Allotments Grand Opening

Last weekend saw the grand opening ceremony of our allotments. This included the unveiling of commemorative plaques, cutting of a ribbon and the planting of two apple trees by a representative of the trustees who donated the land. Part of the funding for the allotments came from the New Forest National Park, under their Sustainable Development Fund and Lottery funding. I worked on my plot for the rest of the day, finishing off the rest of the permanent beds, which just leaves the fruit strips left to do. I transferred some strawberry plants from home, which had a lot of runners, which I’ve also planted, to make the full quota of plants required. They looked a little stressed yesterday when I was there, but hopefully the overnight rain will have perked them up.

Some farmyard manure was added to the permanent beds, and I plan to transfer some artichoke plants from home this week.

I sent for some mail-order plants last week - Onion Senshyu Yellow, Onion Sets Radar, Shallot Griselle, Garlic Vayo (hardneck type), Radish Mantanghong F1 Seeds, Broad Bean Luz De Otono Seeds, Broad Beans (Vicia faba), Asparagus Gijnlim, Asparagus Dariana F1, Goji Berry, Apple Redlove Sirena, Apple Paradis Lummerland, Apple Paradis Idylla. That’s when I began to realise that setting up an allotment isn’t exactly a cheap option – but eating your own produce in years to come must be more satisfying than buying commercial stuff from the supermarket.

We ate our first crops at the weekend – the thinning from the salad beds, which were delicious, and a couple of aubergines, from the plant that we’d bought, and brought on. Next year I hope I’ll raise all my own plants.

Having started a compost bin off, I made a lid for it, using part of an old tarpaulin, stapling it to the back of the bin, and securing it at the front with cup hooks, through the tarp’s eyelets. Manufacturers of cup hooks note: I’ve found a new outlet for your product, having used them all round my timber frames for securing netting.

National Allotments Week

How appropriate that this is National Allotments Week. Allotment sites are encouraged to open to the public – sorry, but there’s not too much to see on ours yet, although several sheds have appeared, and raised beds, as well as a little planting.

This is my plan showing the six rotational and three perennial beds, and planned fruit strips.

I was planning on some thornless blackberries here, but there are plenty of wild ones next to my plot, so I think raspberries and a cordon of pears, maybe minaret apples and/or standard gooseberries would be a good idea. A friend has donated some rhubarb to go in one of the perennial beds, and I’m planning some strawberries, and asparagus and both globe and Jesusalem artichokes here. I’ll continue to grow potatoes in pots at home, which have always been successful, but I’ll probably also grow a few early salad ones as part of my rotation. Here’s an update on what we’ve done this week.

There are now six beds with frames round, all dug-over, and more plants in situ. Just for this year, since it’s late in the season, we’ve bought some plants from a garden centre, as well the ones I grew at home. These include an aubergine, sweet pepper, sweet potatoes, sprouting broccoli, kale and leeks. I added lime to the brassica bed, so fingers crossed. Wood chip or bark, I think, would be more suitable for the paths between the beds, instead of gravel. It’s cheaper, and will look more in keeping.

All these framed beds now have netting over them. Cuphooks around the timber hold this in place, and allow for easy access. Where the beans, chillis, aubergine and tomatoes have grown taller, I’ve rolled the netting back to leave the bed just partially covered. Many of the seeds we planted are coming up well – salad & stir-fry crops (which will have to be thinned soon), beetroot, carrots, parsnips, turnips and onions.

Apparently rabbits are a nuisance in the adjoining (established) allotments, as I guess pigeons will be from the surrounding trees. Hopefully the netting should give some protection. We’ve also hung old CDs on string to try to deter the birds. More worrying is the deer which someone saw in the field early one morning. Although deer-proof fencing has been put around three sides, it seems the tall hedge hasn’t deterred them on the fourth. The parish council is aware of the problem, so maybe something can be done.

