Everton Community Garden

We were lucky enough to spend some time at the fantastic Everton Community Garden at the weekend, a place I'd never heard of previously but fell in love with immediately! My family was having a bit of a family reunion and as one of my relatives is heavily involved in the running of the garden, she suggested we have it there. My great-grandparents were the common link for this branch of the family, and they originally settled in Everton from Wales and Ireland. It was extra special meeting relatives I've never met before in the exact place our ancestors lived!

Arriving at Everton Community Garden

My relative gave us a tour of the garden and explained that it's run by volunteers for the local community. Like many other community gardens, Everton Community Garden has lots of produce, which it gives away to locals in return for donations to help with the garden's running costs. Everything is organic and the entire enterprise is run on a shoestring budget, but the volunteers have done an amazing job with the site.

The vast majority of the beds are raised, making them accessible to a wide range of users. There's an SEN school alongside the garden, and the pupils often visit the site. The site is paved, making it accessible to wheelchair users, and there is plenty of space between beds. 

There are two large polytunnels on the site, and these made me determined that we need a greenhouse or small polytunnel on allotment 22 as soon as possible! I really want the extra flexibility and possibilities you get with greenhouse growing, added to which, such structures make a great shelter from the biting cold wind in winter!

Everton Community Garden polytunnel

We visited right at the end of September, obviously at the end of the growing season for most crops, but there was still a huge amount of activity in the outdoor beds and in the vast polytunnels. There were bountiful raspberry bushes and strawberry plants (still!), lots of squash, piles of courgettes and mountains of tomatoes and peppers to name just a few. I was also impressed by the delicious grapes growing both inside one of the polytunnels and along the outdoor archway. I had no idea British-grown grapes could taste so good!

Grapes growing in the polytunnel

I picked up a few tips from some of my gardening relatives, including some companion planting ideas, and am keen to put their suggestions into practice. I'm also definitely going to be looking to grow yellow raspberries on allotment 22 next year after sampling just how tasty they are. I'm also going to be branching out into as many different types of squash as I can as the varieties you can buy in the shops are so limited. 

We came home with a huge bag of fruit and veg, an added bonus to what was already a lovely day. I think the courgettes, peppers and tomatoes we brought back with us will most likely end up in some kind of roasted Mediterranean veg pasta, perfect for brightening up the chilly start to October we're having.

Homegrown tomatoes of all sizes

If you're in the Merseyside area, I highly recommend you pay a visit to this lovely garden. If nothing else, you'll be able to pick up some amazing organic produce for the cost of a donation to the organisation! The garden was so much better than I expected and it's made me want to get involved with a similar project closer to home so I'm currently researching other community gardens in the area. If you're interested in setting up something similar, the RHS has a great resource section on community gardens and how to go about starting one. The Know How Non Profit site also has some good beginner info, and provides links to lots of useful sites that should help you. 

Jenny  x

The best allotment books for beginners

I LOVE allotment and gardening books, even those that aren't particularly helpful or well-written. I find them incredibly relaxing to read, and can often be found flicking through them at the end of a long, tiring, stressful day.

I have a pretty sizable collection already, despite only starting to take an interest in gardening and growing in the past year. These are just a few of the books I own, but there are many more scattered about the house:

With the internet being such a valuable source of gardening and growing information, I originally thought I wouldn't find books that helpful. However, as a complete beginner, I found it useful to have a few reliable sources to refer to, rather than wading through the often confusing and conflicting information online.

Some of the books I own are reliable favourites I return to again and again. Others...less so. I bought several books very cheaply via eBay and some of them are poor to say the least. Patronising, not particularly helpful, and surprisingly sexist in some cases, despite being published fairly recently. This post will concentrate on the books I've found most helpful, however.

In no particular order, these are the books I would recommend to a novice allotmenteer or someone looking to start growing fruit or veg at home for the first time:

Allotment Month by Month: How to Grow Your Own Fruit and Veg
Alan Buckingham

Allotment Month by Month was the first book I bought when we took on our plot, and it was incredibly helpful.  It's very clearly and attractively laid out and I love that it's separated into months so you can see at a glance what you should be doing at any given time! Due to the sheer volume of topics it covers, it doesn't go into a great deal of depth, but as an overview for newbie growers, I think it's one of the best books out there.

It has an extensive section on many of the most commonly grown allotment crops, with some useful tips on sowing, growing and harvesting. The book is laid out similarly to a very helpful textbook, and feature attractive photos to boot. If you only buy one book, make it this one!

