Starting a new plot
Well you have finally committed yourself to a daunting task, unless you are very lucky and have a plot that has been loved recently. Usually it's a plot that has been neglected and possibly abused through ignorance of best cultivation methods.
When I chose my plot I weighed up whether I could grow things well on this piece of land. It had been rejected twice by prospective plot holders. The ground was a mess half was covered in plastic, carpet, wood pallets scaffolding poles and other debris. You could not tell where the path should be or the plot, so someone had been struggling to maintain it. I was not worried about the state of the plot. I assumed that the ground would be exhausted, I could fix that. The ground under the plastic may hold some horrors as this will almost certainly be put down to control the unmanageable weeds. The ground was full of couch grass, and bindweed I could fix that. The horse tail I would have to live with. Liz who was showing me around must have thought I was having second thoughts because she said "it the only plot available, you can take it or leave it" I was actually weighing up the things that I would not be able to fix. Proximity of water to the plot, that was good, but it was a back plot so a bit further to walk, I was going to be doing a lot of walking in the summer! The thought in my mind at the time was light, or to be more precise lack of light. I figured that I would get early morning sun but loose the sun sometime in the afternoon. Also a small amount of shading from the orchard plot but nothing too significant. Without decent light crops would always be poor.
I accepted the plot and the following day I set to work turning the unloved plot of land into an allotment.
It was the 15th of April so I had to get my socks on if I did not want to miss the season. I did not have any compost or rotted manure to improve the soil, so decided to rely on fertilisers the first season.
I started in the part of the plot which gave me the most sun first. This should be the most productive part of the plot, it was also well covered in grass so possibly not exhausted soil. I dug towards the adjacent ground that had some cultivation previously this might be easier to clear. I started seeds off in seed trays and pots growing whilst I cleared the ground, which meant that I was not losing any more of the season.
The slow dig of the ground began; using a garden fork rather than a spade. A spade will chop the roots up, not something you want when removing bindweed etc, as they will grow again.
I was meticulous as I dug the ground forking the same piece of ground several times until I could not see any more bindweed roots. It's better to do a small area well than a large area poorly. I knew that I will still miss some roots, that would be dealt with in phase two.
As I worked my way through the plot any bindweed or marestail that reared its head on the land that I had dug I would dig out again before it could re-establish, the ground was soft so I could get all the root fragment out easily.
I burnt roots each day as I cleared the plot, my incinerator was just too small. I had bags and bags of roots to burn. I got a dustbin sized incinerator and visited the dump to dispose of about 20 sacks of roots.
The best way to clear a plot is to cover the ground to kill all the top growth. plastic or cardboard weighted down are both good for this. It is then much easier to sort through the roots when you get to dig that ground with no top growth to contend with. It also means you have less waste material to dispose of! Also the top growth will rot into the soil, feeding the soil. The burnt roots can be scattered on the ground as fertiliser.
If taking on a plot which is overgrown, don't try to do it all at once. It will exhaust and demoralise you. Much better to tackle it one bit at a time. Clear the ground of weeds and the weeds roots. Remove as much soil from the roots as possible. Topsoil once lost will take many decades to be replaced. It's the life blood of your soil and nature replaces it at the rate of about a centimetre in 200 to 400 years!
Dry and burn the weeds and top growth, don't compost it. It will be full of weed seeds and roots that will survive composting and grow again. When you have your plot under control you can compost annual weeds not in seed. Cover the ground not yet dug with cardboard weighted down. This will clear the top growth for you given time, as the plants will get no light.
Don't give up, its hard work and you feel that you are not progressing and its too much to get under control. Do little and often it all adds up. Take photos of the plot untouched and at different stages of clearing and cultivating. Its very easy to think you have not done much, but photos will show that you are slowly winning. Reclaiming the ground is the hardest bit, keeping the ground cultivated is much easier work. It took me six weeks of slow progress clearing the plot every day to turn my plot around. I am retired so could give that time to my new hobby and tend to persevere longer than most. It will take most people a lot longer than that to fully cultivate their long time neglected plot. Aim for a third of your plot per year to be cultivated if its in a poor state, any more is a bonus.
What next? Make a plan of how you are going to improve your soil, that is adding compost or rotted manure to your soil. 80% of gardening is down to your soil. It's difficult to grow good crops in a poor soil. Fertilizers will help as a stop gap solution, but using less fertilizer and adding lots of manure/compost is a much better long term solution.
