Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Gardening with Ben. You'll go to
a podcast for all things green and growing. I'm Ben,
your allotment guide and here to help you cultivate your
garden and your passion for plants. Whether you're a seasoned
gardener or just starting out, this podcast is for you.
Each episode will dig into tips, tricks, and techniques to
make your garden and allotment thrive from planting, sewing, and growing.
We will share all the tips and add advice. We
will also have regular episodes talking about what we have
been up to on the Alltment. So sit back, grab
a brew and enjoy today's episode. Hey everyone, and welcome
back to Gardening with Ben. We're back after a busy
weekend down at the Allotment. Wow, we certainly got plenty
on and hopefully we'll be getting plented on next weekend,
So make sure you stay tuned for later in the
week when we'll talk about what we're hoping to get
done down there next weekend. Fingers crossed the snow don't come,
we'll have to see. But what are we going to
be talking about today? Well, today we're going to talk
about tips for new biz, Tips for new starters, on
allotments and sharing any advice from what I've learned over
the years of having an allotment on the best way
to start an allotment and to get it all in shape. Really,
so welcome to Gardening with Bennett. If you new, make
sure you do give us a follow up. These podcasts
do come out every single day at the moment, so yeah,
so we're going to be talking about how to get
started on on a whatment when you're looking at getting
an allotment or a piece of land when you wanted
to do your allotment. The biggest tip I can give
to having an allotment is to make sure that there
is water on site. Yes, they do cost more to
rent a year, like my plots one hundred pounds a year,
which is a lot of money when you think about it.
But some plots you can get like for twenty pounds
a year and stuff like that, but they don't come
with water and you'll think, oh, well, I can just
save it from my shared or save it from the
rain throughout the year, but trust me, it's never enough
rain to catch to be able to water your plants. Now.
I obviously have plenty of water, butts around my allotment
and try and catch as much rainwater as possible, especially
through the winter months to water because they turn our
water off at a sight like around now till around
it pulled time, So I need to save as much
as water as possible. And there was a year a
couple of years ago when we had a heat wave
and literally I were talking to people that had allotments
and they didn't have water on site and they were
struggling to keep things watered as it were too hot.
They'd ran out of water and they couldn't get any
more rain water to water the plants. They had to
bring water to the site with them to keep things
watered because they couldn't get enough rain to water. So
that is one of the main things I think that
you need to look for when you do get an
allotment if you're looking at getting one now. Obviously, once
you get your piece of land, you see it and
you think, wow, that's a mess, because trust me, they
never come in a good step. They always come looking
like a bomb site and full of weeds, full of rubbish, etc.
Like that. So the best way to get started on
allotment is strim it all down if possible, if you've
got a strimmer, strim it all down and cover it over.
Cover the full plot over with either black membrane, any tar, poling,
any weed pressing cardboard. Cover the plot over so that
no sunlight can get to the weeds to get them
to grow back. So cover it over and then you
can see the size of your plot and where to start. Basically, now,
I've had my plot twenty years and I've still not
got it all tided and done up as my main thing.
What I suggest is that you start at the bottom
and work your way back up the plot, and you
can do it over a number of years. Don't try
and do it all in one. Trust me, I've learned
from that mistake. Like when I first got my plot,
I got a rotivator and I rotivated it. One of
the worst things that I ever did was rotivated because
it just chops all the weeds up into hundreds more
and you'll get a load more weeds going back. The
best way to do it is dig it all out manually.
And yeah, you might say that's a big job in itself,
but trust me, if you've covered it over, most of
it will be dead and you'll just digging out the
roots of plants, and that way you can uncover a
bit at a time. We'd a bit, uncover a bit more,
we'd a bit, and once you've weeded it, you can
even cover it back over until you actually need it,
rather than leaving it all uncovered and all the weeds
start growing again. Because I've seen plots where people have
cleared them all within a weekend, literally in a weekend,
like fetched an army of people down or fetch to
JCB down, scrape off all the top and pilot at
the bottom, and they've been back full of weeds wear
in a few weeks and they end up giving up
the plot because they think it's an easy thing to do.
If you're thinking that it's easy to have an allotment,
trust me, it's not. It's a full time job in itself.
Hence why I go down every weekend. I'd go down
every day if I could, and I still probably wouldn't
be on top of it. There is a massive job
having an allotment, keeping it all tidy, watering all your seeds,
potting them all up, et cetera, et cetera. So yeah,
I don't advise to get a rotivator when you're first
doing it. You maybe want to get a rotavator after
you've dug it over to break up the soil, but
you need to get the roots out first before you
start using a rotivator, or you will get absolutely loads
more roots on the plot, and that is one thing
that you don't want. So obviously, once you've cleared it,
you need to start working out a plan of your allotment.
Have a look at where the sun comes up, see
where it goes down, where most of the plot is
covered in some that for the day. See how much
sunlight gets to certain areas. Then draw a plan. Draw
a plan of your a lot. Draw what you want
to grow aware and where you want it to grow.
