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Gardening

Find tips and tricks to make your garden or allotment flourish on our Gardening forum.

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Original poster

Allotmenteers...over here!

24 replies

Earthymama · 20/03/2007 16:08

Last year DP and I took on a plot that hasn't been used for 20 years and that had lots of rubbish dumped on it. We've cleared it, had a shed put up and built several raised beds. (For various reasons were unable to progress any further til now)
Now should we:_
try to use the available soil, there's hardcore mixed in with it all;
Buy straw, manure and some topsoil, with which we fill the beds, having removed grass and weeds from the ground in the beds?
I've got psioritic arthritis so it's not feasible for me to do much digging. We're really keen to get going and grow something!!

OP posts:

sis · 20/03/2007 19:57

i am no expert as we only got our allotment last year but if your allotment has not received much attention for many years, it would be worth adding some nutrients before trying to grow anything in it. Is it possible to get some well rotted manure delivered? Last year we got some delivered at the start of April and, in many of the beds, didn't have the chance to really dig it in and it sort of just lay on top of the beds and loads of things grew really (including weeds!). I have read that carrots should not be planted in soil which has recently had manure added as they will fork.

Hope that helps.

Original poster

Earthymama · 20/03/2007 22:40

Yes we'll need to really improve the soil, but i'm wondering if some imported topsoil would make it easier [lazy emoticon!!]

OP posts:

sis · 21/03/2007 15:08

Sorry, yes, I think topsoil would help and be better than nothing but, would recomment manure which will add more nutrients. Bear in mind that plants get a lot of their nutrients from roots that go deeper than just a few inches so unless you have inches and inches of topsoil, it won't be as beneficial as manure from which the nutrients will get washed into the lower soil where the roots are.

I hope that make sense?

Original poster

Earthymama · 22/03/2007 00:15

Thanks, we're going for straw and manure, then some topsoil. Have been digging down a little, you would not believe how many stones there are!! People had been dumping all sorts on the plot for years.
There's loads of glass on the disused plot next door which I have to sort before little ones can come to see what's going on.
we're just going to try our best!!

OP posts:

Cloudhopper · 29/03/2007 10:43

Just wanted to say hello and that we are taking on an allotment this year as well. It is grassed over, a few brambles and some rubbish.

We could compare notes on how it is going, to keep the motivation up!

Greenleeves · 29/03/2007 10:48

Definitely get some topsoil. I would get some compost and mix that in too. And maybe a bit of sand, depending on how clay-ey your existing soil is.

Manure - depends on what you want to grow. Carrots hate it, for example. Check which of your planned crops like manure and which don't.

If you haven't got anywhere to have a delivery of manure dumped, I recommend backs of chicken shit, that's what we use.

Or buy a rabbit

Greenleeves · 29/03/2007 10:49

bags of chicken shit

boysontoast · 29/03/2007 13:21

hello! can i join??
i want to start an allotment too... am about to i mean (lucky enough to have a 'spare' garden to take over, one benefit of living in the middle of nowhere!)..
have a plan to use raised beds and, like you earthymama, am keen to start and find the laziest/easiest way to get going too... its currently all grass on clay-y soil... can i just put down raised bed sides and fill with growbags?? (i note greenleaves mentioned sand, so may mix it up w some of that too... ) reckon that will work??

redclover79 · 29/03/2007 13:32

I'm so jealous!! Had my name down on the local waiting list for over a year, was told maybe 2-3 year wait, just got the local town council news letter and apparently the waiting list is 10 years!!!! So I have built a tiny raised bed in the only sunny corner of our garden!
Earthymama, I read somewhere that if you put some potatoes in they will break up the soil for you and save you some digging!

Cloudhopper · 29/03/2007 13:33

redclover, I would contact the National Allotment society, because there is a law that states that if 6 people write to the council asking for an allotment, they have to provide one. Or something like that anyway.

It is well worth a try rather than waiting 10 years.

redclover79 · 29/03/2007 20:11

Thanks cloudhopper, actually emailed nsalg a while ago and never heard anything back!! Also, when I spoke to the town council and asked what they were doing about acquiring some more allotments, I was told they were actually selling off parcels of land for development so it was unlikely they would do anything about the allotment situation!!

nikkie · 29/03/2007 21:09

I am on the waiting list but noone seems to give the up locally as all the people round my dads are getting them cheap so hang onto them longer even when they can't do them any more

Pixel · 30/03/2007 12:23

There's a big demand round our way so we do get a letter if our allotments look neglected for too long. I know because I got one when they mixed my allotment up with the one next door. I think I got my allotment just in time as they closed the waiting list soon after.

beckybrastraps · 30/03/2007 12:32

Potatoes are great for starting out becuase the work you have to do (digging, earthing up etc) helps to break up the soil.

