Sven Wombwell

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

Working an allotment garden in the UK is an all-year-round commitment. Make your plot as productive as possible by following this month-by-month guide, and get the most from your soil. January Check out catalogues for seeds, fruit bushes and any other crops you’ve got a mind - and the space - to grow. January is often the sales season at garden centres, so get re-stocked and save yourself some money. Sort out clean pots ready for the sowing season, and check that your propagator works, if you’ve got one. Pick your winter crops, such as Brussels sprouts, cabbages and leeks. As soon as the soil is clear, give it a good dig over and add some organic matter where appropriate. January is still early to sow most vegetable seeds, but you can plant your first onions now. Have a good tidy up on your plot, removing any debris. February Complete all your digging this month so the soil has a chance to break down a bit before you plant your crops. Cover areas of soil to be sown with seeds next month with black plastic or fleece to warm it and prevent it from getting too wet. Sow more seeds indoors in trays. You can start off tomatoes, onions, celery and peppers, amongst others. Plant fruit trees and bushes as soon as the soil thaws out. March March is the main month for sowing many crops indoors. You can also plant some outside at this stage as well (broad beans, for example). Dig up the last of the crops which have been in the ground over the winter (including parsnips and leeks, for example). Plant asparagus in well-prepared, weed-free soil. Towards the end of the month you can plant out the first potatoes. Also plant onion sets, shallots, garlic and Jerusalem artichokes. Apply fertiliser around fruits and vegetables and mulch around fruit trees and bushes. Start feeding all plants in pots and make sure that they don’t dry out. April Look out for early-emerging pests. Organic or chemical controls can help you avoid the problems of slugs and snails attacking young seedlings, aphids – or blackfly – covering broad beans, and greenfly attacking the new shoots of plums and currants. Keep going with sowing seeds outside – April is often the best month to sow because the soil is getting warmer. Continue to sow seeds in the greenhouse. Plant your potatoes. Keep weeds under control by hoeing around your fruit and vegetables. Under cover, sow fast-growing tender vegetables such as courgettes, French beans, marrows and runner beans. May Continue to look out for pests. Deal with slugs, snails and aphids, and put codling moth traps in apple trees at the end of the month. In dry weather, water newly sown and planted crops. Plant out leeks, brassicas such as cabbage and calabrese, and celery and celeriac. Continue to sow salad crops and herbs regularly. Sow more French beans. Put the tender plants that are growing in the greenhouse outside to get them used to conditions before planting out at the end of the month (this is known as hardening off). If you don’t do this, the change in conditions can ‘shock’ the plants and check their growth. June Plant out tender veg: either your own-grown plants, or just buy ready-grown ones. Protect strawberries from damage from slugs, from getting dirty with straw or mats, and from birds with netting or fleece. Keep weeds under control by hoeing. Keep removing the side shoots of tomatoes and feed them once a week. Make sure that you don’t allow tomatoes in growing bags or pots to dry out. Stop cutting asparagus in the middle of the month. Mulch the rows with compost and give some fertiliser to build up the roots for next year. Thin out apples, plums and pears if the branches are laden with small fruits. July As soon as strawberries have finished cropping, cut back the foliage and remove any runners that grow from the mother plants. Cover blueberry bushes and other soft fruit with netting or fleece to protect them from birds. Cut down early peas and broad beans that have been harvested. Leave the roots in the soil to add nitrogen to it. Be prepared to spray potatoes against blight. Lift and harvest your early potatoes. Continue to sow salad crops, and keep weeding among all your crops. Prune blackcurrants as soon as the berries have been picked. Mulch around squashes and pumpkins with compost or manure and keep them watered well. August Sow Oriental crops such as pak choi and Chinese cabbage. Also sow spring cabbage and fennel. You should have lots to harvest this month – pick it while it’s young and fresh. Pull up any crops that have finished and sow fast-growing salads in their place, or if you’re not using the ground for crops until winter or next spring, sow green manures. Sow overwintering onions and plant special new potatoes for Christmas. Summer prune apples and many other fruit bushes and trees. September Continue to sow Oriental vegetables, salads and herbs. Sow endives for winter. Pinch out the tops of tomato plants to prevent fruits being formed that won’t ripen. Pick sweetcorn and squashes as they mature. Start to harvest apples and pears as they reach ripeness. Dig up potatoes as soon as they finish flowering and if the foliage starts to yellow. Stake Brussels sprouts and other overwintering brassicas to help them stand up to winter gales. October Harvest all squashes before the first frost damages them. Finish lifting and storing potatoes. Dig over bare soil. Put all green plants and annual weeds on the compost heap. Plant garlic and broad beans. Cut back Jerusalem artichokes and pull up sweetcorn. Pick the last tomatoes from plants in the greenhouse. Clean out your greenhouse, if you have one, and make the most of any under-cover growing space. November Order seed catalogues and fruit catalogues. Clear the soil of crops that are past their best. Pick up and pull off yellowing leaves from brassicas. Harvest leeks, celery, Jerusalem artichokes, parsnips and the last of the carrots and beets. Check the ties on trees and cover brassicas with netting to prevent bird damage. December Dig over any bare soil. Empty the compost heap and dig this into the soil. Prune your fruit trees and bushes. Clear rubbish off your site and have a general tidy up.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

