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.