Allotment raised beds

This was today’s job: painting decking! We ‘scored’ the decking out of a skip (with the skip owner’s permission, let me add!) and the table on which the decking planks are resting was also a ‘rescue’ item. The wood preserver we paid for, but it was a worthwhile investment – it was a clearance sale item, and preserving the wood we use on the allotment will quadruple its lifetime.

The decking will be used in the autumn to build raised beds. We haven’t really decided how we’re going to structure the allotment yet, but we know we need at least three raised beds: one for asparagus, one for strawberries and one to use as a seed bed. It would be great to have the entire allotment down to raised beds because they are easier to manage, make less mess, have less problems with pests and diseases and – I think – look more attractive. But that would be a lot of wood and a lot of work, and it may be that we decide to stay with the open bed route instead.

So on a hot day I slapped on the stain (it’s called avocado – does that look like avocado to you? I’m not convinced by the accuracy of the name but it’s a very pretty colour) and felt very pleased with myself, until I looked down and realised my legs were almost as green as the wood. It’s good stuff: even after a bath I’m still speckled green!

Labels: allotment-building, allotment-raised-beds, allotment-structures

Allotment news

The good … gardeners are celebrating after council chiefs abandoned plans to sell their allotment sites. At the Redbridge Council cabinet meeting on Monday, chief executive Roger Hampson backed the launch of the "big conversation" which will be the largest public consultation Redbridge has ever seen. The public will be asked what services and improvements they want and how they can be funded. The results will then be discussed by the newly-elected corporate panel. The announcement follows an outcry at plans to raise £25 million from selling four allotment sites.

The bad … intimidation is forcing allotment holders off their plot in the Wirral. At the Thornton allotments site in Bidston, the problem has become so severe almost half the gardeners have abandoned their allotments because of vandalism. In a recent incident a teenager ran up to the site fence and hurled abuse at the four women working on their plots. It is said that the worst possible language was used by the offender who was clearly trying to intimidate the allotmenteers. Since June last year, seven plot-holders – almost half the total – have given up their plots because property and crops have been destroyed by mindless vandalism. Wirral has 41 allotment sites containing nearly 1,700 plots, with 92% of them let, and many suffer from vandalism. There are fears the Thornton site may close because vandalism stops people taking up plots there, despite an allotment waiting list in Wirral of more than 500 families.

Labels: allotment-building, allotment-news, allotment-vandalism

Allotments in the News

So it was National Allotments week 13 to 19 August. Did you notice? I’ve got to say, I didn’t. Didn’t hear a thing about it, until it was all over and somebody emailed me to ask why I hadn’t mentioned it on the blog, and the answer is simple – I didn’t know! I think there’s a communication gap somewhere …

In other news:

Gardeners who want to grow their own vegetables are being forced to accept allotments a quarter of the normal size because of a surge in popularity. Rising interest has led councils to divide land set aside for plots into patches measuring 75 sq yards in an attempt to reduce spiralling waiting lists.

Local authorities are under growing pressure to ensure they meet statutory obligations to provide 15 allotments per 1,000 households. Strict rules also mean that no more than six people are allowed to be waiting for a plot at any one time. But there are fears that smaller allotments could create tension because growers will be crammed together.

I can see both sides - on the one hand, a whole allotment is a big commitment unless you are already an avid vegetable gardener or retired. On the other hand, tiny plots soon become restrictive and frustrating, and not being able to rotate crops properly will lead to more diseased soil and transfer of disease and pests. Whichever way a council jumps, the growing desire for allotments is surely a healthy sign?

And in Edinburgh, residents hoping for plots at some of the city's allotments face a wait of up to seven years. Local gardeners are calling for the city council to provide more sites after a new study revealed the waiting list has topped 1000 – in a city which has only 1400 plots!

Labels: allotment-building, allotment-news

Shed Aesthetics – the real tin lizzy

I’ll tell you what you don’t see often these days; the old Anderson Shelters that used to be found on allotments (and being used as pigpens) right up until, I suppose, the late seventies.

