Post your allotment!

tres

tres

tres

Soldato
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I don't think this quite fits in the garden thread..?

I'm truly embracing my middle age and have just got a small allotment. I'm very much a beginner and would love to see your allotments, any advice, tips & tricks etc

Here's our starting point (cleared a LOT of weeds to get to this point).
There is an established little apple tree as you can see, and the back right is thick with raspberry bushes

I'm planning to re-lay weed suppressing fabric down and probably add stone chippings to the path
Built a 3ft fence around the plot
Add a small greenhouse at the back
Add a pallet composter for the bulk of the cut back stuff and leave for a year
Add a couple of hot composters for ongoing maintenance

Obviously this is very late in the season but would appreciate any over-wintering tips for bed preparation, any winter veg possible, etc

G17lnQS.jpeg
 
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Looks like you're gonna need a bigger bag of compost! Looks kind of not-small to me, but then I only started growing a few things in the back garden this year, and have already realised what an undertaking it can be. I may retreat back to the greenhouse, growing mainly tomatoes, next year. :D Having said that, trying to make things work in a cramped space makes things hard work in a different way. That looks like hard work in all the usual ways though!

Best of luck. May the slugs and cabbage whites be kind to you.
 
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If your not growing over winter then cover the beds with cardboard and weight it down.
It will stop a lot of seeds blowing onto them and anything organic on the top will rot down.
You can leave a layer of what you have chopped back under the cardboard the worms etc will pull it down and compost it into your soil.

You can also dig one out a bit and put the stuff to rot down into that bed.

You could still get away with some stuff that grows potentially late into the season. Runner beans one that springs to mind.

A lot will depend on how late into the season we go before we get proper cold weather.
With climate change what it is thats been creeping later and later so its not completely too late to try to get some stuff in.
 
If you're in the south there's still plenty of time to plant stuff for this year. Carrots, beetroots, lettuces I'm still sowing but we rarely get frost here though especially before December. In the late autumn ill be getting in some garlic and onions.
 
200sols said:
If you're in the south there's still plenty of time to plant stuff for this year. Carrots, beetroots, lettuces I'm still sowing but we rarely get frost here though especially before December. In the late autumn ill be getting in some garlic and onions.
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hmm garlic ....dont know what i do wrong but 3 years of trying about had it with garlic feel like i may as well plant money grrrrrrrrrrrr. ny way wont hijack thread, but that allotment is still about twice the size of my planting area.
 
gc123 said:
hmm garlic ....dont know what i do wrong but 3 years of trying about had it with garlic feel like i may as well plant money grrrrrrrrrrrr. ny way wont hijack thread, but that allotment is still about twice the size of my planting area.
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if you have a glasshouse and lawn at home this method will work ( probably )

1) Grow a variety called Theridrome

2) plant in large square pots ( about 11 litre, 5 in each pot )

3) Plant in late Autumn

4) keep the alive with watering but not too much, weed them regularly and keep an eye on them

5) keep in glasshouse for as long as possible, in to hotter Sping temps.

6) then when its too hot in the glasshouse, move the pots outside into the lawn / garden.

7) they will almost certain contract a disease called Rust when outdoors.

8) but its too late for the disease to harm them much, you protected them from the Rust spores in the glasshouse and the Garlic has time to Finish in early Summer.

9) dry it all out in shed or glasshouse

10) you have mild lovely purple streaked Garlic that is fantastic for cooking.
 
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tres said:
Obviously this is very late in the season but would appreciate any over-wintering tips for bed preparation
Click to expand...
Compost everything and anything you can and dig it into the beds for next season and let it break down.
You'll end up with super fertile soil that'll yield great results.
Oh, and ignore people who's sole purpose it is virtue signal thier ignorance about climate stuffs.
Just enjoy growing your food and reap the results, it'll be well well worth it.
 
dave28 said:
if you have a glasshouse and lawn at home this method will work ( probably )

1) Grow a variety called Theridrome

2) plant in large square pots ( about 11 litre, 5 in each pot )

3) Plant in late Autumn

4) keep the alive with watering but not too much, weed them regularly and keep an eye on them

5) keep in glasshouse for as long as possible, in to hotter Sping temps.

