Just acquired 2 run down (trashed) plots, newbie, am I under time pressure?

[Lisette]

Great, thanks!!

[Feral007]

Enjoy.
You don't need to do it all at once. Potatoes are great - we love eating them so stick them in everywhere and they self seed if you forget to dig them up again

I also like zucchinni and pumpkin as they will cover a lot of area when you are starting new gardens, so they protect the soil underneath. I tend to use them as covers for where there might be too much sun in mid summer (or all summer here) and to protect a little from unexpected frosts for smaller plants.
I also like corn for wind, sun protection, although my daughter said that the rattling of the corn on a windy night gave her the shivers when she'd let the dog out at night - she's read Children of the Corn and will never love corn quite the same.

I'm sure you'll have great fun as well as great eating out of the food you grow. And don't forget to pop into the cooking section of the forum for what you can do with your crops that go mad and overtake you. I've just roasted up a whole pumpkin, cut into small piecees with garlic and herbs. It will disappear quickly in salads, sandwiches, and on pizza's.
Don't for get to have a look at some of Two Sheds posts - she does Chop and Drop. So when you pull out weeds, old plants etc, just roughtly chop them up, put them back on the soil to mulch and break back down and put back into the soil a lot of what they removed to grow the crop for you. It saves walking to the compost bin, and is another good way of mulching using what you have.
Look up liquid ferilisers. Also cardboard (if allowed on your plots) so many things you can do. And since you've so much ground, you could try a whole series of them and see what works best for your ground and your family.

[Lisette]

Will definitely check those tips out! We´d love to grow pumpkin . Such an exiting crop.

Is it really necessary to send of some soil samples for lab testing? Or should I just fertilize anyway (with whatever is suitable for the needs of the planned crops for any particular area) - just in case. I read about risks of your veg getting to high in nitrate levels. Or am I best of asking the neighbouring plots what to do, as they know the soil? The plots both looked like they haden't seen any crop in quite a long time..

[Feral007]

Always ask the neighbours, they will give you a great deal of local information. But you don't have to take all their advice.
It's good to have a look here at fertilizers and such as there is massive amounts already there. And if I was any good at searching I'd find them for you

If you know what the plants will need then you can just work out what will give them that and keep down the price of fertilisers. If you have nettles don't throw them out!

[Alison]

If the plots haven't been used for a few years then nothing will have been depleting the soil. Personally I wouldn't do much in the way of fertilising the plot as a whole in your first year, you can tell a lot from how things grow. If you get chooks then you'll have free muck which is great too . Re your comment about lab analysis, I think it's a waste of money, it can vary across the plot anyway and a lot of people have found the home kits are unreliable. See how your stuff grows and as already suggested, speak to the neighbours and you'll do fine. Also don't worry about some things failing in your first year, some things will always grow better than others and it might vary from year to year as well.


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[Mumbles]

Have a look on eBay for books too. I just got a book for £2 that was £15 on amazon


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[Kristen]

Is it really necessary to send of some soil samples for lab testing?

If it was me I would do a Test Tube test (kits available mail order or from garden centres). They are a bit hard to work out what the colour is, comparing with the provided chart, as all the actual colours are "muddy" Kits available which will give you an indication of the main NPK values and/or just pH

It is possible that your predecessor heavily limed part of the patch and its very alkaline (fine for some things, but not all) ... or never applied any lime and the whole plot has become acid and needs Lime on the areas for things that prefer alkaline ...

IME Cheap meters for testing pH are useless, but the test tube kids have done fine for me.

I think the biggest risk in Year One is having a load of failures, and getting disheartened and possibly even giving up With that in mind my advice would be:

1) Grow what you like to eat. That way you won't have a failure / partial failure of a crop that you can't stand anyway and then resent the time you spent.

2) Give preference to high value & high yield crops. Runner Beans cost a lot in the shops (they are labour intensive to pick) and produce loads. Thus if you grow things like that you will, hopefully, feel good about the money you are saving, as well as the great fresh flavour.

Conversely I wouldn't bother to grow main crop spuds. Usually cheap in the shops, storing you own for months are likely to sprout (whereas farmers have cool stores so the ones in the shops are in good condition even in late Winter), they take up a lot of space and you might lose the whole crop to blight. Having said that, Spuds are a good "soil cleaning crop" for keeping the weeds down, so you may consider planting them on that basis.

