Absolute Beginner

Hi all,

never had an allotment or really done any gardening, I've just taken on a plot that has lain fallow for over a year, its clay soil and basically just like a field but has been worked successfully in the past. So far with the help of my son we've half strimmed it, cut back a load of overgrown hawthorn and some overhanging tree branches from the far end of the plot where we'll build shed, compost etc.
 Apparently the plot gets waterlogged on one side, so we intend to dig a ditch leading to a wildlife pond that we're also going to have.

I know it's going to take a while to get the soil back to workable and fertile, is there anything I can grow this year, maybe on a raised bed..... clerk who let the plot said she'd like to see something grown this year so she can see the plots being worked.

Welcome.

The desk clerk is obviously not a gardener.  The usual advice is plenty (as much as possible) of organic matter.  I understand Joe Swift of BBC Gardeners World has an allotment on clay.  It was a lot of hard work but he's managed to turn it into a productive plot.  I think at this time of year and with your plot in the condition it is anyone expecting you to produce very much is living in cloud cuckoo land but if you are clearing the plot and show that you are working on it that should be enough for this year and, any over officious jobs worth desk clerks.

Very best of luck, you'll get there.

The clerk is a numpty,mate! Anyone will tell you it takes years to get on top of a plot and at least one season to sort out whatever plot of land a new tenent takes on. If this clerk wants to see instant success,plant a tree,that should shut the mug up!

Dig and plant as you go, good test to see what the soils like, we stuck in a rhubarb as our first thing on both our plots and you will be suprised how it all comes together

Good luck