Starting My New Allotment | Clearing Weeds, Prepping Beds & Growing Plans in the Rain!

Join me as I start work on my brand new allotment—braving the wind, rain, and weeds to kick off my next chapter in growing my own food. If you’re into allotment gardening, DIY garden builds, or you’re just beginning your journey to self-sufficiency, this video is packed with inspiration and practical tips.

In this episode, I take on the first big task of transforming an overgrown plot into a productive vegetable garden. Watch as I clear weeds, prep raised beds, and share my plans for what to grow this season—all while dodging some seriously bad weather!

Whether you’re a seasoned gardener, just got your first allotment plot, or you’re dreaming of growing food at home, this is the real, muddy, and honest start to my gardening journey.

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and we’re back and there’s a lot of work to do today i’m in the poly tunnel and we’re hiding here to begin with we’re not going to be here very long the weather is shall we say changeable outside now when we go outside you’re probably going to see some more beautiful blue skies out there perhaps a bit of sunshine but believe you me that’s not all it is we have had rain pretty much it’s about I don’t know 2:00 in the afternoon sunday afternoon about 2:00 at the moment it has been driving rain all morning it is windy there’s all sorts of stuff going on but we’re not here very long and I’m sure you can guess let me just Let’s head out we’ll close the door and I’m sure you’re going to had a guess and I’m just going to put the little latchy thing on there or else it’s going to blow it’s going to blow in the wind i’m sure you can guess where we’re off to yes that’s right we are off to the new plot and if you saw the last video about the new plot you will know that we’re not going to have to go particularly far and we’re here today we’re going to make a start well if the weather if the weather holds out we’re going to make a start so we’re heading up to the second plot the new plot to get on with things and I’m starting to formulate just a little bit of a plan in my head about what I want to get done and when I want to do it so like I say bit of sort of limited time today to get stuff done but let’s just have we’ve just come to the gate there let’s just have a look behind me here so my plan today is I want to try and get rid of all those weeds in this bed here possibly that bed over there is a bare minimum i want to start strimming some of where the longer grass is starting to go to seed i want to start getting that strimmed if I’ve got time I’ll make my way into that corner and start getting that bed done if I’ve got time after that we’ll do this bed and if I’ve got time after that we’ll start getting on with the the little patio area here there’s some big thistles i’ve got the the big gloves out to pull them out because again I can see them starting to go to the seed especially the ones over there next to the water but last thing I want stuff going seed seed going everywhere more weeds than we’ve already got don’t really want that so I guess without further ado let me get set up let me get a few things sorted out and we’ll get cracking with what’s going on so I just had to do a bit of a on the fly shall we say changing running order so where the camera is normally I use a brown wheelie bin that’s spare on my plot to rest the camera on top of to film perfect height absolutely perfect height for filming everything I do around here however I can’t get it under the new plot at the moment because there’s a big rock out there that we rest the watering cans on at the top and the bin won’t fit past it so you’re on top of the water butt all the way over there next to the shed hopefully you can still see me i just had to pull all those massive thistles out they were over there because they were actually so tall they were blocking the view from the camera to over here but not to worry it’s done the big Well most of the big thistles the bits in the path absolute pain in the butt we’ll we’ll look we’ll look at that later but I’m hoping that the majority of things in here and something something’s just been stinging my ankle i’m not sure whether it’s a nettle down there or what it is uh that’s particularly unpleasant so we’ll be avoiding some of that but most of it around here it’s just willow herb and it’s just pulling out it’s I mean there’s loads of it that’s the problem with willow herb we got loads of willow herb around here and like grows like wildfire cuz there’s like abandoned plots and stuff like that like like the one over there has even more than here so it grows it goes to seed windy day like this seed goes everywhere everybody gets to share the joy of the willow herb but luckily it is really really shallow rooted so with a bit of a bit of luck a bit of a bit of hard graft a bit of a bit of sunshine let’s be honest it always it always helps I’ll be able to get through this bed apart from things like this we’ve got a nice big nice big thistle there but the good thing is these beds and the one down there actually where the where the thistles were i mean I kid you not the thistles were up to here that were over there the soil’s really really good this in really good condition under all the weeds john and Eevee looked after these beds really really well they were manured all the time they dug over all the time so things like the thistles although thistles have big long massive tap roots on them they’re actually pulling out really easily which quite frankly is a bit of a it’s a bit of a godsend isn’t it when when dealing with this but I guess speaking of dealing with this you don’t need to watch me for the next 20 minutes or so trying to pull all these weeds out i am going to crack on with them and we’ll come back in just a little bit and we’ll see how this is going to look when it’s done what I might do actually is I’m thinking there’s this like the long grass is all the way along the edges of the bed so all the stuff that’s gone to seed I might give that a bit of a trim as well before I bring you back to see how I can make it look but we’ll see we’ll see what we can get done we’ll see if it rains but again stop waffling Mark let’s get cracking on with this and here we are just taking a bit of a an enforced break shall we so remember remember just before when I said don’t be fooled by the blue skies and the sunshine because the weather is very changeable and I’m not sure if the microphone’s actually picking up the rain and bouncing off the top of the poly tunnel as it is right now but I was I was over there i must have been about 90% through getting that first bed finished it is so frustrating and if it was just drizzling you know it was just light rain i would have still been there i would have been out there i would still have been doing it getting it finished getting it done but it is absolutely hammering it down let me just Let’s just turn around let’s have a little