Allotment help please!

[frostedviolets]

I am soon to have an allotment!
Roughly 113sq m.

I want to grow vegetables and flowers (no fruit or herbs as I have these growing at home already)

It's important to me that it still looks ornamental and 'pretty' despite being a vegetable garden, I have a rough plan in mind but please help me out with some of your suggestions as to how you would do it please?
What would you plant, what layouts would you do?

There is an existing rough path at the edge of the plot straight along the side but I'm not sure I like the placement and may change it.

Congratulations! I've had one for several years and honestly, they all look lovely in different ways. Come on over to the long running allotment thread, it's friendly and lots of experience.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/gardening/3589259-Allotment-Veg-Patch-Thread-14-growing-into-summer

I have in the past split into 4 and made a a diamond shaped bed in the middle for herbs and flowers, you then have 4 bed rotation going on.

How exciting !Have used rainbow chard, wigwams with yellow and purple French beans, crimson flowering broad beans, red cabbage, lots of calendula, sunflowers for colour.

Current one is a funny shape so path down the middle and no edge raised beds either side with smaller paths between . Shed down one end with compost/utility area behind. You want to be able to get wheelbarrow down the paths. What’s the water situation?

I have a veg patch and an allotment. I'm getting more and more into square foot gardening, so would suggest you check that out.

Paths have been my biggest expense and problem. But I've finally found what works, a grass path, a strip of turf wide.

Yes to rainbow chard, also sweet peas, sunflowers, nasturtiums, runner beans for colour. Lots of people grow Cosmos at our site too.

I not personally want a shed or greenhouse, for water there is just an old livestock trough of water on sight.
There doesn't appear to any running water provision.

Perhaps a little too daring?
As it's very different to the 'traditional' design but I was thinking something similar to this:

An 'ornamental' space but made up predominantly of vegetables.

I'm thinking purple kales, babington leeks, broccoli, some wigwams of beans and tomatoes, cucumber along the back wall, radishes, beetroot and possibly carrots.

With lots of flowers - I personally don't like sunflowers, I was thinking perhaps things like corn flowers, corn poppies, pink Veronica, maybe some nice silver leafed dianthus?

What do you think?

Sorry, is that you don’t want a shed? If so I would gently suggest you think further on that as having something to collect water from is really handy and it’s great to have storage and shelter when it suddenly pisses down. I grow dwarf hops up mine and have a grape vine i’m Hoping to train towards it.

I don’t think the design in the picture is too daring, though it will probably raise a few eyebrows at first ! It’s your space and you make it what you want it to be. I went for ornamental first site but on second functionality was more important as life has a horrible habit of getting in the way I have found.

Couple of pictures of mine.

Perhaps I'll change my mind but at the moment, I do not want a shed no.
Good point about water though...

Yes, that's what I am little cautious about!
As it is very different to what you expect to see in a 'typical' plot.
I don't want to offend anyone, I am a bit obsessive about my garden spaces though.
I like them structured and orderly and neat and beautiful.
My back garden is a fruit garden but very formal and ornamental.
The front mostly ornamental with lots of herbs but again very structured.

If you don't want a shed, could you build a pergola/bandstand type structure with a solid roof so that you can collect water? You'd have a shelter for sudden downpours, too. You can use the supports for climbing veg or flowers.

You'll need to check your site rules about sheds in any case, ours is strict about not letting them cast shade on anyone else's plot, very few people have one and the site has a lovely open aspect as a result, most sites I drive past look very cluttered by comparison. I don't have one but do have a storage bench where I keep an umbrella, we also have tap water.

Have a chat to your allotment neighbours and see what the plot is like. Find out what weeds you may have, i’ve horsetail before which is a pain in the arse and couch grass which is less so. Check whether it gets water logged, if so that may effect how you want to do things.

There are some really knowledgeable people at mine and we have quite a mix of styles. The site manager is traditional though and wasn’t happy to let me put cardboard down for a lasagna bed. Ornamental shrubs now banned in the new rules.

Have a chat to your allotment neighbours and see what the plot is like. Find out what weeds you may have, i’ve horsetail before which is a pain in the arse and couch grass which is less so. Check whether it gets water logged, if so that may effect how you want to do things

I have had a good look at the site, I didn't see much evidence of 'nightmare' weeds but it was a little waterlogged around the grass paths which worries me a little.
The actual growing areas didn't seem too bad although I was told that one of the allotmenters managed to grow watercress in a portion of his plot which suggests to me that at least some areas of the plots are prone to water logging.

There are some really knowledgeable people at mine and we have quite a mix of styles. The site manager is traditional though and wasn’t happy to let me put cardboard down for a lasagna bed. Ornamental shrubs now banned in the new rules

I was told that I couldn't use cardboard, carpet, pallets etc but told I probably could have a low fence to mark boundaries but I have changed my mind anyway now and going to go for a tightly pruned and very low hyssop hedge instead.

I did mention I also wanted flowers and the manager didn't say anything.
I have to say, if ornamentals aren't allowed I probably won't go ahead.
I'm an organic gardener and flowers are vital for confusing pests, increasing biodiversity, attracting pollinating insects etc

Yes, I grow flowers to attract insects and birds (chives, lavender, nasturtiums, marigolds, sunflowers). I also have a slow worm habitat (piece of rigid plastic on the ground in a sunny spot), bee nest tubes, and leave various areas undisturbed over winter with dead leaves etc for things to hibernate. My raspberry canes attract insects galore, I always notice them when I'm picking. Unfortunately at this time of year its not easy to fully assess a plot's potential (or weed problems) as so much dies back in winter, also not easy to find people to talk to at the site.

But I've finally found what works, a grass path, a strip of turf wide. How do you stop the grass invading the beds? I got so fed up weeding out grass that I replaced the grass paths in my vegetable bed by gravel - much easier to maintain now.

I think it is ornamental shrubs ours were referring to rather than ornamentals. I need ornamentals to try and hide my crops from the birds !

Hmm, I just edge it every now and again. I use a hori hori knife. My favourite allotment tool ever!

Hmm, I just edge it every now and again. I use a hori hori knife. My favourite allotment tool ever! Obviously I'm not that disciplined. Having eliminated grass from my vegetable area, I now have to weed the gravel, which I do about twice a year, carefully transplanting most of the self-seeded primroses and cowslips and anything else that's interesting.