Organic Allotment

Tools Of The Trade

I've not got too many tools on my allotment, preferring to keep it to minimum and have a small selection of tools that really work for me rather than loads that are hung in the shed and never see the light of day. My tools are nothing expensive of luxurious but they all work for me and there isn't anything particular that I'd like to add to my portfolio. Apart, maybe, from one thing...

Brian who used to have the allotment next to us had the most amazing, five prong cultivator. It was an old school tool that looked something like this and seemed to effortlessly break up the soil before planting. A couple of times when we were working on our plot Brian lent it to us and it was such a pleasure to work with that I wished that we could have one of our own. However, despite searching all over, I was never able to find one to buy to add to our own tool collection. So imagine how surprised and happy I was when my partner in growing crime bumped into Brian on the street to be told that, since he'd given up his allotment he'd decided that he wanted to donate his precious cultivator to us.

I feel absolutely privileged that Brian has been so kind as to pass this useful tool onto us but his kind gift also got me thinking about the heritage and story that all the different tools we use have got. Take the fork you can see in the picture for example, it's a bog standard example from a well known supermarket but my mum bought it for me when I had my first garden and it's been with me ever since so it's a really precious piece of equipment to me. It's actually a little border fork so not so good for bigger jobs on the allotment but it still remains the perfect tool that I always reach for when I need to turn over the compost. Then there's the beautiful hoe that my friend gave to us after her grandfather passed away, of the gloriously crafted fork that my sister bought me for my birthday. All these tools tell a different story and play an essential part in the history of our experience as growers and gardeners. They also illustrate that it doesn't always figure that the most expensive tool you can buy will necessarily be the best. Sometimes the most wonderful tools are the ones that have been cherished, looked after and used by other gardeners for years and years before they come into your hands. And, if this post has given you a taste to get your hands on some vintage tools of your own why don't you have a browse on Ebay ?- you may be pleasantly surprised by the pre-loved garden bargains that you will find.

Snug as a Bug in a Rug

We have a wormery in our garden which is a brilliant way of using kitchen waste to create super rich compost and liquid plant food. Normally there is very little that you need to do to keep the worms ticking over. Just make sure they've got a good supply of food that they like (ours don't like too much onion, orange peel or anything too strongly flavoured) and keep them in a sheltered position in the garden that doesn't get too hot, cold or wet. Dead easy you see?... Though of course we've had exceptionally cold weather over the last couple of nights that could prove a really threat to the health and well-being of our worms so we've had to carry out some evasive action to make sure that they're able to keep warm.

Firstly we moved the wormery up as close to the house as we could so that it benefits from any residual heat from the fabric of the building. This also means that it is now in the corner of the garden that gets the most winter sun so the worms will have the help of the sun to keep them warm and frost free for at least a couple of hours each day. We have also made sure that the worms have plenty of insulation within the wormery so we've added lots of nice fresh food and cardboard to make sure there are no opportunities for cold, icy spaces to form. Finally we have wrapped the whole wormery in a couple of old towels and plastic bags and topped it of with a waterproof cap to keep the whole thing as snug and dry as possible.

This may seem a slightly excessive endeavor on a freezing cold day but we love our wormery and want to do as much as we can to make sure that its residents make it through the winter. Here's hoping they'll be warm enough in their newly improved home.

 

Greenhouse Fun

When I got my allotment this time last year I inherited an old greenhouse from the last plot holder - it's nothing fancy and is still perfectly functional for seedlings and tasty salady things in the summer. It did have a few little holes in where some of the glass had slipped over the years, which was never a problem until we had the terribly stormy weather in January and seven panes got blown out and smashed. If I'm really honest I thought it was going to be much worse than this and felt quite lucky as some people's greenhouses were smashed up totally. It was quite a strange, Wizard of Oz-type experience though, to find that panes of glass had blown upto 15 metres through the air!

Anyway, the result of this was that the greenhouse needed fixing which was the job of my ever-helpful boyfriend last weekend, and what a job it was. As it's such an old greenhouse the windows are held in with putty and not clips and because of this my poor boyfriend spent Sunday afternoon on struggling with large pieces of glass up a ladder. It's not quite finished yet but should be all spick and span ready for seedlings in the next couple of weeks. I'd never had a greenhouse before but it's the kind of thing that once you've had one you can't imagine living without it.