RHS Allotment Handbook & Planner: What to do when to get the most from your plot
The Royal Horticultural Society

The second book I purchased after signing up for my plot, the RHS Allotment Handbook & Planner is another one I found extremely useful. The advice is pretty thorough and the book has a similar textbook feel to Allotment Month by Month. As you might expect from the RHS, it's a well put together book with some stunning photos. There are sections on just about anything you can think of when it comes to allotments, including keeping chickens and which insects are particularly beneficial to your plot.

I tend to use this book as an introduction to various techniques and then head over to the RHS website if I need more in-depth info. There is a fantastic grow your own section, and I can get lost on this website for hours if I'm not careful!

The Veg Grower's Almanac: Month by Month Planning and Planting
Martyn Cox

I received this as a gift for Christmas and I didn't think I'd get much use out of it as I already had a few other books by then. However, The Veg Grower's Almanac is a fascinating little book. Perfect for reading in bed (or while taking a break down on the plot at allotment 22!) due to its more compact size in relation to most of my other allotment books, it's a goldmine of info. It takes a different approach to the other two books above, and contains interesting nuggets of information you wouldn't usually find in a a gardening book. There are sections on the history of various plants, tips on growing more unusual crops and some genuinely entertaining facts on all things fruit and veg.

I didn't actually realise this was a Gardener's World publication until I picked it up just now to flick through it, but it's slightly more informal and conversational style makes sense now I know this.

Practical Allotments
Paul Wagland

I picked up Practical Allotments at a local garden centre not long after we'd taken on our plot. At that point, I was so hungry for tips and advice, I was pretty much snapping up everything with the word "allotment" on it. This turned out to be a pretty useful purchase, however. Not so much for growing advice - although there is some of that in here - but more in terms of inspiration for laying out and managing the plot. While there are things I am simply never even going to contemplate - such as installing solar panels on my shed - there are some handy tips for adding a seating area, building your own compost bin, saving seeds and lots of other practical things.

I'd say this book is particularly suited to anyone who's inherited a particularly crap plot, that is, one with no usable structures or one that needs a complete overhaul to make it work efficiently. If you have been lucky enough to land a well-maintained plot with shed, greenhouse, immaculate fencing and pristine beds, this probably won't be quite as useful!

So there are my favourite books out of the 20 or so I've accumulated in the past year. That isn't to say the others aren't useful or I don't enjoy reading them, just that those listed above are the ones I return to most frequently and the ones I've found most consistently helpful.

Please let me know if you've read any allotment or gardening books you loved, or if you've read any of those mentioned above!

Jenny x

Cheap, simple allotment paths

We finally got round to starting to lay some paths last week, and it makes arriving at the plot so much more pleasant! After much uhming and aahing, we decided to go for wood/bark chip paths on the allotment. We have such a terrible problem with marestail that we needed paths that consisted of several layers to try and stop anything getting through. Our heavy-duty weed membrane has proven to be no match for the ever-tough marestail, and the nasty green spears were popping up all over the covered parts of our plot all summer and spring.

We certainly didn't want to spend too much cash putting down allotment paths, so tried to keep it cheap and simple. The photos below show the beginnings of the main path down the side of the plot last week. We've done a fair bit more since these pictures but forgot to take photos at the weekend. 

First, we cleared as many of the weeds as possible. Some parts of the plot have been covered with thick weed membrane since last summer, and we've been pulling up the marestail as it pokes through wherever possible, so some of the path areas weren't too bad. Next, we laid down a couple of layers of thick cardboard, hoping this would provide another barrier against the weeds. It will also rot down over time into the soil. On top of the cardboard we added heavy-duty weed membrane, which we pegged down on either side at intervals of about one metre. Next, we heaped on mounds of wood chippings and bark chippings. We got a lot of chippings free as the council had recently delivered a truckload to the allotment. We also bought some very cheap chippings from Asda, Home Bargains and Wilko, and will continue to snap up any we see on offer in the end of season sales! We'll obviously need a huge amount to cover all our planned allotment paths, but we're not in any huge rush so will continue to grab the free council chippings whenever they're delivered.

Finally, we have started laying paving slabs on top of the chippings. We've got a fair few slabs scattered around the plot and thought we'd try them out for this purpose. 

