Category Archives: Growing tips

The extended periods of rain and cool weather we had in June and part of July have helped blight spread quickly throughout the allotments this year, badly affecting both potatoes and tomatoes.

There are lots of ways of making a compost heap. Some gardeners have a sort of wire netting barrel, others have wooden ‘boxes’ and there are of course the Dalek type plastic bins with a little door at the bottom. You can, of course, just make a heap in the corner of the allotment and leave nature to deal with it eventually. They all seem to work. A lot depends on on how much room you have, what materials you have lying around and how quick you need it to rot down.

Mother and daughter, Jenny and Hattie both have plots on Craven Vale – Jenny for 11 years and Hattie for six. They also collaborate on a third plot, which they were able to take on four years ago. All three plots have needed intensive work, including clearing brambles, removing glass, getting rid of rubbish, building raised beds and preparing the ground.

Short of netting much of my allotment plot – which would be prohibitively expensive – I’ve recently been experimenting with different ways of deterring birds (mainly pigeons, I suspect) from nibbling, and occasionally completely destroying some of my crops.

Mary, or ‘Mary Muck’ as she’s affectionately known, has had a plot on Craven Vale since March 2019, after a long, five years on the waiting list. Living in a flat without a garden, she couldn’t wait to get her own outdoor space and get stuck in to growing organic, fresh and flavoursome food, as well as cutting down on wasteful ‘food miles’.

Now that the sites’ taps have been turned back on, it’s tempting to connect up the hosepipe and spray every inch of our plots. Yet, there are things we can all do as plot holders to reduce our water usage and to use water more wisely.

Arthur took on his first Whitehawk Hill allotment seven years ago and was chuffed to get a shed as his Christmas present that year! Four years on, he was fortunate enough to be able to expand on to the neighbouring plot after it became vacant, so he now has two small, but very productive plots.

Andrew and Max have been gardening their Craven Vale plot for the last nine years, growing a range of fruit and vegetables, together with a fair number of ornamentals and flowers too.