Hi. If you want to grow vegetables, you can sow broad beans now which would be ready for spring and peas a little later on. You can also sow garlic cloves, ready around June. Plugs of onion or leek plants can also be planted now for spring consumption. If you have a plastic tunnel you could plant lettuce seedlings.
You don't say whereabouts you are or what kind of soil you have so it's hard to give sound advice about what to plant. I would have a good firkle about to identify plants to keep such as rhubarb, perennial herbs and any fruit canes of shrubs then cover the rest with as much cardboard as I can find to cut th elight to the weeds while I start forking it all over in one corner, working along as I go.
Autumn is a good time for planting flowering shrubs and rhubarb so they can get their roots down over winter. If it's not too cold in winter you could sow some broad beans. They'll germinate and grow a few inches then sit till spring but you'll have a head start for an earlier crop that ecapes a lot of the blackfly.
While you're clearing and weeding, think about what you love to eat, hate to eat, want to try and then make a list. Use the RHS and/or Graden Organic websites to check for crop rotation groups so you can plan what will go where and when it can be sown and planted then order some seeds so you're ready next spring.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
You have 2 choices cover the ground up while very slowly digging all the weeds out within a few months you'll quit never to go back or get some weedkiller spray it as soon as possible and when the weeds have died dig it ready for spring job done by Christmas
You have 2 choices cover the ground up while very slowly digging all the weeds out within a few months you'll quit never to go back or get some weedkiller spray it as soon as possible and when the weeds have died dig it ready for spring job done by Christmas
Lots of the weeds will die off now anyhow, so weed postponer will be a bit of a waste of time and money. They'll just come back in Spring.
The third is research 'No-dig' and prepare to do that.
Also, have a think about access to the middle of your plot when planted up. Possibly rough out some paths to walk on to avoid compaction of the beds. I would probably divide the area up into smaller plots. Now is a good time to lift and divide rhubarb and perennial plants to move them to where you want them to be.
How exciting! We've had two plots, one on clay and the most recent on sand. But inherited rhubarb on each! My advice would be to make a plan of the plot, decide what you want to grow where, bearing in mind that you will want to rotate what you grow so you have different things growing in the same place each year. If you have the energy to clear it all of debris and weeds in one go - great. But if not, do it bit by bit, planting as you go. Allotments take a lot of time and effort but once you've got it how you like it - so rewarding. Sadly we had to give ours up due to lack of time on my part, lack of physical ability on my husband's.
Thank you so much for all the great advice-it’s been really helpful. We have drawn a plan of what we want and where. We have a composting bin given to us, a greenhouse and some seeds. I’m really excited to get all my children involved too.
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Autumn is a good time for planting flowering shrubs and rhubarb so they can get their roots down over winter. If it's not too cold in winter you could sow some broad beans. They'll germinate and grow a few inches then sit till spring but you'll have a head start for an earlier crop that ecapes a lot of the blackfly.
While you're clearing and weeding, think about what you love to eat, hate to eat, want to try and then make a list. Use the RHS and/or Graden Organic websites to check for crop rotation groups so you can plan what will go where and when it can be sown and planted then order some seeds so you're ready next spring.
The third is research 'No-dig' and prepare to do that.