There can be no doubt that these are strange times. Lockdown has been difficult for many and I can’t imagine how hard life is if your stuck in a flat in a big city. However, here in Gayton we are fortunate and allotment members especially so. Our Cub Close site has been really important as a place where we can get plenty of exercise, spend time in the fresh air and still maintain our social distance. We also get to eat lots of fresh veg, once the ‘hungry gap’ is past that is. The ‘hungry gap’ being that period of the year when gardens and allotments are least productive and, as the name suggests, in the ‘good old days’ would have seen poorer people go hungry. It
spans the time from January to May with the leanest month of all being April. By June harvesting begins to pick up, but this year because its been so dry, some crops are a bit later or have a lower yield. My new potatoes are a good example, even though I watered them religiously they are later than normal and there’s not many of them. However, the few we have are very, very tasty!
The lettuces and other cut and come again crops don’t seem to mind the drought though, so we have plenty of salad (that’s no thanks to me as the salads are all grown by Judy). In fact thanks to our greenhouse, we ate home grown salad right through the winter until January 2020.
If you have greenhouse or conservatory, line a small crate with paper, fill it with muck and compost and plant your salad. Keep it frost free and Bob’s your Uncle! Here’s a picture of the last box of Mizuna (Japanese salad leaves) and lettuce from the early spring.
Chillies and tomatoes from the greenhouse will be ready soon and should keep us in fresh pickings till October. The freezer takes over in the Autumn and we have only just finished eating our frozen tomatoes and home made passata from last season. The picture below is of a Purple Tiger Chilli that I grew from seed from the South Devon Chilli Farm and a couple of San Marzano tomatoes that makes wonderful pasta sauces later in the season.
We are slowly converting our allotment to no dig beds that require less maintenance but lots of compost. That has been quite hard to come by this year and we had to spend a fair bit of time in B&Qs click and collect queue to get enough to keep things moving. Eventually we will end up with more than a dozen 4 foot wide beds of various lengths, most of which will support at least 2 crops each season and, as the name suggests, won’t need digging at all.
We are slowly converting our allotment to no dig beds that require less maintenance but lots of compost. That has been quite hard to come by this year and we had to spend a fair bit of time in B&Qs click and collect queue to get enough to keep things moving. Eventually we will end up with more than a dozen 4 foot wide beds of various lengths, most of which will support at least 2 crops each season and, as the name suggests, won’t need digging at all.
The picture on the right is of a wild area on a plot that belongs to Hilary Glanville and although you may have to be pretty eagle eyed to see the diversity she has achieved, it is pretty impressive for year one. It isn’t everyone’s cup of tea of course, many gardeners are horrified at the thought of encouraging grass and wild flowers, weeds to some, onto the allotment but for those of us who want to grow organically, such areas are invaluable. Even a small area of wild flowers can attract many of the good bugs, that eat the bad bugs that eat our crops. Wild flowers also attract pollinators such as bees and hover-flies. Judy, is presently designing our very own wild patch and plans to add a small pond to attract an even greater range of beasties. Although we haven’t got a wild area yet, Judy does have an area dedicated to flowers and adds plants from time to time as they become available and a lot more self seed. See above.
As always we seem to have more ideas than the time or energy to carry them out but we have made progress on the ‘no dig’ front. The beds we have converted are proving much easier to maintain than the traditionally managed ones they replaced. The picture to the left shows onions and cabbages planted in the spring and the only maintenance required is a bit of weeding and absolutely NO DIGGING!
I will close in the time honoured fashion by saying we have space for new tenants and would be especially pleased to welcome more Gayton residents into our Society.
So if you want to spend more time outside with likeminded people, contact me on my Mobile 07547380907 or email me at letting.gaytonallotments@btinternet.com and, as we don’t have a lot of free plots, contact me ASAP to avoid disappointment.
Carl Hamilton, Letting Agent for Gayton Allotments.