6) then when its too hot in the glasshouse, move the pots outside into the lawn / garden.

7) they will almost certain contract a disease called Rust when outdoors.

8) but its too late for the disease to harm them much, you protected them from the Rust spores in the glasshouse and the Garlic has time to Finish in early Summer.

9) dry it all out in shed or glasshouse

10) you have mild lovely purple streaked Garlic that is fantastic for cooking.
Click to expand...
magic ill try that and let you know ...mind it will be next year but worth a shot. thanks
 
JonRGV250 said:
Compost everything and anything you can and dig it into the beds for next season and let it break down.
You'll end up with super fertile soil that'll yield great results.
Oh, and ignore people who's sole purpose it is virtue signal thier ignorance about climate stuffs.
Just enjoy growing your food and reap the results, it'll be well well worth it.
Click to expand...
I think it's your ignorance here. The changing climate means we can grow different things now and also grow later into the year than used to be the case even 20 years ago.
 
Went to my half plot yesterday. All I have is one giant artichoke?

xEDFRzK.jpeg


I don't even know where to start. The grass is about 3 foot high. There are some stunning plots.
 
200sols said:
I think it's your ignorance here. The changing climate means we can grow different things now and also grow later into the year than used to be the case even 20 years ago.
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Exactly.
The ignorance from the climate deniers is quite stunning.

I guess Kew gardens are ignorant as well seeing as they are changing stuff like the planted trees.

My approach and what a lot are now doing at my allotments is broadening what they grow. Because the results are just getting more and more random.

My onions this year are massive last were terrible. The corn is an exact flip on that.
My garlic peaked too early, warm spring I guess then poor start to summer.
Chilis really bad this year, think I will fail to get any decent crop unless we have a really late run of summer.
Been good for stuff like blackcurrants, sucked for raspberries but have some hope for a late crop.

My strawberries already have a second set of flowers so they are seemingly super confused due to the weather. Only ever seen really late second flowering before.
 
Thinking forward to the end of this growing season, does anyone plant a cover crop like mustard that they can then turn into the soil next year? I've been reading about it but not overly sure how much it would help.
 
Rexxar said:
Thinking forward to the end of this growing season, does anyone plant a cover crop like mustard that they can then turn into the soil next year? I've been reading about it but not overly sure how much it would help.
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IMO covering with cardboard is better but there are some advantages to a clover type crop (eg adding nitrogen)

The person who had one of my plots before me did a clover around 9/10 years ago. I have never got rid of it it crops up randomly every year.
I don't think I would want to have a plot covered in it!
 
Not an allotment as such, but the veg patch in the garden. Biggest problem I've had is not being able to spend enough time on it over the last few years due to the arrival of the chilld, but shes getting to the age where she wants to come out and help.



Carrots and parsnips have been a bit hit and miss on germination this year, but speaking to a few people it seems to be a common problem this year.

One advantage of it being in the garden rather than a proper allotment is I can stick a sprinkler in the middle of it and keep it well watered.
 
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Gav_r26 said:
Not an allotment as such, but the veg patch in the garden. Biggest problem I've had is not being able to spend enough time on it over the last few years due to the arrival of the chilld, but shes getting to the age where she wants to come out and help.



Carrots and parsnips have been a bit hit and miss on germination this year, but speaking to a few people it seems to be a common problem this year.

One advantage of it being in the garden rather than a proper allotment is I can stick a sprinkler in the middle of it and keep it well watered.
Click to expand...

I have exactly the same on carrots and parsnips.
I have added parsnips twice to my designated area and failed both times :(
Been a common one this year I agree, a lot saying the same at my allotments.

Both need the correct conditions quite quickly within planting or they just rot/start germination then dry out. Enough water but not too much, enough water but not too little.
Commercial seeds are given some kind of anti rot treatment that gives them a far higher germination rate I am told.

And lovely patch there, its my goal to move and get a plot of land larger enough to have something like that attached as the retirement house.
 
My early carrots were a mostly a miss I think due to the cold and wet spring. Later sowings are growing well. Parsnips germinated well though and are doing very well this year. My onions have all been pulled now and drying well, been a good year for those as well and now i'll be getting a later crop of beetroot into those beds which I sowed in trays a few weeks ago.
 
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