Advice for beginners
Home page   How to contact us How to get to us News Rules Judging plots A short history of the Society Useful links: Compost bin offers Barking & Dagenham Havering BBC gardening website basic gardening advice growing fruit and vegetables organic gardening Guardian newspaper Guide to growing your own 'UK gardeners plant vegetables' (article) Henry Doubleday Research Institute (HDRA) composting advice heritage seed library organic gardening catalogue Recyclenow web site composting guide The Royal Horticultural Society composting advice the RHS gardening calendar watering advice Seed suppliers Dobies DT Brown Kings Marshalls Seeds of Italy Thompson & Morgan Soft fruit and fruit trees Ken Muir Tool and equipment suppliers (online): Agriframes (fruit cages, netting) Blackberrylane.co.uk (Glaser Tools) BTCV (slashers) Harrod Horticultural (equipment) Getdigging.co.uk (hoes, azadas) Tooled-up.com (spades, forks, mattocks) Tool and equipment suppliers (local): B&Q at Roneo Corner Romford Tools	This advice is intended for new members of the Society who need some advice on getting started. It should help anyone get to grips with their plot in the shortest possible time. How to clear an overgrown plot of brambles of couch grass tools check list for clearing Basic tools and equipment you'll need for cultivating your plot Start composting How to clear an overgrown plot Many plot holders have to clear all or part of their land when taking it on for the first time. The most usual problem on our site is getting rid of brambles which have grown into the plot and then after that, getting rid of couch grass. Unless you have a lot of time and energy do not try and clear your plot in one go.. Brambles - cut down the plants using as long handled tool as possible. Ideally a long handled slasher , but a spade will do the job if wielded at an angle downwards. Don't work in wet weather (to avoid tools slipping from your grip) and wear long sleeves, trousers, boots and stout gloves. Another (but slower) way to clear brambles is to use a pair of long handled loppers and cut each bramble shoot down to ground level. Whatever method used, wear thick gloves and use eye protection in case a bramble stem hits your face. If you are wielding a long handled slasher, be VERY careful of people around you and especially of anyone walking up behind you. When you have cut down the foliage and stems, the next step is to get as many bramble roots as possible out of the ground. This can be done with a spade but the easiest way to get bramble roots out is to use a "grubbing mattock" . Smaller and easier to wield than a pick-axe, a grubbing mattock has a short chopping blade and usually a cutting blade as well which also makes it ideal for dealing with tree roots if you have to get any of those out of your plot. But whenever you use a mattock be sure to wear safety footwear. Grubbing mattocks can be purchased locally at B&Q stores and Romford Tools. As you work, pile up all the cut brambles and bramble roots and leave to dry out for a few weeks, then burn them (but please take note of the Society's rules 7.2 and 7.2.1 on fires). If you keep the ash dry you can use it later as a potash fertilizer. Couch grass - Also known as twitch grass, Elymus repens is a very invasive and persistent weed. It has strong underground stems (rhizomes) from which new shoots are produced in spring and autumn that quickly produce tufts of leaves and yet more rhizomes. Resist the urge to rotavate your land if couch grass is present. Rotavating just chops up the roots and spreads them around the site. The most effective (but definitely non-organic) way of eradicating couch grass is by using glyphosate weed killer sprayed on the grass stems when it is actively growing. However these products are not selective so care is needed to prevent spray landing or drifting on to other cultivated plants and causing damage. If you want to garden organically or otherwise object to using weed killer then you can carefully dig over your plot and tease out every piece of couch grass you find. But you will almost certainly leave some small fragments behind so you will have to keep removing the new growth for the first few years. Make sure you do not compost the pulled up couch grass - its very resilient and can survive in the edges of heaps; its best to dry it out and burn it later. If you are not able to dig your ground over and pull out all the couch grass, and want to avoid using weed killer, another option would be to lay black plastic or weed control fabric over your ground to suppress the weeds and weaken them to the point they fail. However this can take up to two years to work properly with perenial weeds (such as couch grass) so its not a quick option. Tools needed for clearing an overgrown allotment protective clothing, inc thick gloves, eye protection and steel toe capped boots or wellies long handled slasher grubbing mattock or heavy duty hoe (azada) or garden spade long handled loppers Basic tools and equipment you'll need for cultivating your plot As a minimum you will probably need the following: a digging garden spade (stainless steel or steel) a digging fork ( take care with stainless steel forks - the tines can snap!) a hand trowel and hand fork garden twine and short bamboo canes (for setting out rows) hoe (Dutch and / or draw) for weeding rake watering cans tub trug(s) stout gloves Additional tools border spade (great for digging narrow trenches and planting out - easier than a hand trowel) wheelbarrow (the more you grow, the more compost you'll make and the more shifting around you'll do. If you leave your barrow on the site be sure to paint your plot number on it ...)   Start composting Its never to soon to start composting. Check out the money saving offers on both the Havering and Barking and Dagenham council websites. Get at least two bins for your plot (paint your plot number on the lid and sides) and start putting in all your green waste from the plot (not the couch grass!). Bring your shredded paper waste from home and all your vegetable peelings (not onions though - too high a risk of 'white rot' disease.) Mixing shredded paper and kitchen waste makes great compost. There should be no need to add compost accelerator, just a bit of soil added occasionally to the bin will speed up the process nicely. For detailed advice visit the RHS website by clicking here.