The Plot Thickens

Moles and Onions

I’m pleased to say that the moles are doing well on my allotment. Where do these chaps go to when they’re not on my plot? For all their digging they do very little damage and I certainly don’t begrudge them any slugs they find.

I’ve pulled up the summer onions to let them dry off a bit. They got mildew badly this year and it killed off the leaves so they haven’t made any great size but they look sound enough so I’m not much bothered.

This warm wet spell has encouraged the weeds as you can see. Fortunately it’s also softened up the ground very nicely so they’re pulling out a treat at the moment. I don’t hoe, I just pull them out by hand. I’m sure it would be more efficient if I learnt to hoe but I rather enjoy weeding by hand.

The compost bins are doing excellent work on all the weeds - actually I don’t think they end up making much compost at all because having filled up the bin it all just collapses down to where it started. I only built the bins this year and everything’s gone into one bin which I’ve turned once. I’m leaving that to rot down now and I’m starting on another bin. I cut the comfrey that I planted by the bins and added it to the compost, and of course the bin gets a regular application of Human Compost Activator.

Warm damp evenings are a pain - literally - I got eaten alive tonight by goodness knows what.

Patrick over at Bifurcated Carrots has been organising a food growing blog meet for the end of September. I’m pretty sure it’s fully booked now but I thought I’d bang the gong anyway. I’m going and I’m looking forward to meeting my fellow FoGroBloMees. Hope to see you there - FoGroBloMe, 20 September, 9:30am - 5:30pm, Oxford Botanic Garden, High Street, Oxford.

Edit: Latest post here.

Cork Mulch

I had a tour around Southby’s allotments this afternoon, one of the other sites in Newbury. More than any of the other Newbury sites, Southby’s saw some lean times in the eighties and was down to barely a handful of tenants before interest again started to build in the nineties, and now it’s pretty much full. And a very nice site it is too. At a guess I’d say it was a ten acre site with a hundred or so plots with many fine character sheds.

The picture is a grape vine growing in a bed mulched with corks. It’s attractive and practical, demonstrates excellent re-use, and if you were to look carefully you’d see that they all come from Italian wine as the whole plot is a celebration of Italy and Italian gardens. It’s a terrific plot which obviously gives the tenant a lot of pleasure, with arches, arbor, trellis, great hand-built shed with a porch, pond, decking and raised beds that Joe would die for.

I mention it is because I remember it being picked up in last year’s site inspections

Stewards have an issue with some tenants not using their plots in the traditional way, but this does not contravene any allotment rules.

When I first read the minutes of the site inspection I could just imagine the stewards frothing about non-traditional methods and I’d asked the maintenance guy what it was about and he told me about this plot with a cork mulch.

Cut-Down Greenhouse

Anywho, it gets worse. The worst excesses of rule-obsession are reserved for sheds and greenhouses. I’ve mentioned before that the council introduced a rule to limit the size of sheds and greenhouses to 8′x6′ and 8′ high. The rules hasn’t currently been applied retrospectively, but the dimensions of new installations are strictly enforced. The picture is a greenhouse that a guy put up on his plot, and he was required to hacksaw off the offending quarter. I mean, look at the picture; was that last quarter really doing anyone any harm? Another greenhouse that got relocated about 20′ from one plot to another is similarly required to be reduced, because the council judge that it is now a new installation. I kid you not.

Panel Shed

Anyway, my favourite shed on the site is this one because it must offend the sensibilities of the rule-hounds in oh so many ways. I have no idea what manner of contraption is stabled in this panelfest, but I totally love it. Most sheds are practical, or beautiful, or old, or cheap, and this is none of those. It costs a small fortune in fence panels, will blow down in a gentle breeze, has the maturity of a teenager, and that door-esque appurtenance looks more like a decoy than an entrance. You’d think it might house some kind of anti-pigeon missile, but when I first saw it there was a pigeon sitting on the top, so that’s not likely.

But seriously, what makes people so mean that they’d have you take a hacksaw to a greenhouse? I don’t think we’ll ever understand that one. What’s more intriguing is why would anyone put up with this kind of nonsense? Individually there probably isn’t much you can do because breaking a rule will eventually get you evicted, but collectively tenants should be able to defend themselves against it. Thing is mostly people don’t seem to mind so much.

Image courtesy Newbury Weekly News

My second place in the National Shed of the Year competition has been picked up by my local paper, the Newbury Weekly News.

The weather was pretty miserable yesterday but it broke early evening and the NWN photographer got the smashing picture I’ve used here - hope that’s OK. The words of the article are Liam Sloan’s, the online reporter, and I absolutely love castles of the soil - brilliant.

Do follow the link, and there’s an interview with me about the competition, the build and plans for next year…