Allotment Triumphal Arch

Isn’t it lovely?

As to why it’s triumphal – the two bits of arch that aren’t arching (if you see what I mean) were just about the first things we took to 201 seventeen months ago! And today, while I was minuting an allotment committee meeting, Himself installed the arch and made the archy bits that go over the top. So possibly it should be a triumphant arch rather than a triumphal one ...

On one side I’m going to plant purple/black Ipomeas and on the other, Achocha: a sort of climbing vine from South America that produces small, spiky cucumber-like fruits!

Labels: allotment -leeks allotment-seeds, allotment-achocha, allotment-arch, allotment-structures

Allotment structures

It’s too wet to dig, and almost (but not quite) too wet to have a bonfire. So what did we spend Sunday doing? Apart from nursing the bonfire that we’ve been ‘saving’ up rubbish for all year (and by rubbish I mean brambles, old wood, bits of rotten fence etc, not plastics or green waste) we decided to put up the ‘rustic’ arch that has been kicking around the site all year. And I use the term kicking advisedly – I don’t think there’s been a single week where one or the other of us hasn’t tripped over the thing or kicked it on our way around the plot.

It’s a pair of old shop fittings that we rescued from a skip, which we’ve now sunk on either side of the path. The intention is to put some wire netting over the top to form the arch shape – as it took us a year to get the side supports into the ground, maybe, by Christmas 2010, we’ll have the top bit in place too!

And as we stood around, poking bits of old wood into the fire, I pondered a recent discovery, announced in the Linnean Society’s Botanical Journal, which suggests that petunias and potatoes may actually be carnivorous plants.

Yes, that’s right. Petunias and potatoes, it seems, have sticky hairs that trap insects, and they, along with several other commonly grown plants may turn out to be crypto-carnivores, by absorbing through their roots the breakdown products of the animals that they ensnare. We haven’t classified them as carnivores in the past, because unlike the Venus Flytrap, for example, they don’t actively demonstrate their ability to digest their prey. But roots easily absorb nutrients released from decaying animal matter, such as bodies, nearly all plants are capable of carnivorous behaviour by accident, if not by design. Hmm. The humble spud a carnivore … doesn’t seem that likely, but if you told me that pumpkins were man-eaters, I’d believe you, they grow fast enough to catch a slow-moving target!

This week's haul: Brussels Sprouts, kale, parsnips, celeriac, swede and the very first purple sprouting broccoli!

Labels: allotment-structures, allotment-winter-crops

Allotment Beans – the test results

There were some scoffers when we put up our bean supports – somebody even said it looked like a set of bunk beds. Oh you scoffers, eat your words!

The test is in the picking, and outward leaning bean poles, like ours, mean that all the beans simply hang away from the plant and can easily be seen. Bean wigwams, pretty as they are, tend to hide vast amounts of beans on the inside of the wigwam, so you have to poke around to find them, and risk damaging smaller beans that aren’t ready to be picked.



It takes two minutes to pick our runner beans from this structure compared to over ten minutes to pick one of the wigwams. And so far I haven’t found a single monster over-sized bean that has escaped detection until its reached Godzilla proportions, which has happened every other year when we’ve grown runner beans.

So the test is conclusive, outward leaning poles make picking easier!

Labels: allotment-runner-beans, allotment-structures

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