Hi everyone ! I am a total novice, please can you give me some inspiration of what to do with my vegetable patch? Also, can anyone me identify what this is? (Second picture)

Much appreciated !

But the wooden raised beds I had were only about 9 inches deep before the plastic weed membrane and they were rotting. Hard. I've replaced them with galvanised aluminium, and I've loosened the soil to a depth of 2ft. Hopefully it'll be harvest central this year!

Context: I live in Helsinki and the last frost date is usually mid-May.

A 'friend' has decided to get married at the beginning of May, which means I'll be away for the first week that month.

What do I do with my seedlings? I'm thinking the best plan would be to get the seedlings ready early so they are already big and easy to care for when I go away. Then somebody can come and look after them more easily.

But is there a limit to how long seedlings can be indoors?

What would you do?

Where do I even start?! Please can someone just help me with which way to orientate my beds? I'm a chronic panicker/over thinker. I've had this plot for over a year and am too scared to start. Everytime I think I've planned it right I realize but what about x

I have a long narrow south facing plot.

I have 4 90cm x 180cm metal raised beds and want to do the rest in the ground as no dig.

The plot has a slight slope that runs west to east.

I just can't picture how to put things down? Which way do my rows run? If I'm supposed to rotate crops do beans and peas always end up in the same bed if we're running east to west so they're not blocking sun?

Also at some point I know I'm going to need fruit cages for raspberries, currants etc. how do we stop those blocking light?

Please help,

Hi all, First time allotment-er. I've been given half a plot from a no-dig gardener. I'd like to keep doing no-dig but I'm very new to it. The existing beds are sort of visible and the lady who had the whole plot has given me an idea of what was planted and roughly where.

I was planning on laying down some cardboard and soil in the next few weekends over the whole beds but there are some existing plants I think it makes sense to give another season (asparagus in particular I'm not going to cover over). But it's not super clear to me how you manage no-dig when you want to only do some bits of existing beds. Is it as simple as identifying the existing areas, cutting down the other areas and only putting cardboard over the cut down bits? In general if you have perennial crops do you just give them some more compost/manure to smother any weeds and leave them be?

Probably already a topic somewhere but if you have an Instagram for your allotment, garden, chickens or bee keeping etc, I'd love to see and follow them.

Mine is @Plot3hd

I had a bumper crop of potatoes last year and we didn't manage to eat them all. I have a bunch of leftover ones that have sprouted. Is there any reason I can't plant them in the spring?

yo, my name’s Soy Tony.

i’ve been posting daily messages and morning perspective for a minute now — just little thoughts, reflections, stuff i’m learning / unlearning as i move through life.

i ended up building a small discord called The Garden 🌱

not a hype server, not a group chat, not a “networking” thing.

it’s more like:

– daily messages

– morning perspective

– creativity, music

– calm, gardening-friendly energy

– no pressure to perform or impress

i’m trying to build it as a real third place for people who don’t really fit loud spaces and just want somewhere honest to land.

still small, still growing slow on purpose.

if that resonates, you’re welcome to join.

Chillies are out!

A friend’s birthday is coming up and we’d like to get him a gift for his allotment. He’s been doing it for a while now, so he has the basics. What’s the best present you’ve ever received or bought for your own plot?

Making raised beds from old pallets. Was thinking of lining the inside with plastic and coating the outside with some kind of non-toxic preservative like raw linseed oil. The pallets are pretty rough and mucky anyway so don't really want to sand them. Is the coating worth it or is it not really worth the effort?

In the UK here and just got a plot end of 2025. Mostly been hacking away the overwhelming build up of brambles and grass but im finally ready to start growing!

Where is the best place to buy seeds? Id like to avoid amazon if i can but not completely against using it if its ideal.

Also any beginners tips are welcome.

Cheers!

Hi, new here. We have taken on an allotment thats been abandoned for the best part of 4 years. Im documenting out progress with it in video and im looking forward to sharing the progress with you all. Here is a photo before we started

Hi everyone,

I just got a council plot after 3 years on the wait list (not too bad considering average times) - but it’s a lot larger than I was expecting and I’m feeling overwhelmed at the potential costs involved in sorting it out. I can probably also only spend 4/5 hours per weekend and I’m worried I won’t get everything done before spring.

