So you've got a plot, this long awaited piece of land and you suddenly realise you don't know the first thing about gardening, never mind thinning out your seedlings when you've got weeds coming up with them. This is a little guide to take you by the hand and gently let you know some of the terms, what you might need and what you should be doing.
First things first, you can't do anything with your ground without some tools to help you. The things I can't live without are my hoe, fork and a hand fork or trowel. To get you started a fork will do, you can dig over the ground with it, its lighter than a spade and thus easier on your muscles after a while digging. The hoe although you won't need it during the winter months will come in very handy from march onwards, the trick is to get weed seedlings when they are small, just hoe away slightly under the soil surface. If its a nice day you can leave the weeds to die in the sun, if as usual the rain looks not far away then its best to clear them up, otherwise they'll just root back in the soil. The hand fork/trowel comes in handy when it comes time to plant some of your seedlings, if you're lucky enough to have an established plot then the ground may have been improved and you could easily move the soil with your hand, but on the lovely clay soil that Scotland has a digging implement comes in very handy even on good soil. Other tools you can get as you need them, try out a neighbours tools and see if you prefer to dig with a spade, which style of hoe you prefer. A rake is useful too when preparing your seedbeds but at the start you can just as easily use the fork. Whatever you buy just make sure it feels comfortable, as light and long as you can get for the bigger tools, my hoe is extra long and made from aluminium I think, it's a joy to use, breezing through the weeds on a summer evening with little effort.
Next you'll be wanting to grow some plants, to do this you'll need a prepared seedbed. First you need to dig your ground, this should be at least as deep as the fork/spades blade and if your feeling really enthusiastic you could try double digging: this is digging twice the length of the forks tines and really helps plants get good rooting which equals yield. Depending on how much clay is in your soil you may be better off doing this with a spade, but I'll just say fork for convenience. As you've just got a plot and no idea of the sore backs, blisters and jungle that could be coming your way, you're feeling keen, not to dampen the mood too much but try a little double digging and save some for later. To double dig all you have to do is mark out the area you want to do, dig out a trench to your forks depth, this soil you can move to the end of the bed your digging, or you could leave in a wheelbarrow. If you've got any manure, compost, even just kitchen scraps then put some in and dig down to that 2nd forks depth (known as a spit) and break up the soil, mixing any compost into it. Next put the untouched soil from the next row into this first row and break up, this should leave the 2nd spit to add compost to and break up. Now just work back and forth along the rows and congratulate you and your sore back on you're first piece of double digging when you've done. Normal single digging is fine too, it doesn't improve the soil structure so much but is more achievable, just dig down that one spit, lift and break up. In the winter during digging you can leave these clumps to break up naturally with the frosts but during the growing season you'll have to break it up with your fork instead. If you've got a rake then rake it nice and even, take out the lumps and break them down; If not then make do with your fork and there you have it your seed bed.
And now for some plants, there are many types of veg you can grow, many require a bit of knowledge or good ground to grow well so I'll keep this to some of the more common crops. Potatoes are the easiest thing to grow especially on newly cultivated ground, you buy 'seed' potatoes from garden centres and the likes, not your local grocer. Seed potatoes are grown specially so they don't have any virus or disease in them. You can chit them, this is keeping them inside, somewhere frost free to develop little green shoots, use an eggbox and place it on your windowsill, just remember to label them. Once you've got your shoots forming on them or not if your impatient then march onwards is time to plant them, just follow then instructions for the planting depth and spacing on the packet, according to whether you've got 1st earlies, 2nd earlies or maincrop, the difference being the earlies are spaced closer together, they don't take as long to mature as the maincrop, but you also don't get huge potatoes from them. The potatoes grow underground and remember the potato is the only edible part of the plant, do not consume the tomato like berries that are sometimes produced!!! Check out the this RHS link for more info http://www.rhs.org.uk/Gardening/Grow-Your-Own/Veg-A-to-Z/Potatoes
Onions come in seed form, or more usually as sets, these are immature onions and are much easier to grow than seed so just focus on these. Each set produces one onion, unlike shallots that multiply, you'll want a good sunny spot to grow these. http://www.rhs.org.uk/Gardening/Grow-Your-Own/Veg-A-to-Z/Onions---shallots
Lettuce comes in various types and are very easy. If you sow every 3-4 weeks then you can have crops going all summer and autumn, you can sow these outside March through the summer It's easy to get a glut of these and very quickly they bolt (produce seed which means the flavour goes out the window), so when choosing look at the varieties and determine how much you go through. Each seed produces one lettuce do don't do too much at one sowing or you'll never get through them all, you could try growing a small lettuce like 'Tom Thumb' or find a packet labeled 'cut n come again'. These are extremely handy as you can grow a row of them with different varieties and simply cut an older leaf or two from each plant and make up the salad mix you want, alternatively you can hack all the leaves back and they'll regrow once or twice. http://www.rhs.org.uk/Gardening/Grow-Your-Own/Veg-A-to-Z/Lettuce
There are many other crops out there for you to try, have a look through a seed catalogue and see what inspires you. A good book to buy that gives excellent advice is Dr Hessayons vegetable expert, I started with it many years ago now, and there's many copies of it being sold on amazon for less than a pound (and if your at Mansewood go through the Easyfundraising route and it earns us money at no extra cost to yourself)
Now for some advice to keep the impending jungle at bay. In march the soil may be bare, but the temperature is heating up, the light levels are getting longer and the weeds are quickly germinating. It's a good buy to get a hold of some landscape fabric, you can get a pack of it for a couple of pounds in various shops although it may cost more in a garden centre. It's a black lightweight material that you can lay over any soil that your not using at the minute, once covered you won't get that crop of weeds germinating which means less work for you, just remember to weigh it down.
You'll soon be bored weeding but no sooner have you removed one and there's another to replace it. Try going down several times per week, you don't have to work hard, in the warmer months it's relaxing to go down in the evenings and do a spot of gentle weeding, interrupted by the many chats you're going to have with your neighbouring plotholders. If you've only got time to go down once per week then keep all non active beds covered as long as possible, once you've sown seed then it usually takes a week or so to come up, it's best to sow in rows rather than broadcast (where you throw seed randomly over an area), this way you can see a line of identical plants coming up and when the weeds inevitably appear you can tell which is the odd one out. Basically just try and get them when they're small, that 5minutes every time you're down makes a difference
Buy a notepad so you can keep notes of when you planted things, and when they're ready; draw a plan of your plot and keep a note of which varieties are where exactly, unless your Stephen Fry you will forget. Write down which varieties were successful, which runner beans produced the best crop and which potato you never want to grow again because it turned into mash soup whilst cooking. Keep notes so you can pass on your successes/errors to others and learn from them for the following year. Also remember your crop map will come in handy at the end of the year when you sit down to work out where things will go again, you need to rotate your crops to avoid the build up of pests and disease. Alternate between the 3 groups: roots (carrot, beetroot and potato...), brassica's (cabbage,cauliflower, broccoli, turnips kale...) and others (marrows, lettuce, beans...) and your ground should stay healthy.
Tracy Norman (Mansewood Allotments)
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