Also this week I received the small compost bin that I’d ordered online. Some people have made their own out of pallets, but this one was so reasonably-priced, it seemed I could use my time more profitably concentrating on the digging and the plants. Now all I have to do is remember to keep all the kitchen peelings. If anyone knows a good source of well-rotted manure around these parts, please let me know – especially if it can be bagged or delivered!

Work starts on the Allotment

There was excitement in the air the first day I was able to get into the allotments. Someone had beaten me to it, and there was already a shed and a compost bin, made out of old pallets, on one plot. Other people were there to look round, some to get digging, and others, like me, to start marking thing out. It was good to meet some of the other villagers, and it seemed as though it could be a whole other social opportunity once things got established.

My first job was to interpret the design I’d worked out on my CAD system. The rudimentary dimensions I’d been given for my half-plot were more-or-less the same, but the orientation was different. Having done this I marked out the beds with pegs and string, and put down weed-suppressing membrane on what will be the paths between (eventually to be covered with gravel).

I’ve planned six rotational beds (10’ x 4’), three perennial/permanent beds (6’ x 4’) and some fruit strips (2’ wide).

On the second day a friend helped me put up a small shed. This came with a bright orange stain, and has been called a sentry box by some that have seen it. This has given me the idea of painting a guardsman on the front of it...but there’s a lot of work to be done before that. Watch this space.

We then began digging the beds, ready to get some of the plants I’d grown at home planted and some of the seeds that can still be sown this late in the year. I edged two of the dug-over beds with timber, and will eventually do the same for the others. Last weekend we were able to plant dwarf beans, chilli plants and coriander. We also planted salad-leaf and stir-fry leaf seeds, for succession planting, and some carrot, onion, turnip and beetroot seeds. Blood, fish and bone was used as fertiliser. The timber edging has enabled me to put netting over the beds, to deter pests.

Digging has been a bit of a pain, since the ground was previously pasture, and was only turned over by machine. This has meant tedious removal of clods of grass. Some plot-holders have put down carpet and plastic to kill off grass and weeds but I wanted to get on and plant. “Little and often” will be my mantra, I think, until I can get everything up-and-running.

We’ve bought some plants from a garden centre to enable us to grow leeks, aubergines and peppers this season. Next year, I hope, I can get sowing early, and have a full year’s, home-produced crop.

My New Allotment

It’s an exciting time in our village, with the development of allotments in a field not far from here. Championed by the parish council, a local landowner was persuaded to donate the space, and we’ve been watching progress with interest. It’s taken a time to get the suitable planning permission, and then toilets and car parking. A water supply had to be installed too; but at last we've been told we can pick up the keys to the gates.

The National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners has a lot of information, from legislation, creating a new allotment site to specific growing tips, such as handy hints for new gardeners or first steps to allotment gardening.

So I’ll be blogging about the allotment in the coming months. I’ve already ordered a little shed. Watch this space to see how things go, and about our successes and (possibly) failures.

Save Those Trees!

I was interested to see that Boris Johnson has pledged to plant 10,000 new trees in London by March 2012. He said that: "Thanks to these trees, streets across London are leafier, more pleasant places to live in." However, according to CABE, the government’s adviser on architecture, urban design and public space from 1999 to 2011, trees in our streets are more important than just looking nice. They offer food and living spaces for birds and other wildlife, and moderate temperatures through the shade from their canopies.

According to the Natural History Museum urban trees help to clean the air and soil, counter noise pollution and absorb carbon. Their website gives details of the urban tree survey, a three-year study of trees in parks and gardens across the country to find out what trees are growing where, and how the tree population is changing.

The Woodland Trust has also been studying the value of urban trees, including the reduction of flooding and asthma rates to the list of benefits. Their report can be seen here.

The London Tree Officers Association is organising a conference called Trees, people and the Built Environment in Birmingham, 13-14 April 2011.

Knobbly Veg

Delicious. Magazine is running a campaign to get supermarkets to sell vegetables in all shapes and sizes, instead of the perfectly uniform, shiny sort which are at present graded as “class 1” by the EU. Class 2 vegetables, while tasting just as good, are consigned to food processing or animal food, which leads to a lot of waste.

