Allotment clearing, tours and planning
We are planning for next year. Several people have talked to us about the ‘seven-crop’ system and it makes a lot of sense. Basically you just grow seven key crops that you know you’ll eat.Hmmm … except we already have nine raised beds, which would just become nine weedbeds, if we didn’t keep them full of something.
Perhaps we need to buy a lot of weed suppressant and just cover up a lot of the plot? Ugly idea but a functional solution. At least it would kill off our thistle army.
Anyway, we’ve decided we didn’t grow enough peas, that we want more potatoes (or a greater variety of potatoes) and that next year we will plant our garden area, so we actually have somewhere to sit down. But that’s as far as we’ve got.
In the interim, we have a series of allotment tours happening next weekend, in both Brighton and Hove (we're Hove, actually) but at present we are very short of takers. You can book here: Allotment tour - it’s free! And we have a fantastic shop selling seeds and tools and so forth.
And that raised a question in my mind. We are constantly being told that there are people wanting to grow their own etc, and our waiting list is VERY long for a plot, so why aren’t people clamouring to come on a tour?
Any answers? I wondered if it was because it’s an outdoor thing and the weather might not be good … but perhaps it’s some kind of communication gap between the allotment and the general public. I really don’t understand – I thought people would be chewing our arms off for a tour, and I wish I could find out why we aren’t getting much take-up.
Labels: allotment crops, allotment-tour, allotment-weeds
Posted by The Allotment Blogger on Saturday, September 5, 2009
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4 Comments:
I'm afraid I don't have any answers, but know that if I had been offered an allotment tour I would have taken it up. When I was on the waiting list I would often go and have a wander around the site myself, just to have a look at what everyone was growing on their plot.
I think alot of people, at the moment, are mulling over what they are going to grow next year. I'm wondering whether to bother growing brassicas again. The cage my hubby built was great for keeping the butterflies off, but unfortunately, the slugs still got them!
I am thinking of growing more next year...we eat so much and i don't think I'd be happy with just 7 different crops..i have learnt what not to grow so much of...and what to grow more of this year...but then I want to add more variety with my produce so I have lots of different stuff to be planted out for next year and I'm hoping for a bit more land too!!
Why not just grow more of your seven crops and give away the excess? A free veg box service to friends and family.
By the way, we're in Hove too, as it happens - Weald, 149 (very much a work in progress)...
Jo, we're mulling too. It's finding the balance between what we can maintain in good condition, what we can use, and what we can give away. Runner beans, for example, can't be got rid of for love nor money when the gluts arrive, and we have kilos in the freezer to take us through the winter.
allotments4you.com - I don't think I could be happy with seven crops either. Part of the fun is in growing new things and trying them out, right?
Niceyeahnice - well that's a possibility, although we tend to give our excess to the Martletts hospice - a worthy cause and just across the road ...
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