And think about your paths as well. As you need
a lot of paths in between your beds and stuff.
Don't think that you should have massive beds. It's good
to have smaller beds and plenty of paths to go
around so that you can reach to the middle of
the bed and you can weed easy and keep things
clear and tidy. I did this. I used to have
big beds, but then I started making them smaller so
that I could get around them pretty easy. And now
all my beds are in place and all my paths
in place. I've got my lay out. I just have
to clear it every year and dig it over and
just sort out of the paths every year and do
it that way. And once you've got your beds bill
and you're on top of it, you can literally just
keep changing where you plant stuff every single year and
it's perfect pretty much. So obviously, like say, you need
to know where to grow things, whether it needs a
sunny spot or a shady spot. Have a look at
where the sun does shine on your plot. Then obviously
the next big thing for your plot is whether you
want a shed at a greenhouse. I highly recommend both
of them. However, I wouldn't go for a glass greenhouse
on an allotment because you don't know how safe the
plot is or whether people are going around and stuff
like that. And if a window smashes, you'll end up
with thousands of pieces everywhere, So never look getting a
glass greenhouse. I'd always go for the perspex one. And yes,
the wind can blow the perspects out, but what my
dad's done is screwed would either side of the panels
so that it won't come out at all, and it's secure,
it's down, it's in an open area, and he's never
had any damage on his greenhouse. It's not bent, it's
not buckled or anything like that. It's screwed down well
to the ground. It won't move at all. So I
always make sure that your greenhouse is secure. Obviously, I've
not got a greenhouse. I've built myself a shed out
of perspect because I'm like six foot five, so I
needed it tall. I used to have a greenhouse and
I used to find it awkward to get around it,
so I built myself a shed and did it that way. Obviously,
a sheds good to have because then if it is raining,
you can potter around in the shed and you can
have a brew and have a sit down, have a
chart out, store your seeds and stuff like that, but
never store any expensive tools on the allotment. Never put
a lock on your shed either, because if you put
a lock on your shed, then people think there is
something in there to steal, and that's when people break
into them and stuff like that. I've seen plenty of
people lock the sheds up and then like people just
break smash the shed up just to get into it.
If you yet, mate, so I don't have a lock
on my shed whatsoever. If somebody wants to go in
my shed, they can do. They'll get it anywhere, so
I might as well just leave it unlocked for people
just wondering. Like I say, I have nothing of any
value in my shed. It's only my cat food feedback
ap But yeah, and next up after obviously you're thinking
about a shadow or greenhouse, a polytonnel. If you're looking
at getting a polyton on it on your plot, don't
get one of these sort of lights, little squares, all
plastic type thing you usually find cheap at like one
hundred pounds for a smallish one. And they look like
little squares who either white or the green plastic. Because
these are absolutely rubbish, they shouldn't be allowed to sell them,
I don't believe, because they'll just they're just disintegrate, they
just rip when it's windy. They absolutely useless. They shouldn't
be allowed to sell them. If you're looking atgat a polytunnel,
look at the bigger brands like Northern Polytunnel, First Polytunnels,
all the polytunnel brands out there. Yes they are expensive,
but they steel poles and mine cost me five hundred pounds,
but mine's are twenty five foot one. You can get
smaller ones, but they are expensive. But trust my last years.
My polytunnel has been up now fifteen years and it's
still standing strong. I'm taping bits up because yes, the
plastic has started go on the folds, but it's still
standing and it's standing a lot longer than what would
another the cheaper ones would they just buckle, absolutely rubbish.
Next up is paths, some paving and stuff like that.
If you wanted to save money on your allotment, obviously
look around and see what freebies you can get. This
is when, obviously you know, become a skip finder. Yes,
you start looking at skips, start seeing what people are
throwing out, start checking out for people doing up the
gardens and stuff like that, because getting freebies for the
allotment is absolutely perfect. Now Facebook Marketplace obviously you can
get free stuff as well, and yes, keeping out for
greenhouses on there, keeping it out for sheds, keeping out
for paving slabs because if you get paving slabs for
your allotment, they're like gold trust Like if paving slabs
appeal on Facebook marketplace have gone literally straight away and
the perfect for paths. If you can lay all your
paths in paving slabs, get it done, because obviously that
it's easier to maintain, it's easier to sweep them down
and you won't get no weeds growing if you put
black membrane down underneath them and put that on top,
and it's more level to walk on and you don't
get McKey or anything like that. So yeah, look out
on Facebook, Marketplace or gum tree for free bears and
try and use them if possible. So yeah, that is
my basic tips for anyone that's planning on starting an allotment.
I hope that you found it useful. We'll talk about
more topics in podcasts to come, so stay tuned for that.
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So until next time, everyone, remember keep smiling, keep shining,
and keep gardening with Bet. Everyone, thank you for joining
me on this episode of Gardening with Ben. I hope
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