sure flora is right.. but we can still make general comments about gardening.. who knows where you will find your muse ...

the first thing i would do.. is ID walkways ... and then till under everything else ... start removing weeds.. and dont let them reseed ever again ...

then start thinking about what you want to plant.. and when they need to be planted ... you really dont need nor want to plant everything in one weekend.. you space them out so your harvest is spaced out ... you dont need 20 rows of leaf lettuce all be ready the same day...

also .. start with things that can be planted in cold soil ... to get an early start on those...

if all you did this year.. was turn all your soil a couple times.. and plant a few tomatoes ... you will be in good shape for next year.. and you will be healthier due to all the exercise ... never give up.. and just keep plugging away.. and it will come as you learn ...

ken

Sorry, Ken, but much your advice isn’t really applicable to the OP’s situation. ’Tilling’ under is not going to help with weeds, especially the perennials like couch and bindweed. You have to dig and remove all roots by hand. Remember that there will be no winter freeze and little very hot weather, so weeds will grow pretty much 12 months of the year. And, in any case, ’tilling’ is an expression which might confuse the OP as UK gardeners don’t use it, unless you are talking about a mechanised tiller, which few people have. Seasons are long and slow here so planting times are fairly flexible. As long as you don’t start too early, when to sow is not that crucial. And tomatoes are one of the hardest things to grow here without a greenhouse, so starting with ‘a few tomatoes‘ is a sure road to disappointment in our climate. For the first year I’d stick to soil preparation, composting, and maybe starting with easier stuff like broad beans, runner beans and courgettes. Once the ground is definitely, truly weed free you could add some easy perennial crops like asparagus, artichokes and soft fruit.

The part of your post I would agree with is the never give up bit.

Ken is very free to offer his opinions and/or advice on topics he has no first hand knowledge of. But his heart is the right place :-)) Suggest many of his comments need to be taken with a large dose of salt. Or further research!

Allotments are called Victory gardens here. You need to remove weeds and turn over the soil. Allotments are generally small enough that you can do this by hand, rather than rototill. You can also smother weeds, but putting down cardboard (weigh it down so it doesn't blow into your neighbors.) You probably want to do both, as you will probably want to start your peas now and plant your tomatoes later. It will be easier to pull weeds after a month or two of smothering.

Some people do potatoes the first year, as in the process of hilling up, you dig up most weeds and get a crop while you're at it.

Chat up your garden neighbors and pay attention to what they do. What do they plant when? What varieties? When I had an allotment in Surrey, I was completely puzzled when all my plot neighbors put coverings on their cabbage-family crops, why would anyone bother? Lo and behold, the collared doves decimated my uncovered broccoli seedlings.

Also find out if the previous gardener had any perennial crops. You never know, you might get a lovely crop of asparagus that someone else planted.

If the allotment is not fenced well, you probably want to grow off-colored crops. Most thieves won't pull up root crops, but a ripe red tomato is really tempting to even someone who thinks of themselves as honest (they'll think you'll never miss it). Plant purple tomatoes and other veggies with non-standard colors. You have less of a problem with green peas, because they are harder to see in the background of green vegetation.

Sometimes the Brits have funky ideas about what is "far north" and therefore, "cold". We Americans grow veggies in colder climes, including Alaska. All "far north" and "cold" mean is that the standard advice is written for a warmer place than you are gardening in.

Gardening is an adventure and takes a while to learn. Even those of us who've had vegetable gardens for years can be thrown when in a new place because our rules of thumb don't apply.

You might want to read Garden Rant.. Quite a few British gardeners post on it.

https://gardenrant.com/ 

Floral is in your area of the world and know a huge amount about gardening in the UK.

Yes, to the edging and removing weeds. Compost bins, be sure to check out which weeds you DO NOT want to compost. Your first year will probably be just prep. I have heard that tomatoes are hard to grow in the UK, it does not have enough warm days. If you really want tomatoes, check out early ones or cherry tomatoes and covers for the cold days.

First, what are your favorite vegetables that cost so much? Mine are herbs and green onions. Usually I only need a small amount, but have to buy a bunch to get one green onion. Check out what grows easily that you like. Onions, kale, spinach, green beans, etc.

Very Important, don't plant too much this first year and DO add in some flowers just for the joy and also for the pollinators.

