After five years on the waiting list, I've been given an allotment and I'm chuffed.
Seems to me to be the perfect time to get it ready for spring, I know I want my compost heap sorted asap and I'm going to weed the beds already there and cover with weed membrane over winter. I have a small polytunnel too that withstood storm arwen last year so I think it'll be fine.
- If you were starting out a new allotment what would you have done at the start ?
- I notice lots of ivy, sprawling everywhere, any tips on dealing with it?
- Also some bits of horsetail dotted about I noticed, again, any tips ?
Over to you, the fine horticulturists of the SMB.
It depends on what state it is in. I'd certainly think about designing what you want from the start and if the soil is not good, that is a good point above about raised beds.
I converted one end of my garden into a veg patch which was grass and did previously have a border of laylandi pine, which I cut down. It went roughly with
- Year 1, dug two beds and make raised with solid planks from an old fence
- Year 2, add a bit of a border around it and a trellis fence between it and the rest of the garden, added 1 more bed. I have heavy clay soil so the initial dig of the beds was a lot of work.
- Year 3, add 2 more beds
- Year 4 or 5, get fed up of the narrow grass paths between that got difficult to keep cut once veg plants started hanging over and became an ideal place for slugs to hide during the day, replaced with weed membrane and bark chippings
- Year 6, the old fence boards were really rotten, replace with decking boards.
- Year 10, the decking boards rotted, replace again
- Years in between, keep replacing bark chippings and having problems with weeds. They rot down into compost and mix with anything that spills over the edges when digging.
- Year 14 & 15, newer decking boards not doing well, too much moisture, replace with sleepers and paving slabs between
The hard bit was the initial digging and pulling out grass. If I started again then I'd probably have gone for sleepers and paving from the start or at least wider paths so I could get in a bit easier. But for the main bit, I should have just hired a tiller and ploughed up the whole lot then pulled out any grass roots. Repeat after a month and then if in winter, repeat in the spring, then make the beds and paths between.
Ivy and horsetail is just a case of keep pulling it out where ever you see it. When you go around watering and see a little sprout, pull it before it grows. Plan a regular weeding sweep. I often let mine get in a bad state then it is a huge job to weed. This year I tried to spend an hour every Saturday morning just to systematically go clockwise round and pull any weed appearing. After a few weeks I was able to cover a fair bit of ground in a few hours.
For growing, I'd say grow what you are likely to eat or what you are not likely to get fresh easily. Peas are great to start with, pretty easy and fantastic fresh. I planted a load of radishes at first because loads of guides said they are easy to grow. We don't eat them! Carrots work really well for some people, but don't for me. I've given up on them, but my parsnips are always really good where as a few on this thread say they struggle with them.
