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First Year on the Allotment
AllotPlot
Posts: 14
in Fruit & veg
Hello, all!
We took on an allotment in October last year, and spent a good few weeks digging over and removing as much couch grass for the plot as we could - it had been left untouched for a couple of years!
Very excited to be approaching growing time, and have set up our utility room as our seedling space, for the time being. First early potatoes are currently chitting, second earlies will be joining them in a week or two!
We've got a usable space of 20m x 3m at the moment, it goes down quite a steep hill, with a little shed at the bottom. There's a big walnut tree across the path at the top, which casts a fair bit of shade, though we've only seen it later in the year, so it may not be so much during summer. The top 10m or so we haven't cleared, so we are going to cover it for the season and clear it late-autumn to early winter.
A couple of progress photos attached, though not one of the full 20m dug over - forgot all about that! Also a plan - does this look ok? Only selected things to grow that we will actually eat! There is a small pong in the middle of the plot, a 50cm path running the length of it, with 50cm paths across (the central horizontal path is 1m). Any advice or ideas welcome!
Paths will just be weed blanket, nothing fancy!
We took on an allotment in October last year, and spent a good few weeks digging over and removing as much couch grass for the plot as we could - it had been left untouched for a couple of years!
Very excited to be approaching growing time, and have set up our utility room as our seedling space, for the time being. First early potatoes are currently chitting, second earlies will be joining them in a week or two!
We've got a usable space of 20m x 3m at the moment, it goes down quite a steep hill, with a little shed at the bottom. There's a big walnut tree across the path at the top, which casts a fair bit of shade, though we've only seen it later in the year, so it may not be so much during summer. The top 10m or so we haven't cleared, so we are going to cover it for the season and clear it late-autumn to early winter.
A couple of progress photos attached, though not one of the full 20m dug over - forgot all about that! Also a plan - does this look ok? Only selected things to grow that we will actually eat! There is a small pong in the middle of the plot, a 50cm path running the length of it, with 50cm paths across (the central horizontal path is 1m). Any advice or ideas welcome!
Paths will just be weed blanket, nothing fancy!
3
Posts
A suggestion about the width of your paths. Bear in mind that if you make them quite narrow, you won't have enough space to kneel down to weed your beds. We made this mistake with our plot, so our knees are wedged right up against the raised beds when we are weeding. It's a pain in the a**e.
Although you have labelled which vegetables you are putting in each bed, do you know that it's best to rotate plants each year, to prevent disease, and make sure you have a good balance of nitrogen and other minerals?
Over time, you will realise what you do and don't like growing (some things are too much of a pfaff, and require netting and lots of fuss), and also how much you need to feed yourselves, without producing a glut. It's a great thing to have, so I hope you really enjoy it
Thank you @KeenOnGreen! We won't have raised beds, so hoping it won't be too awkward. The paths either side of the plot are around 80cm, so a little roomier. I may extend the central path, perhaps, to 1m, and the beds to 2x1m instead?
Yes, I had thought that I could budge the beds up a couple each season, though perhaps keeping the flower bed where it is (the sunflowers were to fill an empty space, so we may replace them with something else next year..).
We're also going to put marigolds in most of the beds, as recommended by our local garden centre - is that a good idea?
Haha yes I think there might be some I don't repeat next year - I can see the fruit being a nightmare! the allotments are on a nature reserve, and deer are quite prolific! Been told never to grow sweetcorn, either - last year, in one night, almost everyone lost theirs to badgers (just as they were ripe enough to harvest, too!)!
As KeenOnGreen says says covering produce with netting is a pfaff but on my site without netting carrots, brassicas and onions we would not have any crops to eat, I have 5 or 6 nets on the go at peak times. Badgers don't talk to us about badgers however collectively we have mostly overcome them with a variety of cages, tunnels ex greenhouse etc that we really ought to patient but it keeps Broc and his mates out.
To conclude you have done well up to press don't let up you will be glad you took it on.
I am 75 and I still love it to bits and I so does my wife. I grow more than we can use but I have no problem helping relatives and friends out with a bit of fresh produce.
We have various dump sites for green waste, but to the side of our shed we plan to build some pallet bins for compost, until then we are 'barrowing everything over to the 'tip' area! I think what will likely end up happening is I will plant where we have dug so far, and then start digging over the top area in readiness for next year, or perhaps for planting some garlic sets to over-winter, and I'm sure I've see Charles Dowding talk about over-wintering broccoli, too!
Most people have built cages over their plots, so I guess we will do something similar, otherwise we might end up the go-to plot for the local wildlife!
Really looking forward to being up there, it's such a peaceful location with a great view, too! I put my name on the waiting list 3 years ago! My other half said it was all mine, but he has so far really enjoyed it up there, too - our little piece of paradise!
We have an English Walnut (Juglans Regia) in our garden, these don't pose any problem for other plants, it's only the Black Walnut (Juglans Nigra) which produces toxins around it's roots. It's tricky to know which one you have, you may need to do some research.
In any case it seems if they are only having slabs and pots underneath it won't be an issue.
Worth noting about the walnut, too - I will do some investigating. Can I assume they are edible? Apparently noone ever takes them to eat, which I find weird! I lived in Greece a while an walnut season everyone was out gathering them up!
@Allotment Boy thanks for the heads up re the tree, never would have considered it might pose a problem! Hopefully it won't but yep, will probably keep the top 10m to hardstanding anyway, so should mitigate any issues