Trixy's lotty project

[trixy]

I found a turquoise blue bath full of empty wine bottles buried in my garden. Nearby was the washbasin!

Random!!!!!

[VeggieWendy]

Hi Trixy, don't know if you are still active but I saw your post with interest! How is the plot going? I acquired mine last May and am also a SAHM to three children - so find it hard to make time to go do digging, but I love it!
x

[trixy]

I feel like a bit of a fair weather allotmenteer at the moment, but it is so much easier to get to the plot with the children when the weather is finer!

We spent an hour or so up there yesterday and in that small amount of time we got the beds staked out, and got 2 of them dug! Each plot will be about 1.5m x 2m, and we have room for 10 of them with a .5m path between each of them. This gives us room left over for a water butt, shed, compost heap and bench to sit on and have a brew whilst watching vegetables grow!

We have horrible stringy weeds under the soil which we have no idea about, but slowly slowly we cleared them from the 2 plots.

Our initial plan is to plant the following

Bed 1 potatoes (early, second early and maincrop)
Bed 2 (Haydn's ) Blue berries and strawberries
Bed 3 Flowers
Bed 4 Salad
Bed 5 Courgettes, tomatoes,
Bed 6 (Xmas Day) Carrots, Parsnips, Brussels
Bed 7 Peas and Beans (runner, broad, french)
Bed 8 Cauliflower, Broccoli
Bed 9 onions, leeks, garlic
Bed 10 melons and pumpkins.

So from your combined depth of knowledge, is thre anything here that would throw up any problems? Any combinations that won't work?

[Potstubsdustbins]

A couple of things stand out. Blueberries & strawberries need different types of soil.

I presume your beds are all out door so from my limited knowledge of growing melons I would say you would not have much joy unless they are under glass.

Colin

[Thelma Sanders]

Bed 1 potatoes (early, second early and maincrop) - One bed this size isn't really big enough to fit many spuds in, when you think about spacing. I'd concentrate on earlies and a few 2nds.
Bed 7 Peas and Beans (runner, broad, french) Again this isn't a lot of space for growing peas and 3 types of beans
Bed 10 melons and pumpkins. AS already advised the melons are doubtful, 2 or 3 squash maximum in this area.

You could free up a bed by growing your salad in odd gaps here and there, before other crops get big, rather than devote a bed to them. (search for catch cropping)
Personally I'd also pop your flowers in odd corners here and there, unless they are for regular cutting for the house, when you may feel they're worth a whole bed.

[trixy]

Quick recap we were asked to give our plot back last November to allow for remedial works to be carried out and we got it back in April.

So this year has been starting from scratch again. All the couch grass that we had removed got churned up from neighbouring plots so we had that to contend with again.

We have had courgettes, beans, strawberries, salad, and the pumpkins are going rather well.

The problem is that we had a lot of the plot not planted so I'm wondering about green manure.

I have broad beans, French beans and runner beans.

Do I just plant these and then dig them in in the winter?