A good tip for new allotment owners. Your allotment can be quite daunting when you first see it, so something I found useful was to get a pencil and some paper and plan it out. Draw your allotment as you’d see it from above. Then make a list of what you’d like to grow. With your list made, do some research on what grows well together, any specific needs your crops will need and with this information, start to sketch out how you’d like your allotment to end up. Remember, nothing is set in stone, so you can change as you go along, and your allotment may end up nothing like your plan, but it’s a good place to start.

Ask any allotment owner and they’ll tell you to keep on top of your weeds. It’s something we all have to do and it’s essential if you want to get the best crops out of your allotment. Garden Without Doors recently posted a great guide for weeding and we recommend you take a look. Even print it out and pop it away somewhere at your allotment if you have a shed or somewhere dry to store it. Out tips are: Annuals (such as chickweed, cleavers and groundsel) Most, especially when young and before they have set seed, are easy to pull out by hand if the soil is moist. Or they can be hoed off when it’s dry. Annuals that set seed quickly (such as hairy bittercress). They can be hand pulled or hoed, as soon as the seedheads are spotted. Don’t compost them or leave them on the soil surface. Deep-rooted weeds (such as docks and dandelions) Try to remove as much of the root as possible in one piece, (easiest when the soil is wet). Small bits of root will grow a fresh plant, so don’t attack them with a rotavater. You could use a weedkiller containing glyphosate, which will kill the roots as well as the foliage. More than one application sometimes. Weeds that entwine round other plants (such as bindweed and bryony) Difficult to poison or hoe them without harming the plant they are growing up. Possible to apply a weedkiller gel by hand. Or train them up a cane some distance from your plants and treat them with glyphosate, as above. Weeds that are brittle underground (such as couchgrass) Their roots easily break into many pieces, each of which can form a new plant. Either use glyphosate, or fork and re-fork the ground to remove all traces. Do this well before planting crops, to allow any regrowth to appear and be removed before you plant. A rotavator will not help. Weeds with tough protective surfaces (such as horsetail/marestail) Their tough protective surface can resist weedkillers. If they are bruised but left intact they are more susceptible to glyphosate. Underground bulbils (such as celandines) Later in the season, when you disturb them, they shed their bulbils, which will go on to make fresh plants. So dig them out as early in the year as possible.

A bit of a ‘no-brainer’, but when you take out an allotment, you’ll be joining a community of like minded people and you’ll also be given a tenancy agreement. This agreement outlines all the rules and regulations you have to follow, and most are common sense. But respect for your neighbours is a must. On busy days you’ll probably be spending many hours in close proximity with these people, many would have spent years cultivating their allotments, so without imposing, get to know them, introduce yourself, respect their space, and you may find yourself making a life long friend. They’ll also have their own advice and tips if you ever require it.

Crop rotation is a term many new plot holders find a bit daunting and something most veteran plot holders swear by. Either way, it’s something which needs some thought. If you’ve set aside some of your plot for perennials, next you can put some thought into rotation of your crops. You’ll find once you’ve decided what you’ll be growing on your plot, odds are they’ll all require their own nutritional needs and this is where crop rotation can help. Aside from this, educating yourself on crop rotation will help prevent your plot from disease and pest build up while grouping crops together which have similar needs in terms of what nutrition they need and you’ll soon have some very healthy and fertile soil. If you ask any fellow plot holders who follow crop rotation and you’ll find they usually follow a 3 or 4 year rotation plan, so below we’ve outlined a rotation plan based on 4 beds over 3 years. The below is only a guide, feel free to adapt to what you want to grow, just keep an eye on crop groups like brassicas, alliums etc so you can try and sick to the group type.

Year One – First, make sure your soil is enriched and healthy by adding your compost.

Bed One

• Spring/Summer – Plant your tomatoes, potatoes and courgettes.
• Autumn – Plan your alliums like onions, garlic and leeks.

Bed Two

• Spring/Summer – Plant your root vegetables like carrots, parsnips, beetroot along with spinach, parsley and chard.
• Autumn – Mix in Green manure to help break up soil.

Bed Three

• Spring/Summer – Add your compost before planting your brassicas like cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli.
• Autumn – Plant your winter brassicas like kale and sprouts.

Bed Four

• Spring/Summer – Keep it simple with peas and beans.
• Autumn – Don’t plant anything, but lime the soil if you plan to plant brassicas again next year.

