Just received the key to my allotment but what now?!

Dantonio

Hi, having been on the waiting list for a couple of years I have just been up to look at my new 100m2 allotment in Powerstown (near Tyrellstown) , Fingal. The key arrived in the post yesterday! This is a brand new launch of allotments with about 200 or so plots and nobody has had time to plant a thing yet although there were a few people up there today having a look about.

The whole site seems very damp at the moment with relatively loose soil. The allotments have a patchy and yellow grassy growth as if they have been sprayed some weeks ago.

I have no prior experience whatsoever but am really keen to get stuck into this. I want to do the proper research and have been reading through lots of websites and forums.

However, I have received no advice, instructions or rules from the parks department just a map and a key, (not that I’m complaining) but I’m a bit confused and would really appreciate some advice on the following:

• What codes of conducts or allotment etiquette I should be aware of, if any?

• Where should I start and what needs to be done before I plant?

• How can I determine the soil type and is this important?

• What tools will I need? (Fork, Hoe, Trowel, Spade, Bucket…?)

• Any other advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

The Sweeper

Quick things - set up a compost area at one end, neatly - look up timber or plastic-constructed compost bins. This means you can always dispose of junk and cuttings at your site instead of having to cart them away. It also gives you an on-site source of compost! Divide the site into beds and figure out what you'll use as walkways in between - e.g. leave it as the grass, or lay over timber / brick / pieces of carpet (allotments don't have to look beautiful, but neat and weed-free is fairest on the other gardeners).

Test soil with a PH testing kit from a garden centre.

Allotment etiquette - don't let yours go feral and turn into weeds, because then the seeds blow all over everyone else's allotment and take root.

What's your access to your plot like - how closely to it can you park your car?

red herring

Turn it into a veg patch! with potatoes.. mr tayto would be proud.

Dantonio

Thanks "The Sweeper". Thats some good advice.

I can park the car about 30 metres from the plot.

What about storage etc? Would it be normal for people to put a small shed or some kind of lock up box on a plot of 100m2?

I'm going start planning my layout with walkways and compost heap.

What about rasised beds bordered with wood? These seem good?

Thanks again!

Thanks "Red Herring" too!

fodda

The first year is always the worst as regards hard graft.

Potatoes are a good idea because they will really break the ground up and you can take care of any weeds without disturbing them.

Maybe leave one patch of your allotment and plant lots of peas and beans and cabbage cauliflower and sprouts in this area ( they wont be bothered by weed and grass growth so much) and then plant spuds everywhere else, then next year you will have a place for spuds (where peas and beans have been) and the best of broken up ground for any kind of veg where this years spuds have been.

As regards tools....Buy once Buy wisely!! Forget your DIY store garden fork and garden spade, instead if want a spade and fork buy a sturdy one with a long ash handle from the farmers store, maybe twice the price but will last. I swear by these hoes that you get from places on this website www.chillingtonhoes.com i find them much better to use but there is a knack to them.

If you go for raised beds this is a better system but more expensive, a lot more work initially and your plot will require walk ways around the raised beds so the plot may not be as productive.

Most important thing is have fun its very addictive and a very worthwhile hobby:)

Dantonio

Thanks so much "Fodda" ; thats the kind of advice I was hoping to get! I'm heading back up to have another look about before I get grafting.

Any more advice from anyone would be greatly appreciated!

looksee

Could you persuade a few other people to get together to hire a rotavator and maybe buy manure/compost in bulk to get you started.

You could certainly put up a shed/storage box, but I would suggest you carry your basic tools in a sack or similar in your car to start with and see how security works out, especially if you are going to get good ones.

As people get to know each other a bit there should be a good community spirit and people will look out for each other.

Belfast

try these they are very disease visitant spuds and taste good
SARPO AXONA (MAINCROP) ORGANIC
Organic

A very floury variety, no need to add butter or milk when mashing, high yields and good storage potential. As well as good blight resistance, it seems unbothered by slugs, wireworms and viruses generally. Axona and Mira should be your first choice to grow organically.


Demand for Sarpo varieties continues to rise as a result of its great taste and excellent blight
resistance. However we are having difficulty keeping up with demand, therefore we strongly advise you order early, to be guaranteed supplies for the coming season. Sarpo are distributed
exclusively by Mr Middleton.
http://www.mrmiddleton.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=271&category_id=54&keyword=SARPO&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=2

or
SARPO MIRA (EARLY MAINCROP) ORGANIC
Organic

Sarpo has unprecedented blight resistance, high yields of tasty, floury tubers in a range of soil types, vigorous weed suppressing foliage and long storage. In tests, tubers do not appear to be affected by slugs.

