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Plough
Field Allotments at Amerton
Gardening
Tips
By Mrs FM
Hartley.
Unusual
& Old
Fashioned Fruit
Trees.
Unusual
Vegetables,
Herbs & Other
Edible Plants.
Environmental
Issues And Going Green.
Vines
And Other Climbing Plants.
Fish
Ponds
Books
By
Alan J Hartley
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Thinking Of Winter.
As we get nearer to Winter and
the days start getting colder, with the occasional night frost, making
an early start at the Allotments gets a little less appealing, and it
becomes time to think about repair and maintenance jobs instead of
growing things. One repair job that I did a little while ago was to help
a couple of Lady Plot Holders with a shed that had started collapsing -
concertina fashion, due to the effects of the wind on the ageing
structure. The shed had been up since the Allotments were first set up
over 10 years ago, so because of the constant battering of the
prevailing wind, the Joints had started to work loose. A simple solution
involved using some Planks that had been salvaged from a Plot that was
vacated a while ago. All I had to do was to trim the planks and use them
across the inside ends of the Shed in a diagonal, “Crisscross,” fashion
to brace it. They were nailed into place using rather large nails, but
they did the job, although I did Pre-Drill the Holes for the Nails with
a tiny Drill to prevent splitting. Then as one of the Ladies said, “The
ends will probably stay up now after the rest of the shed falls apart!”
Another recent little job that
I did was to help someone else make a new set of Compost Bins for
themselves out of a number of Pallets. Again the source of the Pallets
was the same Plot that had been vacated earlier in the Season so it was
a bit more Re-cycling. The Lady’s Husband was in charge of constructing
the new Bays while she cut back a rather overgrown Apple Tree next to
them that had a big Bramble rampaging through it. There had been a
similarly made set of Compost Bins in the place that we were clearing,
but they had had their day and were falling apart as some of the wood
was quite rotten. As the Rubbish was cleared I piled it into barrow
after barrow and wheeled it away. I did help with cutting the Bramble
down as well though, because I have some lovely, big, very tough,
gauntlet type gloves that claim to be Thorn proof and they even enable
you to handle barbed wire as if it were just a piece of rope. They
certainly live up to their claims and make the nasty job of removing
brambles quite easy. With the Brambles cleared it was then a safe and
simple job to prune the Tree and pick the Apples from it as it was time
to do both. For my help, I was rewarded with a small crate full of what
were lovely Apples.
With Winter not far away I always like to refresh some of my Wood chip
paths and a timely delivery allowed me to do that. There were a few
weeds to deal with before putting a fresh layer of Chips down and a
small sprinkle of Salt in the crown of the plant dealt with the odd
Dandelion quite effectively after allowing a few days for it to act.
Some of the Pegs holding the edging boards dividing the paths and beds
also had to be replaced to get things tidy again for the new Season that
will be upon us sooner than we think. One or two of my Beds also needed
topping up with Soil because the constant weeding, however carefully
done, removes a little soil each time. Indeed, I persuaded one Lady Plot
Holder to have a Tractor Bucket full, from the freshly emptied Communal
Compost Bins, dumped on her Plot as there was so much soil depletion.
The soil level had dropped 5, or 6 inches over the years with previous
Plot Holders as it had never been topped up in the 12 years that the
site had been operating.
One more timely Winter type Job that I am involved with is clearing the
ground in preparation for putting down foundations for the Composting
Toilet and Storage Shed that is a major project that, we, the
Allotment’s Committee, are undertaking. Before any real work could be
done though, the existing Plot Holder’s Raspberry Bushes had to be dug
up, cleaned and tidied up, before being heeled in elsewhere until he is
ready to re-plant them. It was a little early to disturb the
Raspberries, but they had just about finished fruiting, so I hoped that
by cutting them back it would reduce Transpiration and stress on the
plants enabling them to cope with the upheaval. Whilst doing the job I
did also manage to scrounge a number of roots to pot up for the Spring
Plant Sale, so that was a bonus. After sorting his Raspberries I decided
that I might as well cut mine down on my plot and tidy them up by
removing stray “Runners,” as well. We don’t have electricity on the
Site, so I roughly bagged my prunings and took them home to shred before
putting the resulting mixture onto my ever growing Compost Heap.
Apart from the Raspberries, I dug up and potted 4 Large Gooseberries
from the development site. They hadn’t dropped their leaves when I did
it so I should have left them for a while, but they needed moving, so I
cut them hard back and kept my fingers crossed. Again they will go in
the Spring Sale, if they survive.
At home I was late putting up the Bubble Polythene in my Green House
this year, but had done it by the end of October, although by this time
we would normally have had a few frosts. Indeed, we had exceptionally
mild nights and warm days in October, but it had started to get quite a
bit colder and wetter by the start of November. In fact we had our first
Frost of the Autumn, just a few days into November.
