Well March has certainly been a difficult month for allotment folk with snow and freezing temperatures on two weekends with the Beasts from the East blowing in. Milder weather may have followed but this has resulted in a lot of rain, especially towards the end of the month.
The Clothall Road site in the recent snow
With Mother Nature against us, it’s been hard to make progress on our allotments with even the quick draining soil at our Clothall Road site being too heavy and wet to do much digging.
Traditionally here in the south we’d be able to plant out first early potatoes that have been chitting nicely at home but many members have been loathe to plant them out with the ground so wet.
The colder temperatures have also meant the ground has been too cold to sow anything outdoors so many of the veg you can often risk sowing a row of in March, like carrots and parsnips, are still snug and warm in their seed packets.
It looks like there is warmer weather on the horizon so hopefully we can all get the growing season started soon.
We were finally able to hold the spring working party at Clothall Road on Good Friday, having previously had to postpone the work from St Patrick’s Day, when it snowed all day!
It was good to see such a good turnout of BALGA members and the saying ‘Many hands make light work’ ran true as we had cleared rubbish off the various plots that we were working on within an hour.
Clearing rubbish from vacant plots
We recently had a delivery of wood chip delivered to both sites and this was also used to repair some of the paths
Repairing worn paths
We can now arrange for these vacant plots to be let to people on the waiting list and the site will be fully let again.
A big thank you to all the members who came alone and helped.
Ingredients
Salad potatoes such as Charlotte
1 tub of cheese and chive dip
Method 1. Cut potatoes in half or quarters so they are all similar sized pieces. 2. Boil potatoes as you would do usually and drain once cooked. 3. Place cooked potatoes into a bowl and add several spoonfuls of dip. 4. Stir to ensure all the potatoes are covered. 5. Serve immediately or allow to cool before eating if preferred.
BALGA tenant, Annie, updates us on her progress with experimenting with going no-dig. This month….paths!
‘Of course, no-dig doesn’t mean no work! The digging is delegated. You may do this already of course – you may have a co-worker or partner who loves the exercise! However you can still gain benefits from no-dig and find these heroes other important jobs on your plot.
With no-dig, the digging is done by the worms. Hopefully you have plenty, but you will certainly get a big influx with the arrival of all that lovely compost. The worms will draw the organic material into the soil and aerate it at the same time. As the soil is not being continually hefted around, an environment is gradually created that allows beneficial insects, microbes and fungi to thrive and prosper. As this happens, it gives the perfect soil structure for your fruit and veg.
However, there is still work to be done….plenty of compost to produce and distribute, but we don’t want to compact the ground so some paths would be useful.
There are several options for paths.
1. Grass paths. These look nice if well maintained. A grass path is fairly permanent though so perhaps other more temporary solutions would be useful to give flexibility year by year.
2. Walk on top of the compost.
CompostTrodden path
The mulch underneath should stop weeds and the compost layer should not get muddy for a long time – not until the mulch has been broken down by the worms. This should take much longer than on the beds since you are walking on it and compacting it more than the beds.
3. Woodchip path. If you have a source of woodchip this is great. It shouldn’t get muddy and when you want a change, the woodchip will just rot down and add organic matter to your soil.
Clear ground for woodchipLay newspaper layer for woodchip pathWoodchip path
4. Gravel. The weed-proof layer here is black plastic (old compost bags work well!). Clear the ground, lay the plastic with a few drainage holes to prevent pools of water developing, cover with a layer of gravel. Cost of gravel may be an issue but it is re-usable when you want to take the path up and re-lay it elsewhere.
Before gravelGravel path
You will notice that the emphasis throughout is to try to stop the weeds growing thus saving time on weeding. We shall see!’
Everyone loves sweet peas don’t they? A quintessential British summer scent that wafts in the air as you pass their blooms, they also make great cut flowers to bring that scent into your home.
There are two schools of thought as regards sowing sweet peas; they can be sown in the autumn and overwintered thereby allowing you to plant out stronger and bigger plants in the spring, or they can be sown later in spring itself either in pots, or if you are really late you can direct sow them in the ground as late as April.
If you are sowing them in the autumn, the growing tip will need to be pinched out to encourage secondary growth and to stop the plants getting too leggy.
