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Introducing our garden allotment
I thought it was high time I introduced another of my passions and vices to you; I’m not greedy I only have a few! Apart from my overwhelming love of all things sparkly, shiny and jewellery orientated, as much chocolate as a girl can eat and my family (have to put that one in don’t I!). The other love of my life has to be our garden allotment.
Part of our garden allotment
On solid clay, our garden is sloped and we work on three levels. The top level is south facing and a real suntrap and for many years it housed the children’s Wendy House, a football goal, a large climbing frame, a slide and the obligatory swing! As the family grew, basketball and cricket took over the boy’s lives and so we negotiated a swap. The lower garden level and patio became theirs with the purchase of a basket ball hoop in return for their former play area.
At last, we could have a proper fruit and veg patch. Up until that point we had grown beans, potatoes and salad crops in containers. We have always made our own compost and also collected leaves in the autumn for our leaf litter bin so we embarked on a double dig and soil enrichment programme. Through lots of hard work and learning as we went along our four bed vegetable plot was created.
January isn’t the best of growing months, but we are still cropping vegetables. In the early days my Dad, who had numerous allotments and raised us growing our own vegetables, advised us on what to grow. Cloches allow us to grow salad crops even in mid-winter. ‘Arctic King’ lettuces cannot be praised enough.
Arctic King Lettuces in one of our cloches
I swear by frost tolerant cabbages like ‘Tundra’ which even thrived in the -15°C conditions of last winter. Cauliflowers have been a bit trickier, and I’m not sure I will grow purple sprouting broccoli again as it ties up so much space for so long.
Tundra Cabbages love the cold weather!
Just before Christmas we used up the last of the potato’s but we are still working our way through the heavy cropping beans, soft fruit and one batch of tomato soup frozen in the summer/early autumn.
Last autumn we moved all of our currant bushes (red, white and black), the Gooseberry and our Rhubarb to a newly cleared border and, fingers crossed, we can’t wait to see if all have taken. Malc thinks the space created would be ideal for Asparagus but I’m not so sure?
Tasty Cauliflowers
Pigeons are a huge menace and we have to net EVERYTHING! Bertie thinks it’s his job to chase them away, earning the obligatory dog treat in return. I swear he sometimes chases imaginary pests just for the reward. We also share our roof with a noisy colony of house sparrows. Fantastic to see these comical birds on the feeders outside my workbench window but they too can be very destructive, pea shoots are a favourite. They are so entertaining and we feel lucky to have them.
What do you grow? Can you offer us any recommendations? Any grow your own advice and suggestions always welcome. Thanks for reading.
Julieann 20.01.12
©Julieann Beads
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