Useful hints and tips

Composting,slug control,green manures,organic growing,companion planting etc.

Add your own hints and tips by adding a comment at the bottom of this page.

COMPOST HEAPS

Start your compost heap! Make it as simple or complicated as you wish, but do get one going - it's good for maintaining fertile and healthy soil. Look at the plots around you - plots with compost heaps are usually the ones with good deep beds bulging over the path edges; plots without compost heaps are often those where the soil has sunk below path level.

See the http://www.communitycompost.org for further information.

The compost heap (again!) is an essential on the plot - almost all your garden waste (except horsetail, potatoes and potato plants, and brassica roots) should go on. Good compost is an art in itself! For a good nitrogen rich starter, don't go to the garden centre - try human urine. Please be aware of other plot holders though !

You can start your own wormery ,contact for this Wiggly Wigglers - http://www.wigglywigglers.co.uk or phone 0800 216990.

SLUG CONTROL

Slug pellets are less than 5% poison (which lasts perhaps 48 hours), and 95% bait (which attracts slugs in for weeks afterwards).   Try a few natural methods first!

See Slug Control - balanced, easy to read, and practical.

• keep your plot clear of "slug hotels" (waste wood, stones, buckets, pots, plastic bags - all those cool damp places the slugs love);
• use your hoe regularly - especially in spring and early summer;
• learn to recognise slug eggs, and their breeding places;
• and destroy! use beer traps, or half grapefruits (emptied or removed regularly);
• or use barriers of crushed eggshell.

ADVICE ON GROWING ORGANICALLY

Follow the advice on from HYDRA , the national charity for organic growing.The organic gardening resource which has information on how to transform your garden/allotment with information,seeds,advice on pest control and tools, on http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk (this is the Henry Doubleday research association - tel 024 7630 3517 and also http://www.organiccatalog.com .

Another excellent source of information on Organic's is the Brighton and Hove Organic Group(BHOGG), at www.bhogg.org or e-mail bhoggroup@yahoo.co.uk

COMPANION PLANTING

Plant a border of French Marigolds (Tagetes) round your brassicas to deter pests; or among your carrots to confuse carrot fly.   Sow a few hardy annuals around the plot to attract in pollinating insects (bees and bumble bees), and predator insects (hoverflies, wasps, and ladybirds).   There are many more useful companion plant combinations - and even if they don't work, a few nasturtiums (good for keeping black fly off vegetables) around the plot look beautiful, and add a tangy colour to your salads.

GREEN MANURES AND COMFREY LIQUID FEED

Comfrey tea - grow a bed of comfrey (best to get the variety Bocking 14, which will not self-seed and become a weed); good in compost, as a green manure.   Or fill a bucket with comfrey leaves (or nettles), cover with water, and leave to stew for a few days.   The foul-smelling liquid gives an excellent plant food.   Leave it for 2 to 4 weeks, and you will have a very potent brew, which should be diluted with at least 10 parts water.

Don't leave patches of bare soil - try a few of the green manures available.   They are a very easy way of maintaining soil fertility and a healthy soil structure; well worth experimenting with.

SOIL IMPROVEMENT

Get to know your soil.   The simplest test is to pick up a handful, and press it into a ball.

• If the ball simply falls apart in your hand, you have a light sandy soil, which will warm up fast but drain fast; easy to work, but it needs organic matter (manure!) to help the soil hold water and nutrients better;
• If the ball holds its shape and sticks together, you have a heavy clay-type soil, which will not drain easily, and is slow to warm up; hard to work, but full of plant nutrients. Make the nutrients available by adding organic matter (manure, again!) to increase the air in the soil and help drainage;
• a good soil is somewhere in between these two, with a good balance between sand (helping drainage), and clay (holding nutrients in the soil).
• Or contact the Soil Association at www.soilassociation.org for more information plus Organic tips. A useful link to a page in the soil association website is www.soilassociation.org/web/sa/psweb.nsf/B2/horticulture.html

Adding manure and compost can alter the acidity of your soil - it is a good investment to do a pH test, even with a cheap kit from a garden centre.   Add lime to bring your soil back to a healthy level for your plants - it's best to add lime just before your brassica, as it also controls club-root.

CHOOSING POTATOES

Here's a website with a wealth of useful information:
www.cthorpeallotments.co.uk/potatobase/pbf1.html

KEEP A RECORD OF YOUR ACHEIVEMENTS

Consider keeping your own record of what happens on your plot. Notes on what you've planted and when, the weather conditions and successes (and failures!) of the various crops can be very useful, helping you to build up a picture of your plot over the years.

It's also a good idea to take photographs. Particularly if you are a new plotholder, take a photo on the first day you begin work on your plot then another a few months later. The camera doesn't lie - you have achieved something!

USEFUL LINKS FOR FURTHER ADVICE

Gardener's Almanac
Growing Vegetables on an Allotment