Dealing with wind

Because the plot is south-west facing on the top of a hill, with views for miles around, it also is very exposed and gets hit hard by the wind. Hopefully all plants grown from seed on the site will grow up used to the constant blowing, but the plants we have put in are not coping well with the cold wind. Researching the problem on-line, Joy Larkcom, who has a very windy garden in Ireland suggests tyres around delicate plants. We sourced some old tyres from a local garage, and put them over some of the plants just in time for a night of gales. Wind speeds were 38mph, gusting at 59mph and even according to the paper, reaching 69mph during the worst of the storm. They are not attractive but they do the job. We only had enough tyres for two of the four globe artichokes and they are looking a lot healthier than the unprotected two. The delicate yakon were also protected by tyres.

 

Globe artichoke inside a tyre

 

The Yakon protected from most of the wind.

 

The tyres are not attractive, but they do the job, and most garages are happy to give them away. We will be going back for some more, and are planning to experiment by growing potatoes in a stack of tyres next spring. You put your seed potato in a tyre and cover with earth, when it pokes through you add another tyre and fill with earth, when it pokes through, another tyre and earth, until you have a stack 4 tyres high. As our soil is not that deep, it should provide us with a good crop of potatoes and not take up much room.

 

 

 



Herb and perennial vegetable bed

The 6th bed of the 8 laid out last week is to be home to herbs and perennial vegetables. This has so far been planted up with herbs bought from garden centres, which take up a tiny proportion of the bed. We are hoping to grow a lot of perennial vegetables, but these are not ready yet so the herbs have gone in and the rest of the bed has been put down to a green manure - Phacelia. This can be dug in in as little as a month if we need the space, if not it has lovely purple flowers that are loved by bees. Just be careful not to let the plant self seed as it will be hard to get rid of.

 

Parsley and chives



Starting to Plant

Our plot is 250sq m. 24m x 11m. This has been divided into eight 1.4m X 10m beds. The site is south west facing and the whole plot gets full sunshine all day. I have found out too late that my shade loving plants will have nowhere to hide this year, and I will have to plan for this next year.

The first job was to mark out the beds. These are narrow enough to tend without stepping on them. Hopefully now the site has been ploughed we will be able to keep this as a no dig allotment. The first rule of no dig gardening is to never stand on your beds. After lightly tramping down the soil to make seed beds after the ploughing, this rule is now in place. DO NOT STEP ON THE BEDS.

Immediately 3 beds were put down to green manure. This means we can now forget about the beds and not worry about weeds too much. The mulches will keep the fertility of the soil up, and 6 or so weeks before we are ready to plant, all we do is cover the green manure with farmyard manure, a layer of cardboard or newspapers, water well, and plant straight into the enriched soil when we are ready. Or we can do this over the winter, it will take a little longer, but we will have lovely, ready to go beds next spring.

The fourth bed has been planted with Yakon - Smallanthus sonchifolius, a Peruvian Tuber, Jerusalem Artichokes and 3 squash plants.

 

 

Yakon ready for planting

 

Yakon in the soil



Bed five has been planted with 4 Globe artichokes, which have been interspersed with courgettes. We then broadcast Yellow Trefoil green manure over the bed, leaving a decent space around the plants. This is a low growing green manure which will keep the space on the bed covered while the courgettes spread. They should just spread over the trefoil, cutting off its light so it will rot down into the soil. If it grows to high it can just be cut down with shears and the cuttings left on the soil to rot down.



These five beds have been covered and planted up very quickly, and should look  after themselves now while we concentrate on the remaining 3 beds of vegetables.

Ready to go.

 

It took a local farmer 15 minutes to chop up all the turf and plough it in. (He has also offered to bring a trailer full of farmyard manure for us to rot down for the autumn) The 250sq metre plot is now ready for marking up into beds and paths. Most of the plot will have green manure planted on it for the time being as it will take a while to cultivate the whole plot. The aim is to leave as little soil as possible bare. We are trying out a selection of green manures from greenmanure.co.uk . Some of the plants can be dug in in as little as 2 months, while others like the white clover can be left for up to 5 years. We have also bought some Yellow Trefoil which can be planted around plants like the globe artichokes, courgettes and squashes to keep the soil covered while the plants grow. If the Trefoil is allowed to flower it will encourage bees and beneficial insects to the site to help pollinate the squashes and courgettes. Flattened cardboard boxes will be laid on the beds which we plan to plant up within the next two months.

 

Stocking up,

 

Plants from the garden centre waiting to be planted on the allotment. As the winter has gone on so long this year we are saving a bit of time by buying courgettes, squash, globe artichokes, parsley and chives ready to plant.