After insulating my Green house I decided it was about time to take in
some of my Tender Plants like the Cannas, Banana, Palm, Citrus and
Eucalyptus that had all been living quite happily for the Summer on my
Yard. The cold nights didn’t really touch my Yacon on the Allotment, but
after harvesting the first of them, I did divide a few Crowns and pot
them before putting them into my Green House to over winter. The same
went for my Chrysanth’s which I did very well with getting a lot of cut
flowers from them. I was in no hurry to dig up the Chrysanth’s though,
as they are quite tough and almost hardy standing up to quite a bit of
cold, but they do not like the winter wet. After the old “Stools,” were
dug up and the plants roughly potted, they went into my Greenhouse under
the Staging where they will stay until early Spring when I will
encourage them back into life and take some Cuttings from them to give
me some more “Free,” plants for the Spring Plant Sale.
The wet spell proved a problem with my Beans that I was trying to dry on
what was left of the vines on my Plot. After picking them and trying to
shell them, I found that many of the Seeds had started to shoot inside
the pods due to the wet and mild weather of October. However, I did
manage to rescue a fair number that went into Brown Paper Bags before
storing them in the bottom of my Fridge until they are wanted in late
Spring. The old and dead Vines were chopped up with a pair of Shears and
mixed into my Compost Heap before I carefully tied up the Bamboo canes
in a tight bundle to stop them bending during the Winter.
I also cut down the tops on my Jerusalem Artichokes and shredded those.
The stems are quite tough to cut with Secateurs as they are segmented
like Bamboo, but they do rot down well and help make good Compost.
There were a lot of Leaves came down from my various Fruit Trees with
different Trees dropping their Leaves on different weeks. I do like to
Compost as much as possible of the waste vegetation from my Plot, but
they always say that Leaves should be Composted separately as they take
much longer to rot. However, if you spread them on your Lawn at home and
run the Mower over them to chop them up they will Compost much more
quickly. After doing this I then simply mixed my Leaves in with the rest
of the waste. It will probably be 6 Months, or more before it will be
dug into the Beds in early Spring and even then most of it will be put
down as a complete layer in my Bean Bed before it is covered over with a
good layer of soil. It is always said that Beans like to have their Toes
in partly rotted Compost anyway. This means that it can happily go on
rotting until the Beans are fetched out in the following Autumn and the
Bed is dug over properly.
The TV Gardeners often tell People to use Compost as a Mulch to improve
the Soil and help retain water, but I use all the Compost I produce in
other ways, so I recently brought some shreddings from work. They were
more woody than the stuff that I produce, but not Woody enough to call
Wood Chippings. We had made a lot of Bags full of it at work from Hazel
Branches where the Trees had been Coppiced. I used the shreddings as a
Mulch on both my Garden and my Allotment Plot. Also at work somebody had
cleared some big tubs and generated lots of spent Potting Compost that
nobody wanted, so I brought a number of Bags of that Home as well. It
will be useful in potting some of the many Plants that I am growing for
the May Sale. You have to be a little bit careful using Spent Compost
though and it is best used as a filler to go in the bottom of large pots
that are then topped up with fresh Compost. I think some of the tougher
things like the Fig Trees will be OK in just the rough Compost, but I
will add a few Chicken manure Pellets to boost the Nutrient levels.
Apart from topping up Nutrient levels that will be depleted in Spent
Compost you must be careful not to reuse any compost that has had plants
die in it from any disease, or infestation of any sort. If in any doubt
do not re-use such Compost as it could well infect and spoil your new
Plants.
I pruned most of my Fruit trees a few weeks ago, but usually put in some
cuttings taken from around the base of my Fig trees about now. So, as I
hadn’t pruned my Figs earlier, I decided to do them. This was at the
start of November. It is totally the wrong time to do this and I am sure
I will get “Die Back,” but I needed to reduce their size as I couldn’t
get between the rows of trees. I also removed all of the larger
undeveloped Figs, because these will rot after hard frosts and may
delay, or even stop, the Fruit Buds from developing and producing new
Fruit next season. At the same time as doing the Fig Cuttings I put in
some other “Hardwood Cuttings,” of things like Cornus and Weigelas and I
am going to try some mature stems of a lovely Euphorbia that I have got
in my Garden as well.
Apart from Hardwood Cuttings, I have potted a number of Strawberry
Runners that were running rampant as they do, and I also dug up a very
large Rhubarb Crown that I divided as the leaves had gone down with the
onset of the colder weather coming and Winter not being far away.
I don’t know what sort of Winter we are going to have, but one “Old
Wives Tale,” says that an abundance of Fruit and Berries in the Autumn
is usually a sign of a harsh and cold Winter to come. With Global
Warming this may not be true, but we will soon see. Up until now it has
been a mild Autumn and as yet we haven’t had much in the way of frosts.
 
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