Intimidated New Allotment Owner

[Ruthie_Q]

Hi there everyone.
Hope you are all well.

Last week after an 18 year wait I got the keys to an allotment. It's huge and chest high in weeds. It's about 80 ft long and 27 ft wide. So far this weekend we have strimmed dug out the docks & black polythened about 2\3rds of it. I have been reading about the no digging method but we can't afford 6 inches of soil for each bed. We are looking at maybe 8 beds (2 this year and then more over the next few years) about 2.4m x 2.4m. Also my husband wanted to bark the paths. I think he thinks that money grows on my apple tree, lol. What can I get away with height wise in the beds for the added soil and what do you suggest for paths? The neighbours just seem to have bare soil but we're bothered about weeds.

Any advice is appreciated

[Baldy]

18 years - blimey!!! Well done though for sticking with it.
I've got three raised beds done on a cheapskate version of Charles Dowding's method on youtube - so I put cardboard down over the strimmed weeds - then a few bags of compost and homemade compost mixed in - probably only a couple of inches depth - so lettuce, beetroot, peas, carrot, parsnips all sown and doing well - lettuce particularly. End of this season I'll probably add another couple of no dig beds and hopefully have 4 or 5 daleks worth of home made compost to add to the beds before covering for overwinter. Basically I'm saying that 6 inches of soil/compost ovey whatever suppresant you use would be better than my 2 inches - but its what you do with it that really matters not how big it is

Check freecycle and similar for paving slabs - I've just got talking with a tree surgeon via Facebook marketplace - he needs rid of the woodchip and my plot site would love it - hopefully for a couple of beers he'll start dropping it off regularly. Good luck.

BTW:
Welcome along...

[Jay-ell]

Hello Ruthie and welcome to the vine.

18 years! Long time to be on the waiting list - but you got there.

Have a look for info about Lasagne Beds - layering green and brown materials then topping it off with soil. You could use the weeds as the greens but make sure to leave the docks and other tenacious weeds and roots out in the full sun on the black plastic to die off for a while.

Do you or any of your neighbours use green waste bins? Our council (and many others) charge for theirs so your neighbours may be happy to bag up all their grass cuttings for you and save themselves a few pennies.

There's a guy who goes round where I live doing gardening chores. He normally has to pay the council to dump the grass/hedge cuttings so is more than happy to dump off seveveral builders bags of green garden waste at my house - saves him cash.

https://www.thespruce.com/how-to-mak...garden-2539877

Where about are you based - this may influence the advice you get and there may be different resources available.

You can contact your council green waste recycling department - they may be able to provide the composted green waste soil improver at a bulk/allotment discount.

Any stables near you - they might have piles of manure you can get. Go for the old, black well rotted stuff if you can. Also see if they can tell you about weedkiller on the feed hay - some of the weedkillers used survive the passage through the horse and can kill off crops (can't remember which). Fresher stuff could still be used but might be too rich for some plants - I've grown potatoes, courgettes and squashes in them fine though.

If there's any livestock farms nearby they may have spoilt straw bales which you can get cheap - spoilt straw/way is of no use to them but is fine for the garden.

[Aberdeenplotter]

Well I had a whole lot of typing just disappear on me there so I'll try again.

I have my paths done with concrete slabs, a mixture of 3ft x 2ft and 2ft x 2ft. No more weeding and clean footing all year round. Look out for them on freegle. I didn't pay for any of mine and I have lots.

[Chestnut]

Hi, and welcome to the vine.
It would be worth asking around the other plotholders. There may be places nearby where you can get manure free/inexpensive, which would help you fill a bed or two. If it’s a council plot, they sometimes supply woodchip from when the parks dept have been pruning/felling stuff?

[Aberdeenplotter]

Doing this bit separately in case I lose my text again .

It's important not to let yourselves be sickened by trying to take on too much at once can do just that so covering a good bit of it with black polythene to exclude weeds is good practice. As you get the rest of the plot into good order, nibble away at the polythene covered areas clearing weeds digging etc and then recover if you are not going to cultivate anything meantime. It's surprising how little and often adds up to a lot if you stick at it. .

Don't be intimidated, you seem to be doing the right things

[SarrissUK]

You're absolutely doing right by not taking on the whole plot in one go. Get something going, then make sure you have somewhere to sit and enjoy a cup of tea and rest. That ten fifteen minutes of rest gives you enough bounce for a few more hours!
Good luck!

