This topic contains 12 replies, has 8 voices, and was last updated by Rhys 9 years, 1 month ago.
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Interesting reflections Stewart. Only yesterday I was wandering round the outside of our plots and noting how stony the dug soil looks compared to my undug. Clearly raising stones to the surface which some diligent souls then pile in to neat paths etc.
For me the saddest thing is hearing the old boys who give up their plots after may years because they are too old to do the digging that they believe is required.Hello Stewart and your comments are most interesting. Its a puzzle why people make so much work for themselves, and may your plot be bountiful.
I look at local allotments and you see a large number either totally neglected or simply left to go to grass. There is a 1 hectare length about a mile from home where I counted 14 full sites and 6 half sites pretty much in that situation. In between you see a few reasonably tended and quite a few magnificently tended. Clearly those on the waiting lists must feel short-changed seeing that sort of thing……
Having tested out Charles’ no-dig methods over an 18 month period, it’s pretty clear that you can reduce ‘weeding’ to the odd hoeing session once a week/fortnight once a site is brought to a state of cleanliness. To me it does seem an ideal solution for those only able to garden at weekends or the odd evening in the week.
The problema with allotments is that they are not necessarily close to the sources of mulchy materials sufficient to go to a no dig method – these old guys may not have the transport to collect or may simply have never been told about other methods. We gave up our allotment in the 80s because we had no car and there was no way we could collect sufficient material and transport on bikes, with 2 under 5s in tow, in the few hours we had to devote to our plot. We ended up working only a few square meters and never got the rest of the plot under control. Now I live next to old oak and chestnut Woodland and can barrow tonnes of well rotted leaf mulch direct to my new raised beds. Bliss!
I was in England couple of times, and i missed forsests. They were the fertility of the land, coming down from hills, than sheeps and goats ate everything (“well human cut it down for pasture”).
I hope some day, you will have so much forest as you once did! Forests are great neighboiurs on top of the hills. 🙂 Ancient people always said – “these are for the gods”.we have taken over a piece of land described by the planners as overgrown scrub, it is in fact a garden that has not been worked for over 20 years. We are digging a couple of areas to get rid of bindweed so we can plant quickly. Other areas are being covered with plastic or landscape fabric as we prefer the no dig idea. We have been delighted to see raspberries and currant bushes emerging from the weeds, along with daffodils and grape hyacinths who know what else may emerge!
Overgrown scrub is promising, good luck with that!
Yes Stewart to open days every year, two in fact, this year June 7th and September 6th, Sunday afternoons both, 2-5pm.On our allotment there are 11 plots and I am the only 1 who practice’s the no dig method and in the last few weeks all the other plot holder s (5) have been rotavating they have so many weeds on their plots where as I have basicallynone. My plot is very low maintenance just needing a top up of Manure/compost /leaf mould once a year I love this way of veg growing and I’m thankful for finding charles’ way of doing it. My time is spent on sowing into modules and tray then posting on then planting outin to my raised beds what could be easier. I know my neighbour wished hed done his plot like mine . its hard to get the project going from scratch but its well worth the effort.
So far as I know, zuf, Scotland is replanting its old Caledonian Forest – the plan was to plant 2 million traditional trees to regenerate it. How they’re getting on, I’ve not been following, but the will was certainly there…….
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