The Allotment Book

Alternative methods

Gardeners have explored and tested alternative methods of cultivation, particularly since a spreading ecological awareness has meant that chemical-based gardening seems increasingly untenable and is no longer the norm. Attempts to treat nature as an ally and work in harmony with the environment have resulted in a variety of sympathetic approaches.

The most familiar of these is organic gardening, but other approaches have gone further: biodynamic gardening harnesses the subtle influence of the moon’s phases on growth, for example, while forest gardening imitates the natural structure of woodland habitats to pack a lot of plants amicably into a small space.

None of these methods has a monopoly on success, nor are they mutually exclusive, and the basic mechanics of sowing, planting, tending and harvesting remain broadly the same whichever you choose. In the end your own inclination and personal conviction through good results will help you decide which and how many of these methods feels right for managing your allotment.

ORGANIC GARDENING Many plot-holders first choose to grow their own because they want top-quality fresh food produced in a way they approve, which often means organically. But there is more to organic gardening than simply giving up artificial fertilizers and chemical pesticides. Replacing these inorganic inputs involves following a different cultural routine more in harmony with natural cycles and environmental susceptibilities.

Possibly the most fundamental principle is to feed the soil rather than the plant, using organic materials, such as compost and manure (see pages 116–19), that encourage soil organisms to flourish and make nutrients available to plants. It is even possible to abandon animal manures if you prefer, and concentrate instead on garden compost, leafmould (see page 208), plant-based fertilizers and green manures (see page 119) as sources of fertility.

Controlling problems involves a range of precautions and treatments (often termed ‘integrated pest management’) rather than simply reaching for a specific spray. Efficient crop rotation (see pages 32–5) is one sound method. This can be combined with using resistant plants sown at times when pests are less prevalent, encouraging natural predators and companion plants (see page 35), and keeping the plot tidy and well maintained.

GIVING UP CHEMICALS

A plot that has been maintained with inorganic fertilizers and chemical treatments can often show signs of an impoverished soil structure and a dependence on supplementary feeding. Improving and feeding the soil will have long-term benefits, whether you choose to grow organically or continue to use chemical inputs. Growing fully organic crops on it immediately may, at first, lead to depressed yields, especially while it is difficult to produce or acquire enough compost and manure. Also, pest and disease problems can escalate when plants are not sufficiently vigorous to withstand attacks. If you decide to garden organically, you may prefer to adopt a gradualist approach and compromise, using chemical treatments at least for the first two to three seasons while the new routine is established.

You can respond to particular pests and diseases with treatments of low toxicity or short persistence, or try to avoid them with traps, barriers and deterrents. Instead of using herbicides, you can manage weeds by mulching, hoeing, hand-weeding, spacing the crops in such a way that denies weeds light, and minimal cultivation to avoid germinating weed seeds.

The result is produce that may taste better – but this is also affected by other cultural factors such as variety, season or the amount of watering – and that will certainly be free from any chemical residues. The soil will be nurtured rather than exploited, abused or simply taken for granted; wildlife is respected and encouraged; and you will have avoided waste by recycling compostable materials and returning them to the soil.

BIODYNAMIC GARDENING

Some find biodynamics slightly esoteric or metaphysical, but this gardening philosophy has had a strong following ever since the 1920s, when Rudolf Steiner, the Austrian philosopher and agricultural expert, first outlined his rules for rescuing soil fertility from over-intensive cropping and chemicals.

The approach is essentially holistic as well as organic, acknowledging the effects of natural rhythms and cycles on growth and following principles that restore the vitality as well as fertility lost when ground is cultivated and crops harvested. Biodynamics embraces organic and ecologically sound gardening methods, but it goes further than that: feeding the soil is not considered sufficient because the earth itself needs healing from past abuses.

Remedies for this include treating the land with special herbal tonics, and gardening in tune with all the influences that can possibly affect plant growth – these range from street lighting and water quality to planetary aspects and phases of the moon. Followers accept that some of these beliefs defy current scientific knowledge, but suggest that proof lies in the pudding – pragmatic trials seem to work, even if the reasons for the results are unknown.

Key elements when exploring this approach include making compost the biodynamic way, with special therapeutic preparations and a planting calendar, which uses the positions of the planets to find the ideal times for sowing or harvesting. It also involves becoming aware of the unique character of your plot, so that you gradually develop a full understanding of the land and an intuitive sense of what it needs to boost the vitality and abundance of its produce.

FOREST GARDENING A natural forest or wood has a layered structure that allows all kinds of plants to grow together and share resources such as light, water and fertility. Forest gardening imitates this by arranging edible plants in a series of tiers. The highest is a canopy of fruit trees like plums and apples, which are pruned to admit plenty of light to plants below. Under this is a shrub layer of shade-tolerant soft fruit bushes, such as gooseberries or redcurrants, surrounded by perennial herbs and vegetables at ground level; climbers filter through from the ground to the top tier.

Total productivity from the plot is high because plants of different habit and height can fit around each other to make the most of available resources. And the diversity of crops shares fertility efficiently by feeding at different levels; it also discourages specific pests and diseases from taking hold. Beneficial plants such as legumes and comfrey are included to supply minerals and nutrients to their neighbours; others are planted to attract both insect predators and pollinating insects.

The majority of plants are either perennial or self-seeding annuals, which makes digging almost unnecessary, although some cultivated patches can be integrated for growing extra crops like annual roots or runner beans to climb into the tree layer. A few open areas can be left for sun-loving vegetables and herbs. The whole garden is kept heavily mulched to control water loss and most weeds, so maintenance consists chiefly of clipping or pulling up invasive species or the odd weed.