[Earthgirl Jen]

Hello Ruthie, and welcome, new here myself although I 'lurked' for the fabulous advice everyone gave for about 12mths.

I can empathise with your wait. I originally 20yrs ago wanted to 'grow my own' fruit and veg but found rather quick that plants sold better, so it lead me down the route of small plant nursery and gardening for everyone else. I lived 'voraciously' through everyone else's garden and the plants I sold. Sometimes I didn't even want to sell them as I knew they wouldn't make it once the were in the hands of new owners... lol...

This our 3rd year at the new place for us, the first year I grew in pots and forgot how bad some of the pests can be, the second year I got stuck in and cleared most of the veg garden covering one bed with thick black plastic (as I'd nearly lost the will to carry on after the digging) like you I dug out the perennials but left everything else. This year I have just uncovered it and it's clean and clear, so it does work. I'm planning to plant the sweetcorn there this week.

Have fun whatever you do, take loads of photo's to remind yourself how far you have come and get overexcited at the prospect of what you can grow

[Jay-ell]

I also recommend you visit every brewery in your area - hubby may like to volunteer for that.

They may have bags of spent hops for the take - again it's a waste product for them but a useful resource for gardeners and compost piles.

p.s. just re-read your original post - 2.4m by 2.4m is a bit big for a no dig bed. Generally these are about 1.2m wide so that you can reach the middle from the sides. That way do don't have to stand on the bed and compact the soil. My beds are 1.2m wide an vary in length (2,4m, 4,2m, 6m)

[Ruthie_Q]

Thanks to everyone.

I never thought about bed width.

Anyways off to work for me with a very aching body this morning

[Snoop Puss]

Hello Ruthie Q. Can't add to the excellent advice and suggestions given by others. Just wanted to say hi and welcome. Hope you get lots of pleasure from your plot. As others have said, a little and often will see you right.

[ESBkevin]

Hello Ruthie and welcome to the vine.

You have had some great advice already and we all have our own preferred methods and styles (which can b esubject to change on a whim).
The No Dig method is good but doesn't always mean less effort to setup if you have to carry in lots of materiel. But you have a pile of weeds already to make compost with, a big heap of those will get hot and if turned a couple of times will render seed free compost by the Autumn or at least ready for next spring.

The beds don't need anything fancy like timber edging borders and wood chip paths to work, although they can be nice. Remember whatever you do mother nature will fix eventually, all we do is nudge it in the right direction or help it get to where it wants to be.

So chop/strim all the tall weeds as make that compost pile (pallets make excellent bins for this). Then brown cardboard layed where you wish to plant, it will work as a membrane to kill the weeds under before breaking down to add nutrients. Place whatever you can get hold of on top as compost, free sources can include parks and church yard crass cutting piles (ask first), spent muschroom compost, free horse manure from stables (sometimes they just need to get rid of it), Wood chip from tree surgeons, your own home made compost, shop bought if you like.

No matter what, the first season will seem hard work and there will be some dissapointments as you learn what works for you in your location. But you will feel a great sense of achivement in the work and the harvests. Remember to consider pest control, if every other plotter has nets on thier greens to keep off pigeons you ought to too etc.

Well done for hanging in there and I hope you have great success and satisfaction.

[keat63]

We got our allotment a little late in the season. (middle of April).
Our was pretty much neglected, overgrown and rubbish strewn about.
We initially said "I think wev'e bitten off more than we can chew"

In a mad rush to try and get the ground ready for planting, we hit it with a dose of Glysophate (Rosate 360).

It doesn't appear to do anything for about 3 weeks, then BAM, just about everything turns brown.

There's a plot opposite us, that's been left untended, there are Docs 3 feet high (I kid you not). The wife complained that the path was being encroached on, and that she couldn't get out of the car for them, (we needed the car for the rubbish collection).
So I hit the first 3 feet of the opposite plot with the Rosate.
If I think on I'll take a photo this evening and post it up here, you'll be amazed what it's done.

[robbra]

It's worth it Ruthie,
I waited a few years in the 80s when I lived in East Ham, London and after a year of clearing and just getting started the council came and closed it saying it was on an old factory site and the land was contaminated. It had been in use since just after the war
Anyway, a bit at a time and it'll come good.
Rob

[bikermike]

what everyone else said. just do a bit at a time.

in terms of compost, there is no quick, cheap answer. but compost what you can, and it will build slowly. your local council may also offer free/subsidised compost bins/wormeries.

I have first dibs on my neighbour's green bin. that's good for a few m3 over the year