1st early spuds are expensive in the shops and taste wonderful if really fresh, so they would be on my list to grow. (Crop is normally finished before blight becomes a threat)

3) Grow for flavour. Sweet corn - great flavour - get them into the pan as quickly as you can, the Sugar starts turning to starch from the moment you pick them, which is why supermarket ones are never going to taste as good.

Also choose vegetable varieties that have great flavour. Supermarket varieties are often chosen because they are easy to harvest all-at-once, or don't bruise easily (thicker skins on Tomatoes, for example) or just plain have high yield. Growing your own you can have as low yielding varieties as you like! choose on flavour, and varieties that you know you have enjoyed before (e.g. which may be hard/impossible to find in the supermarket)

4) Keep a notebook so you will remember next year what varieties you liked/hated this year.

I record Variety, Date sown, transplanted (if applicable), Qty of plants (once thinned) and date of First & Last harvest (they tell me "how long" and "When was the plot free again"). Then I have a column of Notes: "Good/Bad taste" and "Plant more/less/none!! next year"

5) If you don't look like being able to tame the whole plot in the first year then consider planting Squash on the "untamed bit". You'll need something to cover the grounds to stop the weeds growing - weed suppressing membrane if you like, but cardboard (from squashed large boxes) will do [carpet usually a bad idea as once it starts to rot its a nightmare to get rid of - might be banned at your site?] - dig some decent planting holes at 8' intervals and plant Squash through the weed barrier into the planting hole below. They will sprawl over the space in between. e.g Butternut squash / Pumpkins for Pie or Halloween. Squash are not planted out until mid to late May, so you'll know by then if you have converted the whole plot into production ... or not!. However, you will need to start growing the plants from seed 4 weeks earlier, or plan to buy some in the garden centre - perhaps order ahead of time to avoid disappointment.

Hope it goes well

[Alison]

If it was me I would do a Test Tube test (kits available mail order or from garden centres). They are a bit hard to work out what the colour is, comparing with the provided chart, as all the actual colours are "muddy" Kits available which will give you an indication of the main NPK values and/or just pH

Although as mentioned above, if you do get one of these then beware, I know of several people who have got false readings from these, one of the kits even claimed that vinegar was heavily alkaline

[out in the cold]

Welcome to the vine Lisette.

I have personally found the majority of advice given on this site to be fantastic.

That is a decent sized plot and should set you well on your way towards self sufficiency

[Kristen]

I know of plenty of people who have used them without problems ... might be the kit other folk used?

[Allotment Ted]

Digging it over will be hard work all in one go. Best advice I was given was cover 2/3 with weed fabric or black poly, kills the weeds making digging easier. Dig the other 1/3 and plant something to get quick results. Apparently lots of plot holders dig all in one go and then lose interest and give up due to the amount of hard work digging. Then bring the other 2/3 into production as and when you can clear them.

Mod Edit - Removed blatant advertising

[Lisette]

The smaller plot is pretty much dug over save for a bramble patch in the back. For which we just received a useful tool . At the larger plot we can rent a rotavator for 10 pound a day. Currently busy bringing down all sorts of rubble and brick structures so we can rotavate the plot.

Luckily my husband is full of energy and drive so we'll be good to go . He's a real grafter and hates sitting still on the sofa. We've wanted to do this for the last 6 years so plenty of motivation there !! The only problem is going to be my planned summer holidays with the kids back to The NL where I come from. Will have to get someone in to take care of the plot or maybe make a deal with one of the neighbours as such. We'll see what happens.

Thank you all for your fab advice! Everything is taken on board, but there are so many messages it's a bit difficult to respond to them individually.

In terms of test kits I think we'll just grow things and see how they do .

The diary is a fab idea, will be keeping one!

[rustylady]

Please add your location to your profile Lisette, then it will show on your posts and saves us having to keep asking.

How long are you planning to be away from your plot for summer holidays?

[Lisette]

Yes, sorry! I meant to but just forgot in all the chaos.

We´re not sure yet. But I was hoping to take the kids myself for maybe 6 weeks. The husband might come over for 2 or 3 of those. Quite impossibly long with a plot I suppose :\. We'll have to rethink that idea.