As I forgot to sow mine in the autumn and with my sowing fingers starting to get a little twitchy, I have sown mine in mid January this year. I have a selection of colours and varieties. I’m pretty sure I had some lovely red ones too somewhere, but can I find them?
The seeds themselves are quite large and round and are easy to sow as a result. I filled some pots with compost the day before I needed them and brought them inside so the compost warmed up a bit. No one, not even a tiny seedling, wants to dip their toe or first shoot into cold compost!
Sweet pea seeds
I sow mine five seeds to a pot spread evenly over the surface, I then just push them in about a fingernail’s depth and then cover them. Water and place the pots somewhere fairly warm to help germination.
Hey presto! A week later the first seed has germinated!
Germination!
We’ll do an update in a month or two once the seedlings have got going a bit more.
Members may or may not have heard of this method of growing veg which has been espoused by Charles Dowding.
Clothall Road tenant, Annie, tells us more about it as we follow her on her ‘no dig’ journey.
‘I joined the library just before Christmas – I wanted learn more about pruning. What I found, was a book on compost. I like making compost. It’s very satisfying on so many levels. Perhaps that’s another diary thread for another time……but the compost book contained a chapter about no-dig gardening. How could that fail to catch the eye? That would be the best gardening revolution ever!
Several hours with Mr. Google followed, plus the chance arrival of an assortment of cardboard, and a few hours of free time over the Crimbo Limbo period. Fate decreed this was definitely worth a try.
Rather than try and convert the sceptics with technical persuasion (that can appear in later episodes), I shall just explain what I’ve done so far. Suffice it to say, ‘no-dig’ seems to mimic natural processes and therefore cannot be ‘wrong’.
One benefit of no-dig is to reduce weeding and the first step towards this is ‘sheet mulching’. I raked over a patch of ground (you can take out deep-rooted weeds if you like but this isn’t essential). Then I spread cardboard over the area. You can wet the cardboard but the ground right now is probably wet enough! Newspaper can be used instead of cardboard.
Raked earth is covered with cardboard
Then I covered the cardboard with a thick layer of compost (about 3 inches). I guess you could leave it at that, but in my garden the birds fling compost all over the place, so I covered the compost with whatever I could find – some bits of fleece, and old pea netting.
Cover the cardboard with mulch
You could use black plastic but that would also keep the rain off. Aims of this mulching are twofold, firstly the mulch prevents light getting to weeds thus eventually killing them and secondly mulch gradually decomposes and is drawn down into the soil by worm activity.
Next time I shall explain ‘the path dilemma’ and hopefully tell what my solution will be.’
The second working party this autumn was held at the Clare Crescent site in Baldock where we had planted seed potatoes on the last cultivated plot at this site in the spring. This site is still managed by North Herts District Council.
A very loose experiment was run to see which half of it would produce the more tubers with half the plot being ridged up in the traditional way and the second half just dropping the seed potatoes in holes.
The ridged half after harvestingTreasure hunting in the non-ridged half
Although hardly scientific, the ridged half of the plot produced the best yield by a long way with very little being harvested from the non-ridged part. In fact it was more like trying to find where the rows of potatoes were on this half! Underground tree roots may have had something to do with it too though…
Surplus potatoes from the plot are being donated to Baldock’s Community Centre to help feed those in need this Christmas.
All done!
We’d love to have more volunteers help on working parties. They are a great way of building camaraderie and giving something back to the allotment association. The more we can do by members volunteering, the more money we can save from having to call experts in to do work which we could have done ourselves. ‘Banked’ volunteer hours are also used when applying for grants for future improvement work to our sites.
So keep an eye out for the next working parties and come and join in!
Autumn is always a good time for BALGA to organise working parties to help clear vacant plots. Tenant members have less to do on their plots and as the plots themselves wind down for the winter, it is easier to work on any that are overgrown.
The first working party this autumn was at our North Road site where a dedicated band of volunteers worked on three vacant plots that needed rubbish removing from them as well as a lot of elder, bramble and other tree branches which needing cutting down and removing. It was a bitterly cold day but it didn’t take long to warm up.
The first plot in particular had a couple of large elder trees growing in one corner.
Removing elder
The second plot had branches from an ash tree blocking one end. Unfortunately there is only so much that can be done with loppers and saws without needing to get professional tree surgeons in here.
