Its good news.... I have an allotment!

Morning all,

Some of you will remember me asking the silly questions back in the summer when i took on the job of my small garden (cannot find the thred!?)

Anyways, i now have a full size allotment (10 rods) daunting, yes lol

I'll get some pictures up when i can but i have some more questions if you please :D

How and where do you start??!!

My thought process is to kinda plan it on paper... shed here, compost bin here etc etc

I have 3 big blue barrrels on there way for water butts and as many pallets as i want, they will be made into compost bins (prob 2 to start with) Oh also have access to horse poop :thmb:

So once i have messured the plot into beds what do i do? i was thinking of just covering them with plastic until im ready to use the beds?? Might help keep the weeds down and look more tidy.

I have all these idea's and thoughts going though my head and very excited!!! I think i really must be a gardener at heart :wink:

Any advice or tips would be great!

Thanks

 

Hi Adam and congrats on getting a plot. I'm assuming there are already weeds present on the plot ? This being the case, it will need digging through to get rid of them. This will also improve the soil structure ready for next year. Another thing, now is the time to get 'muck' into the ground, so all in all, you've taken it on just at the right time. Assuming that you will be following the crop rotation method, 'muck' needs to be added to the ground every 3rd year, which means that you need to dig it in to around one third of your plot. I don't think this is a hard and fast rule though. If the ground is 'hungry', I would add it to a larger area, avoiding where you want your 'roots' to grow. I wouldn't bother covering the ground with plastic, just let the elements do their stuff. In the meantime you can plan what to put where. In the meantime, get digging ! Hope this helps. Cheers...freddy.

 

Adam congrats now you got your work cut out but its fun and good luck.:thmb:

 

Ah yes muck.... the chap down the allotments said they were awaiting a lorry load of the stuff yesterday, thats good timing eh!

Its def going to need diging over, and being one of those "neat" gardening types it really needs allot of work to get it looking tidy.

I've asked my wife what she'd like me to grow as theres no point me planting willy nilly is there lol

But yes i will be doing crop rotation ish!

I have a feeling i'm going to want to spend alot more time down there than i actually have!

 

Hi again Adam. One tip I WOULD give is, don't try to do it all at once. Set yourself manageable targets, a little and often works for me. Good luck :thumb:

 

Oh, another thing, the muck MUST be well rotted, at least a year old. If it isn't, maybe you could store it on the plot somewhere ?

 

Def wont be doing it all at once altho being fairly fit i think i'll get it all sorted over the winter months weather permitting.

The only thing i dont think i'll sort will be the shed, not 100% confident on building one out of pallets and certinly dont fancy paying £200 etc

A friend of mine had a rather large cane bush and ive managed to get 50 or so 8ft cane's which will be very handy!

I've done a plan on paper and i'm pretty pleased with it.

As for the muck i will check it out when i get to the allotment again but i intend on building my pallet compost bins first. I'll fill the 1st one up with horse poop, shreded paper and all the bits i can use from when i dig over the plot. That should be good for next year

 

Check this out Adam :thumb:

http://www.gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=15957

 

Dont bother with plastic, fork it over and let the frost get to the soil. hoe off any weeds that show up.

 

Great news Adam and well done. I know only too well of the pure thrill of getting your hands on an allotment I amazed myself how much I truely enjoy having ours, yes it's hard work and yes it takes an awful lot of time to get things how you wish them to be but that just adds to the excitement of it all!

Dee's you're a sweetheart adding our pallet made shed :luv:.

Adam you don't need to be ready handy to make a shed out of pallets in just a few small steps you can go from this -



To this -


All I would say is leave a few of the noggs (the square wooden blocks) on the pallets as this makes joining the pallets together so much easier and these noggs can be used as shelf brackets in your shed once it's built.

On our first allotment we did rush to do most of the work and this was our downfall, it is far better to plan how you want things to be as it saves so much time and effort later on.

Down on our big allotment (The Paddocks) we marked off our beds and although we did weed kill some of them we ended up skimming off the grass topping which was in turn put into a pile to make loam from and we hand dug the whole beds while pulling out the weeds as we went.

The bed that we just covered although it didn't kill off the weeds it just made them weeker this will be the next bed for us to tackle.

I wanted to do everything by hand because I didn't think Bob or I could handle a rotavator but we ended up with one due to the lovely guys down on the plots and we were both surprised that we could manage one and boy does it save time. I would suggest you get hold of a rotavator cheaply if you can more so if time is a challege for you as you will no doubt find the benefit from one.

Another suggestion is to have a couple of compost bins as you can never have too much compost.

I have gone on a bit sorry but it's a huge flaw in my character but remember to be a little chatty too with your fellow plot owners as they will have many tricks of the trade that they are more than willing to share with anyone that takes the time to stop and chat.

Good luck and happy digging!:wink: Hel.xxx.

 

Thanks Helen,

I've just managed to get a free green house which i collect at the weekend :wink:

Perhaps i will give the shed a go... we'll see lol

 

thats a good idea, my wife does the freecycle emails so i'll ask her to look out for one.

The problem is picking something like that up... i only have a small golf lol

Hopefully there will be one for sale on the alloment that way i can just pick it up and carry it "home" lol

 

Adam have you checked with your allotment committee to see if they allow glass greenhouses, or if your need 'their' permission to erect one first?

It would indeed be a shame for you to go to all that trouble only to find out your allotment site doesn't allow them sadly it's one of the few things ours don't allow glass greenhouses and livestock. Hel.xxx.

 

Thats a good point!

I've seen a few greenhouses on the allotment but i gues that doesnt mean anything. They may also have plastic "glass" which would mean me buying pastic for mine which then becomes expensive.

I best ask i think,

Ta