Help me, I'm a newbie! Heartbroken with old seedlings in my raised bed!

Lunaarli

My brother gave me his allotment to use for the next few years.
He used to grow loads of stuff in three late raised beds but doesn't have the time anymore as he is working every third week in Spain.

So all the beds were full of old vegetables, weeds, thistles and even grass!

My dad (month ago) strummed everything back and then I dug the top bits off and got a claw type tool to loosen up everything else.

I literally spent a whole weekend from 8am-8pm at them!

My dad said to put some bags of old manure on them and to throw some chicken pellets too. So I did that.

I waited a few weeks and then planted some stuff, beans, courgettes, onions, lettuce etc.

Anyway. There are (I'm not exaggerating!) thousands of seedlings coming up every day. I've looked them up and they appear to be carrots, some potatoes (def potatoes as I've pulled them and there were tiny spuds at the roots!), Brussels sprouts, radishes and then weeds and bits grass.

I am getting really fed up of having to pull them up every few days. Am I deluded or is this normal? It's my first time growing veggies. Are all you seasoned gardeners used of this?! Or do I just have some sort of weird fertile super soil?!

I am thinking of buying some black fabric and putting it down everywhere and then cutting a hole and putting vegetable in.

Dubl07

I've never had an allotment so fair play to you. With most gardens you're advised to give it a year to see what's already there by way of perennials or self-seeded plants. If you're in this for the long run, treat this year as a bit of an adventure. See what comes up. Let some of the spuds grow and try them. You might enjoy them.

Thing is, what's growing naturally is happy there so keep notes and it'll give you an idea of what might do well as introductions for next year. Look up 'no-dig' gardening and start composting all the stuff that's growing but that you don't want to eat.

rule supreme

Its the time of year that weeds and plants thrive , you could try putting down some old newspaper down around your plants and wetting it to keep it in place .

Lunaarli

Thanks.
I'll do that so, I'll just keep tipping away with the hoe!
I've beans growing and a courgette plant and fish seem to be doing ok.
I think I just needed a word of encouragement before I gave up altogether

lottpaul

Lunaarli wrote: »

Thanks.
I'll do that so, I'll just keep tipping away with the hoe!

Exactly the right thing to do. Just take it nice and gentle and don't dash at it. The past few weeks of heat and some rain have been perfect for plants -- weeds included - so they are all growing away like mad. It's very important to sow your seeds etc in a row too -- many people use string to mark them - like you'd see on a building site. Then anything that appears outside of that is a weed and you can safely hoe away. A bit of weeding now is worth days of pulling monsters in a months time.
You'll really enjoy eating whatever you grow-- you can't match the flavour and the satisfaction!

Samuel T. Cogley

I came back after a weeks hols to a fecking jungle!

I spend about 20 minutes a day doing a bed each day, but that's easy as it's at the side of my house. You will have to weed and thin some of your crops out a bit. I'm forever forgetting to mark stuff so I now actually don't bother and have a plan in excel.

Hint you can plant stuff in a bed in compost. Why it took me two years to figure that out is beyond me, I was growing everything and transplanting - badly!