With one thing and another we’ve decided not to renew the allotment, however, there is still produce to collect, this week it’s rhubarb, chard and tulips.
Been a while since I updated this section, we are now in August 2024 and I’ve been in Wales for over three years. The garden areas, although smallish are all planted now and it all looks good, mainly planters and pots, which in itself has been a useful practice. Oh, and yes we now have a small allotment. Actually it could be a lot bigger but, with things as they are, the time just isn’t really there.
Not much actual gardening space where we are in Wales, but why should that stop you? Container gardening isn’t easy and it is time consuming, that’s why you don’t see it about much.
These are the sweet peas from a company called Merrymans, top notch plants which I grew from their seed. Not posted a lot since moving to Wales, however, we have been doing quite a bit in a relatively small gardening space. I think I posted something at the end of the page but I’ve started again chronologically so, scooting down, the allotment section is the real start of the section. Also we now have an allotment, again not a big one, but it’s up and running.
Got the allotment a year ago. This year, 2018, I will post a diary of everything planted and grown in it.
The beds are designed to be worked efficiently and to be built up gradually with compost in order to discourage weeds.
Compost is king! Sad I know but it is miracle stuff, without it there is no you! The bay on the left is vegetable compost (uncooked) from home, the one next to it is horse manure (free on site). When this is nearly composted down it goes into the bin on the right till it’s perfect. This is also the best wormery which I use for fishing bait. When the compost is ready (about a yearish) it goes on top of the beds and the young plants go in it! simple.
The two pictures below are a year old. Took Katie, my daughter, to show off the allotment and get her into the great, goodly, green lifestyle. She saw a spider in the shed and ran off!
Okay so I have 3 planters made out of re-cycled water butts at home which is about a mile away from the allotment. I have no car (by choice) and even if I did they wouldn’t fit in, so how do I get them there…easy, on the bike!
These are the hyacinths that I planted late last year in some old garden sacks, plenty of grit in the mix and they have come up a treat. At the minute it’s seed growing time, some are ready to prick out, the sweet peas are well on their way already. The soft fruit border is nearly done, just waiting for the pipe to be delivered and then the net will go up. I acquired another water butt which I sawed in half for strawberries. Rhubarb coming through and another variety planted today. Blueberry to be planted on this week and some thornless blackberries which are cuttings from our garden will be planted soon.
Lots of seeds coming through. My new cold frames at home are working okay although it has been cold and windy, got to have patience though and let things grow, winter is a long time to wait and you do want stuff to get a move on! Finishing off the fruit cage in order to protect the redcurrants, blackcurrants, blueberry, gooseberry, raspberry and another berry with a fancy name that I can’t remember. It’s going to work too. Also I have made a semi-permanent greenhousey type construct in order to grow cucumbers (although they did alright in the hot summer last year), peppers and chillies. The Mediterranean herbs already have one with plenty of grit mixed into the loamy soil. Next job probably is planting spuds, they are chitting up so should be ready in about a week.
Right, so we are in the middle of May and lots of work has already been done, with more to be done, of course. Seed planting and pricking out is well in progress and some of the produce is already in he ground, cabbages, potatoes, onions are all growing, flowers are in – sweet peas, gladioli and sunflowers, the fruit is coming on and is netted and the tomatoes and cucumbers are in the big cloche. Other veg such as chard, spinach, beetroot, peas and pumpkins have just been put in after a week of good weather. It’s a joy doing this, just the doing of it.
The garden at home is in its second year after a complete re-design. Many of the plants have been either grown from seed, plugs, rescued or bought as immature so it is gratifying to see it come to life. Working the soil has got to be the most important factor with the spring mulch paying dividends throughout the year.
June 10th. One mistake I tend to make is planting out too soon and then getting slightly frustrated when they don’t flourish like it’s August. However, things are doing nicely now, the weather is getting warmer and we’ve had plenty of rain.
First crop of summer fruits. Planted the strawberries from runners that I grew from half a dozen plants bought two years ago for a fiver, put them in highly enriched compost in containers and kept them well watered, doing nicely. The redcurrant bush was there already just netted it to keep the birds off. The fruit trees are doing good, espaliered along the south facing boundary so there should be something to crop this year, a few apples at least. If not there I will scrounge plenty from the glut of others.
