New allotment – the ground we work with

My allotment federation has the following advice: Allotments that have not been worked for many years or have had nothing put back in to the soil would benefit from an annual application of manure or mushroom compost. If supplies are limited, concentrate it where you intend to grow potatoes or members of the cabbage family. If you practise crop rotation you will gradually improve the whole area. Start a compost bin immediately and recycle as much organic matter as possible.

Well, our soil is really not that bad. Wonderful Duncan dug a whole lorry load of manure into the first half of the plot and it’s produced fantastic potatoes and onions, and the courgettes are thriving, so that’s good. The second half of the plot though, is still ‘unimproved’. We’re rough digging a couple of rows every time we go up and mainly trying to take out as much couch grass as possible (it is definitely our best crop so far!) – I’m spreading the removed perennial weeds out on a slab of carpet to dry, as several books say that once it’s totally desiccated you can just stamp it to smithereens and put it in the compost. Stamping on couch grass could become my favourite hobby!

It seems to have good water holding capacity and it definitely clods up when wet so there’s a lot of clay in there, but its not chalky, which was a big worry as many allotments in our area are. All in all I think we’ve been very lucky. The test will be when we establish an asparagus bed … maybe next year!

Labels: allotment-digging, allotment-improving-soil, allotment-manure, allotment-soil

Glorious mud (and green manure)

Still no allotment office in which to lurk, so I’ve been forced to go out and visit my neighbours (in allotment terms) this week. There’s not much to do unless you’ve got good stable paths, as the mud, mud, glorious mud is everywhere, but the best organised of us (and that does not include me!) are well on the way to next year’s vegetable success. The picture shows Andy’s mustard crop which he’s going to dig in as a green manure in the late spring, before it flowers.

Why bother with green manures?

They're cheap and easy to grow.
They can increase soil fertility.
They improve soil structure and help prevent soil erosion.
Most green manure crops are very attractive to wildlife.
Bare soil encourages weed growth, so green manure bare ground to keep weeds in check.
By taking up nutrients from the soil, green manure crops prevent them from being washed away when it rains.
Some green manure plants are nitrogen fixers.
And, my favourite reason, you can sow them from a little packet, unlike digging in a dozen barrows of manure!

All you need to do is sow and leave, either until you need the land again or until just before seeding, whichever happens first. At that point you hack or strim them down, dig them into the soil and leave them to decompose, releasing plant nutrients back into the soil which are then used by the next crop you grow in that area.

Labels: allotment-crops, allotment-manure

This week's chore

I spoke to my father last night. His allotment is in Torquay, so their weather is definitely more clement, most of the year, than ours, but we’re still undertaking the same task – ye good olde mucke spreading.

It’s the perfect time of year to get compost or well aged manure onto your plot; the frosts will give it a good chance to break down over the winter if there’s anything that still needs to break down, it acts as a mulch around anything that needs protecting from the cold snaps, and it’s easier by far to spread goodness now, than wait until spring and have to work round all the plants that are already coming up.

It is back-breaking work though. Barrowload after barrowload to be wheeled around the site, tipped out, forked over the surface, and then back for another barrowload. One of my neighbours seems to have the right idea – more barrows!

But there’s also something very satisfying about knowing that what you do now will earn you dividends over the year ahead – all that rich food that will penetrate the soil, giving nutrients to the plants, and breaking up the soil surface to make it easier to work and better at holding water, it does make the task worthwhile.

Labels: allotment-compost, allotment-manure, allotment-winter-tasks