Organic Allotment

Now It All Makes Perfect Sense

It was Bette Midler who said:

"My whole life has been spent waiting for an epiphany, a manifestation of God's presence, the kind of transcendent, magical experience that let's you see your place in the big picture. And that is what I had with my first compost heap."

As I was taking wonderful, fresh compost out of my compost bin in the garden this afternoon I have to admit that very similar thoughts crossed my own mind. Compost rocks! That's an indisputable fact and one of the things that I'm proudest of in our garden, and on the allotment, is the quality of the compost that we make. Of course, anyone can make half decent compost if they leave waste green materials long enough (and I'm not going to go into the mechanics of compost making here because there are already plenty of excellent places to find that information on the web)... But I'm pretty proud of the fact that our composting system is now so well honed on the allotment that we're able to turn garden waste into precious, dark, delicious compost in around 3 months! Impressive huh?

So what is it that makes me so crazy about compost? There are actually a couple of different motivations that I'd like to share with you here...

• Home made compost is pretty much the best thing going to feed plants and add condition and structure to your soil. It's actually so rich in nutrients that it needs to be diluted down with other soil if you want to use it as a potting compost for seeds and seedlings! That's pretty potent stuff made all the more amazing by the fact that if you leave garden waste to its own devices it will kind of make it itself.
• A compost bin is a great way of getting rid of food waste at home (as well as plant waste in the garden or on the allotment). 40% of food that people put into the rubbish could go straight into a compost bin and what's not to love about using leftovers and scraps to create nutritious , free food for you to use in the garden?
• Finally, without wishing to sound like I'm straying too far into hippy / good life territory, Bette isn't far wrong with her evaluation of the experience of making compost. I wouldn't say I'm quite so hardcore as to compare it to some kind of religious epiphany but the process of composting does highlight the maginficence of the processes that are occuring all the time in nature. I mean, how amazing is it to think of the cycle of plant matter that's no longer needed being composted to create a substance to feed plants that, when they grow, will in turn die back and become plant matter that's no longer needed that will be composted to create a substance to feed plants that, when they grow...? You can see what I'm getting at here can't you? And the best thing is that if we are able to appreciate and understand these processes, and our own part within them as growers and gardeners, we're able to create gardens and allotments that are as abundant and self supporting as nature itself.

And that, my friends, is why compost rocks!

A Splash of Colour

Although vegetable plots and allotments are essentially functional spaces I am a great believer that they should also look beautiful. Of course, beautiful can, in turn, also be functional but I'll come to that later...In my search for the perfect horticultural aesthetic I've developed a few different strategies over the years to try and make my plot as gorgeous to look at as the produce is to eat!

The first thing I do is try to plant in a way that is as relaxed and informal as possible. In practice this means mixing different crops together in a patchwork of colour and texture and avoiding planting large blocks of one crop on its own. For example, I love planting things of different heights together to give a real interest in levels, meaning you'll frequently see lettuces growing at the bottom on bean poles on our plot. On a practical level this way of planting also helps protect crops against pests and diseases as plants that are not planted in large, mono-cultivar beds seem to be much less prone to attack. If you want to know more about tried and tested planting combinations that will help keep your plants happy and healthy I suggest you take a look at Bob Flowerdew's Complete Book of Companion Gardening which is an absolute mine of information on this subject.

My pursuit of all things beautiful also means that you're always going to find lots of flowers growing all over the plot. Some of these are purely for show like the tulips that are in full bloom at the moment, a number of which may also end up as cut flowers in the house. Others are also great companion plants that play an essential role in attracting beneficial insects to the plot and having a key part in protecting our crops from attack - again Bob gives bags of advice on what to plant where and when.

Some of these companion flowers are perennial plants that come back year after year, but the vast majority are annuals that need to be planted each season. If you haven't planted any already, now's a perfect time to do it. And here's a selection of some of my personal favourites.

Cosmos is an absolute beauty that will flower for weeks on end, with large flowers that bees love.They vary in colour from pure white to bright pink and their loose, relaxed flowers look wonderful as a cut flower.

French Marigolds are one of the easiest flowers to grow. Their leaves have a delicious, distinctive smell. They are known to repel soil nematodes and whitefly from tomatoes.

Nigella Love in a Mist has both flowers and seed heads that make excellent cut flowers. Sowing them near or in carrot seeds is believed to keep the crop free of carrot fly.

Pot Marigolds are the queens of companion planting. They attract bees, butterflies and hoverflies. If you let them go to seed each year they are also happy to spread themselves all over, popping up as the weather warms up in Spring.

So, there's a couple of my favourites. Any I've missed out that are absolute essentials on your plot?

 

Out In The Cold

On our allotment most of our plants begin their lives in the greenhouse because we've found this the best way to have any chance of winning the battle against slugs. As with any plants that have been started off inside there needs to be some degree of consideration to how their transfer is made into the big, wide world outside.

Surprisingly when plants first go outside it can be wind that poses the greatest threat to them rather than cold. So protecting them from wind in the first couple of days is one of the best things you can do to ensure they continue to grow on as strong and sturdy as they can. We're lucky enough to have a cold frame alongside our greenhouse which is the perfect holding area for plants before they are finally planted in their final home in the beds on the allotment. The frame is suitably sheltered but also gets weathered enough to acclimatise the plants to the outside world.

The broad beans you can see in the picture will spend a couple of days like this in the cold frame with no extra protection from the elements. After this I will lift them onto the path in their pots for a couple of days to get them used to the wind, though still putting them back in the frame at night. It is only after this that they will finally be planted out onto the plot.This may all sound like a lot of effort for a crop of broad beans but it's really worth investing the time as you are much more likely to have a strong and healthy plant, which will crop better, if it is properly introduced to its new surroundings.

What if you haven't got a cold frame? Well, any sheltered corner will do as an alternative - though you may need to bring the plants back inside for the first couple of nights if you don't have the option to cover them up like you do with a coldframe.

And just in case this post has inspired you to make your own coldframe... here's a suggestion of how to do it courtesy of Permaculture Magazine.

The Problem with Rhubarb

We grow alot of rhubarb on our plot. A large, healthy bed of it was left by the last plot holder and we never had the heart to do anything dramatic with it as it's right next to the pond and the frogs and newts love the cover of the large, shady leaves during the summer months. The bed contains seven very healthy crowns that produce a hearty crop each year.

"So what's the problem with this?" I hear you ask. Well, the major problem is that nobody in our house actually likes eating the stuff! My Dad will take a little off us, as will be best pal who lives round the corner from the plot and some colleagues at work but, apart from that, the majority of our yearly haul normally goes to waste.

Over the last couple of weeks this year's crop has started to come into its own and I got thinking about my dislike of rhubarb...

"Do I actually not like it?" I asked myself. "Or do I think I don't like it after some horrible experience as a child eating soggy, overcooked rhubarb?"

On reflection I realised that my dislike was probably based upon the latter, and that's the reason why 2011 is the year of the rhubarb in our house. I'm trying as many different recipes as I can to see what this versatile crop has to offer and to see if I've actually not been being a little bit unkind in my prejudice against it.

Last night I started with Stewed Rhubarb with a Vanilla and Yoghurt courtesy of Jamie Oliver. I'm not normally a fan of Mr O and his recipes but this stuff is really good and was a great treat after a long day (though I have to admit I served it with custard rather than yoghurt!) So a rhubarb recipe I actually like? Who'd have thought it? Next I'm planning to have a go of making Rhubarb Chutney using a recipe from Monty Don's book, "Fork to Fork", which is, incidentally, a wonderful book for anyone who's interested in home grown, season food.