Helping new people on allotments to have success

[Peggy Sue]

I got a half size allotment last June. The old boys were full of advise, including don't do organic and we wewre in the spotlight being the first plot at the gate!
The man next to us was actually very helpful, he said he pretty much does organic except for slugs and then just does what eh has to and I found that really works.

We had toatlly unexpected overwhelming success with Purple sprouting, which is HUGE and catches everyone's eye. As a result we get lots of tips and help and lots of swaps. I would also highly recommend beans on your easy to grow list above.

Since then we've taken another half plot, in much poorer condition, but hidden at one corner! We both work so time is critical, for these we spend about 2hours on a Sat and maybe another hour on a Sunday. Watering was the time consuming bit last year and I did that daily so whatever you take on consider watering time (and how far away the tap is!).

I would never be without the pleasure, I'm completely addicted at all times of the year now!

[Smooth Hound]

We have a number of people getting new allotments this year. Quite a few are also new to gardening. Does anyone have a website with helpful suggestions and strategies for people new to allotments? Since many of them work and have children, they will need to work as efficiently as possible to get their gardens going well. If we could find some plans they could adopt or modify they could put more of their time into growing things and not lose too much to trying to figure out what to do and when. We would like for them to be able to produce enough food their first year that they will be encouraged by their garden success.

Any sort of suggestions are welcome as often it's hard to remember back to first gardens and what we wish we had known when we started.

This site itself is a good one, the gardening section and the tips etc are good, and if you cant find what you are looking for then feel free to ask, there are alot of people that are starting out, people who have done it for a couple of yrs and some experienced people , andf all happy to chat about any ideas or questions you or anyone else have

[Mal]

So this may sound like an idiotic question but how do you start a raised bed? I understand you're looking at getting some boards, making a rectangle and filling it with stuff but what is it you fill with? Compost? Soil (but from where?). Always been a bit confused with that one.

And Cheezy, where did you get the boards from? What size were they?

I have to say the little-at-a-time method is sounding v. sensible.

[Hawthorn]

This can be the black woven heavy duty stuff Like I bought (buy a whole reel it's cheaper) .

Cheezy, do you know somewhere online that does this? Or what is it called properly. We're fighting a losing battle with couch grass at the moment.

[MKG]

Mal - if you search for the term "raised bed" on this site, all manner of things come up. In the meantime, you can fill your raised bed with anything which will allow things to grow. Compost is the usual thing, but you need to find an awful lot of it. Other people throw up the soil from the paths between beds. Whatever - the main thing is that once you've formed the new bed, you should never walk on it. Just keep adding compost with new plantings.

[Hawthorn]

Never mind Cheezy, got it :)

[Mal]

Hawthorn - share the info! Where did you find it? Google tells me I'm looking for 'landscape fabric' but as to which and where from, I'm no further forward?

[Hawthorn]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... :IT&ih=020

This is the one I bought. I needed two rolls, but having trawled Ebay this was the best deal

We shall be going up the allotment this weekend, or Friday possibly to get it down! (if it arrives in time anyway )