So what are the benefits of all this hard work? Its probably not the money that you save on the vegetables and fruit that you buy. For me its the satisfaction of bringing home something that I grew well and the taste is so much better than what you buy in the shops for some vegetables and no chemicals. Also the pleasure I get from making something grow, learning from my mistakes, failures and successes. Failure is not a bad thing if you know why and how to fix the issue, it will make you more successful. Also we have a lovely site that makes you feel as if you are miles away from the city. Last but not least is all the friendships that come from having an allotment.
Good luck
Things to do in January
Weather and soil conditions permitting plant garlic outside, otherwise wait a month or two.
Use old wood that does not have preservative to make wood ash.
Wood ash contains up to about 3% potassium (younger wood like apple tree cuttings contain more potassium than older wood and hard wood contains more nutrients than softwood).
Wood ash also contains phosphorous, manganese iron and calcium (calcium carbonate which is chalk). The calcium will make it act like lime so do not apply to blueberries, raspberries or acid loving plants.
Wood ash like lime will make an acidic soil more alkaline releasing some unavailable nutrients from the soil which are locked in when the soil is too acidic.
Sprinkle some wood ash around your fruit trees/bushes and strawberries to encourage flower buds to form or wood to ripen (avoid getting it on leaves).
You can also use it on your plot as a fertiliser (it does not contain nitrogen as this is turned into oxides of nitrogen which are gases when the wood is burnt).
Do not use it on potatoes as it will encourage scab.
You can scatter wood ash in your compost heap to make it less acidic and improve your compost.
You can store your wood ash in a waterproof container for use later. Water will wash the nutrients out of the wood ash
Prepare your plot for next year and get a head start if the ground is not too wet or frozen.
Indoors in a greenhouse or polytunnel
If you have a polytunnel or greenhouse you can sow broad beans in pots to transplant out later for an early crop.
In guttering sow an early variety of peas to plant out later. The peas can be slide into shallow trenches around March time.
Sow radishes in modules or pots, under cover if you can keep minimum temperature above 5 degrees C
Well you have finally committed yourself to a daunting task, unless you are very lucky and have a plot that has been loved recently. Usually it's a plot that has been neglected and possibly abused through ignorance of best cultivation methods.
When I chose my plot I weighed up whether I could grow things well on this piece of land. It had been rejected twice by prospective plot holders. The ground was a mess half was covered in plastic, carpet, wood pallets scaffolding poles and other debris. You could not tell where the path should be or the plot, so someone had been struggling to maintain it. I was not worried about the state of the plot. I assumed that the ground would be exhausted, I could fix that. The ground under the plastic may hold some horrors as this will almost certainly be put down to control the unmanageable weeds. The ground was full of couch grass, and bindweed I could fix that. The horse tail I would have to live with. Liz who was showing me around must have thought I was having second thoughts because she said "it the only plot available, you can take it or leave it" I was actually weighing up the things that I would not be able to fix. Proximity of water to the plot, that was good, but it was a back plot so a bit further to walk, I was going to be doing a lot of walking in the summer! The thought in my mind at the time was light, or to be more precise lack of light. I figured that I would get early morning sun but loose the sun sometime in the afternoon. Also a small amount of shading from the orchard plot but nothing too significant. Without decent light crops would always be poor.
I accepted the plot and the following day I set to work turning the unloved plot of land into an allotment.
It was the 15th of April so I had to get my socks on if I did not want to miss the season. I did not have any compost or rotted manure to improve the soil, so decided to rely on fertilisers the first season.
I started in the part of the plot which gave me the most sun first. This should be the most productive part of the plot, it was also well covered in grass so possibly not exhausted soil. I dug towards the adjacent ground that had some cultivation previously this might be easier to clear. I started seeds off in seed trays and pots growing whilst I cleared the ground, which meant that I was not losing any more of the season.
The slow dig of the ground began; using a garden fork rather than a spade. A spade will chop the roots up, not something you want when removing bindweed etc, as they will grow again.
I was meticulous as I dug the ground forking the same piece of ground several times until I could not see any more bindweed roots. It's better to do a small area well than a large area poorly. I knew that I will still miss some roots, that would be dealt with in phase two.
