[NightgardenerParticipant]

Some allotment sites have rules trying to prevent allotments becoming too much like “gardens”. There was a bit of an argument about this on my site earlier this year; there are a couple of plots which are a joy to behold, but which are really not productive for growing edibles, or even cut flowers.

I would have a look at the site rules, or your tenancy agreement just to make sure you stay within the rules.

But having said that; allotments are great fun and great social place; so don’t be put off; but I just wanted to warn you.

[NightgardenerParticipant]

I always mulch my garlic, but not until it’s come up with an inch or so of green stem. My logic is that if I mulch first the little if any of the garlic is in soil as opposed to the mulch (and you don’t want your garlic sitting in wet mulch) but if I mulch straight after then the bulb gets buried.

[NightgardenerParticipant]

“A little history of British Gardening”, Jenny Uglow says of the medieval peasant:

To add to the grain for bread and the beans and peas … which came from their strip fields, villagers grew cabbage and kale, onions and garlic and leeks”.

There are references to turnips and parsnips being grown in the monasteries; but not to carrots.

I don’t think we should underestimate the technology available; they knew how to make fishing nets and grew hemp for clothing so it’s not impossible that the villagers netted their cabbages. Or perhaps (without the distractions of education or iPads) they sent the children out to pick off caterpillers and sit in the fields to scare off birds?

Perhaps the were growing things that were relatively pest free; no reference to carrots, perhaps carrot fly was a problem, and of course no concerns about blight as no potatoes or tomatoes until much later.

[NightgardenerParticipant]

This year I planted 10cm apart in rows 30cm apart. This meant the plants in the row were very close together but I was able to inter-sow both late carrots and beetroot between the rows.

The beetroot didn’t really develop, but I’d sown direct. The carrots which I’d done in small seed trays have been a great success. They’ve given me an extra crop of small (dipping I mayonnaise size) to medium size (steamed and eaten whole). They were resistafly and an early nantes. That means that I’ve not had to pull that many of my earlier planted ones so I’ve got more for winter storage.

[NightgardenerParticipant]

I really was asking about keeping the ground clear around them; I hadn’t really thought about growing stuff amongst them.

[NightgardenerParticipant]

I’ve got a similarly congested bed, but mine has rampant bindweed. Do you think a think mulch would help with that, or am I really faced with digging the whole lot up?

[NightgardenerParticipant]

I ended up sacrificing part of my comfrey bed. The commfrey itself is now mixed in with the manure. The whole thing; about four foot square heated up amazingly and is still warm; it has now become the preferred snoozing place for our pest control expert; aka Henry the Cat.

Interestingly though it hasn’t reduced in size as much as the manure in the daleks, but that was mixed with more green stuff as I was weeding as well as manure collecting. I’m hoping all of it will be ready for spreading in the spring.

[NightgardenerParticipant]

That is really helpful. A standard half allotment where I live is 10x10m (or five rods in very old money) so about a ton of manure would just about cover one when the paths are taken into account.

[NightgardenerParticipant]

Hi Charles,

A friend and I attended your recent talk at a very cold Wisley (I was the lady who asked about brassicas after potatoes).

We’ve both struggled with this kind of calculation. Is there a rough guide, say a tonne of manure might cover around xxx square metres?

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