Good quality soil is essential to the successful allotment plot. Without fertile, nutrient-packed soil, your careful efforts at sewing, weeding and tending your garden or allotment will all be in vain. Soil provides the food, water and some air that your plants need for healthy growth and development, so it’s worth spending time trying to improve its quality. Soil types as growing mediums Soil can be judged as to whether it is sandy, silty, clay, loam or chalky. Each of these has its own characteristics, which can be improved in different ways. Sandy soil doesn’t retain nutrients well, so needs to kept well supplied with organic matter. Silty and loam soils are regarded as very good for growing, and need less work. Clay soil is more problematic: it can lack aeration and good structure needed for growing. The best solution is to add lots of well rotted organic matter in the autumn. Chalky soil is the worst for cultivation because it is naturally highly alkaline which causes mineral deficiencies. One way to rectify this is to add bulky organic matter to improve the soil’s nutrient content and water retention. pH levels of your soil Most plants prefer a neutral soil, but some prefer slightly acid or alkaline conditions. Before planting, find out your soil’s pH level. Testing kits are widely available at garden centres. If necessary, you can adjust the pH levels slightly according to the type of fruits and vegetables you want to grow. Add ground lime to make your soil more alkaline. To make your soil more acidic, you need to add aluminium sulphate or sulphur. It’s worth bearing in mind that you can’t permanently alter soil pH levels – such measures will have only a temporary effect. Your best bet is to work with the soil you have, as far as possible. Feeding your soil for successful growing Think of your soil as a breathing organism that needs feeding and watering, just like a living creature. Three main nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium) are essential to healthy plant growth. Organic fertilisers like horse manure are rich in these. However, you’ll need to ensure that trace nutrients (iron, boron, copper, manganese, molybdenum , zinc) are also added. Living organisms are crucial to healthy soil, and you should encourage their development. Mycorrhize is a type of fungus that helps plants to absorb more water and nutrients. Treatments can be purchased from garden centres and are incorporated into a planting hole or plot. Worms really are a gardener’s best friends. They feed on organic matter and then disperse it through the soil. They’re great at speeding up the composting process. You should also encourage creepy crawlies to spend time in your plot: they can keep pests at bay and so keep balance within the great circle of life. Be careful if you resort to chemical sprays to control pests, because this will kill the good critters too. It’s usually better to adopt an organic method of gardening: pesticides and fertilisers interfere with the careful balance of nature in the soil.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

There are various ways to grow tasty, nutrient-packed potatoes, all of which are reasonably easy and straightforward. Choose the variety that works best for you and follow these instructions for the perfect crop of root vegetables. Potatoes can be grouped according to how long they take to mature. There are three types – early, second early and main crop. If you grow a selection of all three, you can harvest potatoes from June to October. Chitting to start a potato crop Never plant shop-bought potatoes – you risk introducing diseases to your plot. Buy seed potatoes, which you can either plant directly or chit beforehand. Chitting calls for placing seed potatoes in a cool, dry, light place for a couple of weeks before planting them in the ground. This important step allows them to start sprouting, which will help produce a better crop. To chit: Examine the potatoes carefully to find the side with the most eyes. Place the potatoes in single layers in trays so that the eyes are facing upwards. Store them in a cool, frost-free place out of direct sunlight. Each eye will protrude a shoot. As the shoots grow, keep the potatoes cool and check that the shoots look healthy and plump. Rub away any spindly, weak ones. When the shoots are 1.5-2.5cm long, they’re ready to plant. Planting your potato seedlings Plant earlies in late March, second earlies in mid-April, and mains in late-April. Mark out a trench with a taut line of string. Allow 60cm width for first and second earlies; allow 75cm for mains. Dig the trench into a V shape about 8-15cm deep. Add a generous layer of well-rotted organic matter to the bottom and incorporate it into the soil. Place the chitted tubers, shoots up, in the bottom of the trench at 40cm intervals. Cover them with 13-15cm of soil. Routine care to prevent disease and damage If you suspect frost, cover the new shoots with a layer of soil or shredded newspaper. Make sure that tubers are not exposed to light, as this will cause them to become inedible. Keep potatoes moist once they’ve become established, or the roots might split. Weed crops thoroughly, making sure that annual weeds are pulled out in the first weeks after planting your potatoes. Earth up your plans up at least a few times during the growing period. To do this, use a rake, hoe or spade to build up soil gently over the developing shoots. This protects them from frost and encourages higher yields. Using the no-dig method for growing potatoes This is a very simple way to grow potatoes. The advantages are that it eradicates slug problems and can help keep diseases like blight at bay. Clear an area of all weeds and cover it in a layer of compost which is 9-12 inches thick. Push your seed potatoes into the compost as far as you can with digging, with the same spacing stated earlier on. Cover the area with black landscape fabric and pin it down. As the shoots start to push up into the fabric, cut a slit for them to grow through. When and how to harvest a potato crop Harvest first earlies when the flowers have opened. Earlies should be lifted as close to eating as possible, because they’re still growing and full of carbohydrates which deteriorate quickly. Second earlies can be left as late as September, while mains should be lifted once the foliage has died back. Lift potatoes carefully using a fork. Be careful when using the fork: if you stab any spuds they will rot quickly.