New members

A message to new plot-holders

All new members receive a welcome pack, including the rules of the Trap Ground Allotment Association (TGAA); please read these. If either now, or at any time in the future, you have any enquiries or problems, please do not hesitate to ask for help from any of the elected members of the committee. They, and any of the long established allotment holders, will be most willing to offer help and advice.

If you are a newcomer to allotment gardening, you may be surprised at how much time and effort is involved during the growing season. A plot left untended for only a week or two can easily revert to wilderness. We are all dependent on our neighbours. Rampant weeds rapidly spread and seed themselves far and wide. If your newly acquired plot looks untended our advice is to clear it completely and then to bring it back under cultivation row by row.

Tackling weeds

There are various stratagems for preventing the weeds from reasserting themselves including regular strimming, mowing, spraying or covering with black plastic. We do not recommend using carpets as these encourage rats. They are also difficult to dispose of. We have a range of equipment available to members including a strimmer, a flail, a rotavator and several mowers. These are kept in our shed by the meadow gate. Members of the elected committee have keys. A small charge is made to cover the costs of fuel and maintenance. Instructions are given by the committee members, and are also posted in the shed. Paths and boundaries are also the plot-holders’ responsibility and may need friendly negotiation with plots next door. Paths should be one metre wide to allow proper maintenance by the volunteers who undertake our mowing. Impassible patches of nettles and brambles are havens for rabbits and other vermin.

Skipping

We order a skip for rubbish collection, usually during the winter months. You can collect the non-bio-degradable rubbish in large plastic bags, and then either take them home to dispose of, take them to the Redbridge municipal tip or use the skip when it is available.

Don’t be discouraged. You have committed yourself to the most rewarding of hobbies in one of the most delightful locations in Oxford. But if you discover that, for any reason, the Trap Ground allotments are not for you, please let one of the lettings secretaries know as early as possible. There is always a waiting list.

Caring for a new plot: advice for beginners

Many people each year eagerly take up allotment gardening with high hopes. But, within a couple of seasons, they give up, disillusioned, leaving only jungle behind them. Usually, they have simply not taken into account the time and regularity of attention that an allotment demands. They have often been defeated through mistakes made at the very start.

Preparing the ground

Unless you are very lucky, your new plot will have been out of cultivation for a few months. The first job, therefore, and one which will determine your success over the coming seasons, is to prepare the ground. If you start in the summer, you may be faced with what looks like impenetrable jungle. Do not despair. Grown weeds can be easily slashed back or burnt off. If you start in early spring, most of the perennial weeds will have retreated underground and the annual ones hardly sprouted. Do not be taken in. In either case the land will need prompt, drastic attention.

Using a range of tools

If you like digging and have plenty of time, start digging. Otherwise, to remove surface growth, use a strimmer or old-fashioned hand scythe or sickle to do the job adequately. If the problem has got to the point of a mass of bramble roots and nettles, we suggest that you use the Association’s motor flail, and then dig out the roots. The flail will cope with almost anything but not metal, wire, carpet, plastic sheeting, or netting! Previous plot-holders may well have improvised all manner of cloche, cold frame or fruit cage, the wreckage of which may now lurk half buried on your land. Before using any mechanical equipment, make sure you comb the land for dangerous obstacles; they can inactivate and damage machines causing frustrating delays and expense. Flails, mowers and strimmers fling debris far and wide, so do keep spectators well clear and protect yourself - your legs, eyes, etc. Do keep safety in mind at all times. We recommend you wear protective goggles and sturdy boots and keep everyone else a good 10 metres away from the action. Instruction sheets for the machines are in the shed; if you are not really sure how to use them, please do ask one of the committee members.

Planning your plot

Decide next how much land you can really cultivate in your first year. If you are going to have plenty of time throughout the summer, you might think of bringing the whole plot under cultivation in one go. In this case, the whole area should be dug over or rotavated as soon as possible. Our rotavator leaves a fine tilth but cannot deal with soil loosened by recent digging. Remember that, while the rotavator does a very impressive looking job in a very short time, it does not remove perennial roots, such as couch grass, nettles and bindweed. In fact, it chops them up and redistributes them. You will still have to hand weed and hoe thereafter. If you think that cultivating the whole plot is a bit daunting, decide how much you can cope with and then decide what you are going to do to prevent the rest promptly reverting to bush. There are several ways of going about this:

Table: methods of weed control
Method	Advantages	Disadvantages
Scything and Mowing	Traditional and eco friendly, particularly if parts of the land are to remain fallow for more than one season	Most allotment plots are unsuitable for mowing. It would require repeated and regular attention just as a lawn. It is an illusion to imagine that land left neglected will revert to an attractive wild flower meadow. But regular mowing may help keep the brambles at bay and the thistles down.
Covering with plastic sheeting	The woven material is as good as carpet as a weed suppressant, is lightweight and can be used many seasons in succession.	It can be expensive where large areas are to be covered. When it frays, the resulting fibres can be a nuisance for machinery. Please make sure that these do not stray onto the main paths.
Spraying	So long as a non-persistent weedkiller like Roundup is used, and it can be applied during growth, this is probably the most effective way of killing persistent weeds.	Many gardeners grow their own crops precisely to avoid the use of chemical sprays. So if you do use them, be very careful not to allow any drift onto other plots. Weed killers are very expensive and persistent weeds will need repeated applications, whatever it says on the bottle.

Notwithstanding all the above, there is no substitute for digging your plot!

When you begin cultivation, don’t make your plans too ambitious. Start from one end and work methodically until the whole area has been tamed. Never make the mistake of clearing a bit here and a bit there or half a row of this and a little patch of that. The jungle will win. Don't allow areas of wilderness to remain. An old gardener’s truism is "One year’s seeding means seven years' weeding". And do share your trials and tribulations. You are among friends.

Getting started

A good starter crop is always the potato. During its cultivation, you usually have to dig over the soil three times - when planting, when earthing up and when harvesting. In between times, the foliage is usually dense enough to see off any weeds. Spinach beet needs clean soil to get going but can then usually look after itself. For almost instant results try radishes and lettuces.
Thereafter, no other allotment gardeners will tell you the same thing twice. No two seasons are the same, no single crop behaves the same two years running and your neighbour whose beans are the envy of everyone probably can’t grow carrots to save his life. What they will agree on is that, for all its petty frustrations and the many hours of work, this is the most rewarding and satisfying hobby. With application, a small family can become almost self-sufficient in vegetables, salads, soft fruit and flowers in a very short time. Just compare the flavour and freshness of your home grown crops with the tasteless, glossy packaged, wildly expensive rubbish from the supermarkets and you will never look back.