 

Year Two

Bed One

• Spring/Summer – This year plant your beans and peas here.
• Autumn – Lime the soil after harvesting your beans and peas and leave.

Bed Two

• Spring/Summer – Add some good compost and plant your tomatoes, potatoes and courgettes.
• Autumn – Plant your alliums like your onions, garlic and shallots.

Bed Three

• Spring/Summer – Plant your roots like celeriac, carrots, beetroot, parsnips and your spinach, chard etc.
• Autumn – Mix in green manure to break up soil.

Bed Four

• Spring/Summer – Plant your summer brassicas like cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and radishes and turnips.
• Autumn – Plant your winter brassicas like kale and sprouts.

Year Three

Bed One

• Spring/Summer – Add your compost before planting your summer brassicas like cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and radishes and turnips.
• Autumn – Plant your winter brassicas like kale and sprouts.

Bed Two

• Spring/Summer – This year plant your beans and peas here.
• Autumn – Lime the soil after harvesting your beans and peas and leave.

Bed Three

• Spring/Summer – Add your compost before planting your tomatoes, potatoes and courgettes.
• Autumn – Plant your alliums like your onions, garlic and shallots.

Bed Four

• Spring/Summer – Plant your roots like celeriac, carrots, beetroot, parsnips and your spinach, chard etc.
• Autumn – Mix in green manure to break up soil.

Many people have an allotment primarily to grow produce, as well as creating a sanctuary to escape to while making new friends. But wildlife plays an important part of any allotment site. With urban cities like Cardiff seeing a big drop in it’s local wildlife due to development and changing lifestyles it’s important to think about the critters and animals who we may be sharing our plots with. Allotments play a huge part in supporting wildlife in urban areas, often they create links between tracks, hedgerows, parks and rivers. And aside from the help some of them give us by assisting with pollination and pest control there are things we, as plot-holders, can do to help keep this eco-system balanced.

• If you have room on your plot, set aside a bit of room to plant some nectar rich flowers to help attract pollinators. Many crops rely on pollinators; apple, plum and pear trees rely up to 85% on pollinators, 85% for runner beans and similar beans, cucumbers have a 60% reliance, pumpkins up to 85% to name a few and remember that honeybees pollinate an estimated 35% of UK crops.
  • In Spring spotted nettles, primroses, black and redcurrants will feed pollinators. In Summer hollyhocks, marigolds, borage and open centred 
  • will feed them. Autumn your nasturtiums,  single flower dahlias and sunflowers will feed the pollinators and Winter flowering shrubs like Vibernum tinus, Skimmia (Kew Green), Mahonia (Underway), Hamamelis (intermedia) and Daphne bholua (Jacqueline Postill) are some good examples. As with any shrub, make sure you can keep on top of the pruning.
• Try and reduce your usage of chemicals if you don’t already, eliminating their usage if you’re able to.
  • Lure ladybirds to your plot by planting some dill, carrots, celery, parsley and fennel and when the ladybirds come each one will eat up to 60 insects a day including aphids, leaf hoppers, mealy bugs, mites and others.
  • We know you can’t have a hose on site but if you’re able to bring a spray bottle to spray the bugs off, they rarely climb back on.
  • You’ll see a lot less slugs and snails if you place broken egg shells around the base of your crops, if growing in pots wrap some copper tape around the middle of your pot and try some companion gardening; fennel and rosemary are great slug deterrents.
  • Try making your own natural pesticides, take a look here for some good recipes.
• Try creating some homes for the wildlife; bee boxes, small stone and log piles for insects, compost for slow worms, nesting boxes for birds.
• If you bring children onto the site make sure they know the importance of looking after the wildlife.
• And like we’ve said before, chat to your neighbours and fellow plot holders to see if they have any tips of their own, and check out our companion planting guide below.

  When planting the above companion plants, try when possible to plant them in pots to avoid them taking over the plot, especially mint.

If you’re life away from your allotment is busy and you need to maximize what you have with the time you have, take a look at some perennial produce. Perennial just means you don’t need to grow from seed each year, so with some careful planning, you can plant some perennial produce (like rhubarb, raspberries, asparagus, blueberries, & kale) and more or less guarantee a crop for a good few years without an annual effort of planting. You’ll of course need to keep an eye on all crops, whether they’re annual or perennial and ensure they’re kept in check, but a visit of at least once a week should be sufficient during the season.