Hi everyone, wow what a difficult growing year for me to get a new allotment!!!! So very wet here in Kent that even hiring a beast of a rotavator wasn't much use on the heavy saturated clay in Late April so I cheated a bit....I transferred my 13 plastic raised beds from my North facing back garden (they haven't produced much at all in the last 4 years in the garden) & I half filled them with allotment clay & topped up with peat free compost bought from a local garden centre. An expensive thing to do when growing directly in the soil would have cost virtually nothing but I am so glad I did this because I have had fantastic harvests from the raised beds. Plus my back garden has had new turf & is now a lovely play area for my 2 year old grandson.
I did plant some things directly in the ground...Autumn Raspberries, only 5 out of 20 came to anything but I have been refunded by the garden centre & will replant the missing 15 later this year. Potatoes...Charlottes doing really well, infact they are huge! I put these in using a bulb planter as the ground was way too wet to dig. So they were only about 6 inches below the ground level & I earthed up with compost & grass cuttings. So far only 3 actual spuds have had any sign of green on them so I think I will continue to use this method as it was so much easier. Courgettes are only now coming to life & I have had 4 from 2 plants so not a success...yet. My Butternut squashes are so small, the light levels have been so bad here that they have only grown in months the amount that would normally take a week! Now we have a heat wave so they may catch up a bit if I can water them enough.
The rest of my crops I have grown in the beds. I have had fantastic Turnips, Mangetout, Sugarsnaps, Beetroot, Chard, lettuces of many varieties, cucumbers ( in a bed with plastic over them until this week so like a mini greenhouse), Dwarf Purple Beans. As the beds have emptied I have put in Leeks & Kale & Purple Sprouting. My Pea crop is nearly ready & looks really good.
I was annoyed at the silly rules at my site where I had to get written permission for raspberries in the ground & strawberries & gooseberries & Blueberries had to be grown in pots but I am actually grateful now as my strawberries have been great with no slug or bird damage at all & no rotting in the wet weather. The Gooseberries don't like being as high up off the ground as they are but I got a decent crop for the first year...think I will sneak them into the ground once my raspberries are big enough to hide them. The Blueberries have been great.
My plot is riddled with Marestail....the site rep didn't mention this when I viewed it before any signs of it were showing which I feel is a bit naughty of him as there are plots available on the opposite side of the site that don't have it. I have had to membrane the raspberry bed as dealing with the Marestail was becoming a full time job. And all my paths between the beds have been membraned for the same reason. In the raised beds the Marestail is so much easier to remove with loads of root so at least I get a breather before it grows back, the compost allows me to really dig about to find it before it even reaches the surface. It does seem to be weakening in the raised beds...it doesn't seem to like the compost as much as it loves the heavy clay.....so another bonus from using the beds.
I have been so impressed with the ease of using beds at the allotment that I am going to build a lot more & use this as my main way of growing with very little planted directly into the actual clay. I have bad arthritis & the beds just being that foot taller than the soil surface does make life a lot easier for me. Initially I will have to buy the compost to half fill them but in time I can replenish this with my own compost & I intend to grow green manure plants in empty beds this Winter.
So all in all a very successful few months in a very difficult growing year....thank you everyone for all your help, advice etc. I love how supportive this Forum is & how quickly questions are answered. Thank you all you are a fabulous bunch of people. xJane