A real all rounder for cooking.

Demand for Sarpo varieties continues to rise as a result of its great taste and excellent blight
resistance. However we are having difficulty keeping up with demand, therefore we strongly
advise you order early, to be guaranteed supplies for the coming season. Sarpo are distributed
exclusively by Mr Middleton.
http://www.mrmiddleton.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=259&category_id=53&keyword=SARPO&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=2

The Sweeper

Yep, you can put a lock-up shed on it - but beware, vandals and thieves can target allotments, and your nice, expensive garden tools may get knocked off one night by a bunch of bastards determined enough to take a crowbar to your padlock. If you have a shed on it, use it to store things like pots, fertilisers and plant food, but I wouldn't be leaving your chillington hoes and good garden forks in there, in case they're knocked off.

30m is nice and close to the car, but makes it a bit difficult to get manure or mushroom compost delivered in bulk - which is always cheaper than buying by the bag. You'd have to clear what was delivered that day, if you had it dumped onto a polythene sheet in the carpark, for instance!

Tools - long handled rake, garden fork, digging shovel and mulch shovel (more like a large scoop - excellent for shovelling compost etc. in bulk as you're getting started), hoe (get a good one, cheap ones aren't worth buying), a good bucket (heavy duty plastic bucket with a strong handle) and a couple of short handled tools - digging trowel especially.

The bucket - when I'm weeding, the weeds go into the bucket, and the bucket then gets tipped over the compost heap. If I don't have a bucket to hand, I fill large, plastic plant pots instead. It's a little thing, but it saves you clearing up the weeds twice - once when you pull them, and a second time when you've to gather up the pile you pulled to dump them.

Raised beds - depending on their composition, raised beds can dry out quickly. Possibly not a big problem in Irish weather, but you never know. Where's the nearest source of water on the site? (If any?) Source of water is also important if you want to use liquid seaweed or fish emulsion plant feeds - they need to be diluted before pouring. If there's no water to be had, you could always throw up a small shed and run a feed off it into a water storage butt, just for diluting the plant food!

In terms of what you can do with the allotment - anything goes really. I worked on a friend's allotment in the UK, and one of his neighbours had planted a cherry tree and cultivated a lawn and a park bench - that's all that was on the allotment; beautiful mature cherry tree, billiard table lawn, and a park bench under the tree. Him and his missus (older couple in fairness) used to come and picnic there. I thought it was quite sweet.

Dantonio

Thanks very much sweeper (and Belfast and Looksee!). Thats some really usefull advice!

Luckily, I have an unwanted small garden shed available to me. Also, each allotment has a water tap so thats handy.

I'm working my way through a book on allotments at the moment and have downloaded a few documentaries.

I'm hoping others will have made some progress with their allotments over the weekend so I can see how they have started off. I drove past yesterday and somebody had a mini digger in theirs!

Fallen Buckshot

I would recommend some soil amendments (perlite) for example if its too boggy and manure/compost so you wont need any fert to store there and rent a tiller to work it all in properly and tear any weeds/grass out theres realy no need for storage once you get it established just carry a hoe/spade/rake with ya when you go deffo a + on a compost area.

Meinau67

Dantonio,

as Looksee suggested, I'd be in to club for a rotavator rental.
From what I see from your pics, you're not far away from my plot. #85.

I'm a rookie too in terms of crops and heavy plants.
I'll have to call Fincoco this Tuesday as the key was missing from the enveloppe. just got the map and letter.
Delighted after 3 years of waiting list.....

cheers

fodda

The plot or plots will still need to be dug over before the rotavator otherwise the rotavator will just bounce along the ground and do very little.

The chillington hoe is far easier than a spade to dig with but there simply is no answer to hard graft at first.

EXCEPT ! If you are going to club together to get a rotavator then what you could do is club together to also hire a mini-digger to dig the ground over then rotavate it afterwards OR see if you can get a local farmer who has a powerful tractor with a rotavator which could do the whole lot in one go.

This is a virgin plot and the ground simply has to be prepared whether it be by you or if it was farmland and the farmer would have to plough/rotavate and harrow the land before planting.

The first year is always the hardest.:)

splintdrift

Hi
Good luck with your new gardening project
<SNIP>

looksee

splintdrift wrote: »

Hi
Good luck with your new gardening project
<SNIP>

You joined just to advertise?

rolion

hi,
how did you requested or got them from Fingal Co Co !?
tks,

Meinau67

The powerstown road one is owned by FingalCoCo. I contacted them 2/3 years ago.
There are also a few private one for rental.

lucy2010

Hi
Best of luck OP with the allotment. I have never heard of allotments in Ireland & I think its a savage idea. Im lucky enough to have a monster garden but its great to see big empty spaces going to good use. My area is a hive of open space & I wish my council would do something like this on the land.
best of luck & many a happy day on your new land.

