On our allotment we have this weed growing in the edges. It’s known as Jack by the hedge or Garlic mustard.
It’s edible and tastes quite strongly of garlic!
I know this because I’ve just tasted it. You could easily use it in a salad. You can eat the flowers too and the tap root.

You can cook with it apparently or add it to a salad!
It’s a tough weed as it has chunky roots so it’s not one to throw about on your compost heap as it’ll just carry on growing. It’s quite a dominant plant so one to get off your growing space.

Because it’s edible though it’s tempting to plant a row of it on my plot and harvest it and eat it!

I think the seeds turn into red stemmed Garlic Mustard Sprouts – which also taste of garlic.

this site says it’s a biennial which grows up to three feet tall in mid-spring of its second year, flowers, produces long, narrow seedpods, and dies.
The site has some recipes for it including a garlic mustard pesto!

It’s a bit wet today but the sun is shining so I’ve been on and taken some photos.
Here’s my allium bed with garlic and onions. In the background are some straw bales for mulching and my neighbour’s green tarp covered weed stack.

Concerns about substation that will affect the allotment site – lovely vid despite it being relating to concerns about losing the plot.
Hearsall Common in Coventry allotments.

Want to find out more about pest control? You cna get a free pest control book from Harrod Horticultural – you can download one so you can read it straight away.

It covers all the pests you might encounter and they sell products to deal with the pests, both as preventative barriers and treatments.

Ants
Aphids
Carrot Root Fly
Caterpillars
Chafer Grubs
Fungus Fly
Leaf Beetles
Leatherjackets
Mealy Bugs
Raspberry Beetle
Scale Insects
Slugs and Snails
Spider Mite
Vine Weevil
Whitefly

If you’ve just been given an allotment plot which needs some work doing on it, then you might be under pressure to get it started. If it’s raining where you are and the ground is soggy though it might not be a good idea.
On clay soil it’ll just turn to mush and you’ll be wading around in very sticky clay. Whilst you might not mind, you are further damaging the soil structure by further compacting clay together.

Look at your options.
– you could cover all the ground with weed fabric. This would help to start killing off the weeds making it easier for the digging when you get the weather for it.
weed fabric might also help warm the soil up and encourage worms underneath also improving the soil.
– you could cover the soil in cardboard and newspaper and mulch it with either the compost heap you have on site, or some well rotted manure. This helps suppress the weeds and makes the soil easier to dig when you get chance – or you can plant through it.
– you could use a lazy bed system as described earlier – where you don’t actually dig, just rearrange the turf.
– you could make raised beds with pallet collars or specially bought edging wood
– you could stand on boards and dig parts that don’t look as soggy. Standing on boards means your weight is a bit more spread out and you’ll get less mud on your boots. It makes the digging harder though – as you might have to lean over more.

– you could put your wellies on and get completely muddy.
an option most people will find really tiring as the mud sticks to your boots making your footing harder to keep.

If you’re on a deadline because you’re a probationary plotholder then speak to the committee and ask for advice about digging in wet soil. They might advise you to leave it well alone or point out areas that they know are less soggy on your site.
Sometimes you’ll find that you can’t do much on your plot but there’s bound to be something you can do to make it look like you’ve been on and are trying.
Most allotment association committees will be sympathetic to people who take on a site at this time of year when the weather is bad.

You could try these raised beds from Harrod Horticultural

Allotment Wooden Raised Beds – No Capping £13.00
Allotment Wooden Raised Beds are ideal if you’re new to raised bed gardening and growing your own veg and you might not want to splash out on the best wooden raised beds money can buy – and that is precisely the reason why they have added this budget FSC Timber Allotment Raised Bed kit to the range – supplied with pre-drilled planks internal wooden corner fixing posts galvanised screws and easy assembly instructions. Allotment Wooden Raised Bed Prices start from as little as £13!

