A Quick "Start-up" Guide to Allotment Growing
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The Golden Rule is - don't take on more than you can cope with. Allotment gardening is hard work and requires dedication - it's not as easy as gardening programmes make it look! But on the positive side, it's probably even more enjoyable than it looks on telly! A whole allotment plot is traditionally 10 Rods square (a Rod is also called a Perch or Pole) which is equivalent to 5.5 yards. So a plot would be exactly 302.5 square yards or 279 square metres - that's about a sixteenth of an acre. It's usually rounded to 300 sq yds or 250 sq m - for ease of use - when calculating the number of plots for a given area. Having "rounded" sizes also helps when it comes to pegging out a site For an idea of how much area we're talking about here - think of something roughly about the same size as a tennis court. For all - but those with the time, the stamina and self-sufficient ambitions, this may be on the large size for some beginners. A three-quarter or half-plot may be sufficient for your particular household needs. Furthermore, with huge waiting lists nationwide, splitting a whole plot, and then sharing it with the next person on the list makes good sense. Right! Down To Work First job? Knobble the perennial weeds (docks, nettles, couch grass etc.) before you start, particularly if you plan on growing long-term perennial crops, such as asparagus and soft fruit etc. Fork out all their roots - not just the top bit - but the WHOLE root. You can then smother the area with black plastic or old carpets to kill off any other less aggressive weeds and grass. You can't use glyphosate or ANY other similar poison on our Aeron Vale Allotment Society site because we are committed to organic gardening methods. If you belong to an allotment group that doesn't mind using harmful plant poisons, and your allotment association or society does not stipulate that you mustn't use chemical weed-killing agents, then use glysophate (usually found under the trade name "Round Up") or a similar preparation - be careful - you don't allow it to drift on to your neighbours' plots, where it may damage their crops or cause animosity, especially if they are sensitive to your inorganic methods. You can use a combination of everything. In extreme cases, think about covering and forgetting about two-thirds of the ground for that first season, and just grow potatoes on the remaining third. Their cultivation can help break up the soil and cleanse it of some weeds. Who said it was going to be easy?! Remember that some weed seeds can remain active in soil for many years. Never let weeds grow large and go to seed - hoe them out as tiddlers on dry days. Don't put the roots of perennial weeds in your compost bin. Boundary paths are weed hotbeds too, so mow and edge them regularly. No one wants foreign-looking allotments - all concrete paths, chain-link fencing and stifling rules - but good and tidy housekeeping benefits EVERYONE. Raised Beds Don't be surprised if the current love affair with raised beds causes raised eyebrows among some of the old guard, who regard them as a waste of space and prefer regimented rows. Each to his/her own, but defined beds enable you to improve soil selectively, crop intensively - and with paths of (slug/snail unfriendly) bark, mown grass or even Mypex between beds, life is easier, particularly on winter-heavy soil. Don't make beds you can't reach across or you will have to tread on them; 4ft wide and about 12ft - 16ft long is regarded as a good size, while others favour smaller square beds. Soil Improvement This usually takes the form of an annual autumn or spring muck-spreading frenzy - it is an essential task. If your allotment association or gardening society can't organise communal muck supplies, get together with one or two plotters and share a delivery. Although some enjoy the "catalogue" neatness of pristine expensive infrastructure, not spending money is actually a traditional culture of allotment growers. Most allotmenteers recycle wherever possible, often in very ingenious ways. Compost bins can be made from wooden pallets, old scaffolding boards and split tree trunks make good edges for raised beds. Ingenuity is honoured and respected amongst allotmenteers. Crop Rotation and Protection is Key As sure as God made those little green apples that give you belly ache, growing the same family of crops in the same location will inevitably lead to big problems. Certain pests only attack certain plant families. If you grow the same crops in the same soil the pests associated with that plant family will become an epidemic in that area. You may then find it very hard to eradicate them. Also, by growing the same plants in the same soil every year the nutrients that crop requires will eventually become depleted, resulting in poorer crops. There is more information on crop rotation in the "Basics" section of this web-site. Pests, (particularly flying and crawling ones) can