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So i have taken over the school's allotment and have some plans to get some of the yoof involved by giving them their own slightly raised beds but also getting home ec involved and getting their pupils to plan, plant, grow, harvest then cook stuff.
So question is, given that i've just strimmed what was a head high forest of weeds and i've not so much got green fingers as agent orange fingers, Where do i go next? What can be planted, and when would i have to plant it, that can be harvested May/June?
Potatoes are good for breaking up the ground, you should be able to get some early varieties ready for May or June next year.
Get a large dpm sheet and cover a section until the weeds die back.
^^thats a good idea, old carpet works well for that too and is usually heavy enough not to blow away.
You could over winter cabbage potatoes and peas for early crop next year but in my experience not worth the faff over the winter months, as often need protecting from frost etc. You can put in garlic next month and onions or any fruit bushes but other than that as shrickvr6 said cover the ground to get it ready for next year. Dig in loads of compost and manure and you will be set for an early start next year. PS be ready for a lot of weeding in the first year or so.
On year of weeds = 7 years of weeding, as our garden is proving.
We have done the roll of black stuff down thing for a year, it gets rid of most things.
dig out the worst of the weeds and plant in some green compost, then turn this over after the last frosts / early spring to enrich the soil. The green compost also help restrict weed growth as it's planted quite densely
Try some spuds that you can't easily get in the shops eg pink fir apple, apache, arran pilot. Plant garlic, onions, leeks, parsnips in the autumn. Next year plant a pumpkin, I pulled up a monster yesterday which will be great for halloween. Get the garlic from the Isle of Wight and onions are more easily planted as sets.
As said above, keep things covered to a)kill down weeds/grass so ready for planting and b) helps you tackle only what you can! If you're near west Yorks I can help out with sheeting that lets through moisture but suppresses weeds.
Like this (today's effort getting winter onions in)
Covered for 6 months:
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Covers lifted and broken up roughly, left like that for a few weeks, so it's easier to break up finely.
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Broken up finely, paths laid & onions planted ( leave plenty of space between rows to hoe)
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Admire work & drink beer.
Bravo bearnecessities ,my grandad would have been proud of you.
Thanks, that's appreciated. Deeply uncool, but I love it as a hobby 🙂
In borders so great offer but too far. Looks like its carpet until Feb some time then rotovate?
Yeah, carpet's fine (although some people are of the view it leaks chemicals into soil - I don't know if it does or not).
I'd also glyphosate it into the middle of next week. (I use rosate 36)
Rotivator eh? Lah-de-dah!
If it's quite large id be tempted to hire a proper rotovator, turn it over now then cover up. Add compost February and go from there. No need to lay material for paths, walking on the soil strips will flatten them and turn them into paths. I do use carpet strips for paths personally though, helps keep weeds down
Lots of the really nice stuff is harvested in June/July/August.
Some early onions and garlic are good.
Salad and radishes are always good too.
The weeds in year one can put off a lot of people. Personally I use glyphosphte weed killer (Rosate or similar). Glyphosphate kills the roots of weeds, but breaks down harmlessly on contact with soil.
Allotments are rewarding, and my view is that the £45 a year I pay is only what I would pay for one months gym membership...but with a whole year of workouts!
OK so plan now is.
glyohosphate now, rotovate in a couple of weeks to give the weedkiller time to work. Cover with black sheeting stuff (worst case scenario carpet), then lift and turn the soil(rotovate) in feb. Area is pretty large no way could i do it my self by spade, also it's been left to its own devices for at least three years.
Meanwhile build wooden surrounds for small beds to section it off and think about when to plant stuff to get a first pick in june (needs to be before school(scotland) breaks).
Check what weeds you've got. If you have any marestail I would recommend against a rotavator, it could multiply the problem. Digging over can be very satisfying and a bit of a workout. Approach the local authority about getting a couple of compost bins, they are generally cheap/subsidised. Approach the school dinner people for uncooked kitchen waste.
Glysophate has recently been described as carcinogenic (God knows in what quantities) but it's been said. I've successfully used ammonium sulfamate on marestail, my co-allotmenteers have been astonished by the results. From having an allotment full of it 3 years ago, this year I pulled up less than 20 shoots that I'd managed to miss.
If you plant a load of spuds and monitor/water carefully, you could find yourself harvesting maincrop spuds by the end of the summer term or leave them in till September. This is a really good initiative and could be a great project for a wide range of students from those enjoying just a dig to those who want to explore dependent and independent variables. There are loads of Youtube films for allotmenteers and these could be used for little research/homework tasks.
Keep us posted with your progress.
ps ignore reference to school holidays, I was thinking of English terms.
Rotovatoring is overrated, you want to get deeper into the soil than a Rotavator and they can just spread weeds by chopping up their roots as said above.
Main problem for school allotments is that most the good stuff like harvesting and eating happens in the school holidays.
This means the kids don't see the results and the bored kids wreck the plot during the holidays.
Choose plants that crop early or late, basically either side of school holidays
Maybe do some salad stuff in raised beds that they can harvest during term and then hold a few picnic/BBQ days during summer when they can have burgers (with their salad?), eat strawberries and parents can get on some beers and take some harvest home?
(I've not thought that idea through)