___________
Aeron
Vale Allotments Trust
GUIDE TO NEW
GARDENERS
(Also please refer
to the “Basics” pages on this web-site for more information)
This page is also available to
download & save as a PDF document
Introduction
Allotment gardening is a
wonderful activity, combining gentle exercise - outdoors in the
fresh air - with the immense satisfaction that comes from
growing vegetables and fruit from seeds and seedlings to
maturity. It really is an unique community based activity, where
you can form close friendships and bonds based on a common love
of growing your own vegetables. Most of all perhaps is the
satisfaction you get from producing all that fresh, healthy and
wholesome food for your family and friends. Until you experience
what it’s like to harvest crops and prepare them (totally fresh)
from the allotment you’ll never realise what we are forced to
accept as “fresh” from the supermarkets. There really is no
comparison, and best of all YOU know what you’re eating, without
the hormones, pesticides and other harmful chemicals - that you
may not be aware of - that the shop-bought alternatives have
been exposed to. It’s also a peaceful hobby that relaxes you
from the stresses of modern living. The allotment can be a haven
to retreat to from the hustle and bustle of our fast modern
lives, it really is the best stress therapy possible.
This guide will help
you, particularly during that difficult first year on your
allotment when there seems to be so much to do and learn and so
little time to do it in.
Gardening is, of course, a
constant study and you’ll soon move from the basic advice
provided here to becoming an unique expert yourself. Contrary to
popular myth, (especially amongst non-gardeners) you don’t need
to be an “Ancient of Days” to be wise enough to know exactly
what you’re doing, or to be highly successful at producing your
own crops!
But that’s one of the
strengths of allotments - they are a community, and there’s
always someone who can provide you with advice. This Allotments
Trust web-site, along with many others, can offer good
advice and guidance to the beginner. Many of these are also a
good source for research and answers to problems. Most of all,
allotment gardening is a pleasure. Whether you choose to compete
in one of the many horticultural competitions across the county
or prefer simply the enjoyment of being out of doors, almost in
the countryside, yet just a step away from home, it is a time of
relaxation and creativity.
GOOD GARDENING.
Tips for Good
Gardening
You’ll find this guide is
packed with good advice about allotment gardening, from digging
the plot to planning year-round use. Adopt the good practices
set out here and you should find the experience of managing a
plot both enjoyable and rewarding.
This guide isn’t a
comprehensive manual, and can’t answer all your gardening
queries. But there’s plenty of help available: Libraries and
book shops have a great selection of gardening books; the
internet is host to gardening clubs, allotment societies and
commercial information; local gardening societies provide advice
and your fellow plot-holders will often be able to help.
·
Don’t rush
– if you try do too much too quickly, your tasks will become
burdens. Instead, do a little and often. See Preparing the
Plot for some ideas on getting your allotment into shape.
·
Plant wisely
– don’t be tempted to rush out on the first sunny day, and look
for the varieties that grow well in your area. See What to
Grow for some advice on selecting suitable varieties for
your soil, and How Much Time to get an idea of what time
you’ll need to put aside throughout the year.
·
Protect the soil
– if you take care of your soil, you’ll have less watering,
weeding and digging to do. If you prepare the soil as
recommended, the Mulching guide will help you keep it in
top form.
·
Make compost
– what starts off as waste soon
becomes an asset, improving soil, feeding your plants and
reducing rubbish. See Composting for a guide on how to
build and maintain a compost pile.
·
Rotate your
crops – the three trials to a
gardener are the weather, pests and diseases. There’s not a lot
you can do about the weather, but crop rotation will limit the
damage caused by soil-borne pests and diseases. See Crop
Rotation for guidance.
·
Use the plot
year-round - you’ll have a better
selection of food for longer, and it will be easier to keep on
top of things. See Year-Round Gardening for some advice
on what to plant.
·
Be a good
neighbour – consider your fellow
gardeners and neighbours as well as thinking of what to grow and
how to grow it.
·
Enjoy it
– allotment gardening is a delightful, social activity that
brings an understanding of nature and an abundance of fruit and
vegetables with a freshness and flavour unrivalled in the shops.
Regard it as a delight and a privilege to have an allotment, not
a chore!
Preparing the Plot
Good preparation will make
all your tasks easier, and this is particularly true when it
comes to laying out the plot and preparing the soil. After all,
two key objectives are to make life easy for yourself and the
soil good for your plants.
