Just Got An Allotment - What do I Grow

DFS UTD

Hi Gardeners,

Ive just got my first allotment and wondering where to start. The allotment is brand new and has not been used before. It has been tilled but looks a little compacted. Firstly I'm going to hire a rototvator to turn the soil. I'm gonna try to do that this week. But what then.

I'd like to grow the following
Potatoes (I need to get seed potatoes for these)
Cabbage (seeds?)
Broccoli (seeds?)
Carrots
Parsnips
Lettuce (which one is easiest?)
Rhubarb
Strawberries
Onions
Pumkins (for the kids for Halloween)
peas / beans

how should I go about this. After I rotorvate the plot - is potato drills next.. then what.... Any help would be very welcome.. I'm a complete novice... I want to get my kids to help (so that they might eat some veg!!)

Please help

Fries-With-That

Hi DFS,

This may sould like a rude answer but I assure its not.

I think you need to go to your local library and have a look at some of the gardening books.

Pick one that you think covers what you need and borrow it for a few weeks( photo copy the pages that interest you most)

I'm like you a garden novice and I have bought several books in second hand book shops cheap and lots of usefull info.


Regards,


Fries.

Aeneas

I think the advice to look up a good book on vegetable growing is good. My own favourite is the RHS "Fruit and Vegetable Gardening" by Michael Pollock which has the advantage, as the title indicates, of covering fruit as well as veg. It is well organised and easy to use. It has helpful advice too on planning a veg garden. But there are others: Joy Larkcom's "Grow Your Own Vegetables" (very comprehensive, available in paperback); Sarah Raven's "The Great Vegetable Plot"; Carol Klein "Grow Your own Veg" and D G Hessayon's "Vegetable and Herb Expert". This last is in paperback, is widely available from bookstores and garden centres, and is very clear.
For a start however I would recommend that if your site is anyway large, and you are new to veg growing, that you try not to cultivate it all this season. Plan for a few areas to cover the veg you mention. If it is a first time site you will probably find that once the weather warms you will get plenty of weeds and keeping on top of these will be a priority. Vegetables cannot stand competition. You can have some things growing this year while you clear the site and plan for the longer term. If you rush things now you may have to redo your site later.
For this season plan roughly six separate areas for 1) potatoes, 2) brassicas (cabbage, broccoli,, 3) roots (carrots, parsnip, beetroot) 4) legumes (peas and beans) 5) lettuce and spring onions, and 6) pumpkins. Vegetables need to be rotated to avoid a build up of disease but you can leave this to future years if you start small now. Rhubarb is a perennial and will need a permanent bed. And strawberries will be in the same spot for three years or so. So think carefully where you want these. Potatoes and pumpkins take up a lot of ground and will need a larger area than the others.
I would recommend growing everything except potatoes and pumpkins in raised beds but you may not want to get into that yet (or at all) and prefer to grow them in traditional rows. Whichever system you decide on my key piece of advice is not to sow too much at any one time. Many veg such as broccoli, spring onions, lettuce, peas can be sown in succession ( every few weeks) to keep you supplied over a long period. Think: how many lettuces or cabbages or beetroot will I need at any one time? and plan accordingly. And don't sow or plant anything that you or your family don't like to eat. Check seed packets for times of sowing and harvesting.
Following comments on your proposed veg with my own favourite varieties:

Potatoes: there is still time to plant seed potatoes which are still in stock in Garden Centres - although the number of varieties may be small.
Cabbage: you can get plants, but you can also sow seeds for summer cabbage now. Variety Hispi
Broccoli: you can also get plants, but seeds can be sown now and in succession for a continuous supply. Variety Belstar
Carrots: seeds can be sown now and for the next month or so. Variety Flyaway is resistant to carrot fly.
Parsnips: sow soon. They will be in the ground over the coming winter. Variety Gladiator, resistant to canker.
Lettuce: almost all are easy to grow from now on: personal favourites Unrivalled, Little Gem, Oakleaf, Marvel of 4 Seasons, Lobjoit's Green.
Onions: it's too late to sow maincrop onions or shallots but you can sow spring onions now and in succession. White Lisbon is a very reliable variety.
Peas: sow now. Something like Hurst Green Shaft
Broad Beans: can still sow. Variety Express but there are many.
French and Runner Beans: wait until next month
Pumpkins: these are tender. I sow mine indoors or in a polytunnel in mid May for planting out later
Courgettes: sow indoors or under glass in the next week or two and plant out later.
Radishes sow now and in succession over the summer.
A few tips: 1) don't be afraid to thin your plants when they begin to grow. Beginners often baulk at what they see as waste. But it is not. You will have better and stronger plants if you follow the packet guidelines on thinning.
2) We are used to buying veg like lettuces whole in shops. But when you are growing your own you can harvest the leaves without cutting the plant. Plants can last a long time this way. The same applies to broccoli.
3) if you don't want to garden organically fork in a general fertiliser like Growmore (in pellet form) before sowing or planting
4) brassicas need netting against birds from the time they germinate and begin to grow (if from seed) or from planting if from bought in plants. Pigeons can strip all your brassicas in an evening. They also need protection from butterflies in summer.
5) peas and beans need support from the time they begin to grow.
Happy gardening. But if you want the most out of your site get that book.

sharonl

Have a look at allotments4all.co.uk, Its a forum based in the UK but I found it very informative and has lots of people there who can give good advice on growing your own veg.

