new allotment?!

[GreenGoth89]

We've just been given a quarter plot at our local allotment, but we've realised that we've pretty much missed the planting season for most things. It's not totally over grown, but there's a bit of grass that's gone a bit mad, there's an onion patch, an unnamed brassica, but that's about it. We were hoping we'd get the side of the half plot that's been divided that had rhubarb but we weren't lucky on that front. Would we be best off planting a green manure and waiting until the spring or should we just put black plastic down and think about winter planting?

Get some lettuce, spinach, herbs and flowers in!

but we've realised that we've pretty much missed the planting season for most things

No you haven't.

You can still put almost anything in. Potatoes, all the brassicas, lettuces, peas, beans, squashes. Pretty much anything except onions and garlics [which go in between sept and dec anyway so just put some in later].

listen to Doreen
I am only just staring to plant things out
If you feel you are too late to sow seeds, there are loads and loads of places selling vegetable plug plants .
You can always come and join us in the allotment thread, you will soon see whats going on :)

I got my allotment a couple of years back in mid June. I still managed to get a decent summer crop off it. So you can definitely do it, particularly if you start off bunches of plants at home right now, then plant them in once you've cleared ground.

What plants are good to break to soil up? It's thick clay which is very hard to break up by hand and rotorvators are expensive to hire!

Potatoes are good for breaking up the soil if you can still get hold of some seed potatoes. (It is a little bit late, depends where you are in the country).

Otherwise beans will do quite well, squashes. You can do what I do which is to plant into holes using normal potting compost or sow seeds doing the same. This gives the plants a start in nicer compost than the clay.
I find in dry weather that watering the clay before I start means I can break up the clods.

Join us on the allotment thread - there's loads of great tips and advice there.

Cover cover cover everywhere that's not being planted up. Cardboard is a brilliant soil cover, it claggs down over the weeds underneath and you can just plant through holes in it, and/or cover it up with Organic Matter, and/or put organic matter underneath it. Sounds like you're going to benefit from an investment in well rotted manure.

There's a good Facebook group for allotments too - Allotment Life.

If you want to take it a bit at a time then there are green manures to help break up clay soil - IIRC rye grass and lupins , but you can easily check. Its the ones with long roots you need.
Link - this may help
www.greenmanure.co.uk/pages/choosing-the-right-green-manure
But I think considering the time of year, if you can get a harvest, so much the better :) - I know our local horticultaral society are still selling off the last few bags of seed potatoes , and a few places like Wilkos may be worth a nosey- at this time, they come ready chitted