allotment for beginners | Baldock Allotment Association

So, it’s been a few months since we last caught up with Yvonne and Steve on their new plot. When we last met them, they had just acquired a shed on FreeCycle.

The shed was a 8ft x 6ft shed which Steve chopped down to make it 3ft x 4ft with a veranda! Steve and Yvonne assembled the shed in their garden before transporting it to their plot on a roof rack.

New felt on the roof and a lick of paint and it was good to go!

A recent addition has been a decking area at the front made from a free pallet.

In the meantime, their plot has continued to fill up with crops.

And they have enjoyed a good harvest

And now as autumn approaches, it all starts again with clearing ground and planting autumn onion sets and garlic.
Yvonne and Steve have done amazingly well in such a short space of time on their plot. Long may it continue!

In this series of articles we follow Yvonne and Steve during their first year as allotmenteers showing you what can be achieved with a bit of effort and hard graft.

New tenants, Yvonne and Steve took on their plot in mid April 2017. They had no previous allotment experience other than going to their father’s allotment with him when little. They chose a half plot on the Clothall Road site. The plot hadn’t been worked for many years, although a recent tenant had dug out outlines of beds.

The plot had been strimmed in readiness for letting by site rep, Martin Luker, but some weeds still remained.

Keen to get started, they made good progress very quickly and had dug over several beds within a couple of weeks.

A quick visit to the members’ shop and they were able to plant seed potatoes and onion sets and start some seeds off at home.

A week or so later and more beds were dug and a base laid for the shed, both of which were picked up for free after searching online.

Within a month, amazingly they had dug over the whole plot.

And were excited to see the first signs of growth as their seed potatoes made an appearance.

Yvonne and Steve have worked really hard over the month to get the initial digging completed. They have also followed sage advice and planted a little too so they can see signs of growth; a reward for all their hard work.

In the next instalment we’ll see what plans Steve has for the shed!

Tag: allotment for beginners

Starting from Scratch – Onwards and Upwards!

Starting from Scratch – A Year in the Life of a New Plot