Getting & Clearing Our Second Plot
7 min read - Too Long?
Bloody nora, what a year this turned out to be. As I said in the first allotment journal, the council only give out half sized plots now but you can have a plot per person in the house, or however they work it.
We didn’t know this when we first registered and my partner put her name down as soon as we realised. We never expected to ever get another plot as we’d heard there were lots of people on the waiting list.
We’d been on the waiting list at least a year but we were offered a really nice plot just before Christmas 2023. It had a really good shed and an IBC water tank on it. It was a full sized half plot but it was a right mess.
There was some lovely rhubarb already on it too. In the first two years we’d been on the allotment we’d barely seen anyone on the plot and we often said it’d be a good one to get. It’s funny how things work out at times.
Anyway…
"The council only give out half sized plots now but you can have a plot per person in the house, or however they work it."
Clearing the Plot Over Christmas
Christmas is a funny time now for us. My mum is a Jehovah’s Witness, my sister died almost 10yrs ago, and my partners mum died not long after my sister – so if it wasn’t a strange time before, it certainly is now…
So we decided to start clearing the ground on Christmas day that year, and by New Years Eve we’d broken the back of it all. It was a lot of work but different to the other plot as the ground wasn’t hard at all.
We just got stuck in, cleared the old wooden beds, big weeds, plastic etc, and just started to turn over the soil. We felt we had to do it over Christmas or we’d never have been able once the new year started.
"We decided to start clearing the ground on Christmas day that year, and by New Years Eve we’d broken the back of it all."
Digging It All Over
Once we’d cleared all the big stuff on top of the soil it was just a case of beginning to turn it all over. I say just, it’s a big plot, and even though the soil was good in places it’s still a lot of digging however you look at it!
We marked out roughly two metre square sections and just started digging over a section over at a time. The top of the plot had some really nice soil, crumbly and easy to turn over, so we got off to a flying start!
The lower half of the plot had some really nasty weeds in. Like I say, we’d hardly seen the previous owners on there, so the weeds had had good opportunity to really root down.
I know there’s lots of talk of leaving weeds in now but I can’t see it myself. Like I say, this site is for certain people that might have heard some of this information but I’m not buying some of it – especially when clearing a plot.
Clearing Space For Greenhouse
We need a space on this plot for germinating seeds. At the moment we’re using one of those cheap green greenhouses. We’re not too fussed about growing in a greenhouse, so really, it’s a potting shed we’re after.
We cleared a space for our temporary greenhouse/potting shed, got the ground “level” and piled up all the weeds to get ready for a fire. It really is satisfying to see the plot take shape.
Someone gladly took all the old astro turf that was on the plot (we were glad to see the back of it) and we soon had all the old wood and weeds burning. Took a few hours and we stunk for a few days.
That was it, we were done with clearing the plot. It was time to start getting something on the soil in time for Spring. I roughly marked out our four feet beds and two feet paths, and got on with putting down manure.
Preparing The soil
Improving the soil has slowly become my favourite job on the allotment, and we’re now using cover crops quite a lot and hope to use them more and more. The manure was there fortunately, so we used it.
About twenty wheelbarrows later we had enough and began to spread out the manure ready to leave on the soil over the rest of the winter. It was a crazy end to the year as we weren’t expecting another plot but we managed.
All we had to do was start planning for next year but there was still another twist to come…
"Improving the soil has slowly become my favourite job on the allotment, and we’re now using cover crops quite a lot and hope to use them more and more."
Lessons Learned
- You ever know what’s around the corner.
- We never thought we’d get another plot, so put your name down.
- Clearing a plot is always going to be hard work but always satisfying.
- Mark out your beds, it saves time in the long run.
We thought we were stuck with one small plot but turns out you can both put your names down, so do it.
Christmas 2024 we were offered another really big half plot with a shed and IBC water tank. We got on with clearing it over Christmas and New Year which took about a week. It was hard work but we were basically all set for Spring in time for the New Year.
All that we needed to do was put our feet up and plan for next year…
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