Middle of July and time for a bit of cropping. As it’s only the second year I’ve tried a few new crops and some different methods, mixed results but, as always, it is always worth having a go. The blue potatoes were amazing and the new beetroot are very good, chard and spinach are like last year but I don’t seem to use them enough so it’s their last year. The courgettes are just beginning to take hole but that was my fault in trying to rush the seedling process, cold wet weather doesn’t help either. Peas are another crop that are on the relegation list for next year, they are delicious but seem to die back quickly. It is looking likely that spuds, onions, beets, courgettes and some other staples, together with tomatoes (which are doing well) and other salad crops will be the main produce next year with cut flowers taking up more space.
One of the cut flower sections is ready to crop. Gladioli’s are different from the little hot house flowers sold in supermarkets, allotment grown ones – like all the other produce – are better in virtually every way. These are big, vibrant, deeply pasteled beauties, that are glad to be cut and to fill a room with the height of English summer. The sweet peas make it perfumed as well they reminded me to say. And the dahlias look gorgeous too…sunflowers yes, lovely!
Our allotment is having a competition to grow the biggest pumpkin and sunflower, we grow lots of sunflowers for cut flowers but, unfortunately, got the giant ones mixed up with the dwarf multi-headed. The bad news is that there won’t be as many lovely little sunflowers on the kitchen table this year, the good news is that some of the giants are heading towards orbit! Unintentionally one of the cropping turned out to be purple based, looks nice though.
Container Gardening
It is a standard introduction on gardening programmes and in magazines that this method of gardening can be done anywhere and in anything, well it can’t. There are some good reasons for this. One is that it is not at all straightforward, a point overlooked by dumb-down horticultural journalists. Another is that gardening takes a good deal of time and effort and this form, in particular, requires this in droves. However, time, effort, experience and imagination in place, there is no reason not to try. The photographs below are taken from the home garden with the exception of the cucumber which was grown at the allotment.
Perhaps the easiest plants to grow with the minimum of care are hardy succulents and sedums. Although, as with all aspects of gardening, the right conditions must be established and maintained. These plants hate damp roots, so much so that they fare well in bare gravel with the minimum of soil. The planter shown is an old wheelbarrow edged with pieces of roofing slate, nothing more than this other than decorative gravel. The plants themselves were picked from other plants, just nodules placed between the gaps and left.
Although virtually all of the produce for eating is done at the allotment I grow salad crops and herbs – in containers – at home. I don’t have a greenhouse the mother of invention steps in and sorts the issue. What is a greenhouse anyway? somewhere that is warmer when it is chillier, protects from frost and shelters from the worst of the weather, okay then I’ll make something.
Container gardening, as suggested, is not as easy as is sounds. Hostas, for instance are great in pots but they do need good drainage, especially when young or from splits. Dahlias need lots of water – all summer – but not too much nutrient otherwise they will be foliage rich when it is the flowers that are wanted. Most other plants do okay but you do have to look after them like pets, constant watering in dry weather, fending off pests, feeding at the right time. Then – twice a year if you grow winter/spring plants – you will need to overhaul the compost or, at least, revitalise the top layer. Worth it though!
Planted the fruit trees along the side of the plot as espaliers so that they form a border, and, of course, they give a crop in late autumn. The apple has done well in its first year but nothing yet from the plum, pear or the other apple, but they are growing well so next year should be good…there is always next year (hopefully).
New Allotment October 2019
Yeah, as any dedicated gardener will tell you its very often an ever-present aspiration to have more ground to work, so we applied – and got – another plot. This one is on a site adjacent to the present one making it really convenient. A lot of tidying up to do but all the essentials are already there (not a shed though) and the soil, like the existing one, is superb. So lets get cracking!
Over-wintering a raised bed
It should be fairly obvious that plants just can’t be put in the same soil year after year without any help. This is true for a houseplant as well as for a garden that is expected to look good. For an allotment there are a few ground rules (pun intended) to fallow (there’s another one) and preparing the soil is the most important. On the small plot the defined beds are easy to manage and quite satisfying to keep in good order. The process below took no longer than half an hour and it can now be left until next year when planting begins again.
April 2020
Both allotments are on schedule for the new growing season. We have worked steadily on them over the winter, especially the new one, and it is looking the part. The new cold/glass frame is working better than I thought, the seeds are doing well and all the tender plants seemed to have over-wintered okay. Not a single bag of compost or mulch bought in this year its all my own, organic of course, from the allotments. I now have five composting sections in addition to three specialist composters. The only problem is getting the stuff from A to B on the bike, its a bit like escaping from Colditz, stealthily and bit by bit.
