|
Plough Field Allotments. |
||||||||||||
|
More Wellington Field Allotments Hixon Gardening
Tips
Unusual
& Old
Unusual Environmental Issues And Going Green.
|
The New Allotment. Like many other people around the country I have recently taken possession of a new allotment to grow a bit of our own fruit and vegetables. When I say “NEW” allotment it is a brand new allotment as it has been made from a disused caravan park behind an old pub that is being converted back into housing. The ground is very hard packed naturally, but it does seem to be good, rich growing soil and moist underneath, even though we have just had the driest march for 50 years. Unfortunately, the soil is also very stony, so as I am working my way down the plot I am removing the bigger stones and using them to make a rough path down the centre of my plot. There is no permanent water supply at the moment, so a builder on the site is filling a big water butt every day until a large cattle trough type of supply is installed. In the
meantime we have bought a 5 gallon plastic water container, that is
meant for use in collecting the waste water from caravans. We are only
going to use it in emergency and the can would not be hygienic to use
for drinking water, but will be o.k. for watering the plants. The
allotments have been roughly ploughed and run either side of a central
grassed path that is wide enough for two cars to go down the centre
giving easy access to each plot. The plough has only turned the turfs
over on the top, so most people would normally be advised to plant
potatoes to break up the soil, but there is twitch in it and I have seen
its pointed roots go clean though potatoes. I am going to try Jerusalem
Artichokes instead that do the same job and grow in a similar way, but
have very heavy top growth which I am hoping will suppress the grass and
weeds. They have an unusual flavour and are not normally sold in
vegetable shops, but they are supposed to be a healthy food that also
has medicinal properties which improve kidney function. Apart from everything else the site has an additional problem of rabbits. I am secretly hoping that the farmer will poison the warren and have also suggested to a friend that he brings his ferrets down for some exercise. However, as he has just emigrated to Scotland, it would be rather a long way to come for a few rabbits! With nature in mind I am trying a few other natural and less harmful deterrents. Mulching with
manure was my first thought. The local farmer had dumped a couple of
loads of manure at either vend of the site, so, as I was going to use
some anyway, I simply liberally scattered some between my young Angelica
plants as they went into the ground. This seemed to work for a few days
until the manure started to dry out and then the rabbits started on the
leaves. Consequently I am going to put home made rabbit guards round
each plant until they are tall enough that the rabbits can’t reach the
leaves. Hopefully they will only be interested in the leaves and will
leave the thickening stems alone as the plants mature. The guards can
then be moved from these early plantings to newer plantings of
smaller vegetables as the different plants become ready and the
weather warms up with no more risk of night frosts. This way I can save
on the numbers of guards that I make and need at any one time. Of course
they will be usable for years to come so although the idea seems
expensive in the first year they should pay for themselves over time. Another idea
that I had for a natural deterrent was to scatter chopped up laurel
stems, (without the leaves) between plants. I have recently cut an old
Laurel bush back very hard at home and initially filled a wheely bin.
The leaves don’t compost well as they are so tough and I knew that
they were poisonous, so thought that chopping up the stem would reduce
the weight of our bin and might work as a deterrent on our allotment.
They seem to have prevented any rabbit damage on the part where I have
used them, but I did use them between the Garlic. Who knows, maybe
rabbits don’t like Garlic. Not all people do. I think that
the Rhubarb plants will be OK as their leaves are poisonous, but I
thought that Chrysanthemums contained permethrin which is also a natural
poison. However, the rabbits didn’t seem to know that and nibbled all
the leaves off, so I have put guards on them as well until they get
taller. As far as digging and weeding the plot, I have decided that I am not young enough or fit enough to do a proper job. Instead I am simply digging planting holes in the upturned turf and am going to mulch to suppress the grass and weeds. Obviously where I have applied copious amounts of fresh manure the grass will not re-grow for some time, but I am also going to mulch with chopped up shrub and tree cuttings. Like many
other people I have had many tender bushes and even some not so tender
ones severely damaged by the cold winter, so this has provided a lot of
dead stalky and woody plant material with which I can make my own
“forest bark” type chippings to use as a mulch. The late
Raspberries should be able to fend for themselves as it is quite common
to grass between bushes anyway. In the coming Winter, when they are all
hard pruned, all the dried old stems can be chopped and spread between
the bushes to act as a natural weed suppressant for the following year.
At the moment the fruit bushes are too small to be planted and are in
pots, but when they are planted they will be treated in a similar way,
first with grassing between and later mulching with shreddings. Most
allotments do not allow fruit trees, but the people running the site
have said that if I limit the size of the trees by growing them like a
fan or espalier they will be permitted. The other week we bought some
cheap ones for just over a fiver each that were root wrapped and on sale
in one of these bargain shops. They were coming into leaf and as we are
having a dry spell I decided it was too late to plant them so I am
starting them off in pots to form proper roots before planting out later
in the year. Normally I think fruit trees are banned because the
allotment organisations are worried about trees taking light from other
plots.
|
|
||||||||||
