My Allotment Blog


On the december the 17th 2011 i took what would be my first allotment on my own after my first one being in conjunction with my dad and to be very honest this one is in much better condition from the start than my last one. The idea of this blog was to see if i can document everything i do to see how i can improve my plot and make the mistakes i need to get things right.


I'm a complete novice gardener the things i know or think i know have only come from reading vegetable gardening books and magazines and a short time on an allotment in ipswich. 


To be fair its a massive plot with a pathway cutting through around 3/4 of the way along a polytunnel and what used to be raised beds along one side. Also enough room at the back for a shed hopefully the council have already rotavated the plot but to me mainly looks like they have churned everything back into the soil again I'm no expert so it may be ok.


My first job on 24/12/11 was to clear out the polytunnel of all the crap that was left from the last plot holder. also managed to clear the floor of all the wood bark and weeds that have grown into the tunnel.

I managed to walk a lot of my gear over from where i parked my van. The only problem with this site is its very inaccessible and the gate is blocked by a car. Anyway not moaning just something to live with dunno how I'm gonna get a shed over there. 


More to be done after xmas 


Tuesday 27th december

My second vist to the allotment after having a clear out of the polytunnel last trip. It was hard to know what to tackle first. along one side of the plot is a section of raised beds that have had the wooden shutters removed and are now basically square piles of dirt held together by there own  force. i decided to clear the tops of these from all the rubble and rubbish. putting the hardcore rubble to one end of the plot in a pile just to do something with it really so its out of the way. I also decided to move the rather pale looking compost bin that i was luckily left on the plot. Seen here on the far right pale green. So rightly or wrongly i have moved it to a bit of concrete so i can start a fresh compost pile with the aid of the vegetable leftovers from the Woolacott xmas feast it already has a start and with some help of some chicken shit i can obtain from chicken farmers i know it should create some good muck.


Whilst i was clearing the crap from the top of the raised beds i noticed a lot of strawberry plants that have decided to spread from one bed to another so i dug all of them up as it was mild i thought this might be ok as the frosts haven't come yet. If it isn't ok then i will lose some free strawberry plants and will have to buy some more in march so see how it goes. So i have created a strawberry bed with all the plants in one section i just need to acquire so iron shuttering to make it a raised bed again.

This is now the strawberry raised bed with about 25 plants although hard to see some of them are small. it now really now needs some shuttering to go around it.


Hopefully once shuttered these beds can be used for more permanent crops and the ground level beds for the rotational crops.


Anyway just good to make use of the mild whether to get the plot off to a start and with another bank holiday coming up i can get manure onto the ground level beds and some paving stones in for the pathway.

January 8

At last a few full hours down the allotment today and a new toy to play with too. I decided to get started on the pathway so i can get some paving slabs down so i have a route to wheel the barrow up and down. i dug the edge but unfortunately i left my new reel of string i acquired at work so i just had to roughly guess 

. I managed to get it all the way along but with all the rain there has been I'm gonna let it settle before i start laying sand or ballast or anything so next week or after i might lay some slabs.

Then i had chance to play with my new toy which is a Mantis Tiller i managed to get off ebay locally for about 100 quid. Its hard to get used too as it pulls you away towards the horizon but i managed to hold on in the end and managed to get one of the end beds tilled or rotated whatever its dug over. Its two stroke so smells great when its going full pelt.

But one thing i did come to realise is that cause of all the rain we have had in the south west over the last month it soon clogged up the wheels of the tiller as picture left. So although i had a little play with it today i might well wait till end of February to give it a good going over and after i have spread my chicken manure all over it which might be availible next weekend. so let that sit over the soil and churn it into the ground around the end of Feb.  Thats the plan anyway. More Farting around next weekend and maybe some slabs and if i remember string.

January 22nd

Been two weeks since i last went down as it was a bit cold last week. Managed to get from a guy i know ten black bags full of chicken litter a mixture of shit straw and wood shavings. So I've used 6 bags to do one bed behind the poly tunnel and the other four bags I'm going to let rot for a couple more months or just add here and there in the next few months. Obviously am lucky to know about 12 chicken farmers but is it any good if it hasn't had a while to rot. Me being an absolute novice i don't know hence why i haven't done the whole plot. If it proves that it needs a while i will just make a pile in the corner of it all and let it rot.

Ive decided to do the part of the plot behind the poly tunnel by laying the chicken manure on the soil and raking it over to cover the surface. Then in a month or so i will tiller it in with the Mantis.

I also managed to remember my string this time and managed to mark out the two main beds. so i have an edge to dig to which will help when i come to dig it over with the Mantis plus it gives me a good area around the outside so when i do have anything in there i can get to it ok. My initial plans for this bed is to be a mammoth onion bed of biblical proportions. but that may change soon depending on my mood. Below is a picture of the whole plot.

The Plot after a Month

When i took over about a month ago i believed that the plot was rototvated and they had a big burn up of all the crap. Im still left with a lot of the crap that I've managed to get sorted but I've also found that on the big bed near the poly tunnel around near where the wheel barrow is there must have been a series of fruit bushes I've found loads of roots and stalks in the ground. so I've been able to get most of them up with a fork today which will make it easier to get the mantis through it all.