Hi peeps, I have just got an allotment from the council, its about 20m by 7m and has its own water supply, I was wondering if I should dig it over and turn all the weeds into the soil rake it over then establish some beds and cover them with a weed suppressing membrane and just plant through it?.
The growing season has just started here in Scotland and I would have liked to have prepared the soil earlier but I suppose I will have to go for it now.

Would this work or am I better off building some raised beds and buying in some topsoil or compo?

All suggestions/ advice very welcome.

cheers Hughie

traditionally planting a main crop of spuds is the way to get a fallow allotment started, it really cleans up the soil and the cover from the plant helps to keep weeds from getting established.

i did this on a nasty bit of ground that hadnt been cultivated for ages and i reckon during all the years that i subsequently grew veg on that patch the soil was in the best condition just after i'd harvested them spuds.

Joy Larcoms 'Grow your own Veg' was my newbies way into making my garden allotment work, theres the web of course now but this book pretty much says it all



its really down to you Hughie (there is no right or wrong with gardening ) but i didnt like doing what all the old guys around me did, treading on the soil that they would be subsequently growing in, all that rows stuff didnt really make sense so i divided my space up into beds with paths in between, over time i picked out the stones from the beds and they made the paths.not 'raised' beds but distinct walking and growing areas.
to make the soil fertile and of the right consistentcy i dug in well rotted manure.

good luck with your new hobby

No, no, no, no, no If you leave one weed in the soil, it will turn into ten weeds next week!

...but weeds at this time of year are great. Once they start growing you know that all your veg will grow too.

Get a hoe, get on your hands and knees and pick the weeds out.

Raised beds are good - that's what I use anyway. The advantages for me are: no digging each year because the soil hasn't been trod on and you can put the plants slightly closer together.

I have never added manure. I find three year crop rotation is good enough (plus no digging!).

Good luck

Dear Hughie, please try the forum allotments4all. It's the allotments world's uk420, well worth a gander, they have loads of newbs on there asking alsorts, well worth a look!! hope that helps, gg x x xx

Cheers cf and inda, looks like I will have to dig it over anyway as a closer inspection reveals it to be full of holes?? and the soil from them is gone! spread out or whatever but I'm going to have to hoe it then dig it to level it!.
so a crop of totties should keep the weeds down on one half and on the other half I will do some raised beds with compo mixed in and get a mulch down to try and keep the weeds at bay.
hope the back can take it!.

Cheers guys

Hughie

ps thank you grogirl, I will have a wee look at yon site.