New allotment holder looking for some advice.

[Convolvulus]

Hi all, I'm new(ish) to the forum and to the wonderful world of allotments (and to be honest have not done much gardening since working on fruit farms in the west country as a teenager) so please be gentle with me.

Mrs Convolvulus and I took on an overgrown half plot at our local allotment a few weeks ago and after a fair bit of skip diving (hundreds of feet of old decking and 4"x2"), fleabaying (£20 greenhouse), freecycling (replacement panes and slabs for greenhouse) and a lot of digging, sawing and barrowing we have gone from this;




to this




Still quite a bit of work needed to sift out the couch grass and bindweed from the sods we've dug over but we are starting to get stuff planted.

Most of the useable land is now covered with raised beds, a greenhouse and a fruitcage (which we inherited) but my first query is what to do with the shaded area under the apple and cherry trees in this picture.



The compost bin will be moved (it just has weeds in to at the moment) and the mound of soil/weeds is sitting where a fruit tree was removed by the previous holder.

I could just level it, cover with matting and use the council supplied chippings to suppress the couch grass, bindweed and nepalese raspberry that are competing for domination of that corner but I'd rather do something more interesting/useful.

Option 1 - weed out as much of the couch grass and bindweed as possible and let the nepalese raspberry take over - the previous holder seemed to like it but it had rather run amok and apparently never fruited.

Option 2 - weed out the couch grass, bindweed and raspberry and plant something else that compete with them.

I have quite a few comfrey tubers and nettles which I've dug out from elsewhere - which seem to be able to look after themselves. Would they be OK in a shady area beneath a Bramley?

Any other suggestions for something to put in a shady corner which will be able to hold its own against these creeping challengers.

Many thanks;

Mr C.

[Baldy]

Comfrey and nettle don't seem to mind some shade. Is it Boking 14 comfrey (sterile)? You might have issues with non-sterile seeding everywhere... If the nepalese raspberry had never fruited I'd be tempted to give it a miss. It might just be that it put all its energy into green growth but then agian it could be that its not suited to that particular bed/soil/positiion. Rhubarb doesn't mind shade. Blackcurrant perhaps. Blueberry if you can control the soil acidity - maybe in pots?

Looking good already though.

Balders

[Bigmallly]

I'd be tempted to put some currant bushes under the trees then put strawberry plants under the bushes so making a kind of Canopy of fruit.

[Convolvulus]

Comfrey and nettle don't seem to mind some shade. Is it Boking 14 comfrey (sterile)? You might have issues with non-sterile seeding everywhere... If the nepalese raspberry had never fruited I'd be tempted to give it a miss. It might just be that it put all its energy into green growth but then agian it could be that its not suited to that particular bed/soil/positiion. Rhubarb doesn't mind shade. Blackcurrant perhaps. Blueberry if you can control the soil acidity - maybe in pots?

Looking good already though.

Balders

Thanks for feedback. Despite the plot having been a bit neglected for a while the comfrey seemed to be confined to a few spots so I'm guessing/hoping it is a sterile variety.

The raspberry had spread everywhere and I've pulled most of it out but there is probably enough left under the trees to re-establish itself if I don't do something.

[Convolvulus]

I'd be tempted to put some currant bushes under the trees then put strawberry plants under the bushes so making a kind of Canopy of fruit.

Thanks, there were quite a few strawberry plants lurking in the overgrown beds - despite spending a lot of time in my youth working on commercial strawberry farms in Somerset but am profoundly ignorant about their useful life expectancy.

I read somewhere that they should be replaced after 2-3 years, is that just for commercial levels of yield or are we wasting our time persevering with them on the basis that they owe us nothing as I'm guessing that they will be at least 3 years old?

[Cadalot]

I've never had much luck with strawberries but they put out runners so there should be some young plants in there as well. You could always leave some see how they go and look for the runners this year to move elsewhere.

[Nicos]

Gosh...you've done all that in a few weeks?
Brill...really brill..huge pat on the back to both of you !

[Bigmallly]

Thanks, there were quite a few strawberry plants lurking in the overgrown beds

Like Cadalot says, where there are strawberry plants should also be this years runners.

[Baldy]

Think the general consensus is that strawbs go well for 3 years then you get diminishing returns - so if you're sensible you grow on some runners each year.

Balders

[Convolvulus]

I've never had much luck with strawberries but they put out runners so there should be some young plants in there as well. You could always leave some see how they go and look for the runners this year to move elsewhere.

Thanks. If there were runners/new plants then they were lost in the process of rescuing the strawberries from the weeds. Will make a note to take more care next time and to look out for runners later this year.

[Convolvulus]

Time to 'fess up!

After several weeks of looking at the "strawberry" plants that she salvaged when we took over our allotment and making excuses as to why they looked different from everyone else's (to be fair, the note from the previous holder said there were some "wild strawberries" in the plot) Mrs C has had to accept the inevitable - that they were actually creeping buttercups!

After the yellow flowers started opening we finally had to stop kidding ourselves.

All dug out now and half a bed free for something else.

As they say, every day is a school day - though if you don't hear from me again its probably because Mrs C did not react well to the new hat I've got her to wear down the lottie!

[SusieG]

Hahaha!!! Absobluminlutely brilliant!!! You've really made my day, that's so funny!! So glad there's someone else out there who doesn't know her creeping buttercups from her wild strawberries!!

[Muddy_Boots]

As they say, every day is a school day - though if you don't hear from me again its probably because Mrs C did not react well to the new hat I've got her to wear down the lottie!

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After Mrs C has finished with her hat, can you remind her to send it back to me because I usually have to wear it every day.

[Convolvulus]

After Mrs C has finished with her hat, can you remind her to send it back to me because I usually have to wear it every day.

You may not want it, Mrs C has now seen my last post and is threatening to stick the hat somewhere that the sun doesn't shine!

Mrs C would also like the record to be amended to show that I was equally culpable for the error and since I spent most weekends and holidays in my youth working on strawberry farms in Somerset, I have no excuse for not spotting the mistake.

[Gillykat]

You're not the only one to confuse plants All winter I have been nurturing this seedling which I was sure was a Welsh Poppy (hubby loves them) and today, on the allotment, I checked how it was doing amongst all the other plants and......it has a purple flower!!!! It's not a welsh poppy at all but some sort of weed....pretty but still a wild flower Forgot my camera so I'll get some pics tomorrow