Last spring we planted an orchard at our allotment site in space at the bottom that is too shady for a plot.

We’ve got plenty of blossom this year!

Honesty grows very nicely in corners of your garden where it’ll keep growing year on year.
It grows along the wall in our allotment site and is currently showing pretty pink flowers.

Lunaria annua – 1 packet (50 seeds) £2.49
It blooms from March to April in rich, purples, pinks and starry bi-coloured combinations with white. It’s a vital nectar plant and therefore popular with butterflies, very easy to grow, normally self-seeding itself in sunny or shady positions. Over a long season it produces masses of silvery pods

Bristol East Allotment Association has plots available at

This site lists allotments in Muswell Hill.

It says many sites have closed their lists due to long waits! This seems wrong to me! Surely anyone should be able to add themselves to the list and if the list is long then it gives more weight behind pleas to the council for more allotment land.

Here in Oldham we’ve started to discover there are lots of patches of land that need people to care for them – whether they can be technically classed as allotments or just land to grow on is another matter. But there’s spaces that need attention and people who want to use land so why can’t they be paired up?

This is a lovely website featuring an allotment, with videos, posts and plenty of photos! Not just allotment either as there’s recipes too and food preserving hints!
Visit On the allotment now!

The new allotment has been created by Caerphilly Council staff at Caerphilly town’s Morgan Jones Park after they cleared an area which had become overgrown. More details on link

Live in Bressingham in Norfolk and want an allotment? You’re in lucK! The plots are available for an annual rent of £12. for more details click here phone number on link to contact!

Shannon Leigh Stables offer free horse muck – tons of Well Rotted manure for FREE
It’s 99% pure manure as we use mats instead of bedding.
We are open 9am to 6pm everyday …so you can just turn up without phoning.
This is an on going offer all year every year
Here is a map to find them are at the bottom of the map

A fab offer if you’re in the area!

Using plastic water pipe to create arches over which to spread netting or plastic gives you pest free sheltered growing spaces.
John’s nets are on frames which can be easily lifted up from one side. They’re prevented from blowing away by stakes either side and can be propped open when you’re working on them.

This video is interesting, but their design looks like you need two people to open them up and close them again.

The photo on this post is on my allotment site. He’s used two different designs for the top bar – one he drilled a central hole and fed the pipe through, and the other just a channel to hold the pipe up. The wooden frame has holes drilled with a 22mm bit that means it all slots together really easily.

When you finally get to the top of the allotment waiting list you’ll get your allotment. You’ll be so excited about it but faced with the reality of an overgrown plot you’ll suddenly get scared! What have you got? A huge space full of weeds to sort out. It can be very daunting, but don’t worry!

You don’t have to dig the whole plot straight away and remove every last weed. Many sites have cultivation rules to ensure plots are tended. Most will be lenient with new plot holders on overgrown plots but it’d be nice to be able to make a different straight away.

One of the best techniques for dealing with a new plot is to cover as much of the surface as possible. You can use weed fabric, cardboard, layers of newspaper, plastic,

Where to get the cardboard: supermarkets can be a great source of cardboard. Contact the night shift managers who’ll be busy dealing with the overnight shelf stacking and you’ll almost certainly be able to get a pile of the stuff in big sheets. Weight it down either with rocks or more usefully by throwing some soil over the ground.

Break the plot down into sections. If you’re lucky then you’ll have beds and pathways in already. Some people see these as a hindrance and want to rearrange the plot entirely.
You might have plants in already, don’t cover these up. If you have rhubarb or fruit bushes then make these a priority to weed and feed. You’ll get a crop from these this year so it’s worth tidying them up. Getting plants growing and a crop from your plot will make all the work seem worth while.

Target the easy bits first – weed around the existing plants you’re going to be keeping.
This makes it look like you’re working hard. Once you’ve covered the rest of the plot you can uncover a part of it and weed and dig or you could go for the no dig gardening method which is certainly easier on your back.

No dig gardening videos

No Dig potatoes – a great video showing just how easy no dig is!

No Dig Bed Construction in 30 Minutes – he’s building this at the start of May to show it’s never too late to start planting! He uses a layer of soaked cardboard on the bottom to suppress weeds, manure, grass clippings, calcified seaweed, wilted nettles, paper shreddings,old growbags and compost. Topping off the bed with compost means you can plant into it straight away.


This is an easy to follow guide to making a layered bed the no dig way. It’s basically lasange gardening using materials most people should be able to find most of. The nettles is an interesting one – he touches on the fact they’re important for ladybird. This is because they’re home to the first aphids of the season which means the ladybirds also get off to a quick start. Just think about that before tearing down all the nettles in the garden! Whilst they’re prickly and not nice if you touch them they are useful for wildlife as they’re also home to caterpillars and useful for making a tea from for feeding up plants. Nettles have strong roots which reach down and pull up loads of nutrients and create plenty of nitrogen rich top growth which can be cropped periodically.

A youtube channel I watch quite often is thehortchannel.tv and he’s got an interview about the No-dig method with Charles Dowding

http://youtu.be/jxOL76ZbtT0