[marispiper]

Hi, hoping all you experienced veg growers can help! I'm on the waiting list for an allotment but in the meantime i'vr just been offered some land ( neighbour of a friends mum) to do with as i wish! Quite narrow but very long....and completely overgrown! it has been used for veg growing before but has now gone wild.
Thanks to a friend who works with the Scottish Wildlife Trust, am hoping to get the use of a strimmer/brush cutter and get it cleared soon, but was wondering, as its quite late in the season, what am i not too late to grow? Too late for carrots? Got some chard, lettuce, rocket, spinach in modules getting ready, also hoping to get in some radish and beetroot. Any other suggestions?

Thanks for any help!  

[Growster...]

Morning Maris!

Great opportunity for you here!

If you can get the site cleared in the next week or so, you could put all those veg in, (we are) but they may struggle size-wise!

We never say die on planting out/sowing here, as you never know what sort of autumn you're going to have. Of course, we do use some common sense on veg which just don't/won't perform now!

Got any cloches, or plastic tunnels? They could help as well.

The very best of luck anyway!

[marispiper]

Hi, thanks so much for replying! Have got a few days off at the end of the week so hoping to do some hard graft! At least get it strimmed and maybe a 6 foot bed ready to plant. Possibly getting tools from ad-site, have got next to nothing as im in a flat! BUT do have a ready supply of pallets from work, and going to see if poundland has anything left in the way of coverings...or anything else! Think i will just plant and see what grows!

The plot already has rhubarb on it, mum is delighted, and about a million raspberry, blackberry and blackcurrant bushes!
Will keep you posted! 

[Growster...]

Marvellous to see you also have all those fruit bushes!

It might be a good idea to gen up on what they are and how to prune them, as some bushes like rasps (summer or autumn varieties?) need different methods! Anyone here will be able to give you advice!

A few pallets wired together will make a great compost heap too! Lucky you!

Keep coming back for any help on the veg too, you'll get plenty of encouragement from everyone here!

[sunshineband]

If you can get hold ofsome module-grown winter and spring cabbage, or other brassicas, they can go in now, plus autumn onions sets, shallots and garlic.

Good luck with the clearance 

Nice to have inherited so many fruit bushes 

[angelavdavis]

Try to get hold of winter salads which are easy to grow as well as the recommendations already mentioned.

You are so lucky to have established fruit bushes in place already as it would take a good few years for these to be ready for cropping.  

I really recommend you make a list of all the things you like to eat and what things perhaps you fancy growing as a novelty so you can start a planting plan for next year.  Then you can concentrate on how to extend the season with cloches, fleece, etc as Growster suggests.

Good luck and enjoy yourself!

[marispiper]

Thanks everyone for the advice and encouragement! A lot of the raspberrys on my bit of plot are quite small and are possible wild rasps, but the lady who is letting me use it has another bit of overgrown wilderness across the road, and you can just make out the remains of an old fruit cage...and the rasps there are huge! I'll have to search this site for lots of recipes.
Some great ideas of what to plant, some things i thought i'd be too late for! A trip to the garden centre is in order i think! I will keep you updated with my progress and im sure i'll need more advice. Have grown things in pots for a few years, but never had a plot of my own before, so its all new to me.

Thanks all! 

[snowdrops]

Hi & welcome to the site. Loads of good advice already for you. You might want to take photo's to record your progress & check out the gardeners diaries on the main page & how to add photo's then we can all be nosey & have a look too

[steeply]

Unless there are few perennials such as couch grass and bindweed and you have a strong back  I would suggest you break the plot in to areas and use landscape material for up to 18mths for the worst weeds
I took on a garden share this year because the soil was completly different  ( a medium loam)from my allotment.
However because of years of neglect the bindweed and  some couch has made the maintenance very difficult. Added to stone walls that are home to legions of snails it has made it untenable for another year
The good looking soil turned out to need a lot of feeding compared with the light clay on the allotment and I will not bad mouth clay again
A cautionary tale that I hope doesn't apply to your plot
Theres nowt better than connecting to the earth
Good luck

[LilacSandy]

Hi Marris,

If you will be getting an allotment some time soon then when you prune the current and gooseberry bushes pop some cuttings into pots or on an unused corner so that you have plenty of bushes to take with you next year or the year after.

[Yorkie]

Steeply, if you just cover a plot with fabric for 18 months and do no work, then on my site you'll get chucked off for failing to get started and cultivate.  This is the second time you've recommended this without warning about the potential consequences.  Please take note because it can really have a serious impact on someone's gardening future.

[Growster...]

Yorkie's absoluteley right!

Just get down there and dig, dig, dig for Victory!

There really is no alternative, and the hard slog will pay dividends next year and onward.

I have never covered anywhere on our plots. They all got a damn good seeing to, and it took several months, so get down there!

Gwaaaan - you know it's the right thing top do!

[marispiper]

Off down there today, whole lot getting a strimming, then as Growster said it'll be digging! Thanks for everyones advice but i think i'd rather just get stuck in. Dont fancy covering it and leaving it that long, been waiting for a plot for too long!

Will try and take some pics and get them up. And im sure im going to have lots of blisters! But at least the weather is holding, probably get sunburnt too!