WooHoo!

Ok few questions

How am I best preparing the ground for planting veggies?

How long should it take?

what are easy to grow on a large scale for beginners?

The advice we were given for our long-neglected plot was

Dig a little at a time, and carefully to remove as many weeds as poss.
Plant as you go along, as long as you have cleared enough space.
Plan what you want to put in and where, also when it needs planting and dig areas of priority!
Oh and work out what soil/geology you are on (probably limestone!!) and plant things that are suitable :)
Potatoes are good for conditioning the soil and breaking it up, its not too late to get some in I don't think...

We've had ours 18 months now and its still taking a lot of taming.
My mum's took about 3 years to get on top of completely. :o

I know its not going to be straight forward, but by the sounds of it the allotment has been well looked after

That will make life a lot easier for you! :)

I hope so!

Welcome to the wonderful world of Allotmenteering Peaches.

You are very lucky indeed if your new plot has been well look after and there is still plenty of time to get things in I mean most of our tenders have to be protected from frost until mid to late May.

Decide if you are going to work the whole plot as one bed or split it into little beds with paths in between.

Normally for newbies and breaking up the soil potatoes would be ideal as Kitty says but you might find it hard to get seed potatoes now as most of the shops have sold out.

Just dig over the areas and get out as many weeds as you can you'll not get them all no matter how hard you try so don't beat yourself up over it lol.

Decide what you and your family like to eat and have a go at growing them everything is pretty easy to grow peas are fun and quick to shoot up as is with most things.

One thing I would say is make sure your plot is secure and I don't mean from thieves etc. but rabbits because those little critters will eat almost everything in fact what they don't get at first the pigeons will eat, so protect your young plants cabbage, lettuce (almost everything) from pigeons as well. You can use old wire nets/cages for this or pipe cut down to collars about 9 or 10 inches high and place them over your young plants.Hel.xxx.

Why not sign up to the plant and seed exchange and get some freebies to get you started ...http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/sheffieldplantandseedexchange/

thanks for that cal I might just do that

Courgettes are easy to grow and quick growing.
Sweetcorn as long as you grow quite a few together.
Radish, spinach and mooli grow really quickly.

James

Been to see it today, it already has a cherry tree and an apple tree growing, pretty well established too!

Peaches - which site are you on?

Greenfield lane - Doncaster