quickly get the upper hand. Hoops of hazel, cut from hedges (failing that, polythene piping from plumbing suppliers and cut to size), make good supports for protective meshes and netting. And which netting? Drapey "pond netting'' is easier to handle than that annoyingly springy nylon stuff that is hard to peg down and control! Storage If you live some distance away, a shed (with a water butt) is a boon, with hooks to keep tools (and that essential old fleece) off the floor. It also serves as a good cool and dark place to store crops - such as potatoes or carrots. And, (it should be added), an old chair is an essential! Growing Don'ts Don't grow too much of any one thing, get the hang of sowing seeds a little at a time every few weeks (a tough one, that - even though it's quite easy with a bit of acquired self discipline) and even if you don't practise classic crop rotation, at least don't grow the same crop in the same place twice for more than two seasons. Obviously only grow what you like to eat, but there are definitely 'easy' and 'difficult' crops. Potatoes and leeks as well as onions (from sets) all belong in the easy camp. Peas and beans, too. Strawberries (netted) and autumn raspberries (no need to net) are a popular and easy must for some. Unless you live on the doorstop, grow cut-and-come-again salads at home since they need almost daily snipping. Parsnips are tricky to germinate; carrots need fine sandy soil (adding as much sand as compost before sowing helps). Without efficient mesh and netting protection ( to protect against pigeons and butterflies), don't grow any form of the space-greedy winter cabbage family. Chard and perpetual spinach, however, are long-life, relatively low-maintenance crops worth learning to love, if you don't already. Free, or even cheap, food is sometimes a myth, certainly at first. Needless to say, allotment growing is more cost-effective if you buy (and share) seed, rather than plug plants. Once you are established, producing compost and saving seed from your crops, you go into a different economic league. Allotment growing is not ALL about economics anyway, it's mostly bout producing fresh, tasty, healthy and wholesome food for you and your family. Finally, something slightly controversial: Don't listen to the kill-joys. It is perfectly OK to grow flowers for picking on your allotment and it encourages pollinating insects. If your allotment group allows it - keeping bees is an excellent idea as they are the No1 pollinators on every allotment site in existence.
The Golden Rule is - don't take on more than you can cope with. Allotment gardening is hard work and requires dedication - it's not as easy as gardening programmes make it look! But on the positive side, it's probably even more enjoyable than it looks on telly!
A whole allotment plot is traditionally 10 Rods square (a Rod is also called a Perch or Pole) which is equivalent to 5.5 yards. So a plot would be exactly 302.5 square yards or 279 square metres - that's about a sixteenth of an acre. It's usually rounded to 300 sq yds or 250 sq m - for ease of use - when calculating the number of plots for a given area. Having "rounded" sizes also helps when it comes to pegging out a site For an idea of how much area we're talking about here - think of something roughly about the same size as a tennis court.
For all - but those with the time, the stamina and self-sufficient ambitions, this may be on the large size for some beginners. A three-quarter or half-plot may be sufficient for your particular household needs. Furthermore, with huge waiting lists nationwide, splitting a whole plot, and then sharing it with the next person on the list makes good sense.
Right! Down To Work
First job? Knobble the perennial weeds (docks, nettles, couch grass etc.) before you start, particularly if you plan on growing long-term perennial crops, such as asparagus and soft fruit etc.
Fork out all their roots - not just the top bit - but the WHOLE root. You can then smother the area with black plastic or old carpets to kill off any other less aggressive weeds and grass. You can't use glyphosate or ANY other similar poison on our Aeron Vale Allotment Society site because we are committed to organic gardening methods. If you belong to an allotment group that doesn't mind using harmful plant poisons, and your allotment association or society does not stipulate that you mustn't use chemical weed-killing agents, then use glysophate (usually found under the trade name "Round Up") or a similar preparation - be careful - you don't allow it to drift on to your neighbours' plots, where it may damage their crops or cause animosity, especially if they are sensitive to your inorganic methods. You can use a combination of everything. In extreme cases, think about covering and forgetting about two-thirds of the ground for that first season, and just grow potatoes on the remaining third. Their cultivation can help break up the soil and cleanse it of some weeds. Who said it was going to be easy?!