Removing overhanging branches
The final plot that was worked on had a massive bramble covering the back of the plot. This was cut back gradually to leave a clear space.
Mick in front the cleared bramble area
All in all a good lot of work done by a dedicated few in a matter of hours and hopefully three more plots looking more appealing to prospective tenants.
Sadly, we have to report that allium leaf miner has reached deepest darkest Hertfordshire and has been spotted on both our sites here in Baldock. This pest first arrived in the UK back in 2002. It has come from mainland Europe and was confined for quite a time to southern and eastern counties but it has been gradually spreading since then.
And to make matters worse, allium leaf miner has two lifecycles each growing season and will attack all members of the allium family, particularly leeks and spring planted onions, shallots and garlic. There is no chemical protection available to allotment gardeners so the only thing that can be done is to cover crops with Enviromesh, and hope!
The adult flies appear in March or April, having overwintered in the soil. The females will feed on the leaves of your alliums before laying her eggs, usually near the base of the leaves of the plant. This can be spotted if you see lines of white dots on the leaves of your alliums.
Leaf Miner leaf damage
The eggs hatch and the resulting larvae, which are tiny white, head and legless maggots, feed on the leaves before tunnelling (hence the name leaf miner) into the leaves. At this point, fully fed, the maggots pupate within the stem of the plant.
Leaf Miner pupae
This second generation will hatch in September/October and again lay eggs at the base of the plant. It is this generation that will do the most damage to the now mature onion and leek plants. It will also overwinter in the soil ready to hatch the following spring.
It should be noted that most plants affected will tend to rot from a secondary infection from fungi or bacteria that develop in the damaged stems in the plant. The damage this fly can do is such that there can be no sign of your alliums being affected until the rotting is noticed.
So what can we do to protect our crops?
First off, employ a strict crop rotation policy. Do not grow alliums in the same area of your plot the following year.
Secondly, if your alliums do become infected, it is best to dig up the infected plants and burn them. As the pupae can survive over the winter, do not leave any infected plant debris on the soil.
Cover alliums with horticultural fleece, particularly when the flies are active in the spring and again in the autumn.
Plant out young plants after the danger of the first wave has passed and lift before the second generation is active. Whilst this may help with onions, leeks are in the ground for a long time so will not be ready for lifting in early autumn so covering them may be our only defence.
Members of our North Road site will be well aware of the work that has gone on recently to replace the dilapidated gate and fence that formed the boundary of the site with the parking area. The nature of the access road, sloping down towards the allotments, also meant that the first plot next to the parking area was susceptible to flooding, making part of it unworkable.
The main contractors for the work were M&J Oakley Ltd who were used previously to install the new boundary fence at the Clothall Road site and the bulk of the work was carried out over about a week at the beginning of September. Half of the cost of the work was funded by grants from local authorities and councillors as well as BALGA fundraising. The remainder has been paid from the plot rental income we have received after 18 months of self management.
The steel gate, which is approx. 2m high, allows separate vehicle and pedestrian access, while the fence, which is 2m high, also includes rabbit proofing along its base.
Once the fencing and gate were finished, a kerb was installed which increased the width of the parking area by a metre. This will also help prevent the flooding to plot no.2 adjacent to the parking area. Drains against the kerb edge were added and these lead to a newly excavated soakaway.
North Road Allotments
It was decided and agreed unanimously by the General Committee that rather than leave the corner of ground near the gate as it was, it would be better to continue the kerbing into this corner and then to extend the tarmac along the kerb and up to the gate, and to get this additional work done at the same time. This extra area of tarmac has meant we have been able to add an additional two parking spaces to the parking area as well.
A speed hump was also installed a short way up the access road to slow traffic as it approaches the corner by the parking area. The speed hump and tarmac work were carried out by FT Gearing Landscape Services Ltd.
The now thin strip of ground along the front of the parking area will be grassed and planted up with bulbs by a working party. A couple of paving slabs will also be added so people can actually get to the notice board at the site! And the extra bonus of having a high boundary fence is we can now display banners for open days or plot availability, something which wasn’t possible before.
I think you will all agree the entrance to the site looks so much better now and is a example of how self management enables us to improve our sites by reinvesting money raised through plot rents, rather than see it absorbed into Council funds.
Clearing rubbish from vacant plots
