Start by Measuring and Watching Your Plot

A standard full allotment plot is ten rods, which is roughly 250 square metres — about the size of a tennis court. Many of us, though, take on a half or quarter plot, and that is plenty. Whatever you have inherited, the first job is not digging. It is measuring and looking.

Pace out the site, then sketch it on graph paper to a rough scale. Mark the compass points, because this single detail will shape everything else. Most vegetables want at least six hours of direct sun a day, so the sunniest stretch is reserved for tomatoes, courgettes, sweetcorn, beans and squash. Shade-tolerant crops such as spinach, chard, lettuce and rhubarb can go in the corners that catch less light. Orient long beds north to south where you can, so plants on either side of the row get even light rather than one side shading the other.

Walk the plot at different times of day and after heavy rain. Note where water sits in puddles, where frost lingers longest on a spring morning, and where the prevailing wind hits hardest. Also record what you inherit: a shed, a fruit cage, a stand of raspberries, or a patch of ground elder, horsetail or bindweed that will need a season of smothering under black polythene. Check your tenancy agreement before you build anything — many sites have rules about sheds, fires, hedges and hosepipe use.

• Sun hours per bed, morning and afternoon
• Slope and direction of drainage
• Distance to the nearest water tap
• Existing perennials, trees and structures
• Where the wind and frost bite hardest

Lay Out Beds and Paths Before You Plant Anything

Decide on your bed system now and the plot will work for years. The classic formula is beds no wider than 1.2 metres, so you can reach the middle from either side without standing on the soil. Keep beds to a sensible length — six to eight metres is plenty — and run a 45 to 60 centimetre path between them, with a 90 centimetre main path down the middle for a wheelbarrow and a full water butt.

Permanent paths are worth the effort. Bark, woodchip, paving slabs or even flattened cardboard topped with compost will all suppress weeds and keep your boots cleaner. If your soil is heavy clay, raised beds warm up faster in spring and drain better in winter. On light, sandy ground, open ground actually holds moisture better than timber. Untreated boards last well enough and avoid any worries about preservatives leaching into your carrots.

Do not try to cultivate the whole plot in your first year. Half the ground under cardboard or a green manure such as field beans is a perfectly respectable way to start, and it leaves you time to do the beds you have taken on properly.

Group Crops by What They Need

Rotation is the heart of a productive plot. Group your crops into four or five families and move them round each year. This keeps pests and diseases guessing, balances what each crop takes from the soil, and makes feeding far simpler.

• Brassicas — cabbages, sprouts, kale, broccoli. They want firm ground, a dusting of lime, and netting against pigeons and cabbage white butterflies.
• Legumes — peas and beans. They fix their own nitrogen, so they follow the greedy crops and leave the soil richer than they found it.
• Roots and alliums — carrots, parsnips, beetroot, onions, leeks, garlic. No fresh manure, please: it forks the roots. They like a fine, stone-free tilth and ground that was manured the previous year.
• Potatoes — useful for breaking up rough ground, but they need room and regular earthing up.
• Salads and everything else — lettuce, spinach, courgettes, sweetcorn, tomatoes, herbs. The flexible group that fills gaps.

Spacing matters more than most beginners expect. Leeks at 15 centimetres apart, cabbages at 45, Brussels sprouts at 60. Crowding gives you smaller heads, more mildew and a miserable harvest.

Plan for a Harvest Every Week

Maximum yield is not about one gluttonous glut in August; it is about something ready to pick from April to November. Sow little and often. A short row of carrots every three weeks beats one long row that matures all at once. Do the same with salad leaves, radish, beetroot and turnips.

Then use the gaps. Radishes can be pulled long before brassicas need their final spacing. Lettuce grows happily in the shade of sweetcorn. A quick crop of spinach follows early potatoes once they are lifted. For the hungry months, plant winter cabbage, leeks, purple sprouting broccoli and broad beans so the plot is still earning its keep in January.

Make Room for Water, Compost and Shelter

No plot works without infrastructure, and it should be planned in from the start rather than squeezed in later. Site your water butts under the shed roof and link two or three together — a 200-litre butt empties in a single dry week. Mulch everything with compost or grass clippings to cut evaporation, and group thirsty crops together so one watering can does more good.

Set aside a corner for three compost bays: one filling, one rotting, one ready. Add a sturdy bench, somewhere to store tools under lock and key, and a small netting or fleece windbreak on the exposed side. A folding chair and a flask are not luxuries — they are what turn a plot from a chore into somewhere you want to be.

Keep Records and Adjust Each Year

Keep a notebook in the shed and write down what you sow, when it germinates, what the weather did and what the pests took. Be honest about your time, too: a full plot in midsummer wants five to eight hours a week. If that is unrealistic, grow fewer crops better rather than more crops badly.

At the end of each season, spend an hour with a cup of tea and your notes, deciding what earned its space and what did not. Swap seeds and surplus seedlings with neighbouring plot holders — the advice on an allotment site is worth more than any book. Plan generously, but plan within your means, and the plot will reward you for years.