A friend suggested covering clay areas with as many leaves as you can get and covering them up and letting the worms do the work! Great idea! Some councils even sweep the leaves up into piles at the roadside before collecting them.

This plot in the corner of the allotment site is getting it’s own sprinkling of leaves from the trees along by the canal side.

Allotments planned in Linton would cost too much and should be abandoned, resident tells council

The cost of buying 7 acres of land to use as allotments has been critised as too expensive,
Dr Cox is right if other landowners see what the council will pay there may be more suitable land available.

7 acres of allotments is a lot! I reckon we could have about 16 plots on our 1 acre site so that’d be 16×7, or 112 allotments!
That’s great news potentially for people on the waiting lists!

Allotment to get people into work


A KIMBERLEY resident has come up with a modern-day eco-friendly idea for a community allotment to get the unemployed back into work.

Susan McEntee believes the community garden would provide the unemployed a useful job, the local supermarkets with locally-grown produce, and said the venture could be ‘the future’ for the working world.

It is a great idea – but one that would require lots of volunteers to get it going. It’s hard work creating new allotments and if you’re growing on a big scale you have lots of other things to think about. Water costs could end up being very high!
I do like the idea of people being encouraged to get active and for people to eat locally grown produce though!

A Farm for the Future was on the BBC a few years ago. I don’t remember having watched it though.

BBC info about it here

But you can watch it online here

Growers dig in for fight to keep allotment sheds

A row has erupted in a Staffordshire village where allotment holders have been told they may have to take down their sheds because they do not have planning permission.

Growers on the Plum Pudding allotment site in Armitage, near Rugeley, are up in arms.

Lichfield District Council says the traditional wooden huts are banned because the privately owned site is on green belt land and next to the Trent & Mersey Canal conservation area.

But the site’s 105 plot-holders disagree. Builder Robin Cunningham said: “Talk about jobsworths – the council is just being stupid. There are allotment sheds all over the country – why should it be any different in our village?”

We have strict rules about shed size in Oldham. I think it’s to stop people keeping huge sheds on their plots for pigeons. Our rules include colour and size!

A SUTTON Coldfield allotment site is buzzing after scooping a £3,500 donation to create a colony of bees.

Read More http://www.birminghammail.net/news/top-stories/2011/11/11/sutton-coldfield-allotments-get-new-bee-colony-97319-29756425/#ixzz1dPUjAw37

ALLOTMENT holders in Barrow are set to be issued with new contracts which could spell changes to conditions for green-fingered enthusiasts.

NEW RULES: Allotment holders could soon be asked to maintain fences and communal areas, and face a crackdown on rent collection

Barrow Borough Council has been carrying out a review of allotments in the area after being hit with a £55,000 bill for their upkeep last year.

some of the things they mention like trying to cut water use makes sense anyway! Rainwater storage could help reduce water bills. There are allotments without water supplies!

It’s an essential skill you will need if you grow soft fruit (unless you want to give away or sell your excess fruit).
You can do it in a pan on the hob and it’s not tricky. Just alittle time consuming and a little effort to make sure the jars are clean properly.

This Kitchen Craft Maslin Pan with Handle, Stainless Steel, 9 Litre
pan is ideal for making jam. It’s a lovely looking pan with a nirror polished pan with pouring spout, carry handle and helper handle. It has Graduated imperial and metric markings on the inside of the pan and a 5mm sandwich base for even heat distribution
Suitable for induction
Size 35cm (D) x 20cm (H)

They also have a Kitchen Craft Deluxe Cooking Thermometer in Stainless Steel which has a clip to hold it upright in the pan and Measurements range from 60ºC to 220ºC / 100 º F to 400 º F. There’s also a Kitchen Craft Jam Funnel which makes getting the jam in jars less tricky!

Kitchen Craft Jam Funnel, Stainless Steel is £5.29 at the moment
Kitchen Craft Deluxe Cooking Thermometer, Stainless Steel
is £4.99 at the moment.