We've had very limited time down at the plot this summer as we both work full-time and this year has been horribly stressful due to family illnesses, bereavements and a number of other things that have taken up all our weekends and energy. It's so nice to see small signs of progress on the allotment though, and we're excited to get some more paths finished over the autumn!

I'm looking forward to seeing how the paths fare against the marestail next spring - fingers crossed it can keep the stuff under control!

Dismantling the broken greenhouse...after we find it

When we took on our allotment 22, there was a smashed greenhouse at one end, near the entrance. We made a brief attempt to clear it last year but we had so many other tasks to do that this one kind of fell by the wayside. We finally set aside a whole day to work on this area last week and managed to not only dismantle the metal frame and clear up lots of smashed glass, but also unearth a pretty sturdy looking brick base.

The marestail (OBVIOUSLY) had taken over the whole area, along with long grasses, brambles and bindweed. For want of a more refined technique, we simply hacked away at the weeds with a pair of garden shears. This at least allowed us to see bits of the greenhouse frame poking out from the greenery. We worked section by section, trying to take apart the frame as we came across new parts. The metal was pretty twisted in places and a lot of the bolts and screws were no longer usable so we ended up pulling most of it apart rather than using any tools.

There's a greenhouse under there somewhere...

It took most of the day to clear the greenhouse and part of the surrounding area but it's made a huge difference. Now when you're working on the plot, you can look up and see other plots and people walking by rather than just a 5-foot high wall of marestail!

Partway through

Unearthing parts of the greenhouse frame...

...and lots of old gloves, trays and rusty tools

We have a greenhouse base!

We've managed to get up most of the glass and that will be heading to the tip. As for the frame, we're going to keep hold of that until there's another scrap metal collection on the site. 

This weekend will involve clearing more of the land around allotment 22 and possibly even laying our first section of path! We're planning on using heavy duty weed membrane with woodchip on top. Handily, the council have just dumped a pile of woodchip inside the site entrance so we're hoping there's still lots there tomorrow. The problem with working full-time when half of the other plotholders are retired is that they're there every day in the week so we miss out on things like free woodchip as it's all gone by the time we get there!

A lengthy hiatus and a lot of progress

We're well and truly back and getting stuck into the allotment after a lengthy break. Due to serious illness in the family, work commitments and a particularly stressful few months, we didn't get down to the allotment for several months over autumn and winter. We're trying to make up for it now, however, and have been pretty productive over the last couple of months.

Of course, the ******* mare's tail/horse tail/whatever you prefer to call it has been super active once more and it's been really disheartening to see it taking over the plot again after all our hard work of last year! We understand we just won't be able to eradicate it though so are just doing our best to keep it under control. Even the most pristine plots on our site - those with dedicated and retired tenants who spend hours on-site every day of the week - still have the odd mare's tail scattered around the crops so we've accepted we just need to get on with it. I still hate it though!

We have strawberries this year, although our biggest and best strawberry was eaten by a bird this week before we had a chance to net the plants. The nets are in situ now, however, and the rest of the plants look good. 

We've dug over three beds so far, and have built wooden edging for the first one.

We decided against proper raised beds as we were concerned they'd have a tendency to dry out and with us both working full-time, it's not always possible for us to get to the plot as much as we'd like. Our beds are ever so slightly raised, but that's just the result of the extra material we've mixed in with the existing earth - rotted manure and compost to try and improve the soil. We chose to edge the beds with wood as it gives us the flexibility to raise the beds in future if we want to and also keeps everything neat. We are planning on using free woodchip for our paths so the wooden edging will act as a barrier to keep things in place. 

We've also got a lovely bed of tomato plants on the go. A kind allotment neighbour gave us a tray of Gardener's Delight plants and we planted them out at the weekend after hardening them off outside. Unfortunately, the hardening-off period coincided with the weekend we were away in London and it was scorching hot for several days, so the poor plants looked a little worse for wear. A bit of TLC seems to have perked them up though and they're looking much better now. Neither of us has ever grown tomatoes before so we're looking forward to learning as we go and hopefully having a glut of delicious cherry toms later this summer.

Plans for this weekend include sowing some curly kale (I LOVE kale and have heard it's hardy and easy to grow so fingers crossed!) and finally starting work on a seating area so we've got somewhere comfortable sit on those long days down on the plot :-)

Finally, it's not our plot (obviously) but I am in constant awe of this super-neat and well-maintained plot behind ours...