Guinea-pig litter, lost allotments, container growing

[sue_s lost plotParticipant]

You’re most welcome Charles; glad it is of relevance to you at the moment. I am trying to persuade the tenant gardeners that there is another approach worth trying. Of course it is only year 1, but I’m very optimistic so far! Obviously we are not going to feed the five-thousand with these pots! But I can’t understand why the butterflies are avoiding the area? Perhaps they can smell plastic! Or maybe it is a bad year for pollination in general; I’ve notice the set rate is not too impressive on my tomatoes. Of course we gardeners may be losing our allotments, but with the loss of hundreds of fruit trees and soft fruit bushes, hedgerow herbage etc the bees are losing out too, and at a time when they are struggling… . SUE

[charlesModerator]

I have not seen many butterflies, yet. Perhaps the cooler spring has delayed them. I hope its not because of pesticides. Some scientists are expressing worries about the massive doses of neonicotinoids being used and their potential, lethal long-term effects on insect life.

[Big DParticipant]

Hi Sue

It was so sickening to read about the loss of your allotments after all that hard work and in such a lovely place. It makes me so angry the way people are so dismissive of allotments in this way.

Our allotments are just over 200 years old and a private charity all this time but it hasn’t stopped three of our boundaries of old hedgerows, trees and all their wldlife from coming under threat from our next door neighbour! When a housing planning application was put in on the neighbour’s site for 10 houses (too many for the size), the local authority would not put the boundaries as part of a planning condition and in fact said they would discuss and agree with the developer only (and not include the allotments in the discussion) once permission had been given! They wanted to carry out work on four trees actually on our site too. We even had to fight the ownership of our access path but luckily it was registered with the Land Registry so we had proof. We fought this application off but another will be coming along again.

It is so disappointing that we always have to keep fighting for our allotments and other people do not appreciate the many contributions they make.

Sounds like you are making good headway with the pots though and I wish you well with them and the wildlife in your garden. Well done Sue.

[3allotmentsParticipant]

Have you all come across the water pots occasionally stocked by Lidl? They are cheap (about £4 – £6), plastic, round or square or trough shaped, and I have been collecting them for some years for back garden growing and use on my plots. The top two thirds or so is a space for compost and plants, and the bottom, underneath a removable floor with a wicking system, is a water reservoir. The great advantage, obviously, is that you do not have to water every day, and in cool weather it takes a week or more for them to dry out. They are a cheapo version of “earth boxes” which are very expensive (you can make your own, but I prefer the Lidl ones to my own untidy efforts). They are not things of beauty, but one could enclose a group of them inside some pleasant low fencing, I suppose. You have to buy the compost as garden soil apparently does not work, but it is re-usable if fertilised.

http://www.organiccatalogue.com/p2670/EARTHBOX-Green/product_info.html

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