{"id":7416,"date":"2010-05-18T00:36:04","date_gmt":"2010-05-18T07:36:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/?p=7416"},"modified":"2010-05-17T08:59:21","modified_gmt":"2010-05-17T15:59:21","slug":"allotment-gardening-your-first-steps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/gardening\/allotment-gardening-your-first-steps\/","title":{"rendered":"Allotment Gardening your First Steps"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" title=\"Allotment creative commons from muggers http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/muggers\/1349911340\/\" src=\"http:\/\/farm2.static.flickr.com\/1005\/1349911340_06ca43f792_d.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"267\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>History of Allotments<\/strong><br \/>\nAllotments were first introduced in 1845 as field gardens for the landless poor. Originally intended to grow food Victorians thought it would &#8216;keep them from the evils of drink&#8217;. (A cool beer or glass of wine at the end of a session on the allotment is just the job now-a-days.)<br \/>\nIn 1908 the Small Holding and Allotment Act made it a duty of Local Authorities to provide allotments where there was a demand.<br \/>\nDuring both World Wars allotments were a vital source of food &amp; the number of allotments peaked in 1943 at 1.4 million. There is less than a quarter of that number now.<\/p>\n<p><strong>First Steps<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li> Time spent preparing a new plot is seldom wasted time. <a href=\"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/gardening\/good-planting-technique-for-good-plants\/\">Remove weeds<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li> Put in permanent structures like good paths, a compost bin, water butt and a shed.<\/li>\n<li> If the land slopes use raised beds or make a terrace.<\/li>\n<li> Arrange the beds so you can rotate crops (see below).<\/li>\n<li>Check the site and association rules.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Planting your Crops<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li> Grow what your family like to consume or use.<\/li>\n<li> Easy vegetables to start with include Potato, Leek and Runner Beans.<\/li>\n<li> Courgettes, Tomatoes and salad crops are only slightly more difficult.<\/li>\n<li> I would have an area for cutting flowers but that is my personal preference.<\/li>\n<li> Sow seed sparsely, thin out to avoid over crowding and do not sow too soon in the season.<\/li>\n<li> Give herbs there own area in the sun.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Crop Rotation<\/strong><br \/>\nDifferent plant groups do different things to the soil. Using 4 beds, rotate the following crops around so that after 4 years each bed has been used by each group.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li> Potatoes<\/li>\n<li> Legumes; Peas, Broadbeans, Other beans, mangetout etc<\/li>\n<li> Brassicas; Cauliflower, Cabbage, Sprouts, Broccoli etc<\/li>\n<li> Onions and roots<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Lettuce, Courgettes are neutral and can go anywhere. Soft fruit and rhubarb may go around the edges or in there own space.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>History of Allotments Allotments were first introduced in 1845 as field gardens for the landless poor. Originally intended to grow food Victorians thought it would &#8216;keep them from the evils of drink&#8217;. (A cool beer or glass of wine at the end of a session on the allotment is just the job now-a-days.) In 1908 the Small Holding and Allotment Act made it a duty of Local Authorities to provide allotments where there was a demand. During both World Wars&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/gardening\/allotment-gardening-your-first-steps\/\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,17,222],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-gardening","category-novice-gardeners"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7416\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}