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A quiet winter allotment
Mr McGregor is a guest writer for Notcutts. He has been working in the gardening industry for over 27 years and loves to share his passion for all things horticultural, whether its top gardening tips or guides to growing your very own kitchen garden.
When autumn turns to winter our attention shifts to lifting and storing harvested crops so we can cook them throughout the winter months. However, produce can still be grown during the dark months. Brassicas, sprouts, hardy lettuce, spring onions, chinese cabbage, carrots and beetroot if sown now will be in abundance when the going gets lean. As yields are still being grown in our allotments (a quiet winter allotment; right) they will still be in need of some TLC, which will include protection from those pesky birds as well as the frosts. This can be an extremely challenging time as winds can quickly pick up and blow netting or cloches away, rendering your precious crops defenceless against hungry creatures.
Jobs to do in November
- Lift and store crops
- Regularly check stored crops
- Dig over and incorporate manure
- Cover over empty beds
- Plant a green manure crop
- Compost plants and falling leaves
- Plant out onion sets and garlic
If you like the idea of taking on an allotment, I would suggest renting or buying one in December. This is the perfect time of year to obtain such a glorious piece of land because not much is growing, allowing you to take all the time you need to prepare the soil.
You’ve taken on an allotment, what’s next?
Preparation.
There are three main types of weed you need to contend with, couch grass, dock weed and bind weed. Couch grass are wiry roots you find in the soil and can be remove by simply digging up the ground and bagging it up. Once bagged and tied up leave it to anaerobically rot down and later incorporate it back into the ground so the soil never loses out on all the nutrients (it’s an organic fertiliser).
Another weed you may come across is bind weed, which is a string like root. A time efficient way of removing these tough weeds is using a fork rather than a spade as this ensures you won’t break any of the roots.
If you come across dock weeds (or compfrey as shown; left) you need to dig up the main tap root. As these roots are so thick and long they can take a lot of nutrients out of the soil, which is vital when wanting to grow healthy yields. Once you have removed the tap root, rot it down by placing it into some water. This can later be used as a liquid fertiliser.
After removing all the weeds, you want to take a good look at your soil. If the soil is compacted you can take that to be a good indication that there isn’t enough air in the soil, which can prevent water from accessing plant roots. Another good indicator for healthy soil is if you find life forms such as worms in the soil. If you find a handful of worms in a single clump of soil then you know the soil is in a healthy condition.
Once you have dug up an area and removed the weeds I have found this trick (below) to be extremely useful, especially when it comes to suppressing weed growth.
Tip: Lay down cardboard on every area to act as a weed suppressant. It’s important to do this because when you dig up the soil you bring up weed seeds to the surface, which will then germinate. Once you have laid down the cardboard put a layer of compost on top of it. Worms will not only break down the cardboard, they will also eat to the surface of the compost, doing all the digging for you.
Mr McGregor
2 Responses to A quiet winter allotment
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