Anyone with an allotment?

Does anyone here grow onion from seed? If so do you direct sow or start them in trays? Got some nice flat Italian seeds, bergamo I think but the best before date is fast approaching. Would like to use them as gap fillers potentially.
I presume it’s not much different from growing chives from seed but just wondering what others do with them.

My Dad does. Starts them in seed cells indoors.

Another vote for starting onions in cells,(we still use egg boxes as my per my grandparents)

https://www.richardjacksonsgarden.co.uk/know-your-onions/

Also @edmundro I have a spare max/min thermometer ,happy to swap for the celery seeds.

Ooh that’s a great trade! Can throw in a couple of chilli seedlings if you want to sweeten the deal?
Assuming you’re in London and can meet up of course(I’m in e17).

Did a cell tray of 12 onions, will do some more a bit later in spring. There’s plenty of sets in the ground already.

Well today I had a potter down to our village allotments with a neighbour who's the treasurer.

We've been offered a half plot which, to be honest, is a decent size. Probably a bit bigger than we want to start off with. The plot has a bargain rent of £11 a year!

I've been reading up a bit on the Charles Dowding no dig system so the plan for now is to get it ready to go.
I've been saving up decent cardboard boxes for the past few months (thanks Wiggle for the cheap bikes and their boxes!) so I plan on laying the cardboard and getting an bulk bag of spent mushroom compost from a local place who deliver to cover it. There's a tree surgeon in the village so I'll speak to him about a load of the green chipped waste for paths and I'll start propagating seeds at home soon.
Is there anything I've missed?

£11!?!? That’s fantastic, mine just went up to £93 for the year for a (very large) half plot. We do have running water, lockers, toilets, woodchip and manure deliveries though.

Start off by just getting one or two beds going so you can tackle any bigger jobs getting the plot ship-shape at your leisure. If in doubt just sow spuds n beans everywhere as they’ll improve the soil even if you don’t get round to that area just yet.

Unpopular opinion- no dig is shit unless you have an unlimited supply of stuff to top the beds up with.
A few have tried it on our site with varying results, prob a whole bunch of factors that determine if it’s the right approach though.

I go somewhere in between ‘dig for victory’ and ‘rudderless stoner making it up as I go’ approach to allotmenting.
I definitely dig every year though.

Is there anything I’ve missed?

Get friendly with all the neighbours sharpish, they’ll be gifting you seedlings left right and centre once spring is in full force.
We could probably have done our first year just based on the generosity of others.

Is there anything I've missed?

Have you found that extra day in the week to dedicate to weeding yet?

Is there anything I've missed?

You’ll be wanting to check the knife thread for the best option for hand-forged, ninja quality trowels and the gardening thread for what’s hot or not in the world of galoshes. ;)

And don’t scrimp on your wheelbarrow, get something nice. I’ve had one or two punctures on mine over the years but much prefer dealing with that to using a solid wheel jobbie.

Unpopular opinion- no dig is shit unless you have an unlimited supply of stuff to top the beds up with.

If you want a productive plot, you should be adding organic matter to the soil every year, irrespective of whether you are following a dig or not dig approach.

If using spent mushroom compost might want to look for a bit of extra nitrogen to add.

Ours was a bit claggy when wet but has improved as we have added more traditional manure / compost over the last couple of years. .

I’ve tried to move over to a no-dig system on our plot sectioning it up etc. and it’s improved things for me. I can get usually access to free spent compost and a few other organic matters so it makes it ok. Still have to shovel it myself and hoik it into the car.

It’s not the be all and end all for weeds, but certainly my most productive beds are the ones I started no-digging. Last year I got a crop of garlic and onions followed by squash in the one bed I’ve had no-dig on for longest. First time I’ve managed two decent crops off one bed in a season (lettuce after spuds excepted).

I think if I had the same amount of space as our plot, or bigger at home, along with the other associated garden trimmings like grass and leaves I’d think about no dig, but being the furthest from the gate and not having a source means I’d just be kicking myself up the arse I reckon.

We do well enough with what we have and it’s fairly low input so I’m happy enough for now. I just tend to copy aspects of what works for our neighbours and go from there. Which I’m sure is what a lot of allotmenteers do at least at first.

The most productive ones on our site are the military precision dig-for-victory style plots. I do put that down to time and experience as well as those plots are mostly retired folks who’ve been growing decades so are probably much better at looking after plants than me, regardless of bed/soil type. They also have the time to dedicate to weeding.

I top up every year with poop and rotted woodchip, dig and rotate my crops don’t worry.
I just don’t have the time, inclination and resources to build the giant fluffy pillow-like beds of my dreams.

I’m excited that after 3years I’ll finally have my first batch of artisanal compost this year. It was mostly a dumping ground at first but after turning it and chopping it up a bit better last summer it’s now looking fab.

but being the furthest from the gate and not having a source means I’d just be kicking myself up the arse I reckon.

I hear that. Our plot is furthest from the gate and it’s a proper PITA to lug tonnes of compost up there. The paths are a joke as well.

Also have a plot furthest from the gate. I usually take my wheelbarrow over as we're only a few minutes away. Our association have recently been given a pull along trolley which looks wider than the paths so I'm not sure it'll be any use.

Also furthest from gate. It's an 8 min round trip to do 1 barrow of manure. I look at the plots next to the manure compound and weep.

Someone has dumped a pallet outside the gate of our allotment. I really want to yoink it but just need to psych myself up to drag it all the way up to my plot.

Our allotment was a 15 minute walk away, and in the middle of the plot so furthest from the gate (gates at each end). We put a playhouse on it for the kids, so I had to to wheel all the bits for that up from home on a trolley one freezing April morning. Took me and my dad all day to build the damn thing.

manure compound

Also weeps.

Managed to get down to have proper look at the plot today.

It's about 9m x 5m or thereabouts and isn't in bad nick. There's a smaller inner area of around 5m x 3m with the remains of a wood chipping path around it and what looks like a row of someone's left over strawberry plants in there!
I think we'll try to keep the rough layout it has at the moment and use the outer area for courgettes/squash/pumpkins. It look like there's the remains of some gourd plants around the edges as it is.

I'd have liked to have got started clearing bits and bobs up this weekend but it's frozen solid so it'll have to wait!

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Lovely blank canvas, congratulations!
I’m just worrying about seeds at home this weekend, might venture to the plot tomorrow morning if I’m feeling brave but not really got many jobs at the moment.

Any tips for when to start onion sets? Early in greenhouse or just wait until things warm up?

Today is the day. Finally get to batter the sycamore on my neighbours plot.
🖕🏻

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Hooray