The “We Love Knobbly Veg” campaign is being supported by The National Trust, which sources much of the less-than-uniform vegetables for their cafes and restaurants. They have also been encouraging people to grow their own “knobblers” in the “Food, Glorious Food” campaign.

Delicious. Magazine has a knobbly veg gallery on its website, and also a template that can be downloaded to send to MEPs in support of the campaign.

Biodiversity: Making a bug hotel

Around this time last year, I wrote a piece on the benefits (to wildlife) of not doing too much in the way of autumn garden tidying, and earlier this year I wrote about 2010 being the International Year of Biodiversity and how easy it is to contribute in our own gardens – so I thought you might like to see one of my own humble efforts – “The Crawl Inn”.

The Crawl Inn is a “bug hotel” – a place in the garden, loosely constructed from debris, intended to provide habitat for over-wintering of creepie-crawlie and buzzing insects. Most of these are highly beneficial to our gardens – either directly (e.g. pollinating insects and those such as ladybirds & lacewings which are predators for the less-welcome visitors like aphids) or indirectly (through forming part of the food chain for other insects, small mammals & birds).

Making a bug hotel is really easy, and it costs almost nothing, as well as being great fun for the kids! There are excellent instructions on the “buglife” website, and a Google search for “bug hotel” will also provide a multitude of examples and instructions for making shelters with varying degrees of “style” & ornamentation from all sorts of materials.

My own version was made as follows:

1. Gather the materials –
   Some plastic mesh (about 1m x 1m), 3 lengths of timber batten about 1.2m (4’) long and a piece of exterior (marine) plywood about 450mm x 350mm (18” x 14”), plus some twist tie and a staple gun.
   
2. Position one of the battens about 75mm (3”) from the end of the mesh, with the end of the batten flush with the edge of the mesh.
   Use the staple gun to tack the mesh onto the batten.
   
   
3. Repeat this with a second batten at the other end of the mesh, then with the third batten roughly in the middle of the mesh.
   
4. Roll the mesh to form a cylinder with the battens on the outside. Use a few strands of twist tie to join the mesh together between the 2 outer battens.
   
   
5. Take the tube to the spot where you want the bug hotel – ideally where it’s not exposed to cold winds and where it’s partly shady & partly sunny.



6. Hammer the long ends of the batten into the ground to make the cylinder self-supporting. It doesn’t matter if there’s a gap at the bottom between the mesh & the ground – that will give room for small mammals to use it too!



7. Start to fill the tube with materials to make the hotel’s accommodation –
   dry dead leaves;
   broken bricks & paving;
   dead stems & twigs from plants;
   short lengths of hollow bamboo cane (use an offcut of plastic pipe or part of a drinks bottle to hold them together as a tight bundle);
   pieces of wood with various-sized holes drilled in them;
   short lengths of tree trunks or branches – especially with rough or flaking bark, large stones, etc.
   


8. Almost anything will do – the objective is to create cracks & crevices and hollow spaces of different sizes to suit a whole range of creatures.
   
   
   


9. Once the tube is full, use the sheet of plywood to add a “roof” to keep the hotel rooms dry. This could be just placed on top of the tube, with bricks or large stones to weight it down, but I simply drilled a couple of holes at diagonally opposite corners then threaded some twist tie through these and secured it to the plastic mesh.



10. If you’re going to position your hotel on solid ground (e.g. paving), you’ll need to cut the battens the same length as the width of your mesh – hammering timber through the patio just won’t work!
    


11. My finishing touches were to print off the name of my hotel “The Crawl Inn” and a “Vacancies” notice, together with the “helipad” landing sign, make them waterproof by laminating them in plastic, then using the staple gun to fix them to the battens & roof.

To quote from the buglife website “A bug-friendly garden is a wildlife-friendly garden so if you want a garden filled with life, you need to look after your bugs.” – so, what are you waiting for ... get cracking on your own “B&B for Bugs” before winter sets in!