PowerSwitch

After nearly 6 years on the town council waiting list I have had the pleasant surprise of being allocated an allotmen today and it's not too far from my house so will be able to visit it easily.

I used to be quite enthusiastic about growing things, although I will admit my skills need a lot of improvement. Over the last year, the only things I have successfully grown have been weeds, but I've felt guilty that I should do more with my garden... and now this!

Having a full time job, evening business, four kids and no time it might be a challenge. However, the phone call I got today has motivated me to get growing, problem is it's september so all the exciting stuff is over. I've been to see my plot and I've discovered that needs considerably work to get it into a suitable state, and I probably need a shed or greenhouse to store my stuff in, as well as a compost heap!

Can any of you give me any pointers for getting started with a new allotment in September please? Any priorities or ideas to get my going quickly whilst the enthusiasm for the rubbish jobs is still there!

Thanks

TR

Good luck with the new lottie. I've just planted out garlic and strawberry plants and sown misuna for a quick late salad, spring onions for the spring and broad beans that I will cover with a cloche if it looks like snowing or very cold weather in winter.

You might be surprised how many folks would like to send a few hours helping you out on a Sunday morning - send the word around and you'll have have half a dozen helpers to blitz it.

We got the RenewablePlot 3 years ago and it was (to some extent still is) infested with bindweed.

Kenneal is going to have me shot for this, but given the time of year and the fact that you're gainfully employed (therefore more cash than time), if there's nothing usable there at all then it's possible that your best 1st move is to hire a rotorvator and do the place over ocne or twice sometime in the next few weeks. Then pick up all the rooty bits and either burn them or otherwise get them away from everything else (e.g. put in black binladens to rot). shurely "binliners" _ed.

This should drastically reduce the hold of some of yer perennial weeds. Any that remain don't actually tend to get in the way of crops (we have found) but it's a pain to keep removing them.

Find a good physio and chat them up

Now to the stuff you probably want to know: broad beans can go in this time of year, for a head start for next spring. "Early" type spuds for Xmas might also be a goer: put them in eggboxes to sprout ("chit") first. (ask at a good garden shop).

Anyway I hope you (and yours and your mates) and your Plot have a long and happy future together!

And drifting a little off topic, DO NOT count on an allotment feeding yourself or family in case of TEOTWAKI, considerable risk of theft or looting.

Growing some of your own food can save useful money whilst times are normal, some of this saved money could be sensibly spent on stocks of long life foods for any future emergency.

That is a good point. Also don't underestimate sheer stupidity: people seem less likely to nick things than to simply accidentally trash them. Start growing brambles round yer perimeter if they're not there already: make them too high to climb over, low enough to glance over. If you have a shed, erm, well just don't become too emotionally attached to it.

A corrugated iron shed is preferable to wood as it is non flammable.
Still fairly easy to break into though.

One great advantage of a shed is that one may dig a hole within, unobserved, in order to bury things.

Tip for treasure seekers: start at sites of sheds.

Good luck with the plot, from a fellow newbie grower.

We just lifted our potatoes today, and had some for tea. The sense of satisfaction was overwhelming.

I can recommend "Growing Vegetables" by Carol Klein. It's been our bible.

Actually, while I agree with Adam2 about not relying on the plot to feed yourself, moving towards growing more of your own stuff does provide a hedge against future food price inflation. Every little helps!

Tarrel wrote:Good luck with the plot, from a fellow newbie grower.

We just lifted our potatoes today, and had some for tea. The sense of satisfaction was overwhelming.

I can recommend "Growing Vegetables" by Carol Klein. It's been our bible.

Actually, while I agree with Adam2 about not relying on the plot to feed yourself, moving towards growing more of your own stuff does provide a hedge against future food price inflation. Every little helps!

'Grow Your Own Vegetables' by Joy Larkcom is detailed and highly useful. 'Organic Gardening' by Geoff Hamilton is thorough and has helpful illustrations and photos. These are the books that get the most use in our house.

+1 to the Tarrel's last para, food prices have increased by 17% since 2008....

John Harrison's Veg Growing Month by Month, and his allotment book.

Don't try to get everything done at once, get some black plastic or mypex membrane down on half of it for 6 months or a year and concentrate on getting the other half into shape.

Do some soil analysis. What sort of weed? How deep is the soil? Is it on chalk, is it clay, is it sandy? How is the site aligned and where is the most light going to fall? Is it windy? How much organic matter is there in the soil? How neglected is it? Ask other lottie holders what grows well (they'll be a bit off-hand until you've been up there a few times, they'll have seen plenty of newbies come and go).

Best time of year to start as the weeds are slowing down. Get as many weeds removed as possible and don't compost the perennial weeds with the annual weeds. I'd wait a few weeks before planting broad beans they might grow too big and die in the cold. Autumn raspberry canes will be available soon, they are easy to grow. Good luck.

Thank you all for your advice...You were absolutely right! I convinced a couple of friends to join me yesterday in the glorious sunshine, and with plentiful wine breaks we have cleared the whole allotment. Managed to fill a builders bag, four rubble sacks and 10 large binliners with weeds!

Some of the other plot holders came over to see us to give advice and guidance, turns out most of the weeds were annuals so came up pretty well. The previous plot holders cleared the allotment in April but never came back, so it's only a summers worth of weeds, not bad at all really.

We've inherited a pumpkin plant with three pumpkins on which has excited the kids as well as pulling up a few potatoes in the process! There's some green beans still on their canes, which we could dry out for next years seeds.

I'm not going to go nuts straight away though, I'm going to try and build things up gradually. As suggested, will get some of the plastic sheeting down on half and concentrate on the other half.

This autumn I'm definitely going to go for onions & garlic. I didn't realise now was a good time to start the strawberries off, that could be quite enjoyable too.

With regard to soil analysis, I've been told it's a clay soil, but will pretty much grow just about anything according to my neighbours. My plot is a long strip, not massive around 5 x 20 metres (half plot) and aligned north-south. The futher south end is slightly shaded by a fence, which is where I'll put my shed.

Thanks for the book advice, I'll invest in some reading material for the dark winter nights.

No perennial weeds oooh you lucky b!tch

Scratch the rotorvator advice then

Right I'm orff down our Plot now to plant out some Asparagus...

Put some compost, municipal composting scheme is cheapest if you don't have your own, on the plot before you put the plastic on and the worms will take it in for you. Take the plastic off and lift gently with fork and you will be away with the most wonderful seed bed you'll ever see.

As Candy hinted, I don't like rotavators because they chop up all your worms. Takes ages for them to build back up again.

Best of luck.