Remember that some weed seeds can remain active in soil for many years. Never let weeds grow large and go to seed - hoe them out as tiddlers on dry days. Don't put the roots of perennial weeds in your compost bin. Boundary paths are weed hotbeds too, so mow and edge them regularly. No one wants foreign-looking allotments - all concrete paths, chain-link fencing and stifling rules - but good and tidy housekeeping benefits EVERYONE.
Raised Beds
Don't be surprised if the current love affair with raised beds causes raised eyebrows among some of the old guard, who regard them as a waste of space and prefer regimented rows. Each to his/her own, but defined beds enable you to improve soil selectively, crop intensively - and with paths of (slug/snail unfriendly) bark, mown grass or even Mypex between beds, life is easier, particularly on winter-heavy soil. Don't make beds you can't reach across or you will have to tread on them; 4ft wide and about 12ft - 16ft long is regarded as a good size, while others favour smaller square beds.
Soil Improvement
This usually takes the form of an annual autumn or spring muck-spreading frenzy - it is an essential task. If your allotment association or gardening society can't organise communal muck supplies, get together with one or two plotters and share a delivery.
Although some enjoy the "catalogue" neatness of pristine expensive infrastructure, not spending money is actually a traditional culture of allotment growers. Most allotmenteers recycle wherever possible, often in very ingenious ways. Compost bins can be made from wooden pallets, old scaffolding boards and split tree trunks make good edges for raised beds. Ingenuity is honoured and respected amongst allotmenteers.
Crop Rotation and Protection is Key
As sure as God made those little green apples that give you belly ache, growing the same family of crops in the same location will inevitably lead to big problems. Certain pests only attack certain plant families. If you grow the same crops in the same soil the pests associated with that plant family will become an epidemic in that area. You may then find it very hard to eradicate them. Also, by growing the same plants in the same soil every year the nutrients that crop requires will eventually become depleted, resulting in poorer crops. There is more information on crop rotation in the "Basics" section of this web-site.
Pests, (particularly flying and crawling ones) can quickly get the upper hand. Hoops of hazel, cut from hedges (failing that, polythene piping from plumbing suppliers and cut to size), make good supports for protective meshes and netting. And which netting? Drapey "pond netting'' is easier to handle than that annoyingly springy nylon stuff that is hard to peg down and control!
Storage
If you live some distance away, a shed (with a water butt) is a boon, with hooks to keep tools (and that essential old fleece) off the floor. It also serves as a good cool and dark place to store crops - such as potatoes or carrots. And, (it should be added), an old chair is an essential!
Growing Don'ts
Don't grow too much of any one thing, get the hang of sowing seeds a little at a time every few weeks (a tough one, that - even though it's quite easy with a bit of acquired self discipline) and even if you don't practise classic crop rotation, at least don't grow the same crop in the same place twice for more than two seasons.
Obviously only grow what you like to eat, but there are definitely 'easy' and 'difficult' crops. Potatoes and leeks as well as onions (from sets) all belong in the easy camp. Peas and beans, too. Strawberries (netted) and autumn raspberries (no need to net) are a popular and easy must for some. Unless you live on the doorstop, grow cut-and-come-again salads at home since they need almost daily snipping. Parsnips are tricky to germinate; carrots need fine sandy soil (adding as much sand as compost before sowing helps). Without efficient mesh and netting protection ( to protect against pigeons and butterflies), don't grow any form of the space-greedy winter cabbage family. Chard and perpetual spinach, however, are long-life, relatively low-maintenance crops worth learning to love, if you don't already.
Free, or even cheap, food is sometimes a myth, certainly at first. Needless to say, allotment growing is more cost-effective if you buy (and share) seed, rather than plug plants. Once you are established, producing compost and saving seed from your crops, you go into a different economic league. Allotment growing is not ALL about economics anyway, it's mostly bout producing fresh, tasty, healthy and wholesome food for you and your family.
Finally, something slightly controversial:
Don't listen to the kill-joys. It is perfectly OK to grow flowers for picking on your allotment and it encourages pollinating insects. If your allotment group allows it - keeping bees is an excellent idea as they are the No1 pollinators on every allotment site in existence.
