Last year
we were evicted from our allotment for not being productive enough. Well, we
weren’t exactly evicted, but the message from the allotment inspector was
clear. As a result we have now ‘downsized’ to our back garden. An exciting
challenge!
My husband
was on the allotment waiting list for 8 years (since before we met), so it was
lucky that he was still living in the same area when his name came up. It was a
busy time for us (we were just moving house and we both have busy jobs) but we
thought this could be a great opportunity to test out ‘the good life’. The plot
was beautiful and we managed to produce potatoes, raspberries, strawberries,
gooseberries and some herbs, and we started growing a rhubarb plant.
But just getting
to the allotment often enough was difficult, as it wasn’t all that close,
and with busy jobs we only really made it once a week. Cucumber and carrot seedlings were attacked by
slugs or birds, or just dried out because we couldn’t water them enough. In summer
we had some wet and warm weather which meant the weeds shot up suddenly, making
the whole place look unkempt and neglected. It was then that the allotment inspector
decided to make an unannounced visit, then sent an official letter telling us
to be more productive or be out….We decided to make a more-or-less dignified
exit, and focus on re-applying our new skills to our own garden.
The
big lesson from our allotment experience was that you need to be able to tend to vegetables daily (especially
in dry weather)!
We had a
head start in the back garden with our fruit trees - cherry, pear, plum, fig, damson. The trees
make the end of the garden shady in summer, which we love, but is not great for
growing veg, and we also like having flower borders. But we set
aside one of the flower beds and decided to do the rest in pots. I got a mini
greenhouse for nurturing seedlings. We were all set!
Even last
year we had our first results. We managed to coax some delicious cucumbers
from struggling plants we had brought back from the allotment. They seemed
to grow well both in the vegetable bed and in pots. At that point we really
started to get a thrill from growing our own food in the back garden!
We brought
home some suckers from the raspberry bushes we’d
planted on the allotment – they now seem quite strong and produced some fruit
even last year. They are growing well in pots, supported with stakes against a
side wall. We brought the rhubarb
plant back as well, but it’s had a bumpy ride. It was squashed flat one night,
perhaps by a fox or a cat sleeping on it; then it started to grow, but then bolted
– it grew a big flower then appeared to collapse - probably due to stress. But it has started to grow
more strongly now and we look forward to rhubarb crumble next year ...
We’ve
planted a gooseberry
bush, which is doing well, though hasn’t fruited this year (I didn’t expect it
to …). A friend of mine recommended blueberry
bushes as the leaves turn a beautiful red in the autumn, which makes them doubly
attractive. We got two (for pollination), and they appeared to be doing well,
but withered in a dry spell, despite watering. I realised the vegetable bed had
a slight slope and the soil was easily compacted, so there was a lot of run-off.
I dug the bushes out, put them in pots and cut them down to size and now they
seem to be recovering. I’m going to put them in larger pots (with peat-free ericaceous
compost) and I’ll keep watering and monitoring them. We're also planning to
make the vegetable bed into a raised bed to improve the soil quality and ensure
an even surface.
We planted
(early and main-crop) potatoes
in potato-growing bags, which means we don’t have to give up loads of space,
and we can change the compost in the bags each year when we re-use them (so no
need for ‘rotation’). I also experimented with various other containers,
including large round pots and old compost bags, as well as a mix of pure
compost, soil and compost, and plain soil. So far, the best yields have come from
large round pots with soil/compost mix, but we’ll continue to experiment!
We grew peas
against the fence, protecting the young plants with
netting, which also gave them something to hang on to as they grew taller. We
had a good harvest around May/June though none of the peas saw a pan or even a
plate, as we ate them all straight from the pod (the healthiest way to do it
apparently)!
July/August
is definitely courgette
season. We never knew how much we loved courgettes, but having to eat them on a
regular basis means exploring new delicious recipes. The courgette plants in
the flower bed are huge. The ones in pots are growing less vigorously (possibly
because the pots aren’t quite big enough), but they’re still producing those
large beautiful yellow flowers, with some nice courgettes emerging behind. We
have had less success this year with cucumbers, but each year is different and
you have to chalk it up to experience.
We grew
some carrots
in the veg bed and in pots. The ones in the veg bed got crowded out by the
courgettes, but the ones in the pots have grown quite well – they are nice and
sweet, but I think we’ll go for deeper pots next year for larger carrots. We’ve
grown rocket
and mixed
salad in pots. But garlic
has been less successful – I’m not sure why. We planted cloves in pots and in
the flower bed, including among the roses (to ward off rose-pests). They
initially produced some leaves, but not one garlic plant has matured. I think
some didn’t get enough sun, but I’m not sure about the others.
To make use
of vertical space, we hung baskets up on the fence for strawberry
plants. These have produced quite well, but required a lot of watering in dry
weather because of too much drainage in the pots. We also tried out a hanging
strawberry bag, but that was less successful; again it was quite dry even when
watered regularly. We have an older strawberry plant in a big pot which has
been the most productive of our strawberry plants (and is in fact the mother of
all the others).
This year
we have had extremely good harvests of cherries
(June), plums
and damsons
(July/August). We are exploring all kinds of ways of cooking and preserving
plums at the moment, as well as giving them to neighbours. Our pear
tree is also now weighed down with pears which are just getting to peak
ripeness. I tried a poached pear recipe for the first time the other day, and I
think we might be on to something!
We failed spectacularly
on mint this
year. Like garlic and rhubarb, this is a plant that is supposed to be ‘very
easy’ to grow. I think the problem was lack of water and not enough sunlight,
so we have started again and will keep a more watchful eye out. At least with
pots of mint (or anything else) you can move them around until they seem happy.
All things
considered, we’ve had a much more productive time in the food garden this year,
without any inspectors. With the garden outside the back door, as we both work
from home, we’ve been able to protect enough of our harvest to enjoy plenty of
it.
