Allotment and Vegetable Gardening

I finished work early to get the keys to my new allotment. Never really done alot of gardening before, but have always wanted to feel that sense of achievement of growing your own, as well as helping lose a couple of pound around the waist. So I have now seen my half plot, it needs a good going over but nothing too monsterous. So I am excited about getting on the plot on Sunday, start digging and plan where i will have my shed, compost and greenhouse. I am also looking forward to being able to join in on the conversations and showing photos of my first harvest. I would welcome any handy tips for starting out on my plot........x

Good evening Sandrav and welcome to the site.

  I am hoping that it won't take too long to dig over the plot, so I am wondering what suggestions you can make as to what i should be looking at planting first and when? I believe that the time is right for Garlic which i would like to do, but are there any other suggestions and what is the best garlic to plant and how?
 

Welcome from a fellow essex boy

Thanks for the offer of the manure, but a local stable keeps the whole allotment supplied with free manure. I do feel really lucky that the allotment is really well equipped - apart from no WC.

Just need to learn how to use it all.

Welcome to the world of allotments, first off for tips that you crave I would strongly recommend reading Johns notes here... http://www.allotment.org.uk/articles/Clearing_a_New_Allotment.php and also here... http://www.allotment.org.uk/articles/Planning_the_Plot.php and of course search the forums for answers or just ask. Good luck with both clearing, planting and growing your veg, to be honest can't see much coming of the waste with all the good food you will grow.

Hi and congratulations!  It is a good time to start as you can work on clearing ready for the 'full' growing season.  Still lots you can do now though.  As you rightly say - garlic.  Could also plant some overwintering broad beans and onion sets to name another two.

Good luck and we love seeing pictures of progress on here!

as a newbie to the allotment scene (just under a year) I must echo what has been said about doing a bit at a time.

I have had the best time ever this year - it has not really been hard work/tiresome at all as I have not allowed myself to be daunted initially by the weeds and the like that had to be cleared when I took the plot on.

And once you are all cleared, be restrained and when you are going to plant, stagger the planting by planting a little as you go: don't plant like mad (seen enough folk at the plots doing that who are seasoned pros who, a few months later, were moaning like mad at this and that to do...feel like telling them to give up then if it is such a drudge!)

What I also did -which helped me a lot - is make a plan on the computer of what I wanted to grow and where I would grow it: changed many times of course but it was good to focus on what will go where (and when). I even got the spreadsheet columns and rows to scale!!! But, as anal as that seems, it was good to work on that for a few mins now and then when I could not get up to the allotment. Besides, things worked a treat this year  - or rather I always felt in control.

Yes garlic, onions, shallots, broadbeans can go in now (if they are the over-wintering types). And wait for the excitement as they germinate/sprout etc...