You might take over a plot
that requires no work, having been left perfect by the departing
tenant. More likely, it will be covered in couch grass and other
perennial weeds! This isn’t so bad, as a blank canvas allows you
to decide how the plot is laid out and the couch grass will hold
your paths together no matter how much use they get.
The first thing to do is
to make a plan of the plot, including in the design those
features that you want. It’s handy to have four similarly-sized
areas to help plan crop rotation, plus areas for permanent
plantings of trees, soft fruit and vegetables such as asparagus
and artichokes.
You’ll need paths 500mm
(18”) wide, a compost area of at least 2x1m (2x1 yards)
for a minimum of two compost bins, a shed (for storing tools,
possibly fertiliser and storing harvested crops) and possibly a
greenhouse/ polytunnel or cold frame.
You want to avoid walking
on beds whenever possible (which greatly reduces the amount of
digging required later on), so have sufficient paths to allow
you to reach the middle of each bed without stepping on it -
perhaps 1.5m (5’) between the paths. You could include a pond or
a rough area that will be left uncultivated, and this will
encourage pollinators and pest controllers (e.g. ladybirds,
frogs, slow worms, hedgehogs etc) onto your plot.
Start the work by cutting
back any vegetation as close to the ground as you can (a
strimmer will be useful), mark out the areas for beds, paths,
compost bins and other features with pegs and string, roughen up
the soil where the compost heap will be made, and get digging
the beds - but don’t loosen the soil where the shed, greenhouse
or paths will be.
Double digging is what
nearly all the books recommend. It takes longer, but done
properly it might be the last time you use a spade other than to
lift crops! The purpose is to loosen the subsoil for improved
drainage and easier root penetration, without mixing it with the
humus-rich top-soil.
Starting at one end of the
bed, dig out a trench of soil the depth and width of the spade,
and pile up the soil just beyond the far end of the bed,
removing weeds and piling them on the compost heap (be careful
with perennial weed roots, as they may grow again when the
compost is used). Always remove as much soil as you can from the
roots of weeds, as this will speed up composting. Use a fork to
loosen the soil at the base of the trench thoroughly. If this is
very heavy clay, you might want to work in some gypsum or
woodchip to help open it up for good drainage. Dig a second
trench right up against the first, weeding and moving the top
layer of soil onto the loosened soil in the first trench, and
again loosen the sub-soil below. Work across the bed repeating
this process, until you get to the far end. Here, you can rake
the soil you removed from the first trench into the final
trench. Following this procedure ensures that you have the least
amount of carrying to do, leaving your strength to get on with
digging the next bed!
The surface of the bed
will probably have been lifted up by around 20cm (8”) and the
soil will be very soft, ideal for most plants. Don’t walk on it
or it will compress back to what you started with; this is why
you have more paths than you think you need. Stone slabs are
useful as the base for a shed or greenhouse (and will prolong
the life of wooden structures), and old rafters or scaffolding
planks will help define the paths (you can often salvage wood
from skips, but ask the owner first!).
Wooden pallets make
excellent sides for compost bins, an old bath will make a
good-sized pond for tadpoles. Properly used, there is much that
can be given a new life and purpose on allotments, without
looking unsightly. Most plants prefer a neutral soil, and an
overly acid or alkaline soil will not release nutrients to your
plants. If you are able, test the soil acidity (pH meters are
quite inexpensive, and you may be able to borrow one). If the
soil is too alkaline (7.5 or above on the pH scale), an
application of ammonium sulphate at 100g (4oz) per square metre
(yard) will help bring the soil back into balance. Most likely,
the soil will be too acid (6 or lower on the pH scale) and this
can be corrected by an application of ground lime at 450g (16oz)
per square metre (yard). When using either of these chemicals,
avoid using any other chemicals or manure, or sowing any seeds
for at least two weeks. Two or three weeks before planting, add
a general fertilizer to the soil. Blood, Fish and Bone is a good
general purpose NPK slow-release fertilizer. (NPK refers to the
three primary nutrients used by plants: nitrogen (N) promotes
leaf growth, phosphorus (P) promotes root development and
potassium (K) promotes flower and seed production.) As a general
guide, a top dressing of 50g (2oz) per square metre (yard) is
about right, but dig in a base dressing of 100g (4oz) if you are
using woodchip as a mulch, to avoid any nitrogen deficiency.
