Thursday 23 April 2015

A tour around the allotment - part 1

I popped out early on Wednesday morning to do some watering at the allotment before I nipped into the city to get our shopping (by early, I mean 8.10, this is earlier than I'd normally leave for work! I poured my bowl of museli and left it to soak up the milk ready to tuck into when I got home).

So I also took the opportunity to take the iPad and get some piccies for a quick tour round the plot:

The entrance to my plot, hedged on one side, brambles on the other. Just inside on the left are two dwarf apples under-planted with strawbs and herbs that seed around. On the right, is a small lavender run of 3 plants next to the shed (just out of view)

The apple trees, with two strawb beds behind. You can see the mulch of woody bramble prunings round the base of one of the trees, it's working ok
One of the strawb beds, where I've saved up stone from around the plot to use as a mulch. It seems to work well and should keep the soil off the fruits too. I did have to weed a bit this spring though, by pushing the stones aside where the weeds were growing, then moving them back again

The second bed, doesn't look as nice as the first, I don't have enough stones! And has some self seeded chard growing in the middle that I've left for now but will remove once it's started to bolt. It's covered with mesh to stop the pigeons eating it

Next to them, a small bed of early potatoes just coming up. I'll earth-up once, then use grass clippings as mulch. (The snail shell is empty, I checked!)

My little shed, with plum tree to the left. I bought the shed from someone who only had their plot a couple of seasons, then gave it up. A couple of friends helped me move it into my plot, that was a fun experience!

We get really strong winds coming across so last year I started making wind breaks from willow along my right (East) boundary, here under-planted with more transplanted strawbs. Ooh I can see some strawb flowers.

I removed an old strawb bed this winter and in its place have put up a mesh fence (at right angles across that side of the plot). On one side of it I have an onion bed and the other side, main crop potatoes (sticks to keep the cats off) I've sown some peas at the base of the fence though peas don't do that well on my plot, as its very dry and sandy. I'd weeded the onion bed the day before and left the weeds on top of the soil to dry up and die and act as a mulch too
Close-up of the plum tree, with new strawbs underneath (from old runners) and self seeded chard I transplanted in too. Netting to stop the pidgies.
Plum flowers - only three on the whole tree - pretty though.
View down one side of the plot from the plum tree -my plot goes down to the higher trees at the end but then there's a garden with a hedge. I'm standing in the spot where my green house will go when I get round to putting it up (it's been several years now of keep moving the bits around, and more glass keeps breaking (now stored under the plastic and cardboard on the left)
Looking back up to the shed, Autumn-sown broad beans (attacked by pea / bean weevil, scalloping out the leaves). Another small bed of onions on the right. Beyond the broad beans is a bed of main crop potatoes, and next to that, two with weeds!
Summer Raspberry canes, tied in to wire. My posts aren't tall enough though and I have to put in individual tall sticks to support some canes, otherwise the canes flop over and it's hard to see the fruit. I've since finished weeding around the base of these (evil couch grass that gets all in the root system of the rasps). I'm mulching with leaf mould ( that the blackbirds love to swoosh around in, looking for things to eat).
Then behind where I'm standing in the piccie above, is more fruit - large red currant in the middle, gooseberry to the left and black currant to the right (there's actually 3 black currants, with the bramble mulch like the apple tree up the top). I've cut the grass since then too! I'll use the grass as mulch for my potatoes
Here's the black currants, they're different sizes because I cut them down fully on alternate years to re-fresh the growth. The one at the back will be cut down completely after fruiting this year. I'll actually then take the branches home, full of fruit, as it's easier to pick it off there.
My little Saskatoon fruit bush, neglected right at the end of the plot. Poor thing!

And finally for this side of the plot, my three compost bays, next to the rasp bed. I'm in the middle of using up the middle one and then will fill it up with stuff which is lain around the plot in piles at the moment.

Oh go on, one more, a nicer one to end with, one of my dwarf apple trees, near the Saskatoon and the redcurrant

Well, I could've rambled on even more but I'll leave it until Part 2 of the allotment tour! I hope you enjoyed seeing it at last!