seat there let’s turn around let’s just head outside well kind of outside we’ll we’ll point the camera outside to see if you can see the beautiful rain that is currently joined us but anyway I’m going to have an enforced break i’m going to have a drink going to have a maybe a little snack bit of a sit down bit of a rest once it’s sorted itself out we’ll go back over there and we’ll see how we’re getting on so this rain is getting right on my nerves it is on it is off it is on it is off i’m running in the poly tunnel i’m back out the poly tunnel i’m in the poly tunnel i’m back out the poly tunnel it is a pain in the butt and I’m looking at the sky the wind’s coming this way it’s only a matter of time before it’s here again but but we have made some progress i don’t know how well you can see i’ll bring I’ll bring you over in a bit we’ll have a look over here grass i’ve just sort of trimmed it all the way along here all the way up here round the back here we are done oh by the way I wasn’t even intending on making a video today i was just going to come up and do some jobs i’m wearing my I’m coming to the a lotment but not filming clothes i’ve got my my scaffy old shorts on and that but my camera was in the bag i had a bit of time and I know I know everybody’s keen to see the new plot and I thought this is this is the first real time I’m here the first jobs I’m doing and I thought that it’d be a bit rotten if I don’t if I don’t do some filming while I’m here showing you what things look like how we’re getting on what’s getting done i thought that would just say just be a bit rotten so I’ve pulled most of the weeds out of the bed we’ve got some interesting looking plants along the front here these are herbs along here i think it’s rosemary possibly all the way along here i had no idea that was there you can really really smell it as soon as I got near it the smell was the first thing that hit me it was beautiful but next things there there is there’s little weeds there’s little weeds left all over the bed i wasn’t going to pull every single last little one of them out but we’ve got the hole well in fact we’ve got the swo so I’m just going to give it the once over with this and it’s really really good this sort of swole blade that you get on the Wolf Garden tools so it’s like a really sharp blade on the front dear old friend Steve you know sadly no longer with us from Green Side Up he was the one who introduced me to the swell and it is brilliant any little weeds that are in the beds it just sort of slices through them so the top’s getting cut off from the root and it’s just going to dry out i mean hoen is a little bit ineffective when it’s wet it’s not the best weather to be doing it in but I’m going to go over the whole bed i’m going to break up all the weeds then I’m going to cover over cuz I’m not sure yet like I say still formulating a bit of a plan in my head i’ve got all the space to figure out i need to figure out where I’m going to put a poly tunnel i think I’m going to draw a map at some point when I first took over that other plot over there I’ve got a big A3 graph paper sort of stuff i’ll probably measure it all out cuz this plot is longer there’s more space here to fill up we’ve obviously got mature trees fruit cages raised beds existing structures that I need to work around and in terms of a poly tunnel this this actually here where I am either going that way is where I’m going to put it or going this way is where I’m going to put it that’s really the only viable space in this plot fork cuz everything down there sort of behind where you are so to the side of you you’ll be able to see a bit of the sheds you got the sheds there there’s woodwork all over the side see we’ve got fruit bushes raised beds mature trees down there behind you fruit cages over there so we’re either we’re either here or we’re here so whether we go that way or whether we go that way I’ll figure out not to worry right let me get cracking with this hopefully before it rains again we’ll see anyway I’ll get on with it we’ll come back and we’ll see how things are looking so we’re getting there albeit a little bit slower than I kind of inspected expected expected but let’s let’s go over and have a look this this weather it’s really really bugging me i wouldn’t mind you know like if it was raining loads then I just wouldn’t come or if it was really sunny or just not raining then I could just be getting on with stuff but at the minute I feel about as useful as Anne Frank’s drum kit quite frankly it’s h it’s a bit it’s a bit difficult it’s a bit tricky but we’re here not to worry some things have been done some things have been achieved let me spin you around and show you what I’ve been up to so this is the area that I’ve been working in kind of in from the gate up here we’ve trimmed down all that sort of long grass there is a bit still up the edges of the beds here that’s in and about where those herbs are haven’t quite gone in and about that but we’ve come down here and we’ve come down the back of the bed and all this has been done all that willow herb that was in there all the thistles everything else all been stripped out i mean there was some left you can see it absolutely in front of you there i haven’t got every single last little bit most of it that was left has been chopped down with a swole it beds going it’s just going to get covered over now so the the black weed membrane is going to go down while we make a bit of a plan as to what’s going to happen like I said before when I was talking about it if we’ll have a look around just do a quick look around the plot you can see here this space up the center of the plot is really the only place we’ve got where we can fit the fit a poly tunnel in we come down here we’ve got all the woodwork we’ve got all the raised beds we’ve got the fruit cage and down this corner we’ve got all the mature trees but yet down here there’s still plenty of space for fitting other beds and stuff in once I get all the grass cut back down there again it’ll give us a much better view what beds are available what space is available where I can fit my beds and how we can squeeze everything in so whilst that has been a little bit frustrating today I’m not going to get too bothered if I don’t do it i’m I’m just pleased i am pleased I have been here i’ve made a start we’ve got one bed dug over we’ve got a couple of paths cleared what I will do actually is the while while the grass is this long it is going to get strimmed but then I’ll come up with a lawn mower and once it’s been lawn mud then I can just keep on top of it once every probably every other week something like that depends how much it rains how sunny it is you know we’ll see how the grass goes just keep on top of it throughout the spring throughout the summer probably into the autumn then we can just leave it be but that’s the that’s the rain starting again now so I think now is a good time to say goodbye thanks for watching folks and hopefully I’ll see you on the next one