Allotment Stuff > The Basics

Anyone see How to Be A Gardener -24th Oct?

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rdak:
Whilst I normally find Alan T. a bit smug, last night's programme was all about growing veg, so I thought I'd watch.
He showed how to sow lettuce,runner and broad beans, onion sets, potatoes. Probably nothing too much on the show to enlighten the seasoned gardeners here, but interesting for the beginner like me.
Most useful for me was the advice that you shouldn't sow seed directly into the ground if the ground is still wet and cloddy in March- so sow them in the greenhouse instead and plant them out. He used toilet rolls for planting broad beans and wetted thoroughly when planting out to help it rot down.

His tip for squashes when planting out, was for each young plant, to dump a load of fresh manure, make a bowl shaped depression in it, plant in the depression and then when watering, the water won't run off but will collect around the plant.

For me, it raised a question about watering. Despite having plenty of organic matter in the soil, Mr T's advice was to water,water,water (half an hour a day with the sprinkler in dry weather!!) This goes against the advice of people here and others I have talked to on my allotment that (unless the summer is like the one we've just had) watering is something only to be done max once per week; and then make it a really good drenching; as this makes the plants grow deep, strong roots.

Ceri:
Gorgeous veggie beds he had - I wish!  And really how many of us would buy in top soil??  I too found the advice about water water water a little concerning, when so many other programmes focus on less watering - esp in the south, esp this year!  I don't think many lottie assoc.s allow sprinkers, many don't allow hosepipes.  Although I have read on here about those who never water and manage, I intend to get lots of compost and w-rotted manure into the soil this autumn/winter to hold the winter rains etc., and just water those veggies that really need it when they need it - yes my crop per plant may be smaller - but we've probably got more land on our lotties to grow more plants, so swings and roundabouts I guess.

legless:
what a programme, those veg beds were so beautiful and got me all excited about growing stuff!!

i definitely wont be watering that much, will have to hope my plants are tougher than that!! its my first year so its all experimental so i'll see what goes and what doesn't!

ina:
Just by lucky chance I saw it too, great! It was nice to see many things I do confirmed by the specialist but I do agree with the raised eyebrows here about the watering every day. When we heard Alan say that we looked at each other and said "huh?". If I would have been just thinking about getting an allotment I may have decided against it because watering every day is out of the question, on the other hand I probably would have talked to seasoned allotmenteers first and find out it can be done differently. This year my courgettes will go on a patch of manure, thanks Alan. -Ina

Mrs Ava:
Yup- watched it too just because of the veggie aspect.  Buying in top soil!  Pah, could you imagine doing that on the allotment!  And watering that often, would probably be the death of me as we have to collect our water from a small stream running down the side of the site.  Plenty of organic matter and mulches I think will be the rule for us.  I have tried growing broad beans in loo paper tubes before and didn't get on with them.  Firstly, they often fell to bits and were hard to handle, secondly, I found they didn't all rot down - guess it depends on the quality of your loo paper(!) and finally, I found if you left a piece of the tube above the ground, that dried out and seemed to draw the moisture away from the roots at the top of plant and the plant struggled!  But, what do I know compared to Mr T!  Mind you, watching everything growing, didn't it look great!  Roll on spring!  And I agree with you Ina, good to see some of the things I do, Mr T doing too.   ;D

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