What changes can we make to our lives to deal with the economic and energy crises ahead? Have you already started making preparations? Got tips to share?
JonB wrote:I found the Half Hour Allotment a godsend
Thanks Jon, I've just had a look at this on Google Books & it looks really good - have ordered it on DODGY TAX AVOIDERS now!
I confess I have found the allotment experience very frustrating. We were given a tip of an allotment that hadn't been used for years and it took ages to get rid of the rubbish that had been piled there.
While I've been doing my degree there have been times when I've not been able to go to the allotment for a while, and then it's very difficult to get back on top of things. The perennial weeds are relentless and slugs destroy so much that I've become really disillusioned with the whole thing.
Have been looking for a way of dealing with this - hopefully this book will give me a way forward.
Hope you find it helpful. I think the main thing I got out of it was
lots of practical planning for limited time- most other books assume you have 20 hours a week to do it.
I am better than last year, and will be better next.
I've had bad spells too - don't let the perfect plots
get to you. The guy on the nextdoor plot is a retired Market
Gardener, whose plot is perfect and very productive.
He's great and been very helpful lending rotovators etc,
but the main thing is saying "do what you can" a lot.
Eternal Sunshine wrote:The perennial weeds are relentless and slugs destroy so much that I've become really disillusioned with the whole thing.
Have been looking for a way of dealing with this - hopefully this book will give me a way forward.
Get some slug nematodes from http://www.wigglywigglers.co.uk/shop/pr ... gtFE367667 Jackie, put it on and cover the bits that you aren't cultivating with old carpet/black polythene/newspaper/cardboard. Leave for a season and then cultivate next year.
Let the polythene, nematodes and worms do most of the work for you. All you have to do is look after the bits you are using and kill off any weeds around the edges.
Having used cultivators extensively, I would say don't use one if you can get away with it. They massacre any worms you might have and it takes ages to get them back. Worms are cheaper to run and better for the environment than a cultivator.
I've heard of nematodes but not tried them yet, will have a go. Half of the allotment was covered last year, but as we've gradually taken the covers off the weeds have come back.
The problem has been not being able (or not making the time!) to go to the allotment on a regular enough basis. It takes some keeping on top of! It would be much easier to do a little bit every day if it was nearer my house, or even better outside in the garden.
We are thankful that our garden is only 10m from our back door. The though of having to travel to one would be very offputting. If we have 5 mins spare or I just fancy a break from work, I can pop out into the garden and pull a weed or two or pick some sideshoots off the tomatoes.
The recent rain has been good; we have had good germination of our carrots, which we broadcast onto one of our beds. Unfortunately, we have also had very good germination of weeds as well. So thousands of weeds will have to be individually picked from between the carrots. Perhaps I might plant them in rows next year; we'll see!
Our carrots have been a complete and utter no-show. I've never planted them before, I can only jalouse that the seeds (they were a couple of years old) go off very quickly.
RenewableCandy wrote:Our carrots have been a complete and utter no-show. I've never planted them before, I can only jalouse that the seeds (they were a couple of years old) go off very quickly.
We've used some old seed this year and it took the recent heavy rain to get them to germinate. They took ages. I think the seed bed has to be kept very moist for germination.
RenewableCandy wrote:Our carrots have been a complete and utter no-show. I've never planted them before, I can only jalouse that the seeds (they were a couple of years old) go off very quickly.
I recall that the carrot seeds I received from realseeds came with a warning to use them all within a year because they do in fact go off more quickly than other seeds.
"If we don't change our direction, we are likely to wind up where we are headed" (Chinese Proverb)