Remember that too much is just as bad for plants as too little,
so don’t overdo it. Digging over a plot will expose many weed
seeds, and these will start growing immediately, whatever the
season. Whilst a good mulch will stifle many weeds, many more
will get through. Don’t worry, as they will be easy to pull out
if you have dug the soil properly. Be sure to tackle them, by
hand or with a hoe, before planting seeds.
What to Grow
Pretty well all of the
vegetable and herb seeds you find in garden centres can be grown
in Aberaeron’s mild climate, though those that call for a
greenhouse will probably require one, at least until June. The
best practice is to follow the instructions on the packet, which
will be fine (even cautious) for this area.
Plants bought from the
garden centre in spring will often have been given favourable
treatment to bring them on, so acclimatise these before planting
out. Soil varies across Ceredigion: some is heavy clay, some a
clay and gravel mix, some almost pure gravel and some is rather
sandy. Much of the land covered by allotments has been greatly
improved by years of gardening, though you will still find the
basic soil lying not far beneath the surface. Some vegetable and
fruit varieties will do better on one type of soil or another
and, within these varieties, some plants will be more successful
than others. Learn about your soil (that sounds obvious, but it
will take you the full range of seasons to fully understand it)
and adapt your planting to suit. If there isn’t a variety of
carrot that will stand your heavy clay, either forget carrots
and plant beetroot instead, or build a raised bed filled with
lighter soil. Experience will tell you what grows well on your
plot, and you can learn from what others grow on the site.
Sensitive plants such as aubergines, peppers and cucumbers can
be grown in pots, starting their life in a greenhouse or
polytunnel and being moved outside in warmer weather. They’re
easy to grow, even in poor years. You can grow many different
soft and top fruits, though some delicate fruits may require a
southerly aspect with wind protection. It is best to buy fruit
canes, bushes and trees from a reputable dealer who can
guarantee virus-free stock.
An allotment is not just
about vegetables and fruit; plenty of gardeners grow flowers,
too. Flowers can help increase your overall yield by improving
pollination, and will give you and your neighbours great
pleasure. Whatever you choose to grow, don’t be put off by a
crop failure - this happens to us all from time to time, and the
reasons are often beyond our control. Whatever the cause, it is
not a cause for embarrassment!
How
Much Time?
Many gardeners fail to
appreciate the amount of time required to keep an allotment in
good shape. Starting late in spring with all the basic work
(soil preparation, weeding etc.) to do and all the crops to sow,
they have difficulty in keeping up. The best idea is to start
preparing the plot for the coming year in autumn, doing a little
digging each weekend (perhaps an hour or so) so that the plot is
ready for planting in spring. Of course, if you’ve just taken on
an overgrown plot you may need to put twice that time in just to
get it ready in time for the early crops. There will be a few
crops to plant in February and March, but the bulk of the
planting takes place in April and May. You’ll gradually increase
the amount of time spent on the plot and, by the time summer
comes, you may be spending 15 hours a week watering, weeding and
tending your plants. Most gardeners will put in a lot of this
time at weekends, but the best advice is to spare a couple of
hours each morning or evening – then you’ll spot any problems
that much earlier and these are better times to water (and
easier times to work) than at the height of the day. If you plan
and plant a year-round allotment, you’ll find it easier to keep
on top of maintenance and any digging and winter weeding that is
required, simply because you’re visiting the plot regularly. An
hour spent rooting out perennial weeds in autumn can save a day
getting to grips with the same weeds in spring. The advice here
will help reduce the amount of work required, but the best
advice is to make your visits to the allotment a pleasure rather
than a chore – then the time will fly by!
Going Organic
Should you, or shouldn’t
you, garden organically? The reasons why people garden
organically are varied. For some it is an ethical consideration
– should we risk the potential damage to the environment? For
others, the debate centres on health – are the chemicals
approved for garden use actually dangerous to us? For many
gardeners, it is simply a matter of preferring to work with that
which nature has provided. In general, gardening organically is
no easier or more difficult than modern gardening with
chemicals. Crop yields are similar, taste is substantially the
same, and there are costs associated with either method. Organic
gardeners spend money on barriers and traps, non-organic
gardeners spend money on fertilizers, pesticides and fungicides.
When it comes to gardening as a pleasure, though, organic
methods win hands-down. Spraying a crop for aphids is just a
chore, whilst growing comfrey and nettles to encourage ladybirds
– which eat aphids by the score every day – is something you can
enjoy. Creating a winter home out of leaves and twigs for
hedgehogs will give you pleasure, and the hedgehogs will return
the favour by scoffing slugs. Surely that’s more fun than
sprinkling slug pellets?
