🌱 Your First Season: What to Expect and How to Stay on Track

-

 

Part Ten of the Allotmenteer Beginner’s Guide

You’ve chosen your plot, set up your base, created your first bed, and begun expanding your growing space. Now comes the part that every new allotmenteer remembers for the rest of their life:

Your first full season.

This is where everything you’ve built starts to come alive. It’s exciting, unpredictable, occasionally frustrating — and completely worth it.

Part Ten is your guide to navigating that first season with confidence, realism, and a sense of calm.

🌱 Expect Progress to Be Uneven

Your first season won’t be a straight line. It will look more like:

  • a burst of energy

  • a slow patch

  • a sudden win

  • a setback

  • another win

  • a week where nothing happens

  • a moment where everything clicks

This is normal. Allotments grow in rhythms, not schedules.

🌿 Weather Will Dictate More Than You Think

You’ll plan jobs… and the weather will laugh.

Expect:

  • rain when you wanted to dig

  • wind when you wanted to plant

  • heat when you wanted to weed

  • frost when you thought frost was over

Adaptability is the real skill of allotment life.

🌾 Choose Crops That Set You Up for Success

Your first season should be about confidence, not perfection.

Grow things that:

  • germinate easily

  • tolerate mistakes

  • give visible results

  • don’t need constant attention

Perfect first‑season crops include:

  • potatoes

  • onions

  • garlic

  • broad beans

  • runner beans

  • courgettes

  • squash

  • salad leaves

  • beetroot

Avoid the heartbreakers:

  • carrots (fussy soil)

  • parsnips (slow and stubborn)

  • brassicas (pests love them)

  • sweetcorn (needs warmth and numbers)

Save those for next year.

🌱 Keep Weeds Under Control (Little and Often)

Weeds don’t need permission — they just arrive.

The trick is:

10 minutes, often, beats 2 hours, rarely.

A quick walk around the plot pulling the obvious weeds does more good than a big monthly blitz.

And remember:

  • weeds are normal

  • weeds don’t mean you’re failing

  • weeds don’t ruin a season

You’re learning to manage a living system, not a showroom.

🌿 Watering: Don’t Overthink It

Most beginners water too much.

General rule:

  • water deeply

  • water less often

  • water early or late

  • mulch to keep moisture in

Plants prefer a good soak to a daily sprinkle.

🌾 Expect Pests — and Don’t Panic

Slugs, snails, pigeons, aphids, flea beetles… They’re all part of the ecosystem.

Your job isn’t to eliminate them — it’s to reduce the damage.

Use:

  • netting

  • fleece

  • copper tape

  • beer traps

  • hand‑picking

  • companion planting

And remember: Losing a few plants is normal. It happens to everyone.

🌱 Celebrate the First Harvests

Your first:

  • potato

  • courgette

  • handful of beans

  • bunch of salad

  • onion pulled from the soil

…will feel like magic.

Take photos. Share them. Enjoy the moment.

This is the payoff for all the early work.

🌿 Don’t Compare Your Plot to Others

Every plot has:

  • different soil

  • different shade

  • different history

  • different pests

  • different time investment

Comparing yourself to the 20‑year veterans is a shortcut to misery.

Your plot is your plot. Your pace is your pace.

🌾 At the End of the Season, Reflect — Don’t Judge

When autumn arrives, ask yourself:

  • What worked?

  • What didn’t?

  • What did I enjoy most?

  • What felt like a chore?

  • What do I want more of next year?

This is how you grow as a gardener.

Your first season isn’t a test — it’s a foundation.

🌱 Congratulations — You’ve Completed the Beginner’s Guide

You’ve reached the end of the Allotmenteer Beginner’s Guide, but you’re only at the beginning of your allotment journey.

From here, you can explore:

  • seasonal guides

  • crop‑specific tutorials

  • composting

  • shed organisation

  • raised bed builds

  • plot diaries

  • accessibility tips

  • wildlife and pollinator planting

  • soil improvement

  • year‑round planning

Your plot will change every year — and so will you.

Welcome to allotment life.

Popular posts from this blog

A Pocket‑Sized Brew Kit for Allotments

-
Image
  Simple, Cheap, and Perfect for Your Plot Spending time on an allotment is one of life’s great pleasures — but it can also be chilly, damp, and hard‑going, especially in early mornings or late afternoons. Whether you’re digging beds, sowing seeds, or just popping down to check on things, a hot drink can make the whole experience more enjoyable. The good news is: you don’t need a shed full of gear or a heavy flask. This tiny brew kit is cheap, simple, and small enough to live in your coat pocket , ready for whenever you fancy a warm drink on your plot. A Simple Box, Repurposed The kit starts with something most people already have lying around: a small cardboard, tin or plastic box. In this case, it was the box from a Shadowhawk torch. To keep everything dry, the contents are packed inside a self‑sealing ziplock bag. No fancy camping gear. No expensive organisers. Just reuse what you already have — very much in the spirit of allotment life. Photo label: Shadowhawk box repurposed a...
Read more

🌿Start Here: A Beginner’s Guide to Allotments

-
  🌿  A Beginner’s Guide to Allotments If you’re new to allotments, thinking about taking one on, or standing on your first plot wondering where to even begin — you’re in the right place. This blog is here to make the whole thing feel less overwhelming and a lot more enjoyable. No jargon, no judgement, no “you must do it this way”. Just honest, practical advice from people who have been through the same first‑time nerves, mistakes, surprises, and small victories. Whether you’ve just got your keys, you’re still on a waiting list, or you’re trying to figure out what tools you actually need, or even its just a dream, this guide will walk you through it step by step. 🌱  Start the Beginner’s Guide Here Below is the full series in order. Each part is short, friendly, and designed to help you build confidence as you go. Part 1 – Thinking About an Allotment Part 2 – Types of Allotment Sites                         ...
Read more

🌱 Thinking About an Allotment

-
  Part One of the Allotmenteer Beginner’s Guide The quiet moment before you take the leap There’s a point many people reach — often quietly, almost privately — when the idea of an allotment starts to take root. Maybe you’ve walked past a row of sheds on a summer evening. Maybe you’ve tasted something home‑grown and wondered why supermarket veg never tastes the same. Maybe you’re craving a bit of peace, a project, or a reason to get outside. Whatever brought you here, this is the moment where an allotment shifts from a vague idea to a real possibility. Before you apply, before you join a waiting list, before you even look at a plot, it’s worth pausing to think about what an allotment actually means — and whether it fits the life you have right now. This article is about that moment. 🌿 What Draws People to Allotments Everyone arrives with their own reasons, but a few themes come up again and again: Fresh food — the taste of something you grew yourself is incomparable. Time outdoors...
Read more