Hummersknott Allotments

Well last night we found out from the secretary of the Hummersknott Allotment Association that we were second in the waiting list!

This means that we should have a plot in the Autumn and we can get on with preparing it for the new year.

We’ve started looking at the allotment books again and will be coming up with a list of what we want to grow, but that will all be dependent on the size of the plot though. One thing for certain though, Shanna wants to edge it with Rosemary and I want Fennel. Apart from that everything is up in the air.

Just been to the August open day for the Hummersknott Allotment Association. The secretary is away on a Mediterranean cruise so we were still unable to find out where we were (or even if we were) on the waiting list.

We did get to talk to the chair of the association who said the waiting list is down to single figures, so fingers crossed.

The allotment is still as beautiful as we thought last year and it would be great to get a plot soon.

We have a Japanese Maple (acer palmatum) in our back yard and it was starting to get pot bound it took me ages but here is the information on how to repot one:

The best time to re-pot Japanese Maples is mid spring time. The idea is to re-pot before they break into leaf. A good time is late March in your area. It’s best to leave the repot to that time because Japanese Maples are delicate trees when grown in pots. Make sure the plant was watered well in the previous couple of weeks.

The “soil” you need is half John Innes Number 3 and half ericaceous compost. Just ask at any garden centre or nursery and they will know what you mean. Japanese Maples dislike alkaline soil and produce the best leaf colour in a slightly acid soil.

It’s essential to put some rubble or stones at the bottom of the pot to ensure good drainage, especially in the winter. Nothing will damage an acer quicker than waterlogging.

The new pot should be 5cm (2ins) or so larger than the old pot.

Tip the pot sideways taking care not to damage the leaves. Gently pull the maple from the pot using the base of the main stem as near to the soil as possible. Place a layer of soil over the rubble in the new pot and place the maple in the new pot. The aim is to keep the top of the soil at the same level as it was before. So adjust the amount of soil in the bottom of the new pot to do that.

Fill around the edges with the new soil and gently firm it in. Water well.

Well we got quite a lot of apples from the Hummersknott allotments – more than we had bargained for but they are wonderful, nobody there sprays or uses chemicals so they were all as organic as you can get.

We initially wanted them to make one of our favourite pizzas: Red onion, apple, goat’s cheese and thyme pizza, this is really a french pissaladiere recipe rather than italian pizza. We have adapted it slightly, including more wholemeal flour in the base, but all the flavours mix so well. Again a wonderful meal, we had it with some Cava from M&S.

The rest of the apples are being made into slightly sweetened apple sauce/purée in batches, yesterdays batch is going to be made into apple turnovers this afternoon

The rest is going to be put into crumble with some more solid pieces of apple that we have left over.

Hummersknott allotments had an apple selling day and we took the opportunity to go along to have a look and get our name on the waiting list.

Well it is one of the nicest allotments we have seen, though as usual everybody was really friendly, it is in what used to be an old Carmelite walled garden – I think it must have been put in trust as it is a private allotment outside of council control.

It has its own orchard and a couple of community buildings and spaces for picnics and such.

We have put our name on the waiting list for this one – there are about 10 people and right now 4 plots available, talking to one of the members there are also a few others that may be a possibility due to some people not keeping up with the work to keep their allotments going and not realising how much work it would take.

Waiting in hope…

Complete straw bales are induced to ferment by applying water and a nitrogen based fertiliser, what you are doing, in actual fact, is composting the straw bale, lay the bale(s) on a sheet of polythene as a barrier against pest and disease.

Start treating the bales at least three weeks prior to the intended planting date by soaking them repeatedly with water. Keep the greenhouse vents shut and ensure sufficient heat is put on, if necessary, to give an air temperature of about 50F (10C). To each bale, nitrogen should be added in the form of nitro chalk at the rate of about 3/4 Ib per bale and well watered in. After about 4 days apply another 1/2 lb of nitrogen again and water it in.

If the bales are sufficiently wet and the temperature in the greenhouse is high enough the bales should now be getting quite warm.

Finally apply 3/4 Ib of a good slow acting fertiliser such as Vitax Q4 and half of this amount of nitro chalk and water in. Soon the bales should be really hot, test by feeling in the centre or as far as you can reach into it. Wait until the temperature falls a little and then make a 5 in deep ridge along the top of the bale adding John Innes No 2 or a good soil-less compost. In a couple of days set the plants, just covering the roots with the compost.

If you are organic then the straw bales can be induced to ferment by treating with Maxicrop Tomato feed which is seaweed based and consequently will be favoured by organic gardeners. This method has proved to very successful with gardeners that are complete novices. Apart &from the heat that is given off carbon dioxide is also generated, which further helps the plants to grow. Carbon dioxide is introduced into commercial glasshouses.

