Tuesday 24 May 2011

about our allotment - how we organise it etc

Today I thought I would describe to you how we have organised our allotment.

We got our allotment quite easily really about 5 years ago now, we just went and asked and at that time they had a number available so we were able to choose and get on straight away rather than going on a waiting list.
That first year we divided the allotment into 5 sections, with one permanent bed and 4 rotational plots. The first year was potatoes at the top, then brassicas, beetroot etc, then the permanent bed (more on that later) and then onions then peas and beans. The following year beas and beans went to the top and everything shifted down - except of course the permanent bed.

This year we have come full circle and now peas and beans are at the top, potatoes in the next one, then the permanent bed, then brassicas and sweetcorn, then onions, leeks, carrots and parsnips at the bottom.

At the back of the allotment we have now got a strawberry bed, some compost bins, and the blackberries that were there when we took over - very much free food! We must have had at least 100 jars of blackberry jam by now and we didn't plant any of them! We also have a minarette apple tree which we are training along the back fence.

In the permanent bed we have blackcurrants, raspberries, two more minarette apples, a damson, a blueberry plant and we did have asparagus, but that may well be no longer, time will tell. We also have rhubarb (taken from my mum's plant grown in Yorkshire's "rhubarb triangle" ) We have also planted two minarette pear trees which may well have pears this year.

We have plenty of compost - guinea pigs are very useful for that, and a local farmer leaves manure to share out amongst the allotment owners once or twice a year.

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