Creating Brand new allotment site

[selfheal]

Hi guys,

Im helping do some of the ground work (aweful pun) to get a new village allotment site up and running. They allotments will be owned by our parish council on some land they are renting out.

At the moment there has been some very involved discussion over how to prepare the land for use as an allotment. At present it is a feild used for grazing sheep and hasnt been ploughed for several years.

our 3 main suggestions at present are:

* To treat the land with roundup and then plough 2 strips of land leaving the central path down the middle of the site intact. Presumeably the Roundup would not be applied to the central path. There are concerns over the success rate of roundup at this time of year and several growers are concerned over the use of roundup as they want to grow organic and there are also concerns regarding recent press about the effects of pesticides and herbicides on local people.

* We could plough the land as above (which will be done by the parish councillor who currently grazes his sheep on the land and will remain the tenant of the rest of the feild) and not treat it with any kind of chemical at all.

* A turf stripper could be hired out and a volunteer work force employed to individually cut out the individual plots, leaving the dividing paths intact. This would involve a massive amount of effort when our site has 28 plots each 27 x 9m in size (incidently does anyone have any clue of how many rods that is?).The stripped turf would be turned over and piled up on site to breakdown into decent topsoil, which could then be used on the plot. It would be up to individual plot owners to rotovate or double dig their own plot as desired.

I have also considered the use of a JCB to strip the turf, as is often done in large scale conservation projects where turf stripping or 'scrapes' are required. However i am yet to put this to the plot holders/parish council for consideration.

Has anyone got any knowledge and experience of creating brand new allotment sites or extra plots? Is there a method that is normally used, or one that we have failed to consider, that you can suggest? Are there any glaring faults to any of the suggested options that i have faield to point out?

Thanks alot and i look forward to your advice!!!

[chuffa]

Turf stripping sounds great, you are not going to remove too much of the good soil just below the surface. Try and get a parking space sorted in front of the new lottie, it always helps when people get close to their lottie and for deliveries ie: compost/manure. If you have got a blank canvas then draw a plan to see how many sized plots you can get on the site, include paths, entry/exit, boundary. Number the plots. And you can make sure that they are positioned in the best positon to the sun, North, South, East and West. I would let the new plot holders do the work of digging, weeding and covering their individual plots. And make some rules now rather than let it being a free for all. Most of all enjoy your new venture, i would love the chance to design a new plot. Keep us posted on how it goes and with pictures, before and after. 1 Rod is 16.5 feet.

[Snadger]

Well done you on getting involved in this new venture!

I would have thought if the whole area was deep ploughed all he turf would be doing some good in adding nutrients to the soi if it was buriedl. If after that it was power harrowed it would be nice and flat and you could easily mark out the plot positions and access roads!

[Jenegade]

Not got any experience myself, but personally I would not like Round-up used. Not only can it be harmful to the environment, there is evidence that Round-up can damage human placental cells, leading to increases in miscarriages of women who have eaten crops sprayed with it. Please don't use it.

Differential Effects of Glyphosate and Roundup on Human Placental Cells and Aromatase

[jacob marley]

snadger's got the answer deep plough it mark the plot's out and away you go you can soon tread the path's down between the plot's i have 2 plots together and always rotavate the path's up each year and tread them down later it keeps the weed's down good luck jacob

[Tori]

Having just taken on a new allotment I would agree with snadger. Get it all ploughed and sorted and then get the allotments alloted asap so the new owners can get down there and cover it in black plastic before it all grows back!!

[Helen Johnson]

I'm very interested in these ideas. We've hopefully secured part of a field to be our
village allotments. At the mo its covered in thick rough grass. I think animals have grazed there previously. There will be 30 plots, on a north facing slope. Probably not the most ideal, but we're not complaining as its taken nearly a year to find this site. Am wondering
wether to plough the whole lot, or mark out individual plots and then plough them,
leaving the pathways. Would taking the turf off the top mean losing nutrients, or would
ploughing the turf in just increase or spread weeds?There was a suggestion to
roundup the whole lot, but i really dont want to or think thats the solution. The soil is beautiful red devon soil. NSALG sent me some info on width of paths and other ideas.
We're all waiting for the go ahead from the parish council ,so we can make a start.

[Snadger]

I'm very interested in these ideas. We've hopefully secured part of a field to be our
village allotments. At the mo its covered in thick rough grass. I think animals have grazed there previously. There will be 30 plots, on a north facing slope. Probably not the most ideal, but we're not complaining as its taken nearly a year to find this site. Am wondering
wether to plough the whole lot, or mark out individual plots and then plough them,
leaving the pathways. Would taking the turf off the top mean losing nutrients, or would
ploughing the turf in just increase or spread weeds?There was a suggestion to
roundup the whole lot, but i really dont want to or think thats the solution. The soil is beautiful red devon soil. NSALG sent me some info on width of paths and other ideas.
We're all waiting for the go ahead from the parish council ,so we can make a start.

Soil can be ploughed to the full dpth of the topsoil (14 inch is good). Buried at that depth weeds will struggle to survive. When you plough soil the plough doesn't enter soil instantly there is a lead in (headland) on the end which will need to be ploughed in the opposite direction. It really isn't practical to plough each individual plot to a good depth with any sort of accuracy. far easier to plough the lot, level it with a power harrow and mark out the plots accordingly.

