Had an email from the allotment Secretary last night to let me know that the existing plot holder has not been in touch and so has until Wednesday July 4 to come and claim anything that she wants from her allotment, after which it becomes mine.
I think it is unlikely that she will turn up, so I stand to inherit a dalek composter, a wheelbarrow, and a small tool store (which may or may not have tools inside). There is also a small tree - don't know what kind but hopefully there will be a label - and I have been told that there is some rhubarb on the plot somewhere. Oh - and a sea of grass and weeds about three feet deep across the entire plot.
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| The whole allotment before it was handed over by the council. My plot will be the square to the top, right of the road. |
My original plan was to strim the weeds and then rotivate the entire plot, then cover in weed suppressing membrane until I had chance to get working on each section which I would uncover as and when needed.
This decision mainly came from watching a series of videos from a guy who took on a plot last autumn, rotivated intensely and got a nice looking plot, but his latest video has shown that he is suffering from a huge amount of weed regrowth, just as folks on the Grapevine Forum had told me would happen.
You can watch his allotment diary here :
I think he makes great videos which are informative and easy to watch.
After seeing his problems I think I will strim, then cover with weed fabric and not rotivate - at least until I have been able to get most of the perennial weeds dug out of each patch first anyway.
I am only getting 3/4 of the plot as another lady on the waiting list just wanted a quarter plot. One of my quarters will be used mainly for growing fruit - shared between my wife and stepdad, whilst I will have the remainder for veg.
I am now leaning towards making my first beds using the Square Foot Gardening method. (you can Google it easily - there are loads of examples online)
This uses beds of 4'x4' which are further subdivided into 16 1 foot squares, the idea being that in each square you can plant either 1, 4, 9 or 16 individual seeds depending upon how far apart each plant needs to be.
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| Exmple of Square Foot Gardening planting |
The beds don't need to be raised, which helps cut down on costs, but this all depends upon the condition of the underlying soil - if it is really poor or full of clay I may have to go to the raised beds after all.
Each bed is surrounded by a path so the growing space need never be stood on and compacted, all parts of the bed can be reached from the edge.
The ground does not need to be regularly dug or fertilised as this should be done naturally as you harvest each square's crop, and with the plants being so close together they should help to suppress weeds as well, which cuts down on the maintenance needed. I intend to go organic, and this seems to suit this system pretty well.
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| What I hope my beds will look like soon |
It sounds pretty good to a novice, so I will give it a try with a couple of beds and let you know how I get on.
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