Family Gardening

A letter was distributed last week by my daughters school. It including a mention of wanting more volunteers for their gardening project. Naturally, I was very keen to find out more and immediately contacted the school to offer help.

I visited the school, and, it seems that they have some quite ambitious, but very do-able ideas on creating an allotment style plot. They have already built one raised bed which has been crammed with rocket, beans, carrots and spring onions. They have the space to build a further 8 or 9 raised beds, and lots of space around the school grounds which is currently laid to lawn and unused by the children.

An after school club is being set up which I’d like to help with, and I have provided them with some seeds that need using up this year before they reach their best-before date. I have so many ideas for it, but several are probably too ambitious for the school. Cost also has to be taken into consideration. It was also mentioned several times that the Head Teacher is keen for it to be “tidy”.

One of the projects they are going to start on is planting things in pots. I’ve suggested that they could try growing vegetables in pots. This would be a good exercise for the children since a proportion of the children who attend the school live in the garden-less tower blocks opposite the school grounds. It could show them that you could grow your own vegetables even if you only have a few pots on a balcony.

I also think a project to make a compost heap would be good, encouraging recycling, concern for the environment, and saving money.

Ditto with water butts, and conserving water.

A polytunnel for experimenting with year-round crops.

A mini fruit orchard.

Or, getting the children to design a “Potager” style garden, which would appease the Head Teachers requirement for a “tidy” garden.

I’m very excited about it actually, and I’m quite happy to give up an afternoon a week to help out, and teach others the joys of gardening, and in particular, growing your own food!

Any further suggestions for cost-effective projects would be gratefully received…….

and today we went back to see him!

 After various discussions and confusion about which plots were free (we were originally told we could have a particular plot because the lady couldnt manage it any more, only to find 3 weeks ago that someone had been working it.

 After a call to the council (not particularly helpful since the lady wanted to tell me about how incredibly busy she was and that she hasnt managed to process any applications since November), and a revisit last weekend to the allotment site, we established that there were two plots left.

 Now, these two plots….the first one we were shown that the site manager said was “the best” one was thoroughly overgrown. Mostly with brambles. It’s a corner, curved plot. I don’t yet know how many poles, but I’d guess that it’s about 7 poles. (A pole is a square yard, or, 2.4 square metres). The bonus with this plot is that it has lots of fruit already established there. You could say too established! There are raspberry canes around most of the perimeter, and, there are several good sized currant bushes (blackcurrant I think). I also think there are gooseberry bushes, but, I’m not entirely sure. But, these are all things that will provide a crop this year, albeit unquantifiable. The remainder will need razing to the ground, all rubbish removed and completely cultivating.

 The other plot offered is a basic rectangular plot. It’s size, again, is an estimate of about 8 poles, possibly less. This plot is far less overgrown. It has some grass, some crops from last year or the year before that have overgrown, and, some nettles. No brambles though! But no compost bin, no existing plants or bushes of use. It would need some basic clearing/raking, and then cultivating.

 So, my husband and I, after much thought, decided on the corner plot. We already have a brush cutter, and will hire a cultivator to go over the remainder of the plot left after removing all the brambles. The plus of this plot being the fruit already in situ.

So, we went to the site manager this morning, and looked again at both plots. After thinking about it, I suggested to my husband that we take both plots. Amazingly, he agreed to this. This way, we’ll have a plot devoted to fruit, and non-rotational crops such as asparagus, strawberries and rhubarb. We’ll have the other for the vegetables and salad crops. Because of the condition of the rectangular plot, we can start planting things almost straight away, and we’ll have time to fully prepare the fruit plot.

 So, we paid our deposit, and the site manager seemed quite pleased that he no longer had any plots vacant. We had brought our garden tools with us to get started straight away. A rake, a hand cultivator, secateurs and our brush cutter.

 We took a plot each and my husband took the brush cutter to the fruit plot, and I took the hand cultivator to the rectangular plot. Our two children ‘helped’ by clearing rubbish, and trampling over the inside of our car! After an hour and a half of raking, the rectangular plot is now ready for a small bonfire and then cultivating with a petrol digger that we will hire on Friday.

 The fruit plot took much more work. My husband did really well. Most of the brambles were cut down, and I cleared a fair amount of rubbish. I think we have about 6 gooseberry bushes, several metres of raspberry canes, and 6 currant bushes. It will need raking over and removing of the dead stuff and debris. We are going back tomorrow to do this. We found a few scaffold poles whilst clearing which will be great for either making cages around the largest current bushes, or, creating a framework for beans.

So, tomorrow we go back, and, if time and weather permits, I may even dig over a small section of the rectangular plot and put my seed potatoes in.

I can’t wait to get started with the growing!!!

I will update further tomorrow.

Now that I have some more time on my hands, I felt the need to expand my vegetable growing empire. Unfortunately, with my vegetable growing ambitions, my small garden just isn’t enough any more.

 All local authorities have some land put aside for allotment use, and allotment renting is more popular than ever. I therefore consider myself lucky to be able to visit my closest allotment site, and be able to have several plots to choose from. I’ve asked for a plot that is the least untended. I really hate digging over a plot and will avoid it as much as possible. This is why I favour the “No-Dig” method of gardening, (I’ll go into that more at a later date). However, this just has a couple of seasons’ worth of weeds, and no extensive brambles, nettles and buddleia rampaging across the plot. It also has it’s own mini-greenhouse. I’m not sure of it’s size yet, although I think it is 10 poles.

The allotment supervisor is an interesting chap. He must be in his late 70’s now. He spoke mostly to my husband during the visit, including asking questions about “your wife”!!! However, he seems a lovely man, if somewhat old-fashioned and I think he’ll be really helpful.

 So, the sooner our application goes off to the council the better. I’m keen to get started, and not to let the weeds start multiplying as the weather gets warmer. There are quite a few things that need to go in the ground soon and I dont want to delay!

The estimated cost for our plot is about £70 per annum, plus £14 for rental of the shed. This is relatively high compared to some local authorities, where you can rent a plot for £10-£20 per year. The perils of living in London I suppose.