An Anderson Shelter was made from six curved sheets bolted together at the top, with steel plates at either end – they were half buried in the ground with earth heaped on top. The entrance was protected by a steel shield and an earthen blast wall. Why? To protect the great British Public from Hitler’s dastardly air raids, of course

Anderson Shelters were given free to people receiving the dole while men who earned more than £5.00 (ah, inflation!) a week could buy one for £7.00. By the end of 1939, around two million families had shelters in their gardens.

In March 1941 the government began issuing Morrison Shelters, which were named after the Home Secretary, Herbert Morrison (grandfather of Peter Mandelson, but you knew that didn’t you?) the shelters were made of very heavy steel and could be put in the living room and used as a table. One wire side lifted up for people to crawl underneath and get inside. Morrison shelters were fairly large and provided sleeping space for two or three people but you couldn’t use them on an allotment as a shed!

Labels: allotment-building, allotment-shed, shed-aesthetics

Shed Aesthetics 2

The 'ice cream parlour' shed belongs to Keith, who is a lucky chap, as the allotment he shares with Chris as a co-worker actually backs onto Keith’s own garden. And the shed in question is called the ice cream shed because one of Keith’s allotment neighbours, Margaret, thought it looked like those ice cream kiosks you get on the seafront and made up the signs on the door which read Keith’s Amazing Architectural Ice Cream Parlour and a list saying Choc Ices, Knickerbocker Glories, Ice Cream Sundaes, Wafers and Ice Lollies and finally Ice Creams are offered free of charge but we hope you will consider standing on your head while you eat it!

Keith’s is an astonishingly tidy shed, unlike my own, which is the kind of shed Terry Pratchett talks about when he describes one as ‘the kind of place where, if you turned your back for a minute, the hosepipe would disentangle itself and tie the wheelbarrow to the bicycles’ or something of that nature.

I’d love to have a tidy shed, but it’s not in my nature. In fact it seems beyond me to have a shed that you can turn round it without knocking something over, and rather horribly, a mouse crawled into the footings in July and died (or maybe drowned!) so the whole place is permeated by the smell of decomposing mouse, liberally topped with copious libations of Jeyes Fluid to render the place a bit more nose-acceptable. It’s one of those things that happens from time to time, isn’t it - mouse decease – I mean, and you just have to either accept a rather rancid couple of weeks, or tear the shed down to the foundations to find the sad little corpse. Being a tough cookie, I splash the Jeyes Fluid around, telling myself it’s a fine disinfectant and wood preservative as well as an odour blocker, and get on with sorting my autumn bulbs.

Perhaps though, there’s another way - what would you do?

Labels: allotment-building, allotment-mouse, allotment-shed

Allotments in the News

Win some …

Allotment holders who are being forced to make way for the Olympic Park in East London have reached an agreement that allows them to harvest this year's crops before being evicted. Plot-holders at Manor Garden Allotments had asked the High Court for a judicial review to stop the London Development Agency (LDA) evicting them. But in a last minute move, the LDA has agreed access should continue to some plots until September when the plot-holders will move to a temporary site in Waltham Forest, although they can return to Hackney Wick when the Games are over. The LDA said it would be taking ownership of the Hackney Wick site on 2 July but it conceded that a limited number of allotment holders would be allowed supervised access for two days a week until September. A spokesman said, ‘We have also arranged compensation and support packages for allotment holders - and after the Games we will be providing a larger allotment site on a landscaped Olympic Park.’

Lose some …

Hampshire allotment gardeners are considering their next move after being dealt a major blow by the High Court in their fight to save their town centre plots. Mr Justice Calvert Smith blocked their route to judicial review although they have seven days to appeal. Eastleigh council can now press ahead with its plans to build 140 affordable homes on allotment land at South Street and Monks Way.

The council says it has a waiting list of more than 5,000 families queuing up to get a permanent roof over their heads and claims, ‘the disposal of the sites is necessary in order that an early start can be made on the construction of new housing which is urgently required to help reduce the enormous current demand for housing in the borough.’

Labels: allotment-building, allotment-eviction, allotment-relocation, olympics