NextSteps

Also, if you follow Anaeas's advice and start with part of the plot, get a green manure (available from the Organic Centre) and sow it in the rest of the plot (the fallow part). This will suppress weeds and provide nourishment when you dig it under.

Lao Lao

OP - Can I ask where you got your brand spanking new allotment,am on the look out for one!

The Sweeper

Aeneas, that's a brilliant tip on the broccoli and the lettuces, just taking off the leaves you need. It would never have occurred to me. (Wow, sometimes when someone points out something so obviously logical, yet at the same time so brilliant, doncha just feel dumb?)

Aeneas

Minesajackdaniels wrote: »

Aeneas, that's a brilliant tip on the broccoli and the lettuces, just taking off the leaves you need. It would never have occurred to me. (Wow, sometimes when someone points out something so obviously logical, yet at the same time so brilliant, doncha just feel dumb?)

Yeah! Well sometimes things are not so obvious to beginners as to you old hands. There are lots of "obvious" things that I wish people had told me when I started out; and more that I am learning every day. I think that one of the most difficult things starting out is to calculate the amount of any particular veg that you need to sow. It is easy to sow too much and end up with a glut. The point of the "tip" was that in planning a sowing regime you don't need to sow as many plants if you can harvest them on a cut and come again basis. A beginner will realise this after their first season, but by then they won't need to come to Boards.ie for advice. I might also have mentioned that if you do wish to harvest a full lettuce or a cabbage don't pull it out of the ground but cut it across the root; it will often sprout again and you will get a second smaller harvest from the same plant.

DFS UTD

Aeneas wrote: »

Yeah! Well sometimes things are not so obvious to beginners as to you old hands. There are lots of "obvious" things that I wish people had told me when I started out; and more that I am learning every day. I think that one of the most difficult things starting out is to calculate the amount of any particular veg that you need to sow. It is easy to sow too much and end up with a glut. The point of the "tip" was that in planning a sowing regime you don't need to sow as many plants if you can harvest them on a cut and come again basis. A beginner will realise this after their first season, but by then they won't need to come to Boards.ie for advice. I might also have mentioned that if you do wish to harvest a full lettuce or a cabbage don't pull it out of the ground but cut it across the root; it will often sprout again and you will get a second smaller harvest from the same plant.

Aeneas,

you've been a fantastic help - absolutely fantastic.
thanks a million for all the tips

r3nu4l

I've gotten some useful information from this site: RHS - Grow your own.

There are some great tutorial videos there too. It might be worth watching Gardeners World on BBC2. In this series, part of the show is devoted to a guy who has just rented an allotment. Very interesting.

Also, try the BBC Gardening website for tips on growing veg.
Growing Onions
Growing aubergines, chillies and peppers
There's more on the site but you get the idea

Aeneas is right about it being difficult to determine the amount you need to grow. Last year my friend planted a lot of seed potatoes in his allotment and ended up with over 1000 spuds. Whereas we planted four seed potatoes, didn't keep raising the soil and ended up getting about 16 spuds from the initial planting when we could have gotten a lot more.

Aeneas

r3nu4l wrote: »

I've gotten some useful information from this site: RHS - Grow your own.

There are some great tutorial videos there too. It might be worth watching Gardeners World on BBC2. In this series, part of the show is devoted to a guy who has just rented an allotment. Very interesting.

Also, try the BBC Gardening website for tips on growing veg.
Growing Onions
Growing aubergines, chillies and peppers
There's more on the site but you get the idea

Aeneas is right about it being difficult to determine the amount you need to grow. Last year my friend planted a lot of seed potatoes in his allotment and ended up with over 1000 spuds. Whereas we planted four seed potatoes, didn't keep raising the soil and ended up getting about 16 spuds from the initial planting when we could have gotten a lot more.

I had not seen the RHS "Grow Your Own" site before. Excellent site with good advice on almost all aspects of vegetable growing.

thewoodenbridge

Hello,
I reallly got a lot of tips from the helpful nice people here!. But of course I have questions that some people may be used of!.
And any of your information sources/ experiences ( practacal or otherwise) would be helpful to me as:

: I have just got an allotment, but wont be handed over/ mine until late Feb./March What do ye think is the best crop to put in a site that was for a long time grassland/pitches?



This site id 80 meters squared. This seems huge to me, espciallly in the first year. Do you think this is big/managlebele especially in the first year?

Any experience of breaking up greenfield sites? Or managing plots?
Any tips whatsover lads or ladies, beleive me would be apppreciated an awful lot!!!

I will probably get someone to take half the site if they want it for the first year or 2, just to get it working and so that it dosent look like im abandoning/squandering it?

Thanks a million,

Tom

thewoodenbridge

Hello,
I reallly got a lot of tips from the helpful nice people here!. But of course I have questions that some people may be used of!.
And any of your information sources/ experiences ( practacal or otherwise) would be helpful to me as:

: I have just got an allotment, but wont be handed over/ mine until late Feb./March What do ye think is the best crop to put in a site that was for a long time grassland/pitches?



