Few thoughts ref allotments

Evening all,
Well i was just thinking about a few pointers ref the first time allotment people,

Before coming to live in france full time i had my allotment for many years and i can say with honesty it was hard to say goodbye to it,

An allotment is'nt just a place for growing food/flowers ect it's a meeting place for all sorts of people from the ones who want to be friendly to those who like their own company and those who live in flats and simply want a place to get away from the concrete jungle.

After a few years doing my allotment i found a few points that seem to come up time & time again,
ie the new to gardening "very very keen" and wanted to see results "yesterday"

This sort of person didnt last more than one year, and if they took over an over run with weeds plot? it didnt last even a year.

One point i found was that no thought was given to how much time was available to spend on the allotment?

If the person was in full time employment and they had summer evenings and weekends to attend the allotment "not allowing for bad weather etc"
would this be enough time to see what they wanted to see ref the growing of veg ect?

Planning is a very important fact when it comes to dealing with a live plot of land because while your not there unless you know what your doing this plot is growing and until the new comer understands how to control his land and whats growing on it It can be the start of the end for both the keen new comer and the dream of growing your own.

One of the points im talking about when i say know what your doing is a common problem of not understanding what plants need to live,

Light/water/air are three of the things im talking about,
when we talk about plants on the allotment or garden for that matter you have to understand that the biggest problem' with allotments or gardens is that plants such as weeds need tobe controled, after all weeds are plants its just that they're not wanted plants "But " weeds need the same three things light/water/air as the plants we want to grow need.

Weeds grow at an alarming rate due to the fact that they are living in their own happy space and they can stand the weather changes with no problems So if we really want to controle such plants as weeds we need to take away or reduce the three things they cant live without, light/water/air.
This is a very simple task and its not rocket science It's a simple black sheeting large enough to cover the area you dont want the weeds to grow in.

Once you controle both your time you have to spend on the allotment and the speed the weeds grow then your on your way to getting further each visit you make to your allotment rather than due to the likes of a delay caused via bad weather ect you find the work you did during your last visit a waste of time thanks to new weeds growing again in the space you'd cleared once.

raised beds are a god send to the gardener who needs results quickly as they are a smaller area to control and they produce food from day one of planting thanks to them being easy to keep weed free.

Mulching is another way of keeping the weeds down, all you need do is look at natures way of mulching ie a forest or woods, you wont find a lot of weed there due to the trees dropping leaves every year these stop the weeds getting light "hence" except the leaves the birds deliver via them being dropped as seeds,
the area's are for the size of the woods ect mostly free of weeds.

Starting to garden for the first time is'nt going to be easy, you really need to unstand a little more befor you start planting or sowing anything and i say this to help rather than put anyone off gardening,
Once you get going and get the results that are good! then you'll soon want more, but once you feel its all hard work with no or little results?
Well this is when the plot becomes over grown again just waiting for the next new comer.

 

Well put Moonraker

 

A few issues here, one is just me being picky, but plants also need WARMTH apart from air, light and moisture. Two, people don`t need raised beds to grow in small areas, you can have narrow beds just dug into the ground. Three, are you suggesting people should mulch there vegetable beds with leaves, pine needles and the such which will suck all the nitrogen out of the soil while they are decomposing?

 

The important thing I learnt was to use covers to keep the weeds down.It enabled me to forget about certain areas and concentrate upon food production and weeding which last year seemed never ending with derelict plots either side of me.

 

No read the thread, i pointed out that the woods/forest and indeed nature stop weeds growing by leaves falling year after on the same area's, ref leaves sucking the nitrogen out of the ground? Not when these leaves have composted they dont,
mulch is used in verious ways ie straw & leaves being used for root veg will not taken nitrogen out and as the root veg such as spuds are well under the ground when this mulch is used and removed when all signs of frost has gone! whats the problem here,?

Mulching is warmth, thats why its used to stop the cold getting to the roots of plants,
I dont remove any of my dahlias tublers "i use straw mulching" and the frost never bothers them as they get the warmth from the mulch But as soon as they start showing above ground level the mulch is removed (not wasted it ends its days on the compost heap)

Ref the raised bed issue, if a "New comer to gardening" has a dug narrow bed he' or she has a good chance of weeds growing through the bed,

If however a screened raised bed and weed repellent material is lined at the bottom and then filled with good compost, they've a good chance of getting a good start to their first season of gardening and getting on with clearing the rest of the site and (this is the important part) they'll see some return in crops for their efforts from the raised beds in nothing else,
As i pointed out, time & weather are the big factors with over grown plots
and any new gardener has a lot to do if he has the time and the weather on his side all well and good but its a good thing on the eye to see the plants you planted in the likes of a properly errected raised bed growing away without the site of trying to see your plants some place amoung the weeds, And screened raised beds tend to drain better and retain heat and warmth better than in the ground beds Plus you'll find that with a screen around the raised bed you can always use fleece or infact polythiene to act as a cold frame for lower night tempitures, you cant do that with in ground dugout narrow bed.