We have inherited, amongst other things, a super run of rhubarb on the new allotment which I tidied up and mulched during the winter, yesterday (April 4) I had the first, delicious, crop. We also sorted out the cabbage/fruit cage netting, Carol did some thinking on the subject and bought a 50mtr roll of debris netting which is absolutely perfect.
We have begun to crop the spring bulbs that we planted at the end of last year. Learning from our mistakes we planted the bulbs individually this time – with a Dutch planter – at the correct depth. It is the most important aspect, especially with Tulips, to plant them deep enough. I think that if you don’t the come up too early with the first warmth and then they don’t seem to flourish. You’ve got to make life a bit harder for them than they might want but its worth it.
The new allotment is doing well. We have worked steadily on it through winter and spring and we are now in the process of planting. The existing rhubarb plants are fruiting although at the end of the season we intend to move them, this will create new plants and invigorate the old ones. Carol has done a great job with the soft fruit, we were lucky in that the formal structures were in place but, nevertheless, it still requires a good deal of skill and graft to get them woring right. The lower level soft fruit has been netted within a large cage so that should be productive. One of the benefits of growing your own – and there are many – is that the quality is incomparable and price is much different to the produce on supermarket shelves, none more so than with fruit. We have a communal mini orchard as well so thats great too.
Steady progress on both allotments, mid June 2020 and it’s just started to rain. The weather patterns, I have to admit, seem to be changing, although human time perception – like mayflies that fly for a day and think its forever – condenses the flow. Nevertheless it has been warm and very dry. This has made it even more of a pleasure to spend time at our allotments and we haven’t wasted it. All the crops are doing well, the new allotment in particular, is throwing produce at us due to the fallow-fertility of the soil. We are cropping now and this should continue straight through till winter.
August 2020 : Both allotments are doing very well, probably due to a combination of experience and good growing conditions. In particular the new plot is thriving, throwing up crops (and weeds) with vigour. Cabbages (red and pointed), kale, brocolli, chinese cabbage, beetroot (by the bucket load), turnips, radish, herbs (flourishing in the ground) onions (fantasic quality) salad crops, sunflowers, dahlias and a bounty of soft fruit. The little garden we planted has done well although it has grown a little wild, it is a lovely place to sit down after a short session cropping or digging. We are now beginning to preserving crops for over winter, freezing, pickling, dry storing, it is a healthy life and a good one.
5 September 2020 The cropping continues to outstrip our expectations. It always seems slow in late June but now we are sufficient in all but the exotics – oranges, pineapples, sweet potatoes (may try this one next year) musrooms (difficult to grow). Our freezer is full of soft fruit which is ruinously expensive to buy. On Wednesday we cycled to the damson trees I found while going fishing and came home with 4kg of ripe fruit fresh from the tree which is now either frozen or jammed. The potatoes (especially Charlotte) are beyond comparison to shop bought and I my chopped kale, spinach, cabbage, chard in the fridge is the easiest food to cook, looks and tastes great flash fried in the best olive oil.
Soil Health: Weeds
Any serious gardener or allotment holder will have an opinion about weeds, and you can expect it to be derogatory. They do get in the way, that cannot be denied, neither can they be ignored – unless you want a garden/plot that looks like an abandoned factory car park. But here is the thing, why not try to stop thinking of them as a problem and stop trying to eradicate them because, simply, you can’t. Do this, don’t do that, that’s all you tend to hear from other growers, which is all well and good, but I often wonder ho much real thought goes into the advice blather and how much of it is just recieved ‘wisdom’ being passed around. Here is what I think.
Take a section of sterile concrete and place on it half a ton of sterile top soil, completely absented of any seeds. Leave it for a couple of weeks during an English summer and the weedlings will begin to apear. A couple of weeks later and there will be no clear soil, some weeds will be knee high and others firmly taken root and pushing their space bigger. All the effort taken to make the soil weed free is futile. Breezes bring the seeds, bird shit does the same, animal paws, insects crawling along it, a proper little highway for the billions of invisible seeds that colonise ground. So no option but to live with it and manage the ones that grow where you don’t want them too. And put them on your compost heap, what does it matter, you don’t want sterile compost anyway, it’s a contradiction of terms. I don’t even dig the weeds out anymore. what I do is get on my hands and knees, with a pair of super-sharp hedge trimmers and snip away. I take them most times I go, it’s intensly theraputic, great exercise and it gets you close down to the plants so you get a different perspective to what’s going on. If you snip closely enough it gives a great ‘green’ compost too. Use what is there!
