Welcome to Alwins Field

Dear new plot holder,

Welcome to Alwins Field and we hope that you have a successful and productive time here.  In the past we have found that new comers often need a little bit of extra help to get off to a flying start, especially if they have don’t have much gardening experience.  So here is some information which I hope you will find useful. 

Starting off with a new plot.
Unless you are very lucky and have a plot that has recently been well-worked, it is quite likely that your new plot, which may have been strimmed by the council, will be full of perennial weeds.

 Couch grass which has invades from the edges of the plot is very likely to be in your plot if you are in the older part of Alwins Field.

The best thing to do is to dig over your plot as soon as possible, taking out all the couchgrass and any other perennial weed roots like dandelions, bindweed, or horsetail. 

Do this before you plant anything and definitely before you rotovate, as small pieces of the roots will re-germinate, and will out-compete anything you plant and spread.   Don’t put the perennial plants in a compost heap, else you will get them all back again next year. Take them home and put them in your green wheelie.

If you have limited time to dig out the the perennial weeds, or if after digging them out you can’t plant immediately, cover  the plot as soon as you can so that new weed seeds won’t germinate on your plot and any perennial weeds are weakened by having no light.  You can do this with ground cover sheets, or to avoid use of plastic on your plot, with cardboard boxes.  Make sure to weight these down as they will soon start to rot and blow away.

You soil is quite likely to be depleted in nutrients and it is a good idea to raise its fertility by applying  some compost , manure or similar.  Another good tip if you can’t use the ground immediately is to sow a green manure. 

If the ground is very hard/dry , don’t try digging, hoe off as much as you can from the top and wait till rain softens the ground to get out the roots.  

If you find rubbish left by the former occupant or wind blown litter if you are on the playing field side, take it home and put it in your black bin or to the tip if it is large.  Please don’t leave it elsewhere on the allotments or dump it in Linslade Wood (I’m sure you wouldn’t but it has been known…)

In the summer
In this part of the world we have quite low rainfall , and often when it rains it doesn’t rain enough to thoroughly wet the ground.   In my 30 years at Alwins Field it has been much more common to have to cope with dryness in the summer than summer rainfall problems.   So it is a good idea to think about:

• Growing crops that don’t need so much water
• If you want to put in things that need a lot of water (like runner beans, potatoes, courgette and pumpkins, onions) whether you are able to water them frequently – and I mean possibly everyday – during very hot spells  to get the best results.  Also, some plants like spinach and chard can bolt in dry spells.   If you plant fennel, get a non-bolting variety.
• Whether you can put in water butts on a shed or devise a watering system

There are several common pests and diseases which we have at Alwins Field:

• Slugs and snails eat a wide range of  plants, especially when it does rain, including brassicas, potatoes and other root plants except parsnips, young courgettes and just about anything with soft green leaves.  There is plenty of advice on slug control online so I’m not going to put it here.
• Pigeons are a real problem, and will be down as soon as you walk out the gate!  They also love brassicas, peas and anything with soft green leaves especially during the winter when other food is scarce.  So invest in some netting. They have also recently acquired a taste for and skill of picking gooseberries, unbelievably.
• On the Linslade Wood side, there may be occasional incursions from rabbits but more often from squirrels.  Squirrels love sweetcorn and apples.  You may be able to net the sweetcorn, but I have not found a way of dealing with the apples except try to get there first.
• Potato and tomato blight are common in wettish years in late summer. It often happens quickly and you will find that one day, everyone’s crops have gone down with it.  So it is a good idea to think about blight resistant varieties.  Or you can just take a risk and hope we have a dry year, when tomatoes can do quite well.
• In recent years,  we have started getting allium leaf miner fly and leek moth.  You can avoid this by using a very fine net, 2mm size is recommended.  With the miner fly, the plant needs to get to a certain size before it is attacked, and attacks come in early summer and in the early autumn.  I have found that overwintering onions and leeks are the  most prone to attack and that I have more success with spring onions, garlic, and maincrop onions.
• Cabbage white butterflies are all over the allotments in the summer, and are another reason for netting all brassicas with a suitably sized net.
• Blackfly on broad and runner beans can be a real problem in some years.  I suggest you use aquadulce or super aquadulce broad beans which are fast and early growing to get ahead of the attack, which tends to start in June.
• Keep a watch on courgettes and pumpkins for powdery mildew as they grow.  This is worse in dry spells.  I have found that the best way of dealing with this, is to keep the plant well watered and pick off any infected leaves as soon as you see them.
• Carrots get carrot fly, so will need a barrier or use resistant varieties
• Australian Flatworm has recently been found in Leighton Buzzard.  This is an invasive species which eats earthworms and can devastate our native beneficial earthworm population. If you find any destroy them and report them to the Bedfordshire Natural History Society with a photo if possible. More information is available online.

Things that tend to be easy to grow here (providing you water enough and net where appropriate) are:

Runner and french beans, courgettes and pumpkins, parsnips, carrots, potatoes, broad beans, chard, asparagus, fennel, cavalo nero, peas,  strawberries, autumn fruiting raspberries, blackberries, tayberries, gooseberries

Late frosts
Many new plotholders here plant tender plants out without frost protection, seduced by warm weather in April and May only to have them killed by a late frost.  If you are going to plant out tender plants before the second bank holiday in May, use a cloche or some other frost protection.  After the second May bank holiday you should be OK to plant out without frost protection.   My general rule of thumb is that I sow runner and French beans and courgettes/pumpkins in pots on the first Bank Holiday in May, and plant them out on the second Bank Holiday or soon after.

Paths between plots
I am often asked who looks after the paths between the plots.  The answer is that both plotholders do! For the main paths we have a communal lawnmower, and it would be great if you could volunteer to help with the mowing of the communal paths occasionally.

Community Facilities
We have the following community facilities:

• Compost toilet
• Community Shed
• Lawnmower for mowing communal paths
• Community orchard
• A small number of tools and equipment left by previous plotholders

Unfortunately Covid has closed the toilet, shed, and stopped communal activities and sharing of tools.  However, these will be resumed or reopened  as the situation allows.

Gill, plot 22

March 2021