There have been problems with herbicide residues in the bales in the past, a good test is to soak a small amount of the straw in water and then introduce some sprouting seeds to the resulting liquor if herbicides are present the sprouts will either not germinate or die off soon after.

• Chamomile (Chamaemelum nobile): planted near onions to repel flying insects and improve crop yield
• Chives planted near apples and roses prevents scab in apples and black spot in roses
• Garlic planted near peaches helps to prevent peach leaf curl
• Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) attracts hoverflies so helps keep whiteflies at bay
• Hyssop planted near cabbages helps to lure away cabbage whiteflies also near vines to increase yield
• Catmint (Nepeta) planted near turnips deters flea beetle
• Basil grown near tomatoes helps repel flying insects
• Rosemary grown near carrots repels carrot fly
• Sage planted near cabbages is said to repel cabbage white butterflies
• Nasturtium attracts blackfly away from beans etc. Also attracts hoverfly which attacks aphids and repels whitefly, woolly aphids and ants
• Valerian planted near vegetables, boosts growth by stimulating phosphorous and earthworm activity

The whole reason for us getting this blog was to record our allotment development and centralise all the tips and information we gathered.

It has now been about year since we applied for an allotment and we still don’t have anything in the two places we applied for so we thought we would get started in the back yard, even though it is a really small area.

We got two large wall troughs and one medium wall trough, from these troughs we have produced tons of tumbler tomatoes and so many at the end stayed green we have made green tomato chutney and are really looking forward to this maturing We have also had all our own leaf salad for the year so far by rotating sowing of the salad leaves, but this seems to be slowing down a bit now.

We have also taken cuttings from our dyeing lavender to make loads of other lavender – the smell is absolutely wonderful.

We are still looking forward to getting the allotment but have made a great start in the back yard by using the walls – next year we are going to do peas up the other wall and are thinking of getting a fruit standard for some apples.

Having fun but still in anticipation.

Probably one of the most satisfying green steps you can take is buying yourself a wormery or compost bin. It’s pretty simple in theory: within weeks you’ve dramatically reduced your household garbage output, you are regularly tapping off a liquid plant-feed so nutritionally rich that it needs to be diluted 1-in-10 before use, and your food waste is slowly being transformed into wonderful compost instead of rotting away in landfill. Irrestible!

In practice there are always a few problems along the way. Sadly worms aren’t partial to citrus peel or anything to do with the onion tribe – garlic, leeks and spring onions included. Hold the mouldy cheese, left-over burgers and chicken bones, too. But worms still have pretty hearty appetites, salving many a stab of kitchen conscience as they gobble up bruised pears, that lettuce well past its uses-by date, a bag of spinach you couldn’t face washing, bits of old toast, bread and the bowl of cooked rice that never made it into fishcakes.

Worms are partial to egg-boxes too, love tea-bags and coffee-grounds, and absolutely thrive on eggshells. They’ll even eat newspaper, though they like it torn into strips.

Compost bins are slower to break down, but are great if you’ve got a lot of people involved or a big rgaden with a space far from the houses. It takes six months to a year to get your first proper pay-off, which you can dig into the soil to improve the soil’s fertility and structure tremendously. You could also consider micro-organisms like Bokashi (livingsoil.co.uk), which break down waste far more quickly than just leaving it to rot.

they really do taste better!

If gardening is the new rock’n’roll, then growing bespoke plant varieties is surely the indie-pop equivalent. Five years ago, a new generation of vegetable growers would boast, ‘Look – I grew some peas!’ These days, it’s a case of: ‘I grew some purple peas, some white carrots and some yellow beetroot!’

Growing traditional, heritage and heirloom varieties in the garden is to be liberal with the paint palette: blue beans, yellow striped tomatoes, golden squashes, bronze-leaved lettuces. And yes, the resulting produce really does taste better than that grown from the rows of seed packets that you find in the garden centre.

Go to a ’seed swap’ where local growers bring seed they’ve saved from their own garden and swap it with seed saved from others. The table was wrist-deep in hand-annotated envelopes of seeds, but most of those in the known headed straight for a discreet pile of Heritage Seed Library packets, donated by Garden Organic.

Garden Organic (gardenorganic.org.uk) is a charity which takes and grows seed passed down through generations of gardeners. Often, the last in line donate the sed to the charity, which is why many are called Uncle Fred’s Pea or Aunt Dinah’s Climbing Blue French Bean. In this way, hundreds of heirloom varieties are saved from oblivion by vluntary ’seed guardians’ who grow and save seed for future generations.

As well as the swap table, stalls sell traditional and heritage seeds. Seeds are such good value – a mere pound for whole packet that could grow into, say 400 carrots. Two suppliers are Thomas Etty (thomasetty.co.uk) and Pennard Plants (pennardplants.com).

For more information see Seedy Sunday – http://www.seedysunday.org/index.aspx