Composting : Most people with gardens don’t grow anything, for many it is a mystery that needs explaining, like eating properly, or exercising. When the urge strikes, off they go to buy three big plastic bags of invigorated soil to dump into a pot. I know, I’ve done it myself many times and there is nothing much wrong with doing it like that, apart from the plastic, the effort required to get the stuff from a-b-c-d, and, you can do it yourself, easily.
It starts and ends in the Kitchen. Everybody has waste, recycling has forced people to think a little more about what they do with it but that is only the preface to the book. How you manage your houshold waste is the singular benefit/damage that you make to the bigger environment. Obviously, buy less, think more and that will be great but here, specifically, it’s about food waste. Food comes in wrappers. Not the cardboard and plastic wrapping of hyper-processed salty fat sludge that bulks the normal supermarket trolley, but real wrapping, peel, cores, shells, that sort of thing. This is the stuff that makes compost. The photo below is our recycling drawer, every single item of vegetable matter is used again, from tea leaves (why use a bag?) and coffee grounds to flower stalks and pineapple husks.
We don’t have a combustion vehicle. Fortunately we don’t need one, or more accurately we have adapted to not needing one. They pollute the air, they are crude and unsightly, they pollute through noise, and, last but not least, they kill and maim innocents throughout the day, every day, wherever there are roads for them to infest. That leaves us a few challenges most of which we solve on our bikes. In terms of recycling and composting the next stages are done at the allotments, which means getting kitchen waste from our house to one of the waste compost sections. And this is done, regularly, by bike.
So the next stage is waiting for it to compost down. I have four separate bays and four composting bins over the two allotments, these are a combination of houshold vegetable waste, as above, and horse manure. The latter – which is in its own bay/bin is a superb benefit to having allotments near to Lancashire Mounted Constabulary, its all free and in regular quantities. Someone from the unit delivers it to a section of each allotment and then all we have to do is barrow it to our respective plots. I don’t tend to do much else with either composting. Some maintain that it needs turning regularly, that may be so if the waste is bulky or grassy, but ours is already chopped up (from preparing meals) and it rots down a treat. The horse manure I tend to pile up and transfer the bottom of this to the top of a compost bin. This not only gives an aeration to the process but also generates the best brandling worms for fishing.
There are two places the compost ends up . Firstly, it is placed on the beds and the planters at the allotments to enrich the soil for the forthcoming season. We use a ‘no dig’ method meaning that at in early winter and spring a layer of quality organic material is placed onto the growing area which has been – with as little effort as possible – devoided of weeds. The worms and microbeasties then get to work for us. It is a really satisfying way to get the plots ready, still a fair bit of work involved, but pleasing in that it is your own compost that is doing the intricate job. No plastic, no engines, no chemicals. Nature first.
The second place the compost ends up is in my potting shed. To get there it comes from the allotments – via the bike of course – into one of the compost buckets under the cold frame and then into the shed where it gets sifted and sorted. By now the material is virtually fit for any use in the garden, and it is top quality tackle. The only slight drawback is that it does contain a lot of alien seeds, mostly annual weeds, that can pop up to confuse you in the seed planting season. It’s a small drawback and one that I easily manage. The compost, in it’s final stage, is used as a seed compost, in the pots and planters in the garden, and in all of the house plants. Depending on what is being grown I mix it with horticultural grit or perlite in varying combinations. The sieving and sorting is (maybe) the most gratifying aspect of gardening, which is saying something as whatever you do in this activity is ultimately rewarding.
Made a start on the new poly tunnel. We’ve put the bench in there for now as we don’t have a shed at the new allotment and it comes in handy if we get caught out with a wintry shower. The stand is from the reclaim section where people place items they think might be useful to others, so far we have had a water butt, three composters, a wheelbarrow and other bits and pieces. The tunnel is great for drying bulbs/tubers out and at the minute we have all our gladioli and dahlias protected during winter. However, the tunnel is for growing produce and yesterday (27th Dec 2020) I skimmed the top of the left section and put a layer of well rotted manure and compost in order for nature to do the rest of the digging for me. Plants will be in soon!
Michael Leo Parker 