out of hazel and conifer branches (uprights), bamboo (levels) and the arch top itself is made from Willow. All wood was sourced from the other end of the plot, however the grass (bamboo) probably came from the mouth of a hungry panda.
Also visible is the cloche with babycorn, the golden courgette plants under the green dome, and pepper under the right hand cloche. To the right of this is our main crop potatoes - Desiree.

The last picture I have is of our flower bed which is the first thing you come to as you walk in to the plot. Feverfew (my all time favourite plant since 1996) a few daffodils, foxgloves, begonias, and larkspur are in here, along with a couple of others which i can't remember. Photo was taken before we put in the fancy little fence in the first picture (courtesy of Aldi)


Incase any of you are wondering what other parts of the plot are, the mound in the first photo is where we're going to plant brassicas, hopefully in a raised bed. To the left of that is a strawberry bed which has some tired old strawberry plants. We have new plants and new planters to put these in so this bed may become free for new crops. There's also a compost bin filled with nettles, a rhubarb patch filled with nettles and a few very small spurs, and what WILL be a pleasant seating area once the hedge fills out.

Hope you all enjoy having a little nosey round

 

Hello Laybury's
Good luck on your allotment ! Link below is about the total GC's knowledge on slug control. Look at @Lolimac slug pub on post number 29

http://www.gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/threads/reducing-slug-snail-population.74070/#post-850245

 

For all your stated weed problems, your plot actually looks quite good and the soil loose, you need a hoe, if you have not got one, get one!

Get one of these, you will not regret it and it will become your favourite tool http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wilkinson-Sword-Stainless-Steel-Style/dp/B0076YMCTU



You can use it back and forwards in loose soil and side to side to decapitate weeds before they establish. Set yourself a mantra to hoe every day with a "Y" in it and if you do that, hoeing is a 5 min job.

Mares tail is a pain and another mantra I use for that in my garden at home is, "Never let it see a Sunday", this has kept it under control this last 5 years or so, every year it gets weeker. I use thumb and forefinger, carefully feeling my way down the stem as far into the soil I can get before gently pulling, a slow steady pull. This always removes a bit of root and weakens the plant.

Growing fruit and veg is a war against pests, diseases, rodents, birds etc, sometimes even the weather does it's best to scupper your plans. You will lose plants, sometimes whole crops of one particular type. Put your tin hat on and try again next year, that little bit wiser!

Steve...

 

How wide is the blade on that?

 

5 inches from shaft to point and roughly 2 inches wide.

Steve...