[Paulottie]

Ploughing is your cheapest and definitely the best option.... especially as you have the offer! forget paths. It will be full of weeds and probably not level enough to mow easily. Just scratch up the lot this is a unique oportunity to avoid double digging!!

I'd be inclined to plough it now Then set out just the main access path. The whole lot will be full of leather jackets, chaffers etc so let the birds do their thing don't cover it immediately with mypex and the frosts and worms break it up.

Then you might want to be cheeky and see if he'll plough it again and harrow the lot in early spring. obviously this might not be possible with timetables... worth a try! Then stake out the plots and seed or turf the path. My advice would be to just have an access path and any division or paths between or on plots is tenant's responsibility (less for communal maintenance)

Turf stripping and stacking would be difficult on rough uneven pasture and you would be shifting a huge pile of good topsoil that would take ages to turn into loam (full of weeds too). then return to the plots. A JCB would be the same but compact it all to boot.

Apart from environmental issues, Glyphosate is an expensive option and useless at this dormant time of year anyway.

If you have funds available Think about obtaining a job lot of muck and possibly Mypex.(great to grow spuds through to clear the land first season) They could be sold to raise a little extra money towards water supply or the hire/purchase of a rotavator in spring and surplus used to cover any unrented plots. (DONT use old carpet)

A rod is intact 5.5 yards... so squared that is... 30.25 sq Yards. An allotment is traditionally 10 rods... so 302 sq yards (about 250 sq metres)
( it might be good to have a few 1/2 plots for the less ambitious too.)

[selfheal]

Right, well we held a general meeting on thursday night and an overall compramise was made:

this week someone is marking out the footprint of the site (as its only a section of a larger feild and it needs to be exact due to planning permission).

then the farmer is coming in to mow the turf as short as possible

we contacted NSALG and they have recomended individual plot cut outs rather than ploughing, and having seen the site up close and personal last week and realising just how clay the soil is and how soggy underfoot it is, i definately agree with them... ploughing in such wet conditions wouldnt be good for the soil, and would most likely leave us with a huge sticky mudbath to deal with. plus i noticed ALOT of dog poo around- i dont much fancy that being ploughed into my veg patch.

one of the plot holders to be works for a tool hire company, who have let him have their mini digger and a couple of other bits during his time off for christmas/new yr. So in the days between christmas and new year the plots will be marked out and the mini digger brought in to cut them out as per peoples preference. Most plots will be completely scraped but some people have requested only half to be done and one person didnt want it at all. Then its up to inidivual plot holders to cover them with black plastic although we may look at buying the plastic in bulk to save money.

then in a weekend in early january a rotovator is being brought in, again for free, to rotovate plots for people if they so desire. we cant beleive they are letting us have it for free!


The major issue with this site is that there is no vehicle access permitted. The only access is on foot either crossing a footbridge and along a footpath across the feild or walking along a short privately owned road which has a public footpath down it too. At present only the current tenant farmer, who is keeping tenancy of the rest of the feild has a right of access down this private road. There is no leway with vehicle access at all, but theres a possibility of gaining permission from the landowner in a very roundabout route along another track and through several feilds to access it from the seaward side- this ofcourse would only be useful for things like bringing in the mini digger (unless we stick on a trailor and get the farmer to bring it in) or running tractor and trailor loads of peoples set up equiptment onto the site when its first up and running.

for me this is a bit difficult as im ill and have mobility problems- ive been on crutches for a year now. im determined to have a plot with my parents and make it work somehow for me, regardless of my health, but its long way for me to walk from the nearest onstreet parking, letalone trying to carry stuff onsite too! but i'll find a way round it

It looks like progress is well and truley being made now though which is good. Its been a year since the parish council suggested the idea of allotments.

we will have 28 plots lying longways north to south with a large path running through the middle west to east and a narrower one in the middle running north to south- splitting the plots into 4 quaters. there are also narrow paths between each plot, 4 water troughs (like cattle ones) to dunk watering cans into. 18 of the plots are full plots and the the remaining 10 are split into half plots. a full plot is 10 rods and a half plot is 5- i was wondering how that compares to most peoples plots, are they pretty big? The communal shed will be on a neighbouring peice of land to the north of the plots with access from the dividing path.

it feels really nice coming up to christmas knowing things are finally on the move. Over christmas we've got the members of the association drawing up a wishlist of items for us to buy or facilities to provide and ways in which we could branch out into the community. Ive been looking into funding alot too, as we are waiting to find out if the parish councils bid for a grant has been successful. even if it has there may be other items we wish to buy so we still need to look into it seriously.

heres the best bit- how many of you have an allotment with a sea veiw?!

[weedfree]

Hi all,i have had an allotment near home for two years and enjoyed fairly high success rate,however in new year will be taking on a brand new plot for the first time.it is quite an exciting opportunity as there are ten new plots created on land adjoining a care home for elderly dementia residents.it is rent free as long as we include the residents to some extent ie as they walk around tell them how you are doing etc.i am busy trying to plan out the plot,33feet by 30 feet so not the biggest but we hope to have lots of variety over time,working out how to erect a cheap fruit cage,they are so expensive so will look for a cheaper option.it is really exciting to start from scratch and to include others.this is my first post and already i have benefited from some good advice on here.will keep all posted on how well the plot does.

[chuffa]

You might even get some of the residents involved with growing that could be theraputic to them. Good luck with your venture.