This site id 80 meters squared. This seems huge to me, espciallly in the first year. Do you think this is big/managlebele especially in the first year?

Any experience of breaking up greenfield sites? Or managing plots?
Any tips whatsover lads or ladies, beleive me would be apppreciated an awful lot!!!

I will probably get someone to take half the site if they want it for the first year or 2, just to get it working and so that it dosent look like im abandoning/squandering it?

Thanks a million,

Tom

nauticus

Lao Lao wrote: »

OP - Can I ask where you got your brand spanking new allotment,am on the look out for one!

I'm also on the look out for one. Where can I look out for one?

sharonl

You can grow pretty much anything you like in your new allotment in your first year. Potatoes will help break up the ground, and you can get them in the ground between march and april. You may think 80 metres is huge but you'll be amazed how quickly you run out of space and before you know it you'll be looking for more room for 'just one more row of cabbages!' How you prepare your ground will be the most important thing. Will your plot come rotorvated or will you need to turn the ground yourself? Make sure you dig it well and put in lots of manure and compost. Get rid of as many weeds as possible, your first year will be very heavy on weeds but these will get less each year as you dig the site. A lot of poeple would say avoid rotorvating if you can and dig manually as the rotorvator on a new site will chop up all the weeds roots which resprout and make it worse, meaning you'll be spending a lot of time weeding during the spring and summer. Definately get a good source of manure, most allotments include manure in your annual fee, and a good source of compost, its probably cheapest to build a compost heap and make your own, but it will be a year or so before you can use it so in the meantime for this season make sure you load up the ground with lots of well rotted manure and compost. Don't manure where your going to grow carrots, they'll fork and could split. Usually manuring is done in the autumn so that the frost and weather can break it down and wash it into the soil, if you can get at it early enough you could put manure in in the next month or so. You can begin sowing seeds in February/March and get your plants started off indoors and just plant them out then in March/April as you prepare the ground for planting. This is particularly useful for veg like leeks (which take a long time to grow so start them off in pots as soon as possible), cabbages(which do better when transplanted as baby plants 3-4 inches high), beans and peas(early frost hardy varieties, sowing them indoors will also mean they have a good start and pests like mice and birds won't get the seeds before they have a chance to poke above the surface). Starting plants off seperately also gives you the advantage of being able to plant them through weed suppressing membrane which will reduce the amount of weeding you have to do. Just cover the dug up and fertilized ground with a sheet of membrane. Cut an 'X' where you want to plant the baby plant and plant through the membrane, should mean you don't have to weed that veg bed or at least do very little and it looks quite neat. Get some good books, there are a lot of good ones out there, veg and herb expert is good, and pick up one or two specifically on allotments.

Nauticus: There are quite a few private allotments going, I rent one up in Annamoe near roundwood and the owner does have new plots going at the moment for the 2010 season. There are a lot of other private schemes aswell in dublin and surrounding areas. If you look up www.allotments.ie there is a county by county list of allotments in ireland and contact details.

Happy allotmenteering!:D

Bobzoe

Hi I have just got my first allotment I'm a complete novice but have been reading anything I can beg borrow or steal about growing veggies , the allotment is completely grown over with thistles about 4 feet tall as well as nettles and grass now I want to know is there any safe weed killer I can use , any info will be gratefully accepted ...

lazybones32

Use a strimmers instead, to cut everything down to soil-level. Wear eye-protection at least.

Depending on the size of your plot; turn the soil with a fork or rotovator and remove the large chunks of plant debris and roots that remain. (You will never eradicate all weeds, so don't be overly concerned about getting everything).

Might be too late in the year to go to all this 'trouble' but that depends on what you intend on growing.

Bobzoe

Thank you for the advice so should I not bother clearing it at all this season ! I was going to grow lettuce carrots onions that type of veggies and cabbage and sprouts

lazybones32

I'm not too hot with veg, to be honest, so maybe another user can advise you on what to grow over Winter - if anything will grow. Wait a while and see if they reply.

To do work now wouldn't be a complete waste: you could remove all the heavy stuff and see what you've got to work with (start formulating ideas about what will go where); turning the soil wouldn't be a bad thing to get done before Winter and there mightn't be harm in adding some manure now, so it'll encourage worm activity in the soil and be ready for next March...whenever.

Not trying to put you off but I think it's too late to start planting now but don't get put off by plant/veg failure.

Souness

I would strim it down like lazybones advised and again based on size manually dig of hire a renovator. With nettles you need to be careful if you use a rotovator not to spread chopped root pieces as new nettle plants will grow from these fragments.
It is getting a bit late in the year for growing but you could definitely clear off a section and plant a few quick growing veggies like lettuce(seed), rocket(seed), radish (seed), kohl rabi(plant), spring cabbages (seed) and kale(plant). Later in October or so you could sow broad beans that will crop in May and garlic sets for harvest the following summer.
Check out the GIY website and Klaus Laitenberger's book 'Vegetables for the Irish garden' which is prob available in your local library for lots of great info.