 

15 comments:

  1. I love your garden, the brambles, hedges, fruit bushes, trees, and vegetables beds. It seems so natural and picturesque with lots of secret little corners.

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    1. Thank you Phoung, I'm trying for more of a permaculturey plot rather than the traditional UK allotment method (which is mainly long uniform rows of veg). I wish this was really my garden, it's just under a mile from my house, rented from the council. One day I hope I'll have my own big garden :)

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  2. I love seeing it. My favorite is the willow windbreak though. I love those natural fences. I don't often hear about saskatoons that are in the UK. I'm planting one here. Though here we tend to call them serviceberries or juneberries. I haven't a clue if I'll like them or not. I hope so.

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    1. Thanks Daphne, I enjoyed making the windbreak, I got the willow from an allotment neighbour last year. I've planted a couple of my own willows to produce stems too for cutting but they're still small.
      There's as chap up in Scotland who sells saskatoon plants, I saw an article in a magazine a few years back and was intrigued, so thought I'd give it a go. It's grown quite slowly but I think that's mainly down to me neglecting it, and it getting overgrown with couch grass in its early years, as it's right down the end of my plot. I found the fruit very tasty, with a bit of a dry texture. Last year was a good crop, we'll see what this year brings!

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  3. What a lovely tour. Thank you! It is always so inspirational to see what others are doing. This afternoon, I believe that I will snap a "yarden" tour of my own.

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    1. Thank you Amy and Rob, when I came to start writing about the plot, it made me realise how much is going on there!

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  4. The strawberry mulching idea is interesting. I had a mental picture of you transporting the shed which made me smile. It reminded me of when some fellow plotters transported a fully constructed greenhouse minus glass to the site on the roof of their car,

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    1. Hi sue, the stone mulch idea was inspired (stolen) from an allotment neighbour. It does seem to keep the moisture in and the weeds down, and should keep the fruit from getting soil on it. And it doesn't encourage slugs to hide, unlike straw.
      Yep, the shed moving was funny, walking backwards, balancing one end of the shed on a plank across a wheelbarrow, whilst my two friends lifted the other end! Luckily I didn't have too far to move it, so no vehicle required!

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  5. My understanding of the term allotment was mostly that these were community gardens or rented property. But with the shed and upcoming plans for the greenhouse, I think I have misunderstood the term? It looks lovely. And I love saskatoon berries!

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  6. Hi Susie, there are different types of allotments over here but the main ones these days are sites containing rented individual plots from a local council or landowner. The sites can really vary in size though the plots are generally standard. For example my site in Norwich only has about 14 plots but the biggest in Norwich has over 100s, all rented from the city council. Usually a person looks after their own plot (unless it's a community plot) but there are rules as to what you can do within your plot - these all vary across who owns/runs the sites. Within the city we can have sheds and greenhouses etc up to a certain size and plant a certain number of dwarf trees but on sites owned/run by other people across the county/country it varies and some will allow sheds / trees etc but others won't. So it just depends where you are really :)

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    1. ok thanks for the clarification. It's such a great option for people without enough space of their own.

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  7. You have been very inventive with the mulches. Fancy saying "I haven't got enough stones."! I think it is ironic that the bramble clippings should end up being used as mulch too. Making good use of whatever is available...

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    1. Thanks mark, i know a lot of people burn their bramble trimmings and other weeds but it seems daft if they can be used for something else, trapping carbon in the process, instead of releasing it into the atmosphere. Though I was lucky that I had somewhere to store them all in a pile before I thought of something to do with them.
      I definitely don't like wasting anything :D !

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  8. Wonderful tour of your plot! I can't believe you moved that shed by hand. Wood is so deceiving when it comes to weight. Love the compost area - I'm hoping to get a nice big one happening, just like that this year. The pallets are sitting off to the side of our yard right now, so just have to find the time to put it together - easier said than done!

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    1. Thanks Margaret, yes it was a tad awkward to move the shed but we only had to move it maybe 15 metres or so, so not too far!
      It's handy having the compost bays and when the time comes, I plant out a squash in each of the ones I'm not using to make the most of the space.

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