Raw Materials

My number one priority in having an allotment is about supplying my other passion (cooking!) with high quality, fresh and seasonal ingredients that are either too expensive, bland or very limited in variety at the grocery store. Here are a few results from my first two seasons of vegetable gardening.

This (above) was my first real harvest from the allotment in year one. Around mid July I started getting about 1 or 2 yellow courgettes a day. Onions, garlic, carrots, beans (from my plot neighbor) and throw in a few herbs, hmmm I think a stir fry is in order! Recipe posts coming soon.

Potatoes, strawberries, lettuces and more herbs (below), all low maintenance must haves. They are easy to grow and very versatile in the kitchen.

Some more yellow courgettes (pasta, stir-fries, on toast etc) with my first successfully formed red cabbage. The shredded cabbage mixed with carrots, apples and shallots kept me in fresh coleslaw all summer! Recipe posts to follow soon.

All of this looking at food has made me want to cook something for lunch!

Digging

Digging

I have basically stuck to the same method of digging throughout my time on the allotment with a few minor adjustments. In the beginning, I would take the top layer of turf off and stack it up, grass part down, in a pile. I would then use the resulting pile (loam) to top up the beds in the following year. This worked well, however it is a lot of work moving the earth around. Since then I have adopted a new approach, I call it, Let Potatoes do the Hard Work approach! Each year when I want a new bed, I begin late autumn or early winter and literally just turn the turf over, a spade full at a time. This has the good effect of exposing weed roots (I take them out when I can). I then cover the overturned earth with either some cardboard or newspapers (a half inch thick or so) remembering to put some earth on top to prevent it from blowing away. In my case, I mainly stick to blank cardboard as it rots into the ground nicely after 8 months or so. It also has the added benefit of adding some fiberous material to my very clay soil. But you could use anything that will block out the light for a few months to kill the rest of the weeds. When Febuary/March comes around and it is time to plant the first potatoes, I cut/dig a hole in whatever material I have layed on top and plant a potato in it. Many hands make small work. Well so do many potatoes! By time August or September rolls around and I start to harvest potatoes, they have done a very nice job of breaking up the soil. The process of earthing up your potatoes and then actually getting them out of the ground improves the texture of the soil for the new bed as well. Once I have harvested all the potatoes, I then pound 4 posts in the corners of the bed, nail some boards to the posts and top up the soil for a shiny new raised bed! If you want to go the extra mile, then at some point add a little more depth to the bed by digging a bit deeper when you are digging up the potatoes. Once the pototo harvest is complete, it is a good idea to add some well rotted manure, some leaf mulch or some compost to make a nice fertile bed for the next resident crop. It should now be October/November and time to put some new potatoes to work!

Taking Shape

The allotment gradually took shape over the next couple of years. To be honest I found the process of digging the beds and planning the layout as enjoyable (if not more so!) than sowing and planting. It probably has something to do with the instant result. I want a new bed here, I dig it. Whereas if i want some corn, then I need to sow the seed, plant out the new little plants, water, hope for sun, and finally if all went to plan, 8 months later I am eating some corn! There is a great saying I heard recently regarding gardening that couldn't be more true,

"Live like there is no tomorrow, garden like you will live forever!"

In the first year, my main ambition was to get in some fruit and veg that would be fairly low maintenence so that I could get on with completing the rest of the plot. I put in a long row of autumn fruiting rasberries and a big bed of strawberries, kindly given to me by Tony and Pat in plot opposite to me. They gave me runners from their strawberries and a few rasberries canes that were popping up where they weren't wanted. I also dug a third bed with the hopes of getting some corn (more on that later).