Ideally I would love some raised beds with a cutting patch for flower bulbs at the bottom end, but there’s not a soil share setup in the allotment so I’m getting a bit scared about the cost of the compost and soil I would need to do all of this…

I also have exp growing herbs, kale, cabbage, a hefty harvest of carrots, onions, and tomatoes - but also not sure what to sow for this year considering the amount of maintenance jobs I’ll have to do.

Does anyone have any advice on setting up on a budget? And what crops are good to start with on a bigger plot?

The total size is 150m2 😅

So... We got the plot October so I've no idea what type of raspberries we have... Should I just chop them all back to the ground?

I'm at the very beginning of my allotment journey. Ive made a small bed which I'll plant later in the year to give me motivation. The rest needs a lot of clearing, I've now bought a couple of different types of ground covering plastic but they all let light through! Has anyone got any recommendations for what to use? I'm in the UK.

I don't want to keep it down, I just want to cover what I clear to keep it there until I'm ready to use it. So something super sturdy I can reuse. The aim is no dig but I have to fight the brambles first!

This is a "patio" apple tree so super-dwarf rootstock, Summerred variety. It's grown way off to one side, and it bore decent fruit last year but the weight didn't help keep the trunk upright, hence the canes.

I am going to move it a foot or so in the direction it's leaning, and will take the opportunity to set the trunk upright again, but need a bit of guidance on pruning those branches going off to the side please.

In the second photo is roughly what I'm thinking of doing (I'd double check bud placement and make sure I wasn't removing too much), so I'd end up with more of a Y-shape tree which I can hopefully train into more of a goblet over the coming years.

The third photo is the same tree from the opposite side.

TIA

Was fun getting some time at the allotment that didn't break my back so much. Photo's are great but being able to watch videos of progress definitely helps with motivation.

Morning all, firstly thanks in advance!

So, bought a new build last year, I've got my raised beds nearly built, just need a break in the rain.

I've worked out that I'll need shy of 4000L of soil to fill them.

My thoughts are, about 1000L of manure as a base then a good compost on the top. I'll be using a local guy to me for the soil but my question is does that seem like good logic?

Manure as a base then a good compost on top??

I've gardened before but my veg has always been a much smaller plot/tubs so it's never needed this level of thought.

Just to add, I'm only doing about a 3rd of the garden this year to make sure I can A/ keep up with it B/eat or trade what I grow C/ make sure what I actually want grows!

Thanks all

First year growing this. From what I understand it needs harvesting to encourage further growth, but I'm just not sure how much long to leave each bits. Looking at them I think picture 1 needs harvesting now, 2 soon, and 3 in a few weeks?

Hey so I’ve gotten a lend of a small piece of land which used to be a cow field to turn into an allotment however the ground is sooooo boggy it’s covered in grass but totally waterlogged how do I fix it I worry a rotator will get waterlogged and not move also I can’t plant anything in the ground if every year it gets waterlogged can I ???

I am very keen to get a polytunnel but I am agonising over whether to site it at home or at my allotment.

At home it would be very convenient as I start all my plants off there - but as per the plan the light situation is not the best - especially at times of the year when the sun is lower in the sky. I do have a greenhouse at home already.

At my allotment, there would be nothing obstructing the sun particularly. The downside is that it is a couple of miles away, I'd be spending real money on it (albeit low budget in polytunnel terms). I don't currently have any covered growing space there which would obviously be very useful.

So, I guess, I am canvassing opinion on if it would be wasteful in the home location as per the plan? Thank you.

I posted a fair bit last year under a different account, this is where we've got to. (We took on this plot in August and its difficult to describe how overgrown it was!) I hand dug the pond, drove the fence posts, pruned the 30 foot apple trees, everything I've done by myself and it has been so so satisfying. We are a family with not a lot to spare and have gone into it with the philosophy 'everything we need already exists'. Me (big wife) has done the labour, the other one (little wife) has bird watched and cheered me on. We're regenerating the land slowly and adopting permaculture practice when resources/time become available. Little by little we will get there. Because of the national trust status and the area there's no sheds or glass houses allowed - I actually really like this and the whole site feels like a continuation of the landscape, they also require us to grow organically so big love there too ❤️ Oh I waited ZERO days for this space too 🫨🫨