help designing my plot!!.

[kiwirach]

i'm loosing the plot!!!. i've played with various designs for the past 7wks, while i wait for the keys...(thats another story and the subject of a complaint!)....and am now completely confused about how to design my plot.

i'll be planting vege, fruit, herbs, and flowers

below is how the plot looked 7wks ago when i saw it, and the photo is taken on the western side looking east, and its not that far off a true n s e w alinment. the photo was taken at 1030am.

anyone whos loves a dabble in plot or garden design, i'd love to hear your thoughts....i want to finalise this plan this weekend, so i'm ready to get going!.( cos i need to get going...my living room resembles a garden center!)
( (&%£&^)()_council!)

[barrie tough]

hi kieirach,the basic plan is to spit it into three parts.1 roots:carrots,beetroot,parsnips ect,2 brassicas:broc,caul,turnip ect & 3 others:lettuce,onions,leek ect.rotate that ever year (crop rotaion).have a look around the other plots see how the rest have got theres done to get some ideas.

[Snadger]

Part of the joy of getting a new plot is looking on it as a blank canvas! You can shape it to the way YOU want it and sometimes learn by your mistakes.

I have had my most recent plot three years and it is still evolving. I keep tweaking bed sizes positions, incorporating freebies like sheds or greenhouses, ponds from old baths.

Be an opportunist and take advantage of skip finds etc. The whole ethos of allotmenteering is to make do and mend. I spend very little money on my plot but manage to grow a good proportion of my annual veg requirements.

It's up to you, and only you can know what you hope to get from your plot.

How many times are you given a blank canvas in your life!

[heebiejeebie]

Fab!

The fun is in designing and redesigning the plot the way you want, subject to whatever you find out about the soil (I found clubroot ) and whatever freebies come your way.

Another 5 years and I might be happy with the layout of my plot!

[kiwirach]

thanks guys for the replies.....i just wish i could get going, but thanks to the sodding council, who knows when that will be!

[rogesse]

mmm designing......! I think I went through a whole book of squared paper whilst I waited! Some fundamental bits ended up in the right places but on the whole the site has taken on a somewhat more organic look. As others have said, your plans change as you plant and discover problems (stoney ground where you wanted to put root crops) and advantages(an old well loved compost heap that got rotovated in and would suit the pumpkins). Somebody wise on the allotment told me that in my first year I should just get on with it, not bother too much with rotation - find out what grows well for you, what you actually like and how many cabbages do you really need!

Best of luck, I'll be bulk buying squared paper this autumn!

[Gwyndy]

Kiwirach - if you're not careful you'll spend so much time trying to design your layout that you won't actually do any gardening!! Walk around and see what other people have done - note the bits that you like and ignore the bits that you don't like. When I started on my allotment I didn't have any fixed ideas. I started at the top and in the first year cultivated about half the site as one big "lump". I then decided that it would be easier if I divided the plot in to several discrete areas with paths in between so I now have 8 mini-plots - one is devoted to over-wintering plants for our local hospice, one is for strawberries, and one has the manure bin on it with the rest of that area taken up with more fruit - raspberries, blueberries, etc. The remaining 5 areas are used for veg. At the top of the plot is my shed and storage area. There is a definite psychological advantage in dividing up the plot - it is easy to dig over one area in an afternoon and you can then stand back and see what you have achieved!!

Looking at the photo of your plot and guessing at the size it looks as though it would divide neatly in to four. So you could use three areas for your veg and maintain your crop rotation on these. The fourth area you could use for your fruit, flowers, and a small herb bed.

Just some thoughts - hope they help.

Peter

[kiwirach]

thanks Gwyndy

[Snadger]

As I said........a blank canvas. Here's something to start with!

[Novice Gardener]

Not sure if this is any help, but I just got my lottie a couple of days ago and its totally overgrown and I thought I'd be too late to get anything in if I worried about the whole plot so yesterday I cleared a bit of ground at the top - it must be about 30ft x 20ft. I dug out all the weeds, turned it over and raked it ready for planting. I thought this year I'd just pop in whatever - some beans i'd started off at home, some psb again started off on the windowsill, some potatoes, tomatoes and tomatillos - just whatever is ready to be planted out. Then with the rest of the plot I'm concentrating on covering it with black plastic and just clearing a bit at a time so at least I'll have some stuff ready this year, then over the winter I can plan what to do with the whole plot, and next spring I will hopefully be ready with beds etc to plant stuff properly. Not sure if this is the right way, but I'm giving it a go

[davefromthechipie]

About 4 months ago I was given a book called ( How to plant your allotment ) by caroline foley . could be worth looking for online . Its got some nice plans /info . Heres two pic's from it .

[sallyw]

we got our plot in march, which at the time we thought was the ideal, looking back we could have done with it last autumn so we had plenty of time to clear it and manure and get it ready for spring planting. it was all a bit daunting at first it seemed a mammoth task and we got a bit 'confused' as to what should go where, in the end after it was cleared and rotavated, we put in spuds peas corn onions etc, with hindsight we would probably have done it differently, but crops are growing which is really exciting for us and with any luck we'll get some produce out of it, as we're going along now we're planning it better and actually thinking about what we're doing, we black plastic'ed most of the soil at the front coz we couldn't manage it all and i'm just uncovering it now and planting, it has been a god send as the weeds are supressed and its a lot easier work sorry for waffling, good luck and get planting, you can change it around next year if its wrong!!

[kiwirach]

Not sure if this is any help, but I just got my lottie a couple of days ago and its totally overgrown and I thought I'd be too late to get anything in if I worried about the whole plot so yesterday I cleared a bit of ground at the top - it must be about 30ft x 20ft. I dug out all the weeds, turned it over and raked it ready for planting. I thought this year I'd just pop in whatever - some beans i'd started off at home, some psb again started off on the windowsill, some potatoes, tomatoes and tomatillos - just whatever is ready to be planted out. Then with the rest of the plot I'm concentrating on covering it with black plastic and just clearing a bit at a time so at least I'll have some stuff ready this year, then over the winter I can plan what to do with the whole plot, and next spring I will hopefully be ready with beds etc to plant stuff properly. Not sure if this is the right way, but I'm giving it a go

i'm beginning to think this is the way i'll go now as well....i dont know how much longer its going to take the council to get their a's in to gear!!.

[kiwirach]

About 4 months ago I was given a book called ( How to plant your allotment ) by caroline foley . could be worth looking for online . Its got some nice plans /info . Heres two pic's from it .

yayyyy, thanks...thats what i was after when i orginally posted the thread!!. i know i can go for straight beds, but wanted to go for more!!!!. will look for the book.
thanks again!.

[kiwirach]

we got our plot in march, which at the time we thought was the ideal, looking back we could have done with it last autumn so we had plenty of time to clear it and manure and get it ready for spring planting. it was all a bit daunting at first it seemed a mammoth task and we got a bit 'confused' as to what should go where, in the end after it was cleared and rotavated, we put in spuds peas corn onions etc, with hindsight we would probably have done it differently, but crops are growing which is really exciting for us and with any luck we'll get some produce out of it, as we're going along now we're planning it better and actually thinking about what we're doing, we black plastic'ed most of the soil at the front coz we couldn't manage it all and i'm just uncovering it now and planting, it has been a god send as the weeds are supressed and its a lot easier work sorry for waffling, good luck and get planting, you can change it around next year if its wrong!!

yep, the plan is to get planting....i'm going to do as you did and cover some, work the other and get the stuff in that needs to go in, then work on the covered areas bit by bit, pulling weeds and replacing with a green manure in prep for next yr.
thanks for your reply.