new allotment

[young grower]

iv just taken on a new allotment too which is brilliant! but my god is it over grown, ive strimmed back all the weeds and and grass to find asparagus half way in the plot result! but now im kinda stuck on what to do next,

ives started a massive compost heap with all the grass cuttings and veg peelings from my kitchen, but ive been thinking of getting a rotavator in and rotavating the lot and then sheeting and pulling the weeds out but i want to plant stuff soon an get some crops going i guess spuds are a good idea for this time of year?? if so what type??

also i know some will say dont rotavate but dig and cover but i dont have too many weeds so what any ideas please people???

[polc1410]

Where are you?

Northern Hemisphere - Spud season is drawing to a close for harvesting.

Cover it. Don't rotivate it.

Look for a topic from Two Sheds called No Dig.

[Vince G]

Defo don't rotivate. You might be slicing some nasty weed in to millions of bits to produce millions more nasty weeds.

Clear the weeds thoroughly from a patch now and sow some broad beans and certain varieties of pea which will happily survive the British winter. Not a lot else you can plant outdoors now so cover the rest, maybe peeling back for a thorough weeding session when you have time, so everywhere's nice and weed-free for springtime. Sounds like your plot might not be too weedy, so shouldn't be too much hard work to begin to get it ship shape.

Best of luck and happy allotmenteering.

[Bill HH]

Now is the time to plant winter onion sets and garlic bulbs, if you havent got on top of the weeds you can plant them in pots or knock up a raised bed. Rotovating really does produce more weeds, the time for a rotovator is when you have no weeds and just needs to save all that digging. I would cover it with sheets and then in the spring hopefully your compost can go on it which in itself will supress the weeds.

[CDave]

Well - you have said that you don't have many weeds - so why not dig out what you can and cover up? You will have more weeds if you rotovate. I'm putting my overwintering onion sets and garlic in this week. Why not spend some time planning for next year/ Good luck whatever you decide to do.

[Two_Sheds]

i guess spuds are a good idea for this time of year?

Er, no.

Your first job is to go down the library and get yourself a good book. Hessayon's a useful one, although there are prettier coffee table books out there, you need something that'll give you the basics.

It'll be the best 3 quid you ever spent

[Two_Sheds]

im kinda stuck on what to do next

It's winter soon, nothing grows in the winter. Put your enthusiasm into planning & reading.

Right now, you can put some garlic & Jap onions in, then in November some broad bean Aquedulce. It doesn't really matter where.

The rest of the plot, cover with green manure seed, then just leave it and observe.

thinking of getting a rotavator in

Why? Because you want to use some machinery, get going, DO something ?!!

My new neighbours have cleared everything so they had flat brown earth. On the verges they have thrown their rubbish: mature blackcurrant & gooseberry bushes, dog know what else.

Look for a topic from Two Sheds called No Dig.

Organic Gardening: The Natural No-dig Way full colour edn: Amazon.co.uk: Charles Dowding: Books

Organic No Dig, No Weed Gardening: A Revolutionary Method for Easy Gardening: Amazon.co.uk: Raymond Poincelot, D. Bennett: Books

Those two will explain the concept, then you can decide if the no-dig style is for you. Gardeners from the 1960s and earlier (the Olde Boyes) will tell you that you need to buy different fertilisers, pH kits, sulphate of potash, powdered this, granulated that: you don't. Just because farmers do it that way, doesn't mean that home-gardeners should copy them.

Loads of us manage to produce £100s of vegetables without chemicals, and we have an abundance of wildlife on our plots as a reward

[WendyC]

Please add your location to your profile, then people will be able to give advice based on your local conditions. We are assuming UK but you could be anywhere! Don't know why location is not compulsory where joining.