Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat

Growing => General Gardening => Topic started by: joannebolton on August 09, 2006, 18:19

Title: help complete beginner!!
Post by: joannebolton on August 09, 2006, 18:19

Hi everyone,

just got my plot from the council and its all over grown. how do i start? whats the best way to clear it all? i must be mad as i have never done this before. got a greenhouse from a friend so that will be up soon. whats the best kind of plants to plant for the comming winter? oh my goodness i might be here for many hours!!! thanks in advance for any help!

Title: THE START
Post by: Glastonbury 10 on August 09, 2006, 19:54

HI JOANNE,
I THINK YOU SHOULD FORGET ABOUT THE SO CALLED BIG DIG, AND SIT DOWN WITH A PENCIL/ PAPER  AND DRAW OUT YOUR PLOTT HOW YOU WOULD LIKE IT TO LOOK THIS TIME NEXT YEAR.
WORK OUT WHERE YOUR PERMANENT STRUCTURE'S WILL GO SHED/GREENHOUSE/COMPOST BINS ETC/WILD LIFE POND WHAT EVER TAKES YOUR FANCY, THEN DRAW IN A NUMBER OF INDIVIDUAL  BEDS, NOT TO BIG THOUGH,  BUT WITH ENOUGH ROOM TO WORK BETWEEN THEM PATHWAYS ETC.
THEN ON YOUR PLAN NUMBER YOUR BEDS, AND CHOOSE WHAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO GO IN THEM, IE HERBS IN BED 1, FRUIT IN BED 2 ETC.
BUT JUST KEEP IT SIMPLE, SO THE ONLY BITS YOU DIG WILL BE THE BEDS.
GLASTONBURY 10 WAS DONE IN THIS WAY, IT WORKED FOR ME.
PETE  :D
PS GOOD LUCK

Title: help complete beginner!!
Post by: joannebolton on August 09, 2006, 21:31

thanks, thats a great help. never done this kind of thing so fingers crossed. does anyone recommend week killing the plot before attempting anything? if so what week killer does anyone recommend?

thanks again.

Title: help complete beginner!!
Post by: noshed on August 09, 2006, 22:47

If you have a lot of perennial weeds - bindweed, couch grass, horsetail etc you could think about giving them a belt of glyphosate. This is a systemic weedkiller (it gets taken up through the leaves and gets into the roots and kills the plant, if you're lucky.)
If you use it carefully it is not a bad option as a one-off. I've used it a bit (on Japanese Knotweed) and it is quite effective. You can buy the concentrate in places like B&Q, which is much cheaper than Roundup. I use sprayers from the poundshop because you don't want to use them for anything else.
Once they die down in this weather the weeds will just dry off and you can dig the ground.
I've found a mattock to be very good for breaking up ground and digging it over but it depends what your soil is like - very heavy clay might make that impossible.
If you mark out your plot with string and pegs you immediately see what you're doing and it doesn't seem so daunting.
Get a bit of a bed dug and bung in some lettuces - nothing like your first crop to keep you going.
All the best

Title: help complete beginner!!
Post by: milkman on August 10, 2006, 09:09

Echo Glastonbury 10's advice - this was exactly how I got my plot going 8 years ago (except I dug the paths as well!).

I will never recommend the use of weedkillers as I garden organically - most weeds succumb just by being dug out and its a very good way of getting to know your plot and soil.  

If however you will be struggling against japanese knotweed and marestail weedkillers might be the only way of getting on top of things - there are other posts on this site with advice on the best weedkillers for these weeds.

Title: help complete beginner!!
Post by: hermon on August 10, 2006, 13:34

could you not wait till autumn then dig it over a few times to clear the roots? thats what i'm going to be doing to my new half plot.(all ready have a full plot wish i had cleared more bindweed roots in the winter!)

Title: help complete beginner!!
Post by: mellowmick on August 10, 2006, 13:44

I'm really thankful for the amount of time and effort I took to dig out couch grass roots when I first got my plot, back in February. Apart from creeping buttercup, I've been relatively free from major weed problems. I'd never use anything chemical, personally, but I suppose everyone makes their own decisions on stuff like that.
No doubt I'll find more when I dig the beds over again this winter but it should only be one year's growth sneaking in from the edges.
I've not touched about 30% of my plot, which is sloping and bumpy, nor a big bush in the corner. I'll do something about them over the next couple of years.

Title: help complete beginner!!
Post by: joannebolton on August 10, 2006, 19:59

thanks for all the advice. i have a lot of bindweed inset into the ground and unfortunatly as the plot has been vacant since year dot its proving difficult.

the council have just strimmed the whole lot so the weed killer is not going to be too sucessful. i have dug only a meter square today and it has took me three hours, i kid you not!!!

I will get there in the end! i think i am going to dig small parts for the comming year and then take it from there.

thanks everyone!

Title: help complete beginner!!
Post by: noshed on August 11, 2006, 00:23

I've bought an azada www.get-gigging.co.uk and its good for rough digging. Not cheap but OK if you haven't spent a lot on tools already.
You are right to do a bit at a time -  a few lettuce now makes you feel you're getting somewhere.

Title: help complete beginner!!
Post by: Marmaduke on August 11, 2006, 09:46

Quote from: "noshed"

I've bought an azada www.get-gigging.co.uk and its good for rough digging.

I have been thinking of getting one of those.  Which one did you get?