The same is true of
feeding your plants. It gives satisfaction to see beautiful,
crumbly, sweet smelling compost made from the waste of your
plot. You can’t say that of a packet of powder. Organic
gardening is certainly the fuller and more pleasurable
experience, and has the benefit of being tried and tested over
thousands of years.
Mulching
In its natural state our
soil is held together by roots, protected from the elements by a
canopy of grasses, shrubs and trees, and additional winter
protection is provided by the fall of leaves and other plant
“waste”. This is not so on allotments, where the continuous
cycle of planting, harvesting and resting depletes the soil and
frequently leaves the surface bare. And soil does not like to be
bare: Wind dries it, forming a thin surface crust through which
seedlings have difficulty penetrating. The heavy clay soil is
prone to pancaking, particularly on well-prepared beds. Heavy
rain washes much of the goodness out of the soil, and in extreme
cases actually washes the soil away. Locally, the rain turns
clay into an unyielding, gooey mess that cannot be worked during
winter. Walking on the soil compacts it, squeezing out the
pockets of air that feed the organisms that in turn keep all our
plants alive. Severe compaction prevents drainage, and the
resultant water-logging can damage root systems and stop plants
growing altogether. Sunshine quickly evaporates moisture near
the surface, adding to plant stress in the summer. A good
surface mulch addresses each of these problems. It prevents the
wind drying the surface, it protects the surface from heavy
rain, it traps moisture without preventing the sun warming the
soil, and a good thick layer can greatly reduce soil compaction
by spreading the weight of gardeners’ footsteps. It also
suppresses annual weeds. In these conditions your plants will be
healthier and more resistant to disease and insect attack. And
you will have less digging, watering and weeding to do. Many
materials, natural and manufactured, can be used as mulches. For
a simple surface cover that will protect the soil from wind, sun
and rain and suppress weeds, use old wool carpet (but not
rubber-backed) or one of the many woven polypropylene products
available from garden centres. The advantage of this sort of
cover is that it can be laid quickly and moved about as
required, so it is ideal when you’ve taken on an overgrown plot
or don’t have the time to keep up with tasks. It allows water to
penetrate, keeping the soil moist and viable.
These materials can also
be used semi-permanently:
simply cut a cross in the
material and put the plant you wish to grow through the cut into
the soil. The plant will grow and the weeds won’t. Eventually
the cuts will render the covering useless, but this can take
years. A mulch of straw will provide protection against wind,
rain and compaction and, gathered around winter crops, will also
afford some frost protection. It is easy to lay and easy to move
when you need to clear an area for planting, and it lasts a long
time as it is not readily taken into the soil. It is inexpensive
but transport can be a problem, particularly if you want to
cover an entire plot.
Leaves make a good mulch,
but those from the plants you grow can carry disease over to the
following season, so on the allotment they are better added to
the compost bin.
Woodchip is an excellent
material that can be laid thickly all over the plot. It provides
all the benefits of soil protection allied to fairly rapid
decomposition and the resultant improvement to the soil. It has
two further advantages: it can be delivered free in most areas,
and using it means that it doesn’t have to be transported to
landfill or to a commercial composting operation. It is
perfectly feasible to put a layer 20cm (8”) thick all over the
plot, and much of this will decompose over the year and improve
the soil lying beneath. You can even use it on your paths. If
you use woodchip extensively, it is worth putting an additional
top dressing of general purpose fertiliser (such as blood, fish
and bone) to replace the nitrogen that will be used to break
down the wood in the soil. You should watch out for conifers,
which have a growth-inhibiting hormone that will prevent seeds
germinating (but won’t affect seedlings) and also privet
cuttings, which prevent most things from growing. Otherwise,
most materials are fine.
Living mulches are crops
grown primarily to protect the soil. They provide a protective
canopy as they grow, and feed the soil when they are dug in at
the end of their life. There are fast-growing crops (such as
mustard) that can be grown in spring on land that won’t be
planted until summer.
There are deep-rooted
crops (such as alfalfa) that will take nutrients from the
underlying clay soil and make them available to the next crop to
be planted.
Vetches absorb nitrogen
from the atmosphere, enriching soil after growing a heavy feeder
such as potatoes.
There are over-wintering
crops (such as grazing rye) that are sown in autumn and protect
the soil from the worst of the weather.