Really interesting lazy bed method which still involves a spade but sounds very exciting as a way of dealing with new ground!
visit lazy bed page here – the site is fascinating

This is one of my favourite Youtube channels – he does loads of interesting videos, but here is lazy bed making in action!

So what’s a lazy bed?

You pick a plot of land – untended grassed land. Which is often what people start with in their own gardens or on brand new allotments. You cut the grass as short as possibe. Mark off an area into thirds. Somewhere between 2-3ft seems to be a good width – so 6-9ft section of grass. The bed can be as long as you like.
You can lay on the central section manure or rotted compost.
You then cut a straight edge at the far edge of the marked area and slice under the turf and fold it over on to the middle section. Ideally you’ll keep a hinge of grass intact as this helps the appearance and action of the bed.
You then cut a straight edge on the left edge and fold this egde over on to the middle section.

So now you have a middle section that is considerably higher than the two side edges, but all the grass is inside and the roots are exposed. This should kill off the grass.
This might not work for nasty couch grass but it’s so simple in theory that you might want to risk giving it a try.
These beds work best with something prolific growing that will help smother the grass and weeds that might grow out of the folded turf.
Potatoes, oca, even nasturtians could all help smother the grass with foliage

To me this sounds like a great way of starting off a growing patch in your back garden. This is assuming you have a reasonable lawn. Couch grass infected soil might work – but couch grass is pretty persistent so it’s going to keep going I think.
Doesn’t look as hard work as actually double digging and certainly solves the issue many people have with what to do with turf they remove when digging.

There will be a photo as soon as it’s dry enough for me to take the camera out. We’ve had thunder and lightening this morning and now it’s lashing it down. Have stacked the bails and covered them with a tarp for now!

A simple photo just wasn’t enough! I was out playing with my video camera!

The man who delivered them asked what we were going to be doing with them. I told him mulching the potatoes and trying out straw bale gardening where you wet the bales and add fertiliser and then plant in them.
He told me they used to plant potatoes on straw when he was young. Put down the straw, put on the potatoes and earth over. The straw all disappears by the time you come to harvest the spuds too!

Straw bale gardening site in the USA – instructions on soaking your bales

What’s hugelkultur?

It’s raised beds based on piles of wood covered with soil.
The wood rots and creates a fantastic environment for the plants (Although at first it might take a lot of water and feeding – once it starts going it’ll be great)

Nice post about it
another one

This really really works! It’s amazing!
Don’t let the slugs ruin your crops this summer!

Unwins Seeds & Plants has these two size packs of nemaslug available.

It is really easy to use.
Mix into a watering can and water it on!
Fantastic stuff that really stops the slugs.
It’s amazing to think you can just plant out seedlings and not have them eaten!

A must have for anyone growing their own! And it really is so simple and safe! It only kills the slugs and it’s not harmful to any other wildlife!

Nemaslug Slug Killer (100m Pack)* £18.95
We have been conducting our own tests over the last couple of growing seasons and have found Nemaslug to be both easy to apply and effective. Nemaslug contains millions of naturally occurring microscopic nematodes that kill slugs both above and below ground. Completely harmless to birds hedgehogs and other wildlife as wel as pets and children.Please note: The ground temperature needs to be above 5 degrees for the predatory nematodes to be active. View our Nemaslug Slug Killer Fact Sheet When you receive your pack of Nemaslug place it in the refrigerator immediately and use within the use by date (which can be up to four weeks).

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Starting an allotment from scratch? What would you do?

The traditional planting plan is four areas so you can do crop rotation. As well as this though you want areas for a shed, greenhouse, water collection, compost heaps.

Starting completely from scratch sounds really exciting but the hard work involved in turning a blank canvas into an allotment is enormous. If it was all dug over and weed free then that’d be quiet entertaining but starting an allotment from scratch on raw undug ground is a nightmare.

This is what we were faced with last Spring – 2011. The site was created in Chadderton and it’s been a year of hard work and awful weather but it’s starting to really look like an allotment now.