[eco-friendly]

hi everybody i love this website.I'm 28 yr old female with 2 kids and i've  had an allotment for nearly a year now but have done nothing with it so far.
just before i took it on at end of spring last year it was rotovated.i didn't cover it at the time as i was advised to and the weeds quickly grew and grew and yeah grew very big, so i left it last summer.
i went to check on it couple days ago and was very happy to see no weeds yay so i think im at a point where i need to get started on it but im torn between covering it over completly which would not be instant as i have zero funds available, and planting stuff, i do have a big box of all kinds of seeds some of which are deffinatly out of date.
the food i would like to grow during my first year are the foods im buying every week at moment which are potatoes,carrots,onions,white cabbages and maybe some brussel sprouts. i would love to grow alot more but as i have no experience of ever growing anything i shall start small.
so my question is what should i do first? should i start some seeds off in trays at home now?
please tell me exactlly what u think any help atall is really appreciated also wheres best place to buy potatoe seeds? and which types are easiest/most likely to survive under a complete novice?

[paintedlady]

Hello eco-friendly, and welcome to the site.  You'll find loads of useful information on the home page about clearing a plot.  Don't be fooled that everything has died - its still all there and probably full of seeds as well!  I took on my second plot at the beginning of June last year when most of the grasses and weeds were hip high and looking very daunting, a real challenge - so I know what you mean.  I did, however, cover some of it with plastic sheeting after it was strimmed back which has helped but I have only just been able to start rough digging it over now (my first half plot took priority at the time because I already a plan going) and my advice is to get out there as soon as you can (weather permitting of course!) rather than in spring when everything will start over again!  If you can cover the areas that you don't cultivate this year, it might make it easier later on.  You could use cardboard and weigh them down with odd bricks etc - many supermarkets are only too happy to give away boxes as it is only rubbish to them!

And the best advice of all is don't try to do it all at once!  Do a bit at a time and pace yourself, aiming first for the beds that you intend growing crops in spring.

[noshed]

What you could do is divide it up into beds about 4' wide with paths in between (you can leave them as bare earth and just mark it out with string and sticks). Then you have mangeable chunks to dig over. If you can get any rotted manure you could just plonk it on the beds.
If not get some chicken manure pellets or blood fish and bone.
Dig over a bit at a time. If it seems to dig OK you could get away with forking it and just pull out the big weeds as you go, if it's been rotovated this will probably be OK.
Get your spuds chitting - B&Q or garden centres anytime soon. And put a few rows in where you've dug.
It will still be weedy this year but you will have made a start and the narrow beds I have found to work quite well, especially if you haven't got that much time.
Eventually the paths become weedy and grassy unless you find some things to make paths out of - bricks etc.
Beds are supposed to run N-S but fit them in where they seem to work best from a convenience point of view. Get some books out of the library - ours only charges 60p to request them so you can get all the veg growing books in the catalogue for not much money.
Read the how to stuff on here and ask plenty of questions.
Hope this helps

[Ruth Cross]

If anything I would put in potatoes to break up the soil to start with

[gobs]

Hello and welcome. I know how hard it is with young kids to get the time and it might seem especially hard if you have not done it before. All good advice given there and look at it this way: if you can nick an hour for it 3-4 times a week, it shall be tip top within a few months.

Alternatively, ask someone to rotovate it again for you, I know, a lot of guys like to play with their toys.  A bottle of wine usually appreciated.

I don't know, how old your children are, but it might pay dividends on your time to make them a play and garden area, where they can mess about as they wish, whilst you get something done. You'll be surprised, how much they will want to grow things, soon.

The beds would help a lot with keeping little feet off the vegies!

For the individual crops follow the blue link at the bottom of my post. And ask there or here any questions, you still have.

[Sally A]

Hi, just to put my five eggs in.

For the first year I would plant the simplest to grow crops, this will then give you more confidence to try the trickier stuff.  Clear any area for these, and as you see them growing, it will make you keener to carry on.

Runner and french beans, sweetcorn, salad crops (ie quick return to lift your spirits to this growing malarky), tomatoes all seem eager to grow for first timers