Allotment Allsorts

Of course we don't have to confine ourselves just to my garden, so let's take a quick walk up the hill for a change of scene and explore the delights of my allotment. Along the way we meet the latest example of land grabbing in Chippenham. Until a couple of weeks ago, this site was just one house surrounded by a magnificent walled garden.The walled garden of my dreams which always bought a smile to my face as I passed it on the way to my allotment. Now there's rubble and the promise of 14 'retirement cottages'.

Today the scene at the gate is less gloomy than the one I found back in late December last year, though January's advertisement found just inside the gate is still there albeit a little dog eared. It's looking very different now...

Site view from Plot 14 - August 2008

To your right is the large oak tree standing over the loo, communal shed and my nearest water standpipe. In the middle is my plot (just to the left of the next door's brown shed), the top right hand bed you can see is packed full of Autumn Bliss raspberries. The top of the left hand bed has my manure heap plus a blue compost barrel with a volunteer potato growing out of it. The Veg Plotting archive section at the end of this blog shows this year's plan for rest of my plot. On the left are the trees forming the site's boundary with the main road. Most of the tall trees are Horse Chestnuts showing very obvious signs of leaf miner damage. Below these is an ancient ditch from the days when the site formed part of the Hardenhuish Estate with the more traditional hedgerow specimens along it, mainly hazel. Just to the right of these trees are views to the Wiltshire downs - as far as Westbury White Horse 30 miles away on a clear day. On summer Sunday afternoons the sounds of brass bands playing in the nearby John Coles Park can be heard when the wind's in the right direction.

Now, let's have a closer plot level view shall we? Starting with the left hand plot nearest the entrance gate.

Until this year, we've had no allotment people...

...but toddler Jack thought long and hard about it and insisted the whole street help him to put that straight :D

Meanwhile back on my plot...
Oops - the 'pile of useful things for later' appears to be reasserting itself. Hope the inspection team haven't noticed. Could I pretend we're playing a spot of 'allotment Jenga' if they do?

Which reminds me, here's a quick guide to 5 things an allotment plot shouldn't be without (all should be available at a skip near you):

1. Pallets - for building award winning sheds, or compost bins, decking, raised beds, cold frames, shed stands or whatever
2. Bricks - cold frame sides, weighing down stuff
3. Tyres - water butt stands, water butt (stack with a heavy duty pond liner inside), weighing down stuff, potato tubs (stack with compost inside), small impromptu coldframes
4. Carpet (sadly banned on our lottie now as it's deemed a rat hazard) as a weed suppressing mulch, a cover for your pile of poo (assuming the animals haven't been grazing on Aminopyralid treated grass first)
5. Your choice - do add them to the Comments section below!

Here's what makes everything worthwhile - a selection of current crops and dreams of harvests to come:

Clockwise from top left: 1. Raspberry 'Autumn Bliss' 2. Courgette 'Defender' 3. Blueberry 'Top Hat' 4. Lettuce 'Little Gem' 5. Apple 'Falstaff' 6. Sweetcorn 'Swift' 7. Borlotti Bean 'Lingua di Fuoco' 8. Onion 'Red Baron' 9. Pear 'Concorde'

I'm sure your produce will put mine to shame - what are you harvesting at the moment?

Plus, there's some glut busting ideas to follow...