OS gardening/allotmenteering - traditions, money saving and savvy ideas

moneyistooshorttomention

Maybe a green manure on otherwise empty earth? Physalia (?spelling) was what was used on a communal allotment I had some involvement with a while back.

-taff

clover, field beans, let grow, dig in before flowering. I've used both before.
or mulch with several sheets of newspaper that's been soaked, or cardboard. Or again, cover with membrane and plant through it. That could end up very holey though.....

buildersdaughter

Good heavens! I always assumed that allotment holders were nice people! Actually, I know several, and they are.
I think 'ignoring' is a good plan.
I was always taught to give back as good as I got - and I do! But I also know the feeling of being too tired to want to bother with ignoramuses. But please don't let the buzzards grind you down!

kippers

thriftwizard wrote: »

Oh Fuddle,

I'm a fan of packing things in in time-layers - ; if I'm leaving a bed empty I'll mulch it heavily & let the worms do the digging overwinter. We don't get any mulch/leafmould/manure delivered and aren't supposed to import anything that might contain weed seeds or attract rats, which is leaving me wondering just exactly what we are supposed to use! Anyone got any (inexpensive!) ideas?

I havent got long so this will have to be a quick reply.....your allotment site is strict. I have 'no dig' beds and i use what ever i can get hold of....organic manure, green waste compost, and i grow green manure which i kill off with weed suppressant then put into my compost bin. I collect leaves to make leaf mould too. If im really short i buy compost in , usually aldi peatfree compost which is cheap compared to garden centres. Hope that helps for now.

fuddle

I've field beans in one of my beans thrifty. It's my first year using them so I can't comment really but I'm hoping to see non compacted and loose ground. My other bed has rabbit litter as mulch which won't be any use to you but as you're a mulch fan anyway could you straw mulch and incorporate chicken manure pellets. I had great success with Wilkos 7kg for £5 iirc this summer. A scattering amongst the straw might be beneficial maybe.

Siebrie

I have just moved my redcurrant bush to a better location, and have pruned it. The prunings are stuck in the soil around the bush, to grow into little bushes themselves. The idea is that in a few years' time they will be moved again to their final position: a hedge (like a box hedge, about 60cm/2ft high), and I will get rid of the proper bush. This will save space, still give a decent harvest, and just be a fun thing to have in the garden.

thriftwizard

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm not sure I'd get away with clover as a green manure; the managers are quite down on anything that isn't "produce" or cut flowers, though I do have special permission to grow fibre & dye plants that aren't weed-like (e.g. nettles!) & clover looks like - well, clover! Field beans might just be acceptable provided the main manager recognises them, but he's still calling chamomile "them bl00dy daisies" so it might take a bit of fast talking. Leaf mould & horse manure have also been nixed as potentially harbouring weed seeds.

Fuddle used to live down here & knows why the rules are so strict; it took a lot of hard negotiating to get permission for the site as the town is being very heavily developed just now and every spare inch of land is being built on, nearly all with "executive" housing and upmarket shopping facilities & eateries. The surrounding land is all Green Belt, much of it in National Trust hands, & the powers that be are actively resisting anything that smacks of getting one's hands dirty or the mucky realities of life. So there was a huge fight to get the site approved at all, and it came with very strict conditions so as not to damage the image that the town wants to present to the world, of a picture-perfect little medieval market town - though they're not actually very keen on the market, either! There is another site, in the council's own hands, but it's a couple of miles outside the main town, safely out of sight, but on land that floods, and there are some plots available up at the National Trust's stately home, but they keep moving those, and their rules are just as strict.

Aha - chicken manure... Just so happens that the reason we don't have room for veg at home is because we do have chickens... 5 big "girls" and 5 bantams. So I don't even need to go out & buy it! At the moment it's just going into the compost bins to be the "brown" amongst the green, but it could be spread directly on areas that are resting over winter. And the compost bins have to go, as they're wood - ok, they're pallets - not plastic, so that's a very good idea. Seaweed is also possible, if I drag the DDs off for walks along the beach rather than along our spectacular cliffs.

fuddle

I'm a very happy fuddle. I've not long taken delivery of my meat order and with it came sheep's wool for the insulation. It'll be used for keeping tender seedlings snug in my unheated greenhouse in the sting but after that I'll use it round my tender newly planted outs to stop the slugs. (I think that'll work as slugs don't like lanolin) then it'll be either dug in or gathered up for the compost bin. Any other ideas for it on the garden?

thriftwizard

Oooh - wool! I can lay my hands on any amount of wool, I'm a spinner. Daggy wool is always much sought-after, but there are plenty of rough fleeces to be had; we've been known to find builder's bags of fleeces abandoned on our doorsteps. Hopefully it won't be seen as a rat-attractant...

Siebrie

Flower tip: check if your council has a 'xx in bloom' project. Mine does, it is advertised in February/March, and you have to subscribe. Then, in May, I can pick up my free bedding plants. It varies per year, about 8, all different, 5" pots. Some of them I manage to overwinter.