Special formulations, such
as Tubingen Mix, incorporate a variety of flowers designed to
attract butterflies, bees and other pollinators during spring
and summer to increase yields from nearby food crops. With all
living mulches, the trick is to turn them into the soil just
before they go to seed (unless you want to continue growing the
same mulch on the same patch in future!).
Composting
Compost is an excellent
soil conditioner and plant food. It regulates the supply of
moisture to plants and reduces the need for watering, encourages
the activity of worms which keep the soil aerated, and provides
all the basic nutrients and trace elements to promote plant
growth and health. Healthy plants don’t require applications of
pesticides and fungicides, which will please wildlife, and
without wildlife you’d be surprised how difficult allotment
gardening would become!
Composting vegetable waste
not only makes a nutrient-rich soil conditioner, it also takes
up to 30% of household waste away from landfill sites, which
might not have a great effect on your council tax bill but
certainly helps the environment. With proper care, a small
composting area can produce a good quantity of high quality
compost every year. To achieve this, though, the compost pile
requires the same care and attention as the plants themselves.
Compost is produced by the
action of bacteria living off decaying plant remains. (Worms,
woodlice and others also play their part, but it is the bacteria
that are the main agents.) The ideal conditions are warm, damp,
loose and airy: not dry or sodden, and not packed tight. Given
these conditions, the bacteria can work fast (and generate a lot
of heat, which kills off weed seeds) and you could have good
compost in three to four months. You can achieve this by
providing a good bin, the right mix of materials and the right
conditions.
You don’t actually need a
compost bin to make compost, but they help keep the plot tidy
and are useful when you come to turn the pile. There are some
inexpensive plastic bins, but they usually don’t last long. Many
local authorities provide sturdy bins made from recycled plastic
which, though not large, are heavily subsidised and it is
churlish to refuse one.
Wooden bins hold a lot
more, and offer better insulation and ventilation. They’re
expensive to buy, but you can make one from four abandoned
pallets - for best results, stand them with the wooden face of
each pallet facing inwards, staple chicken wire to the outside
of each and pack straw behind the wire to help insulate the
pile.
Tumbler bins are
convenient because they enable you to turn the compost without
digging it out and repacking it, but they are expensive and hold
only a small amount of material. You can make a large,
inexpensive bin from four posts and chicken wire, but you’ll
probably have to replace the wire every year or two. (Wormeries
are a very effective way of dealing with kitchen waste, but are
less suitable for allotments and are beyond the scope of this
guide.) You can put any vegetable matter (including paper and
cardboard) in a compost bin and, in time, it will rot down. To
get good compost quickly, you need to ensure that there is a
roughly equal mix of woody and soft, green material. Too much
woody material and very little will happen, as the compost pile
will be too dry and lacking in nitrogen-rich material to help
the bacteria. Too much green material may lead to anaerobic
activity and an unpleasant smell. Just add what you have as it
becomes available.
If you produce a lot of
green waste from the kitchen and have lots of weeds, balance
this with a similar quantity of woodchip. If you have a lot of
twigs, chop them into small pieces (a shredder is a great help,
but somewhat costly) so they’re more easily mixed in. Soil is
not a problem in the compost pile, but you should remove
whatever soil you can from the roots of weeds, otherwise they
may continue growing – in an ideal situation! Don’t add meat
or dairy products, as these can produce some unpleasant toxins
and will attract flies and foxes. The pile needs careful
maintenance for good composting. It should be moist to the
touch, but not so damp that you can squeeze water out of it. You
can usually detect a pile that is too wet by the unpleasant
smell that comes from it, and add some woodchip or cardboard to
absorb some of the moisture. If it is too dry, water the pile
with a can and sprinkler. Bacteria need air, and this only
penetrates a few inches into a pile, so it will need frequent
aeration. The best way is to turn the entire pile over as soon
as the heat starts to go (perhaps every fortnight or so in
summer). If the pile isn’t heating up, try mixing the materials
and checking the balance of soft and woody material. (It will
compost anyway, but will be much more slowly.) Once the material
has lost its original identity and is becoming a uniform texture
and colour, the work is nearly done. Stop adding material now,
and start a new pile. Soon you will be able to use the
decomposed material as a soil conditioner, or you could sieve it
and use the large material as a surface mulch and the finer
material for potting.
Crop Rotation
Crop rotation is the
practice of planting crops in different locations each year.
