New allotment and a total beginner- help!

[Gillykat]

Hi Maisie and welcome to vine. Everyone on here is SO helpful and always ready to help out with any problems or questions...no matter how simple or obvious they may seem.

I got my first allotment in February 2015 (after 40+ years of only growing flowers in pots and gardens) but I soon became completely addicted and now I cannot wait to get stuck in this year! Bought my first three varieties of seed potatoes today and a packet of Pea seeds (Hurst Green Shaft) as they were one of my best successes last year.

I will happily confess to feeling VERY excited when I first got my plot but then absolutely terrified!!! It all seemed so intimidating and complicated and nothing like anything I'd done before but everyone on here was incredibly supportive and helpful and following their advice I had so much fun....and my tomatoes turned out amazing!

I'm sure your allotment committee will not expect you to turn it into a Chelsea-standard allotment in just a few months but will be perfectly happy with slow-but-steady progress over the next year or two. One thing I learnt was to NOT try to do too much in one fell swoop (talking about digging and clearing beds here) because you just end up knackered and disheartened I found it much more manageable to dig over a full bed over the course or two/three days rather than try to do it in one day (or one morning!). If you're anything like me there'll be days when you feel like giving up and thinking it's all too much for one person but just keep going ~ little and often ~ and soon you'll regard it as your little patch of heaven and want to spend every available moment there. Getting an allotment was THE best thing I've ever done and I'm so excited about the coming years and growing new things and learning more and more!

Potatoes are supposed to be good for breaking the soil up so perhaps clear a bed or two once all this rain stops (it has to at some point, surely?) - I plan to sort mine out in March - and get some spuds in and at least it'll show that you ARE using your plot

[hamamelis]

Whereabouts are you? We're a nosy bunch, and it does help to give advice suited to your area (Cornwall and Inverness have a pretty different climate).

A word of caution about carpets, and the reason why a lot of sites have banned them- some plants can grow through, or on the surface of them, and will then fix the carpet to the ground, so gradually it gets buried as the plants grow over. As modern artificial fibre carpets don't fully decay like the traditional natural fibre ones, they turn into a big horrible shredded mess full o' roots, which can be a right pain to dig out. It won't happen in one winter, but if you do leave them on too long, it will, and it's nasty. I occasionally still dig out bits left by a previous tenant more than 5 years ago.

A lot of us on the boards will recommend using newspaper and cardboard to cover ground for the simple reason that if you don't get round to doing anything about the patch covered for a while, they actually improve the soil, rather than causing a problem like carpet does. The downside is of course that they don't last anywhere near as long, so you do need to redo it a bit more often!

Anyway, don't panic, and have fun with your new plot!

[Kirk]

I would start by marking the boundries out at least a little, that then defines your plot.
Then if possible at this stage mark out 4 or 5 sections, or mark those out later.
The growth you have a few options, all involve digging unfortunately.

For the growth you can just dig it out, chop or strim then dig it out, or spray, wait for it to die then dig it out.

My preference is to strim to lower the growth height, take that away then spray then dig, reason being it knocks the growth back and if the glyphosphate gets to the roots then they are hopefully rendered dead. It may be the roots that give the most trouble as they can regrow a nice whole weed all over again.

Usually spraying at this time of the year is of questionable use but from my garden things are growing and that is the basic requirement.

Whichever way you go the final action is to dig and that is best done in smaller sections so that you can see some progress.

If you do spray then do it on a calm day, have the spray head low and be careful.

[purplekat]

As someone who took on my first allotment in April last year, listen to what everyone says about your back, I've ended up having physio after trying to do too much!
If you can find a good source of free cardboard or newspaper, they make really good groundcover. If not then it might be worth investing in some heavy duty woven weed suppressant (mypex or similar), it is a little expensive but you can use it year after year, and it's great at keeping the weeds at bit more under control.

[sparrow100]

So what are your thoughts maisiechain?

I got a new plot last year too. Half is sorted, the rest is covered with thick card (bike boxes) and cheap tarps over the top, anchored down with rotting planks and buckets of dug-up stones.

I am hoping that when I roll it all back there will be lovely blank soil with only a few bindweed roots to get out.

If you can get the raw materials, no-dig is an interesting option to look for and will give speedy results. Charles Dowding estimates that most weeds will be dead under a deep (6inch) cover of compost within a year, and the bonus is that you can plant into the compost and the plants will use the tunnels left by the dying weed roots.

[benhowell1]

Great advice

Hi

I am a first time allotmenter with similar concerns as maisie and have found this thread fantastic. I'm trying not to get to worried about starting and am just going to attack with lots of energy and hope for the best really!

My main concern is time as I am a teacher so will struggle to find time except during holidays where I will have no end of time! My plan is to go with raised beds to start and see where it takes me. I'm hoping these will work best for my children to get involved as well.

Does anyone know how best to stay on top of weeds on the area surrounding the beds (ie. pathways)? Could I just lay cardboard for now to mulch in? All the other plots seem so tidy and organised, the last thing I want to do is go in and trash the place!!

All the best maisie, I look forward to hearing about how you get in