If your council recycles compostable waste then you might be able to get large amounts of good compost for relatively little. That's what we do.

Cloudhopper · 30/03/2007 15:21

I have been on a waiting list for 6 years. THe only reason I got one in the end was that they are proposing to develop one of the sites, and people were leaving. So I have taken one of the abandoned allotments on for an interim measure.

cece · 30/03/2007 15:23

Earthymama

sorry not related to allotments but my bil has just been idagnosed with psioritic arthritis. He is under the belief that he will get very bad and be in a wheelcahir - is this true??

Cloudhopper · 31/03/2007 07:23

Well, I spoke to the woman at the council and I have got confirmation on the plot that I wanted. Wahay. It has lavender on two sides and is right next to the tap, so I am in heaven now. Going up there today.

I first put my name down for an allotment 10 years ago. We moved location in the country, so after 4 years I had to start again from the bottom of the waiting list in the new area. But 6 years later I have finally got one.

Now the wait is over, it is all the better for having waited so long.

nikkie · 01/04/2007 09:10

Was at my Dads allotment yesterday and talking to the woman next door but one and she said that the council are clamping down on the uncared for allotments (new person incharge who has been out looking round) and they are rotavating them for new people too!

Smithagain · 01/04/2007 22:57

Can I join in? We've just started sharing a half plot with a friend of ours. Half of it covered with fruit bushes in various states of health. The other half divided into raised beds which are a bit stony and a bit weedy, but getting there. I planted my first seeds yesterday (parsnips with lettuces in between them). Goodness knows if they'll grow, but am feeling all virtuous and clean-living!

My problem is that we don't have anywhere decent in our house to raise seeds. The only sunny window cill is right next to a Rayburn range, so really warm. The seeds just shoot up and then keel over.

I keep wondering about getting some sort of mini-greenhouse to go on the patio, but I don't know if that would actually work for growing seeds from scratch. Or am I better to stick with things that can be planted straight into the ground?

Hoping there is a voice of experience out there ...

LadyOfTheFlowers · 01/04/2007 23:08

greeny- was sprinkling chicken shit round the garden one year and i felt something spiky in my hand.....
blardy fecking severed pruned chicken's foot!

arrrggghhh!

am hoping to get an allotment soon, have emailed council and am awaiting response.

nikkie · 02/04/2007 13:01

Smithagain - I have 2 of those mini-plastic-greenhouse things and they are great for growing seeds, much better than them ending up on my bed room window sill like last tyear!

Original poster

Earthymama · 02/04/2007 23:56

Hi guys, just to let you know we've got 5 raised beds built and 2 with the soil exposed. If you could see the stones you would not believe it.
All the old gents are up in arms about the amount of work we're having to do.
For us the process, being outside, enjoying the truly beautiful surrondings, watching herons and ducks fly over to the river, being visited by the robins and blackbirds, the tiredness that comes from physical endeavour, is the important thing.
If the outcome is that we have some fruit and veg that's a fabulous bonus at this time.

We've emptied the compost bin at home and the compost is amazing!! [proud emoticon] We've put some on the garden as a mulch, taken some to the allotment and as we bought a beehive type, took the partially rotted stuff over too and added it to the bin there. That was fun!! V V Smelly!!

OP posts:

kiskidee · 03/04/2007 00:02

i wish i had an allotment

NKffffffffee0f7f95X1118efd8f2d · 03/04/2007 20:58

This may be a bit late but I'm really keen on the no dig method. Actualy, it's more like less digging than no digging but it's still good. You stamp down the weeds, cover the beds with cardboard, put a layer of manure over it and leave for months. About six months. The result is weedfree soil. Then you plant potatoes in that bed and after that the usual crop rotation formula.

If I want to get rid of grass, I cover it rather than trying to dig it up.

I do love my allotment. Was there yesterday. Best time of year. All promise of good things and the squirrels and slugs haven't arrived yet.

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