There are two good reasons for doing this: Each crop makes
particular demands of the soil in which it is grown, and growing
the same crop in the same place year after year soon depletes
the soil of the goodness required by the crop. The second reason
is that over the course of a season diseases associated with a
particular crop build up in the soil, and that planting the same
crop into soil which already has a build-up of disease will
weaken and possibly destroy the crop. Most diseases will
disappear over the course of a year or two if their favourite
plant isn’t available, but some can live on for 7 or 8 years.
The ideal crop rotation plan ensures that a crop doesn’t return
to a bed for eight years, but this requires a lot of beds and
careful record-keeping, and lack of space dictates that most
gardeners will opt for a 3 or 4 year cycle.
This will prevent most
problems, but if a disease like club root takes hold you won’t
be able to grow brassicas in that soil for at least 7 years. The
sequence in which different crops are planted in a particular
bed is determined principally by each plant’s nitrogen
requirement. Some require a lot of nitrogen, some a little, some
actually collect nitrogen from the air and so enrich the soil.
The normal cycle is to feed the soil (with manure, compost,
etc.), then grow the heavy feeders, then grow the nitrogen
fixers, then the light feeders, then back to feeding the soil
for the next heavy feeders.
Cover crops such as
vetches can be incorporated into the cycle; this helps to
balance the preponderance of heavy feeders in most gardening
plans. For the purpose of planning crop rotation, plants are
grouped by family (because they make similar demands and have
similar susceptibilities). Here are some examples of frequently
grown crops, by plant family (heavy nitrogen feeders are
identified HF, light feeders LF, and nitrogen fixers NF):
·
alliacae (LF);
garlic, leek, onion, shallot
·
compositae (HF);
chicory, endive, lettuce
·
chenopodiaceae (HF);
beetroot, chard, spinach
·
cruciferae (HF);
broccoli, brussels sprout, cabbage, cauliflower, swede, turnip
·
cucurbitaceae (HF);
courgette, cucumber, marrow, pumpkin
·
gramineae (HF);
sweetcorn
·
leguminosae (NF);
broad bean, french bean, runner bean, pea
·
solanaceae (HF);
aubergine, capsicum, potato, tomato
·
umbelliferae (LF);
carrot, celery, dill, parsnip
A typical example might be
to grow potatoes (heavy feeders) or newly fertilized soil, to
follow these in the next season with peas and beans (which feed
the soil), and follow these with onions (light feeders). In the
fourth season, rather than planting potatoes again (which would
give only a three year cycle), a different heavy feeder from a
different family might be grown (eg. courgettes).
Designing a crop rotation
plan requires careful consideration. Most of us grow more plants
from the heavy feeders category than the others, so the Feed -
HF - NF - LF - Feed cycle is not easy to maintain.
Similarly, a four or eight
year cycle demands consideration about where different crops can
be grown. It isn’t simply a matter of saying that a particular
crop can’t go into the soil until the end of the cycle - it’s
the whole family. Matters are further complicated by having to
deal with the specific requirements of many of our favourite
crops. Potatoes frequently contract scab if grown on a limed
soil, so they can’t follow on from brassicas, which love lime.
Carrots and parsnips hate
rich soils, so they can’t be planted in an area that has been
recently manured. They also like a well-drained, stone-free
soil, so they may be limited to a few specific areas of the plot
anyway. If you intend to use companion planting (growing
different plants together because they afford one another
protection from pests), then two or more families may be grown
together and neither should return to that bed within the crop
rotation cycle. Don’t let this dissuade you from producing a
plan that at least meets some of the criteria.
We’re in the business of
lessening the effect of pests and diseases, and even the best
plans will fail from time to time. The best bit of advice is to
remember to write down what you’ve grown where, and keep these
records for the future.
Year-Round Gardening
For some gardeners, the
year starts at Easter and ends when the clocks go back in
October. But this probably requires more time and effort than
gardening year-round, and certainly is much less rewarding.
Think of all the things
you miss out on: nutty, crunchy sprouts; sweet-tasting parsnips;
creamy cauliflowers, pungent leeks; fresh sprouting broccoli;
winter salads. And it’s not just the winter crops - start late
in the year and you’ll miss the opportunity of growing spring
crops and early varieties of summer produce - a treat when
they’re still expensive in the shops.
