Depending on what you inherit from the previous occupant, to avoid getting discouraged early on you may wish to concentrate on improving the soil in a small area - starting at a square metre (Google square foot gardening). My friend inherited a challenging space and is taking it one step at a time and covering the rest with cardboard to deal with later. And listen to advice from people who's plots you admire. I hope it brings you a lot of pleasure.
Sweetpea, keeping everything crossed for you, I really hope you get your allotment and soon
Why not sow a couple of courgette seeds and outdoor toms, maybe a bit of broccoli, things you can pop on your windowsill now and put in the allotment when you get it. That is if course if it is useable, but I'm sure with your enthusiasm if it isn't it soon will be If the plot is unusable in the short term you could always grow them in pots.
Hope you are not on the waiting list too long. I know the list is fairly short here. When we got our 3 years ago they had just set out 16 new allotments on a spare field behind the existing allotments. Rumour has it they were allotments around 50 years ago and then they went out of favour. Its great that home grown seems to be back in fashion now,
I'm particularly looking forward to making jam this year and perhaps trying chutneys. there's huge satisfaction from eating your own home grown produce. My parents have even set up a small raised bed and grown their own too.
We got our allotment yesterday, after a phonecall to the council and then to the site rep, and did a spot of digging this morning. It's a huge 25mx8m plot, but is in need of a LOT of work. Originally it was just a mess of brambles which defeated the previous occupants, and someone who has not one, not two, but three plots told us that other plot holders would just chuck their rubbish - rubble, slate, bricks, wood etc on it is it's right by the gate, and they could just reverse in, chuck it all down and leave... Which means we can only dig a few inches down before hitting rubble in some spots... it's backbreaking and not very nice currently. Lots of digging to be done over the next few months, and lots of weedkiller on the giant brambles.
We are so fortunate to have such a large plot in a 6 week time frame. I'm just hoping we can in time improve on how many rocks and pebbles there are!
Congratulations on getting the plot It's a bit grim that there's so much work to do, but pace yourself and do things bit at a time. Record what you do - take lots of photos - sometimes you're too close to something to see the improvement, but when you look back at photos you'll see how far you've come - and keep reporting in to us to let us know how things are going
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Fantastic news Sweetpea, after reading your post in the other thread I was really sad for you and in a matter of minutes I'm really happy for you.....still sad about the plants obviously but this is great. As others have said, a bit at a time. My veg patch is far smaller than your allotment and it has taken me a few years (of nagging OH to help!) to get it where it is now.
Posts
Depending on what you inherit from the previous occupant, to avoid getting discouraged early on you may wish to concentrate on improving the soil in a small area - starting at a square metre (Google square foot gardening). My friend inherited a challenging space and is taking it one step at a time and covering the rest with cardboard to deal with later. And listen to advice from people who's plots you admire. I hope it brings you a lot of pleasure.
Sweetpea, keeping everything crossed for you, I really hope you get your allotment and soon
Why not sow a couple of courgette seeds and outdoor toms, maybe a bit of broccoli, things you can pop on your windowsill now and put in the allotment when you get it. That is if course if it is useable, but I'm sure with your enthusiasm if it isn't it soon will be
If the plot is unusable in the short term you could always grow them in pots.
FINGERS CROSSED xx
Hope you are not on the waiting list too long. I know the list is fairly short here. When we got our 3 years ago they had just set out 16 new allotments on a spare field behind the existing allotments. Rumour has it they were allotments around 50 years ago and then they went out of favour. Its great that home grown seems to be back in fashion now,
I'm particularly looking forward to making jam this year and perhaps trying chutneys. there's huge satisfaction from eating your own home grown produce. My parents have even set up a small raised bed and grown their own too.
We got our allotment yesterday, after a phonecall to the council and then to the site rep, and did a spot of digging this morning. It's a huge 25mx8m plot, but is in need of a LOT of work. Originally it was just a mess of brambles which defeated the previous occupants, and someone who has not one, not two, but three plots told us that other plot holders would just chuck their rubbish - rubble, slate, bricks, wood etc on it is it's right by the gate, and they could just reverse in, chuck it all down and leave... Which means we can only dig a few inches down before hitting rubble in some spots... it's backbreaking and not very nice currently. Lots of digging to be done over the next few months, and lots of weedkiller on the giant brambles.
We are so fortunate to have such a large plot in a 6 week time frame. I'm just hoping we can in time improve on how many rocks and pebbles there are!
Congratulations on getting the plot
It's a bit grim that there's so much work to do, but pace yourself and do things bit at a time. Record what you do - take lots of photos - sometimes you're too close to something to see the improvement, but when you look back at photos you'll see how far you've come - and keep reporting in to us to let us know how things are going 
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Snap Scroggin!!!
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Good luck