They also have Swift Jam Straining Set which makes straining jams easier. As well as Kitchen Craft Home Made Waxed Circles which are used for help sealing the jars.

Why planting soft fruit is an easy option.
You can see the range of soft fruit at Jerseyplantsdirect here. It covers rhubarb, raspberries, gooseberries, blackberries and strawberries and blueberries.

Doesn’t sound very lazy does it?
Well it is! The effort is mostly in the preparation of the soil before you plant them. This is the hard bit so why not rope a friend or loved one into helping you dig and prepare the soil. Add some well rotted compost or manure if possible to enrich the soil. If you can’t then throw in some fertiliser. Plant and water. And that’s basically it. You can leave them alone then.
The rhubarb is the one to ignore completely for the first year. You could steal a stalk of it but let the plant use all the leaves to create energy through photosynthesis and build up a really good root system. This will then reward you in years to come as it’ll be bigger and stronger and produce more stalks
Berries are easy. You can let them get on with the growing as much as you like – there’s no work to do. With raspberries you can cut down the stems after they’ve finished fruiting but to be brutally honest if you don’t, no-one will complain to you! The fruit doesn’t mind! They will look a little untidy but it’s not a huge problem. You can thin them out when you’ve got time. Or not. If you leave your raspberry patch alone it’ll still produce loads of fruit so it’s not a huge problem at all.
Strawberries produce runners and if you want them to concentrate on fruit then you can cut off the runners. It takes a little effort. If you leave them you end up with a much bigger, denser strawberry bed and you can cut off the rooted plants and move them elsewhere in the garden.

One favourite of mine that JPD don’t have at the moment is blackcurrants. They are effort free. When you pick them cut off the branches with the fruit on and take it indoors or sit at the table outside with a drink and pick the berries off. This way you harvest and prune together and don’t have to stand up for ages picking tiny berries.

Soft fruit can be really rewarding financially too! Raspeberries are £2 for 100g in the supermarket and off a few plants in you garden you can pick more than that every day for weeks!

If you have room then you should plant some soft fruit. it’s a really useful thing to have and will serve you well in the summer for puddings! Or make jam!

You can grow fruit trees on patios and in small gardens. It’s a great idea in these credit crunch times to invest a little money in something that will give you long term rewards!

Fruit trees at Jerseyplants direct come with free delivery

Patio Apple Trees (Gold Del/Gala) 9cm Pot
£18.99
Golden Delicious: One of the most popular varieties of apples. Produces a heavy crop of medium sized yellow fruit, with a sweet and tasty flavour. Gala: a crisp and tasty, medium sized dessert apple with a sweet flavour. Perfect trees for your garden. Eat these delicious apples or turn them into pies!

Patio Pear Trees (Conf/Doy du Com) 9cm Pot
£18.99
Conference: One of the most popular variety of pears, produces a long narrow fruit with a firm and tasty flesh. Most reliable variety for garden planting. Doyenne du Comice: Produces a round fruit with soft, juicy flesh. Very sweet tasting, excellent dessert pear.

Patio Apple(Golden Delicious) & Pear(Conference) Trees 9cm Pot
£18.99
Golden Delicious: One of the most popular varieties of apples. Produces a heavy crop of medium sized yellow fruit, with a sweet and tasty flavour.Conference: One of the most popular variety of pears, produces a long narrow fruit with a firm and tasty flesh. Most reliable variety for garden planting.

Patio Apple (Gala) & Pear (Doyenne) Trees 9cm Pot
£18.99
They all need a well prepared planting position ideally in Full sun but partial shade will do.

Patio Cherry & Plum Trees 9cm Pot
£19.99

Punica granatum Nana (Dwarf Pomegranate) 1 Plant

Ficus carica Kadota (Fig) I Plant

A tree is a small investment in money now and time to plant. They take very little care year on year and will reward you with fruit for many years to come. It’ll be one of the very best things you grow in your garden. Low maintenance and effort but big rewards. Make this year the year you plant fruit trees!