As I worked my way through the plot any bindweed or marestail that reared its head on the land that I had dug I would dig out again before it could re-establish, the ground was soft so I could get all the root fragment out easily.
I burnt roots each day as I cleared the plot, my incinerator was just too small. I had bags and bags of roots to burn. I got a dustbin sized incinerator and visited the dump to dispose of about 20 sacks of roots.
The best way to clear a plot is to cover the ground to kill all the top growth. plastic or cardboard weighted down are both good for this. It is then much easier to sort through the roots when you get to dig that ground with no top growth to contend with. It also means you have less waste material to dispose of! Also the top growth will rot into the soil, feeding the soil. The burnt roots can be scattered on the ground as fertiliser.
If taking on a plot which is overgrown, don't try to do it all at once. It will exhaust and demoralise you. Much better to tackle it one bit at a time. Clear the ground of weeds and the weeds roots. Remove as much soil from the roots as possible. Topsoil once lost will take many decades to be replaced. It's the life blood of your soil and nature replaces it at the rate of about a centimetre in 200 to 400 years!
Dry and burn the weeds and top growth, don't compost it. It will be full of weed seeds and roots that will survive composting and grow again. When you have your plot under control you can compost annual weeds not in seed. Cover the ground not yet dug with cardboard weighted down. This will clear the top growth for you given time, as the plants will get no light.
Don't give up, its hard work and you feel that you are not progressing and its too much to get under control. Do little and often it all adds up. Take photos of the plot untouched and at different stages of clearing and cultivating. Its very easy to think you have not done much, but photos will show that you are slowly winning. Reclaiming the ground is the hardest bit, keeping the ground cultivated is much easier work. It took me six weeks of slow progress clearing the plot every day to turn my plot around. I am retired so could give that time to my new hobby and tend to persevere longer than most. It will take most people a lot longer than that to fully cultivate their long time neglected plot. Aim for a third of your plot per year to be cultivated if its in a poor state, any more is a bonus.
What next? Make a plan of how you are going to improve your soil, that is adding compost or rotted manure to your soil. 80% of gardening is down to your soil. It's difficult to grow good crops in a poor soil. Fertilizers will help as a stop gap solution, but using less fertilizer and adding lots of manure/compost is a much better long term solution.
So what are the benefits of all this hard work? Its probably not the money that you save on the vegetables and fruit that you buy. For me its the satisfaction of bringing home something that I grew well and the taste is so much better than what you buy in the shops for some vegetables and no chemicals. Also the pleasure I get from making something grow, learning from my mistakes, failures and successes. Failure is not a bad thing if you know why and how to fix the issue, it will make you more successful. Also we have a lovely site that makes you feel as if you are miles away from the city. Last but not least is all the friendships that come from having an allotment.
Good luck
Things to do in January
Weather and soil conditions permitting plant garlic outside, otherwise wait a month or two.
Use old wood that does not have preservative to make wood ash.
Wood ash contains up to about 3% potassium (younger wood like apple tree cuttings contain more potassium than older wood and hard wood contains more nutrients than softwood).
Wood ash also contains phosphorous, manganese iron and calcium (calcium carbonate which is chalk). The calcium will make it act like lime so do not apply to blueberries, raspberries or acid loving plants.
Wood ash like lime will make an acidic soil more alkaline releasing some unavailable nutrients from the soil which are locked in when the soil is too acidic.
Sprinkle some wood ash around your fruit trees/bushes and strawberries to encourage flower buds to form or wood to ripen (avoid getting it on leaves).
You can also use it on your plot as a fertiliser (it does not contain nitrogen as this is turned into oxides of nitrogen which are gases when the wood is burnt).
Do not use it on potatoes as it will encourage scab.
You can scatter wood ash in your compost heap to make it less acidic and improve your compost.
You can store your wood ash in a waterproof container for use later. Water will wash the nutrients out of the wood ash
Prepare your plot for next year and get a head start if the ground is not too wet or frozen.
Indoors in a greenhouse or polytunnel
If you have a polytunnel or greenhouse you can sow broad beans in pots to transplant out later for an early crop.
In guttering sow an early variety of peas to plant out later. The peas can be slide into shallow trenches around March time.
Sow radishes in modules or pots, under cover if you can keep minimum temperature above 5 degrees C