Dear Donedigging, i bet we all remember the first allotment we had, a lovely feeling indeed.

And a good time of the year to take one on as well.

We will see about the broad beans.

Congratulations, done digging! May you have much fun on your allotment - and lots of good growing and eating, too, of course!

Take your time about getting rid of all perennial weeds. We worked on our plot (which had not been used for more than 20 years and was full of nettles and brambles) for a full year before really getting started with sowing and planting. It's been worth it, though, and we have now had it for nearly 30 years with only minimal weed problems.

Dear Donedigging, just thought you would like to know, Old Codger has already planted his broad beans, so he might beat us both.

Dear OH,

Mine went in pots today, hopefully giving me time to dig a patch over

Please send my regards to OC and his chickens

Dear Donedigging, consider it done.

Looks as if i'm going to be playing catch up, regarding the beans.

Dear OH,

Hope the deer stay away as well this year

One week on...
A question though...I know there is not a wrong or right answer, but will I be losing to much growing room with so many paths?
My OH, thinks I should only have the main path in the middle, then I can be more flexiable
I feel with seperate beds I have more control as to what grows were
Any thoughts would be very welcome

I agree with your OH.

Temporary paths are fine as they can move each year, permanent ones either need expensive materials, or if grass become a source of weeds, especially (in my experience) couch grass.

Dear Donedigging, a tricky one here.

Smaller beds seem to be kept in order easier, but there is extra work in keeping the paths nice if they are grass, mowing and edging...
And as Peter said, if they are to be grass, make sure there are no perrenial weeds in them, or the weeds will keep growing back into the beds.

You could just keep them as bare earth for a year to see how they work, then move, or keep which ones are working best. This way you could keep clearing any perrenial weeds through the year.

But most of all, keep enjoying it, which ever route you go down.

I'm a gardener not an allotmenteer so I have the luxury of being able to create permanent paths. When I started I considered the Geoff Hamilton 4' beds but, like your OH, I thought it looked a lot of paths. I measured how far I could hoe from a path and conveniently concluded that 10' beds were possible, I say conveniently because it left me the option of converting to 2 x 4'. I have stuck with 10' and eventually concreted the paths which means I have no board edgings to get in the way of wheelbarrows. It does mean I need 3 wheelbarrows for easy digging, a 10' trench creates two barrows of soil with the other one being used for the compost. My beds are about 25' long which works well for me.

We have permanent grass paths which don't give us too much of a problem - they do require work to maintain them - cutting back edges with a spade once a year and mowing/strimming but we like them and think they're worth it. I can sit on the grass and weed and also it provides a habitat for beetles that venture into the beds to feast on bugs. from an aeathetic point of view I think grass sets off the beds well too.

I also think having permanent paths means that we don't stand on the growing areas as much and it is very satisfying to tidy or weed one bed at a time as you get to actually finish something and can then move on to the next bed.

Hi Sue,
I know what you mean about grass paths as there is something satisfying about them. I look at some of the modern layouts and cringe. There seems to be twice as much path area to growing area which to my way of thinking is surely wrong. My paths are of 3/8" pea shingle and although weeds do sometimes dare to grow in the shingle they are very easy to deal with. All my paths are 30" wide which gives clear space for a wheel barrow and also kneeling to weed. Having said that most of my weed control is with the hoe, the tool I would never be without.
If necessary a path can be removed to make a larger bed to say grow potatoes. Most of my beds are 6ft wide and removing a path therefore gives me a 14.5ft x 30ft bed which gives enough room to plant 210 early potatoes. Using Maris Bard I can pick more than my fill of earlies and leave the rest on a dig to suit my needs basis until they are all lifted. The next year it can very easily go back to 2. 6ft x 30ft beds with a path.
This is why I have never gone for permanent concrete paths.
When two rows of early potatoes have been lifted I plant my early leeks.
As the rest of the potatoes are lifted one plant from each row at a time and the ground is prepared and covered with h/d black Polythene unrolling it as I go which leaves it in a dryish state and any alterations can be done whatever the weather conditions.
JB.

Our path are just wide enough to wheel down the mower. We did have one new guy on our site who had paths bigger than his beds. He didn't stay - never even planted anything!

Other than the permanent paths alongside the allotment plots, I don't have any paths at all.
I prefer to use the full width of the plot for the rows and rotate over a 4 year cycle.
The space between crops is used if I need to use a path. The whole plot is dug and rotovated over the winter and spring, except for the area to be used for brassicas, which is just lightly forked over.
I also have a permanent bean structure, which is re-manured each year.
I inherited a small grass area alongside the shed and compost bays and find that that is enough trouble keeping tidy

One of my plot neighbours has just spent far more on bark chippings than she will ever get back in value of produce I would think

We have three large beds (approx 22' x 22' each) which are surrounded by permanent grass paths, but each of these beds get an annual grass path down the middle which is dug up and the grass turned in every year. The remainder of the allotment is in smaller beds and strips, all divided by grass paths, other than some flagged standing round the shed.

In the vegetable garden at home (where, like Geoff, we can do what we want!), we use flags round the beds.

The grass paths do create quite a bit of maintenance work but it's so pleasant and soothing that I wouldn't want to be without. As our whole allotment is on a steepish slope, flagged paths would be too dangerous for slipping and lime stone chippings/gravel/bark would run down the hill!