Hints and tips

How to manage a new un-worked plot

  • Walk the ground. Walk over the whole of the allotment and remove all man traps, glass, bricks, wire, metal etc.
  • See where holes are, how level it is. Clear any large obstacles.
  • Establish your boundaries and see what sort of things your neighbours are growing to give you an idea of what type of plants grow best in the local soil. Then decide what you want to grow.
  • Cut all grass and weeds down. Cover with light inhibiting material, old carpet, black plastic sheeting, news papers covered in straw etc.
  • Start pegging out your allotment deciding where beds, compost heaps, leaf mold bins, cold frames, water butts etc. are to go. NB. Cold frames need to get the best sun.
  • Prepare your allotment Choose a pegged out area to dig and half it. Then dig the first half. Try to prepare and area the width of the allotment and 3 paces wide. Do not take on too much. Many new allotment holders go mad, dig to whole allotment over in one day or one weekend and are then never seen again except at the doctors complaining of bad backs. Take it easy, prepare one small bed at a time, but prepare it thoroughly.
  • Most people plant potatoes first as potatoes are supposed to break up the ground. This is twaddle. The digging, the earthing up, the lifting or the crop breaks up the ground. All the potatoes do is sit there. But they grow wonderfully and the first new potatoes out of your own allotment will taste like nothing you have ever bought from a shop.

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Taking over an existing plot

One of the first things to do when you take over a new site is to walk the ground, clearing rubbish, but be careful. This can be a horrible job; you need to wear good boots and strong gloves to protect yourself. On many sites the committee may have already cleared the site of all visible rubbish, but there still may be glass and metal pieces buried in the grass. These all need to be picked up and disposed of carefully. Recycle wherever possible. Choose the first area you are going to clear. Peg or mark this out. Do not make this area too big, unless you wish to be in bed with a bad back! A little and often is the best way to work an allotment.

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Clearing the first area

The method I used when I first took over my plot was to peel all the turf back from the surface and to stack it, turf on turf, and soil to soil. As these turf rots down, they turn into "Bedfordshire Loam", an excellent soil base for potting composts, when riddled and mixed with peat and sand or grit. Once the first area has been cleared and all the turf has been peeled back, then the hard work can begin. You need to dig out any deep rooted weeds; dandelions, docks, nettles, bindweed etc.; these can be black bagged to rot down. An old Polish allotmenteer, Mr. Panichi, who used to work opposite me, never threw away any living plant. He used this method for many years and he had a wonderful plot of deep black loam. As you dig this first area, incorporate any manure you can. Obviously, the better the manure you can dig in, the better your future crops will be. But this depends upon the time of the year and your future cropping regime. Ideally, you should be digging in winter to prepare for the following spring planting. But if you are beginning your allotment career in the spring or even early summer, you can easily catch a crop of potatoes if you plant an early variety which has a short growing season.

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Planting First Crops

Potatoes are recommended as one of the crops which will "break up " the soil, this is misleading. The breaking up of the soil takes place as you plant, earth up and finally harvest your potato crop. It is this process that breaks up the soil, rather than the potatoes themselves. Once your first area has been planted, then you need to continue the process until the second area is ready. Again only mark out a small, manageable area, which can be dealt with thoroughly, and which can be planted up to grow crops giving you a sense of achievement. But this is slow method, and you may well ask what about the rest of the plot, full of weeds growing, flowering & seeding all over your newly cleared land. Use weed suppressing mulches, thick layers of newspaper or card board, covered with straw, horse-manure, or bagged weeds. These can be left until the weeds underneath have rotted away. Some sites allow the use of old carpets as weed suppressers, this is a good (if unsightly) method of long term weed control. If you are going to use old carpet or newspapers, as a weed suppressing mulch, you must accept that it will only kill off annual growth, and will do very little to control briars and other woody or virulent weeds. These need to be dug out and destroyed.

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Make and manage a Compost Heap

One of the easiest compost heaps to make is the "New Zealand" Bin, or pallet-box. Standard size wooden pallets are nailed together in a rough box, in a position on the plot which allows easy access. Many allotment sites have designated areas for compost bins, usually the end of the plot furthest away from the sheds. The idea of a compost heap is to load all your weeds, cleared crops, pea vines, bean haulms and vegetable trimmings into a manageable stack. The box confines the heap into concentrated area. Any farm yard or stable manure which can be added to this heap will greatly increase the decomposing effect. Pigeon and hen droppings, which are full of nitrogen, are ideal compost activators. If you have lots of energy, then the heap can be turned; edges to the middle. This will aerate the heap and encourage the air-breathing bacteria necessary for a "fast hot- rot", the ideal weed seed killer.

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Tips for strawberry growing

First year

Second Year

Third Year

Plant in fertile soil

Keep well weeded

place straw round them regularly to feed them

Take off all runners and flowers in the first year

Unless you want new plants take off all runners every year

Plants should crop well

Keep well weeded

Place straw round them regularly to feed them

Pick ripe strawberries regularly and eat ....

Remove all runners but one from each plant.

Peg runners into fertile soil, or into plant pots for propagation

End of season, take off all brown and dying leaves to prevent botrytis.

Plants should still crop well, but will be weakening.

Last years runners, should now be placed into growing position.

Follow first year cycle with these runners. Third year or mature plants will still crop BUT berries will be smaller. Second year plants will crop well. First year plants need to gain strength for maximum crop next year.

Fourth year

Check quality of crop, if crop is not heavy get rid of mature plants and use previously propagated younger plants

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Disclaimer

These are only a few suggestions to help you manage your plot. Everyone has different methods of doing things, nothing is written in stone. If you have any comment or suggestions for this section please e-mail rfiirwin@hotmail.com with 'hints and tips' as your subject line. Thank you.