With all these good things
to grow, how could anyone ignore their allotment during the
winter! But good food year-round is not the only reason for
continuing to visit the plot in the winter months. Nature
doesn’t take a break in winter - weeds continue to grow, and
materials decay. By keeping on top of tasks, you’ll reduce the
amount of maintenance required and avoid the backlog in spring –
the time when gardeners are busiest. The soil will benefit for
your activity, too, and so will the wildlife. You’ll need to
organise the plot for year-round use. There are three things to
consider:
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·
firstly, when
does each variety need to be planted;
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·
secondly, how
long will it occupy the bed; and
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·
thirdly, the
crop rotation plan, which should include cover crops to
regenerate the soil.
The instructions on seed
packets will give you a good idea of when to plant a variety and
how long the soil will be occupied, and you’ll find that a
simple plan of each of the seasons will soon show what space you
have for early and late crops.
Remember the basics of
crop rotation, and that the soil will require feeding after
growing a greedy crop such as tomatoes or potatoes. You can add
compost if you’re looking to use the area again quickly, or you
could grow a cover crop (there are winter crops as well as
summer) for longer-term regeneration which will provide
protection for the soil whilst the crop is growing and will add
humus and food to the soil for the next crop.
A cover crop also provides
shelter for spiders, beetles and other beneficial insects.
Perhaps the most important aspect of planning for the year-round
allotment, though, is to look for more interesting, less
run-of-the-mill varieties to grow. One of the greatest delights
of the allotments is that the variety of seeds available to you
greatly outstrips anything available in supermarkets and
greengrocers.
To take just one example,
there are at least 400 varieties of tomato you can grow, from
off-white to near-black, early, mid and late season croppers,
for cooking, bottling, drying, salads, sauces and more. You’ll
find a certain amount of seed swapping going on at the
allotments, and there are now many specialist seed clubs that
are able to supply unusual and distinct species and varieties
for you to try.
Good Neighbours
These aren’t the rules for
allotments; they are simply examples of being a good neighbour.
Follow them and you’ll find that you’ll get along with people
and the allotments will be a more pleasant environment. But take
care to observe the rules of your tenancy, too, or your plot may
be at risk.
Rubbish - there is no
automatic right to rubbish clearance on allotments and all
dumping – whether vegetable waste of any other material - is
selfish. You may be fined and could lose your plot if you dump
rubbish. From time to time there may be an opportunity to have
rubbish cleared from the site - when this happens, be prepared
to lend a hand.
Bonfires - there are no
set times when bonfires are or are not allowed. This is a matter
of commonsense. Let material dry out before burning it, so
there’ll be less smoke. Don’t light a bonfire on a sunny day
when neighbours may have hung washing out to dry. Don’t have a
bonfire on a windy day, when the smoke may travel far and the
fire could get out of control. Never leave a fire unattended.
Paths - the maintenance of
paths is your responsibility (that is one of the rules). That
means all the paths around your plot, and any communal paths.
These should be kept in a fit state to walk upon at all times.
Couch grass is planted on allotments because its roots hold the
path together under heavy wear - don’t destroy the path by using
weedkiller on it.
Gates - you have a
responsibility towards all other plot-holders to ensure you
close (or lock) the gate after you use it. There is little point
in having fences if you do not. Think how you’d feel if someone
left the gate open and it was your produce that was lost. And if
the fence is vandalised, don’t leave it to someone else to
report the matter to the Association committee.
Advice - advice is often
welcome, but you should never press the point, even when it
seems obvious to you that someone is getting something wrong.
They may not want to achieve the results you look for, and you
might even learn from their example.
Cultivation - allotments
are provided to be used. If you don’t use and take care of your
plot, you may lose it. It is unfair to other gardeners (and
would-be gardeners) to leave it growing weeds throughout the
year. If you have little time to spare, at least plant a cover
crop to protect and feed the soil and keep the weeds at bay.
Chemicals - some gardeners
choose to use chemicals, some prefer to avoid them. Whilst the
choice is yours, you should respect the way others garden. If
you want to spray a crop, do so only when there is no wind and
make sure you don’t send the spray onto a neighbour’s plants.
Being pressed for time is not an excuse to ruin someone else’s
gardening experience.
Communal features - It
might be a hedgerow, or some hard standing onto which woodchip
or manure is delivered. Whatever they are, these communal
features help you in your gardening and you have a
responsibility towards them. Pruning, tidying, litter-picking,
path strimming and the like are the responsibility of every
plot-holder - not just those few who always turn out to help.
