Gardening Tips

Grow what you like to eat

In the past, a standard ten-rod allotment (approximately 200 sq m) could produce enough cabbages, potatoes and root vegetables to keep a family going for most of the year.

Nowadays there's a whole range of crops you can grow, from French beans to callaloo. There's no point in growing cabbages if you don't actually like them - so grow what you like to eat!

You could prioritise crops that are expensive in the supermarket, such as asaparagus, raspberries and French beans, or 'baby' veg such as young carrots and leeks.

Before you start to plant and sow, take some time to get the soil in good condition.

Dig it over and try to remove all the roots from perennial weeds so these aren't a problem in the future. Add as much bulky organic material as you can. If you can get hold of well-rotted farmyard or stable manure, this is ideal.

If you don't have one already, start a compost heap to produce your own garden compost.

Garden compost is essential to put goodness back into the soil to replace that taken by the crops, so this is worth thinking about early on. It takes at least six months to produce usable compost. Compost helps to open up clay soils, making them easier to work, and helps to hold moisture in sandy soils. It will also add nutrients that will feed your plants.

Planning

How to Plan an Allotment

Allotments are wonderful things, but they must be cared for and nurtured in order to get the best out of them. The type of soil you have, the way the sun hits your plot and direction of the wind will all play a part in the types of plants you’ll be able to grow.

Traditionally allotments are set in rows, on a three year crop rotation system (brassicas, roots and then ‘other veg’), but today the style of allotment planting is much looser – with people choosing to mix up their beds, breaking up the formality of the rows.

It is really up to the gardener to choose what works well for them, but the notion of rotating your crops is worth sticking to – as it helps to keep the soil in good condition and certain types of pests and diseases at bay.

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) 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 more hours per 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.

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.

Crop Rotation

If your veg plot is large enough, divide it into four equal parts, or four raised beds. Each year, grow a different group of vegetables in each bed in a set order.

Rotation helps to stop pests and diseases building up in the soil. It also means that nutrients are used up evenly and you can concentrate organic matter, fertiliser and water where it's most useful.

Keep the following groups of vegetables together:

Cabbage family (including cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kale, oriental greens, swedes and turnips)
Onions, shallots, leeks and garlic
Carrots, celery and parsnips
Potatoes and tomatoes
Peas and beans

Grow them in this order: potatoes – peas and beans – cabbage family - roots/onions. As long as these groups are on a different area each year during the four-year cycle, other unrelated vegetables (eg courgettes, lettuce, beetroot, sweetcorn) can be fitted around them.

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.

Water

Water is a constant requirement for living plants. It is used to carry nutrients to all parts of the plant and to maintain healthy growth. Excess water is constantly being lost through the plant by transpiration and elsewhere by evaporation. Insufficient water leads to wilting, a loss of growth and eventually the plant’s death, so it is important to supply sufficient water to your crops. With these points in mind what is there that you can do as an allotment holder to help conserve water. Below are ten points that may help you to maintain your allotment to a high standard with the minimum amount of water.

1.Use a water butt to collect any rainwater, position it close to your shed so with the use of a length of gutter and a piece of drainpipe water can be collected from the shed roof. It is important to cover the butt to avoid algae growth.

2. Mulch fruit and other long term crops; a good thick layer of mulch helps to conserve water but it also helps prevent weed growth. Well rotted manure, garden compost or straw can be used. From some crops, such as strawberries, it may be appropriate to plant through a layer of black polythene pegged down to the soil. Make sure that the soil is well watered before mulching. See the ‘Mulching’ section of this booklet for further information.

3. When cultivating your allotment incorporate plenty of organic matter into the soil as this will help retain moisture in the ground.

4. When growing ‘hungry’ crops, such as beans, sweet peas, etc., dig a good deep trench and fill the bottom with any type of organic matter, even old damp newspaper will do before backfilling. This will help to act as a reservoir for these plants.

5. Grow crops that do not require excess watering, for instance many herbs such as Sage and Rosemary come from Mediterranean climates and can survive fairly dry conditions.

6. If you grow plants in tubs or containers incorporate a water retentive gel into the planting compost. Stand pots, containers and grow bags on trays to catch any water that drains through, this water can then be recycled.

7. When choosing a Watering Can pick one that is well balanced and not too heavy to carry when full, 7 to 9 litres (1½ to 2 gallons) should be about right. Polythene cans are shorter lived than metal ones but are inexpensive and with reasonable care should last for several years. Buy two roses (perforated heads), a fine one for watering seedlings and a course one for general purpose watering.

8. When you do water, it is better to pick one section of the allotment and water thoroughly to some depth. A thorough soaking at weekly intervals is much better for the plant than a daily sprinkling of water as this will encourage plants to grow deeper and search for their own water. It is best to water early in the morning, particularly in greenhouses, so plants are surface dry at night. This helps to keep diseases down.

9. If watering has to be curtailed because of a water shortage, the addition of a dilute liquid feed to the water used makes it more of an immediate benefit to the struggling plant and less water will go further.

10. Regular hoeing of cultivated areas not only reduces competition for water from weeds but breaks the soil capillaries and therefore reduces water evaporation from the surface of the soil.

If you take note of these points and are careful with the use of water it will still be possible to grow a wide range of crops through the driest of summers. It is these battles with nature that are amongst the things that makes gardening so enjoyable.