allotment help!!!

[The Nichols']

I don't think many people realise that an allotment is a serious time commitment. When we took on our first, our eldest was 6 months old and would happily sit in her travel cot and play while we get on. These days, weekends are spent taking them to gymnastics classes, birthday parties, woodland walks, the beach, swimming and, because I work the old 9-5 and they're at school, the allotment ends up being neglected.

I'm not trying to put the OP off at all. I used to have time to spend 20 minutes in the morning before work just doing a little job and, once we were up and running, that was enough to keep on top of everything.

The worst part I found were the "what do I do first" moments because I ended up wasting 10 minutes trying to decide the most important job when I should have decided that before I got there and just got on with it.

[Kristen]

How much time do you spend on it a week now?

Seed sowing time, in Spring: everything raised in greenhouse and planted out. But I do that in evenings / after work / without having to consider weather. No idea how much time, but I ought to measure it next year (if only as the basis of a recommendation of that method!). Quite possibly 2 - 4 hours a week from February to April, although that would include ornamentals (probably grow more ornamentals than veg)

Planting out: All plants are grown in 9cm pots, and I plant out with a long handled bulb planter - so "Make hole, insert plant, water in", but I do have to do it a bit "just so" so that the Mypex lines up. Again probably 4 hours a week May & June, by July pretty much everything is planted so still a bit after that for Summer / Autumn sown crops, but I doubt they are more than 10% of the Spring ones.

After that, nothing really other than harvesting time. I maybe spend an hour a week watering and weeding around the edges etc. or picking off dead leaves, but I doubt I do that every week.

Autumn / Winter. Spread manure everywhere (except roots). Cut down Raspberries and Asparagus. Sow Green Manure.

Spring. Incorporate green manure, spread Mypex [existing piece, reusing from last year allowing for appropriate crop rotation] over the bead

Harvesting ... no idea, sorry! For many things no longer than it would take me to put them in a basket in the supermarket, but for Raspberries then "quite a lot of time".

But I am guessing the times, from memory, although it would be a useful exercise to measure it next year - either to find I was hopelessly exaggerating! or that it is actually pretty efficient.

[Martin H]

Can I just say I'm in awe of Kristen's efficiency?

I'm similar for sowing, but everything else takes between 2 and 10 times as much effort.

My excuse is that I inherited a weed-infested plot and lots of stuff forces its way through whatever mulch I have available and takes over in no time if I let it. Docks, bindweed, thistles, couch grass and horseradish are the worst, but in non-mulched patches annual meadow grass, bent grass, sowthistles and nettles will spring up on a whim.

All that greenery provides lots of cover and nourishment for slugs, so pest hunting takes quite a bit of time in the growing season as well.

This was only my second season, in five years time I expect it will be easier: "if you aint got no weeds, you won't have no weeds". But I'm planning on a time-consuming battle until then.

[alldigging]

Seed sowing time, in Spring: everything raised in greenhouse and planted out. But I do that in evenings / after work / without having to consider weather. No idea how much time, but I ought to measure it next year (if only as the basis of a recommendation of that method!).

I think it'd be interesting for some of us to monitor the time we spend on out plots and keep a record of it.
Breaking it down into what as well would be interesting. And photos along the way.

[Kristen]

This was only my second season, in five years time I expect it will be easier: "if you aint got no weeds, you won't have no weeds".

I was brought up with "One year's seed = Seven year's weed"

Pernicious weeds are a problem as several will be trouble even with Mypex - Docks and Horseradish will almost certainly lift it. I find that Bindweed grows around immediately under it, but doesn't get enough light, so should succumb. In "growing around under it" it may then find a gap, where there is an opening for a plant, and pop out, so those do need hand weeding. For things like hedges, planted through Mypex, I took some square-ish pieces of cardboard and made a slit to the middle and fitted those snuggly around the hedge plants, under the mypex, so that there was no real hole for any weeds to pop up; that has been very successful. Not sure I could be bothered to do that for a short season crop, but if I was struggling with weeds popping through the Mypex that would be a way to get total exclusion of light for a season.

I reckon all the grasses will struggle with Mypex ... however, if you get any soil / mulch etc. on the top of the Mypex things will seed in it I've given up covering it with bark or gravel for long term things (like hedges) and just live with the black until the hedges are 3-ish years old and wide enough to disguise/hide the membrane.

The other route is hoeing. Doing that religiously once a week will weaken the weeds ("Never let a weed see a Sunday"), and with luck will stir the surface enough that it encourages more seeds to germinate, so the "Seven year's weed" cycle is shortened.

Any other surface mulch and pernicious weeds will just come through IME. I would be very tempted to spot-treat the bad ones with Roundup / Glyphosate. We totally irradiated Ground Elder, inherited in the ornamental garden of a previous house, although we did have a few collateral-damage casualties too.

[hamamelis]

Just thought I'd mention- the first year, I thought my allotment site was pretty unfriendly as well; barring one neighbour, the people there pretty much ignored me. Maybe they'd say hi, but that was it. Three years later, I'm sometimes finding it hard to get stuff done down there due to the chatting, and people keep giving me plants and spare crops.

It's not that people are unfriendly at all, it's just that the turnover rate for new plot holders is so high, that people wait to see if you're going to stick it out before getting to know you. I've actually lost count of the number of people that have taken on a plot just in my corner, and then disappeared a few months later, and now I don't do much more than say hi to newbies either...

[sparrow100]

I'd still keep the plot. All of it. Part of that is because the waiting list round here is 5 years for an additional plot. But I would cover what I wasn't working on with something heavy duty so that it's easier to deal with later and also to not seed neighbours with the weeds from the plot.

But not downsizing does depend a bit on being able to deal with all the ground. I have a half plot and have spent 2 years getting it to how I want it. That's a big investment in time.

Thankfully my neighbours are lovely from the outset and aren't standoffish/waiting for newbies to fail, which is something that comes across a bit on these forums. I like that my site is friendly and I like newbies. I'm still very much one of them.