Elektra6

Hi guys, for any of you in Powerstown Allotments, please check out the following link to a facebook page I set up for those who have sites up there.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=116077418425304

Please join the group, so we can share ideas and tips, especially for us first timers.
Thanks,
E!

Murt10

I met two blokes up in Powerstown yesterday. They were there about the water (or lack of it).

Apparently, their company installed the underground irrigation system initially. The poles that divide the plots were installed later and the company doing this was unaware of the underground pipes and this is why we have been having such problems with the water.

The pump was also vandalized at some stage as well.



Murt

looksee

Get something like a dustbin. make a hole in the lid and turn it over to act as a funnel - put a concrete block in it to stop it blowing away, you would then have a binful of water most of the time.

Murt10

Just returned from the plots.

All the sheds have been broken into. I spoke to two people affected. One had one tool stolen, the other nothing taken.

Everything messed up and thrown around.

Also, the pidgeons/crows have had a field day on all the brassica. I have been more or less cleaned out, despite having put light netting over them.



Murt

paddy147

This place sounds and looks more like a complete waste of money and an absolute joke from what I have seen and read,both here and elsewhere.

Murt10

paddy147 wrote: »

This place sounds and looks more like a complete waste of money and an absolute joke from what I have seen and read,both here and elsewhere.

Your opinion and you are entitled to it, but what have you got to back it up?

Are there any plots in Dublin that are immune from dumb-ass vandals and thiefs?

Perhaps you can point out some place where plots are available, which is cheaper, as accessable and has soil that is as fertile as Powerstown.

Private plots, at least any that I have looked at in the past, are much much more expensive. In fact, any that I have seen charge a multiple of what we are charged.

Private plots are held purely at the discretion of the owner of the land. Next year he may decide to evict everyone or to double the rent and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it.

Where is the other place that that you have read the bad reviews on Powerstown?

I am well satisfied with Powerstown. It is only finishing its 1st year and, as with any new project, there are bound to be some teething troubles. I regard it as exellent value for money, as do most of the other people that I have met up there.


Murt

paddy147

Murt10 wrote: »

Your opinion and you are entitled to it, but what have you got to back it up?

Are there any plots in Dublin that are immune from dumb-ass vandals and thiefs?

Perhaps you can point out some place where plots are available, which is cheaper, as accessable and has soil that is as fertile as Powerstown.

Private plots, at least any that I have looked at in the past, are much much more expensive. In fact, any that I have seen charge a multiple of what we are charged.

Private plots are held purely at the discretion of the owner of the land. Next year he may decide to evict everyone or to double the rent and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it.

Where is the other place that that you have read the bad reviews on Powerstown?

I am well satisfied with Powerstown. It is only finishing its 1st year and, as with any new project, there are bound to be some teething troubles. I regard it as exellent value for money, as do most of the other people that I have met up there.


Murt

My girlfriend,who is a fully qualified hortaculturalist,knows 2 people who got plots out there,and they now want out of it,due to the state of it,how its run and managed and the vandalism going on,also an article about it in a local dublin newspaper a few months back by 1 angry allotment owner out there.



Let me see here,yes I can,in North County Dublin

250 square meter allotment plot,allready fully rotivated by tractor and done for when we were ready to do something with our allotment,an 8 x 6 shed provided,full runing water,car park space beside each allotment and windbreak netting too.As much free hay and fresh manure and shale as you can possibly use and ever need.We can grow fruit trees too.

No vandalism or scumbags at all and infact its a very quite yet secure site too.Regular allotment BBQ,s and get togethers for all the allotment owners to get to know each other and local farmers and food producers come along with market stalls to sell their produce too as these events.We also had live music and food and drinks were in plenty supply too.The last one was an absolute cracker,we even had 2 radio stations and also a Swiss TV crew over to report on it.:)

Spidermany

Paddy147, mind me asking where and how much?

redser7

Is that Turvey? I've been on the list for 5 years now and am still about 100th in line for a spot!!! Someone messed up my application I think :mad:

dfbemt

Spidermany wrote: »

Paddy147, mind me asking where and how much?

And me too.

Site looks lovely. The swing in the pic gives it a lovely family feel.

Would be very interested in finding out more if you could reply or pm?