ETA: garden gal is in the Pacific northwest in the United States. I think her area is similar to the UK. I am in North Alabama, which is very hot and humid in the summer and subject to huge temperature swings in the winter, at least it has been for the last few years.

They grow tomatoes in Alaska, they grow tomatoes in Russia, I've grown tomatoes in England, Russia, and Maine. All with no cover. You need a variety suited for your climate. Matt's Wild Cherry did really well for me in Russia and Maine. Resistant to early and late blight, still chugging along until the first frost. What you want to pay attention to is the diseases your region is prone to. Very hot and humid, as in Alabama where the poster above lives) is a completely different set of problems than cool nights in the fall (late blight). But, really, unless the allotment has a disease problem, you should do just fine with heirlooms suited to your climate.

Don't just do prep the first year. If you, like me, have moved a lot, you certainly don't want to waste a year on prep when you're going to move on before long.

When you start getting too far north (ie Moscow area), you can't grow spinach because it is daylight sensitve. By the time it's warm enough for it to grow, the days are too long and it bolts. Where Spring and Fall are warmer, you can grow spinach before the days get to long. I planted a hell of a lot of spinach crops that did poorly until I read that bit of information.

It’s wood pigeons that destroy brassicas, not collared doves. But since WPs do have a white collar maybe people misidentified them. There are many other pests we have and Americans don’t and vice versa. So use UK sources for information about them. Your biggest pest will almost certainly be snails and slugs.

Based on my admittedly narrow viewpoint from watching too many British gardening shows, allotment gardeners seem on the whole to be a very generous and helpful lot and with a real sense of community. I would think your fellow allotmenteers would be a chief source of info and advice.

NEVER, ever buy a roll of landscape fabric, never use landcape fabric or weed block fabric. It gets covered with leaves that turn to dirt that weeds grow in and the fabric falls apart so plastic threads are forever mixed into the topsoil and impossible to dig around or remove. Cardboard or newspaper use soy-based inks and are completely biodegradeable.

The use of landscape fabric on an allotment is temporary. It is merely there to smother those areas that the allotmenteer has not yet got around to preparing. You move it around regularly as you get on top of the ground prep. Eventually you can roll it up and put it away until you need it again. I have had an allotment for over thirty years and this technique works for overgrown plots. It is not the same as putting landscape fabric in ornamental beds, around shrubs or under hravel. I use cardboard and leaves AFTER the landscape fabric has smothered the perennial weeds. Cardboard will not do this with the persistent species the OP would find here. Bindweed, for example will just grow through cardboard.

First thing I would do is remove all of the dead gray stuff so you can see what you have, Take some pictures of the beds. Since you are a new gardener you won't know a perennial weed on sight. Take the pictures to an experienced vegetable gardener or a good nursery and get what's growing identified. Then you'll know what can stay and what has to go.

Once the weeds are gone, work on the soil. It's the real key to success. Dig in as much organic matter as you can so that it will be easily cultivated this fall or in the spring. Lots to learn but so rewarding. Keep at it!

Fabric needs care as stated...and when you move away and the fabric is forgotten for years, you leave behind a toxic mess. Happens a lot.

I don't know what bindweed is but everything will eventually grow through cardboard...it's degradeable.

What about pulling weeds before get big enough to be a nuisance? That works too.

You take the roll of fabric with you along with all your other gardening tools. Why would you leave it behind? It is not left on the ground any longer than required. I would never use it in my garden, only for the specific purpose of ground clearing on an overgrown plot. If you don't know what bindweed is you are lucky. Pulling it is ineffectual since the roots, which are many feet long, break off. Every fragment grows a new plant. At this time of year it can grow a foot a day. I'm speaking with over thirty years of allotment experience in the UK and over sixty years of gardening in our climate with our weeds.

I'm pleased you are a responsible gardener Flora. I live in California. I guess Bermuda grass is the equivalent to bindweed here.

There is plenty of bindweed in CA!! And it is just as much of an issue there as it is in the UK. I can't believe you have never encountered it before....ir is omnipresent.

Oh, okay, I just Googled it. I see these on the Interstate 5 shoulder but ours have bigger flowers though.

The bindweed I fight on my allotment is Calystegia sepium. https://www.rhs.org.uk/weeds/bindweed