 

 

 

 

Home grown tomatoes hardening off ready to plant out. Gardener's delight and Black Russian which both came free with magazines.

 

 

The Yakon are also ready now for planting out on the plot.

 



Spring Flowers on the Allotment

Nothing hs been planted on the allotment yet, but the field has a lot of Cornish spring flowers to britghten up the plot. These are all outside the badger/rabbit fence, so will not be disturbed by the vegetables.

 

 

 

 

Badger Proof Fence

Badgers are a problem on this plot. The field has a large badger set in one corner, and several burrows around the edges. On Friday the plot was marked out with string. By Saturday morning the badgers had shredded and distributed the string over the plot.
 

 

Jasper the allotment dog inspecting a badger set.

 

Before any planting can be done the site needs surrounding with a badger proof fence. The bottom of the fence is to be folded at right angles with six inches of fence buried under ground to deter badgers and rabbits.

 

 

 Putting in fence posts and unravelling the fencing.

 

 

 The fence ready to go up, with the channel dug to bury the fencing in.

 

 

The fence in with the soil put back over the fence barrier.

 

 

 

 

APRIL 7, 2013

Dug up yesterday, a well worn hobnail boot. The sole is covered with hob nails, and the boot is heeled with a small "horseshoe". The boot is very small and would fit an average

10-11 year old.

 

 

 

APRIL 6, 2013

At last the first signs of spring. Today the temperature reached 11degrees, so we took the opportunity to make a start on the allotment. A lot more work needs doing before we can even start thinking about putting in any seeds or plants, but at least it feels like we are moving in the right direction. A local farmer has kindly offered to come and plough the field for us, doing in less than an hour what would take us several days to do with a small rotavator. But before he comes we still have a bit more preparation of the plot to do before it is "tractor ready"

 

 

Dad pacing out and measuring our plot before the final bit of clearing.

 

We have made a start by planting up a few tender plants inside on windowsills, and these plants are now sprouting inside out of the cold, ready to plant out when the weather improves - and when the plot is ploughed and badger proofed. I have been researching badgers and allotments on the Internet, and the general consensus is that they are not too much of a problem. However, we lost a large ball of nylon string which we were using to mark up the plot. Searching for it today we followed the end tied to a marker post across the plot and down into a badger set. When we pulled on the string, it came up neatly chewed off

so a whole ball of bright yellow string is now deep inside the set. Badger proofing has now moved up in importance on our list of "to do".

 

 

Yakon

Our first plants are coming up inside in the warmth. The very first planting was Yakon, Smallanthus Sonchifolius, or Peruvian Ground Apple. These are apparently crisp sweet tasting roots from the Andes. They are supposed to taste like an Asian pear raw, and like the finest Jersey Royals when steamed. One plant can produce between 5-10 kilos of tubers. According to James Wong in his book Homegrown Revolution Yakon is rich in a complex sugar known as inulin, which despite its sweet flavour is not absorbed by the body, so it's a great food for diabetics and slimmers. James Wong was on Gardeners Question Time a few weeks ago promoting Yakon as the perfect alternative to the other more famous Andean tuber, the blight sensitive potato.

Our Yakon came from yakon.co.uk, 5 tubers for £12.50 including postage. They can be sown in pots on a sunny window sill in April, and planted out when they reach 30cm in height. Hopefully the badger fence will be up before then. We are planning to save a few tubers in the same way dahlias are stored overwinter to plant out next year.

 

 

The second thing we planted were Gardeners delight tomatoes - the seeds came free with a gardening magazine. They are now potted on and enjoying a sunny windowsill.

 

 

MARCH 28, 2013

This is officially the worst year to start an allotment for 100 years. This March has been the second coldest since 1910, with temperatures averaging at 2.2C (36F) instead of the typical 5.5C (42F),  Woke up this morning to a very heavy frost. We have not been able to do anything at all on the allotment. All waiting desperately for the weather to warm up.

Picture from the BBC

FEBRUARY 23 2013

Brambles and hawthorn bushes cut down and piled up in a huge bonfire. Jasper the allotment dog helped.

FEBRUARY 2013

Our plot, a field that has not been cultivated for over 20 years, probably a lot longer. The field is on a hill, very exposed and windy, but does get full sunshine all day. Unfortunately we share the field with a large badger set, so a lot of fencing will need putting up before we can plant anything. The first job is to test the depth of soil and clear all the brambles and young hawthorn bushes sprouting up everywhere.