Allotment advice/recommendatio n

There are loads of very good videos on YouTube too. Well worth a browse and , as Izabella said, try your local library. Our local authority has lots of allotments and the library has loads of books on allotment gardening too.

Your local library should have a selection you van look through

I bought DH

Alan Buckingham's
Allotment Month by Month
for his birthday.
He has had a plot for 3 yrs now but still found this very informative.

I also recommend Joy Larkom’s Grow Your Own Vegetables. We gave our allotment up some years ago, but I still miss it. Depending on how big your plot is, try clearing and working one half until you find your feet and learn. A big plot can be very daunting. You can press a bit more into service as time goes on. You could consider raised beds. A crop of potatoes is good for ground clearing.

Try the no dig method. I would say start small and cover the rest with black plastic sheets. It's worth taking time on paths too and divide plot with paths into manageable areas you can reach from all sides. It is hard work!

These are the ones I find most useful:
Allotment Month by Month, by Dorling Kindersley
Grow Your Own Veg, by Carol Klein
The Allotment, by A&G Bridgewater in the Specialist series of books
Grow Your Own Vegetables, by Joy Larkom

Topping it with manure/compost is fine but you need to identify your weeds. If they are perennial weeds like couch grass or dock, you need to remove them before covering.

Here comes the first bit of opposite advice ?

No need to double dig if you aren’t up to such extraordinary strenuous work, just layer it with as much manure as you can after hoeing off the weeds. Let the worms do the work.

You’ll get loads of advice especially from your fellow allotmentiers. We’ve had to give ours yup due to health, but I loved our allotment and I always look when we drive past. Our fruit trees are wonderful this year☹️.

I would want to remove all weeds and double dig working in as much organic material as possible.