PERMACULTURE This is an ethical design system that attempts to minimize our environmental impact by planning a sustainable and ecologically sound lifestyle, including the way in which we grow our food. Permaculture gardening draws together many ideas from other philosophies, such as no-dig practices (see page 36), the edible perennials of forest gardening, most of the established organic principles, and the ornamental aims of the French potager and the North American ‘edible landscape’ movement.

PERENNIAL CROPS

Forest gardening depends heavily on perennial crops, but even under conventional methods of management there are some popular perennial vegetables that can be fitted into the allotment’s layout where they can grow undisturbed for five years or more. Asparagus is best allocated a bed to itself, although the attractive fern will blend with perennial flowers in an integrated border; globe artichokes, rhubarb and Welsh onions could be included, too. Perennial cauliflowers, good king henry and salad dandelions are less appealing and would be better in a separate corner. Clean the ground well before planting, feed or mulch annually to sustain growth, and replant the crops on fresh ground when they need renewal. Check regularly for pests and diseases that might be passed to seasonal crops.

With this design system, the garden or allotment is divided into zones, with plants that require the most attention closer to hand. A typical border will include ‘keyholes’, which are short paths branching to the side of a main pathway. These paths are surrounded by zones of plants, the closest (salads or spinach, for example) requiring frequent care or harvest, while the furthest, such as cabbages or squashes, need tending only once in a while. The overall aim is to combine beauty and bounty with easy maintenance.

SEE ALSO ▸ Improving your soil pages 116–21 Green manures page 119The case for weeding pages 152–3 Keeping your plants healthy pages 154-7

crop rotation

What is crop rotation? This is the custom of moving annual and biennial vegetables year by year around a number of different beds. A key technique in traditional husbandry, and equally important as part of efficient organic gardening, crop rotation ensures the same type of plant is not grown in successive years in the same piece of ground. Crops with similar needs and susceptibilities are grouped together, each group moving on to the next bed in the rotation the following year. Thus a crop literally rotates around the arrangement of beds until it returns to the first bed in the sequence a number of years later (see pages 32–5).

Rotation helps to avoid disorders by interrupting the life cycles of pests and diseases. It can also prevent the gradual depletion of certain soil nutrients. The principle is a sound insurance against inviting unnecessary problems, even in its simplest form of growing crops wherever you like but making sure no group or individual vegetable occupies the same spot in two consecutive years (with the exception of perennials, see page 31). Just moving a crop a few metres is a worthwhile precaution, but this minimalist approach requires a good memory and efficient organization. Following a full crop rotation scheme is usually more dependable.

A simple, efficient way to organize crops is to divide them into the three main traditional groups of root crops, brassicas and legumes, and base the rotation on these. The advantage of this approach is that members of each group need similar soil preparation, so the whole bed can be cultivated accordingly. Vegetables like salad greens, tomatoes and squashes, which do not obviously belong in any of these categories, are fitted in wherever there is space; perennial crops are, of course, not rotated.

VARIATIONS With three vegetable groups and three beds to rotate them in annually, each group will get back to where it started in the fourth year, so this standard system is called a four-year (‘course’ or ‘stage’) rotation. It is not inflexible: you can extend the number of years before a group returns to its original position by adding extra courses; some gardeners give maincrop onions a bed to themselves, grow potatoes as a separate course from other roots, or allow one or more fallow years for green manure crops.

Nor is the system infallible. Some vegetables, especially winter crops, overlap inconveniently with others. Some pathogens survive in the soil for many years, so you still need to be alert for symptoms of disorders. Opinions differ about whether it is better to isolate crops with common serious disorders – separating potatoes and tomatoes to prevent the spread of blight – or grow them together to keep the problem in one place, where it is more manageable. Experience will determine your own preferred approach.

SAMPLE ROTATION PLAN

This example of a rotation plan shows how three different allotment beds are planted up with the three main plant groups of legumes, brassicas and root crops over a four-year period.

LEGUMES Podded crops like garden peas, French beans, runner beans and broad beans.

▸Grow the onion family (bulbing onions, leeks, shallots, salad onions and garlic) here, as they like the same soil preparation.

BRASSICAS Cabbages, cauliflowers, Chinese cabbages, oriental greens, Brussels sprouts, calabrese, sprouting broccoli and kale. If brassica diseases are a problem, include turnips and swedes in the brassica group; otherwise treat them as root crops.

▸ Interplant fully spaced brassicas with salad and leaf crops such as lettuce, chicory, endive, corn salad, land cress, claytonia and spinach.

ROOT CROPS Potatoes, carrots, beetroot, radishes, parsnips, swedes, turnips.

▸ Salad and leaf crops may also be grown with this group. Add sweetcorn, celery and celeriac.

OTHER PLANT GROUPS Members of the pumpkin family (squashes, courgettes, marrows, outdoor cucumbers and melons), as well as summer-fruiting vegetables like tomatoes, peppers and aubergines, may be grown with any of the above plant groups, wherever there is space.

BED A

YEAR 1: LEGUMES

CROPS TO GROW Podded vegetables and onion family.

CULTIVATION Dig in plenty of manure or compost. After harvest plant onions to overwinter and overlap with Brassicas in Year 2.

YEAR 2: BRASSICAS

CROPS TO GROW Cabbage family interplanted with salads.

CULTIVATION Add leafmould or more compost, forked in or as a mulch, and lime the soil if it is acid. In autumn mulch with more compost, to raise fertility for Root crops in Year 3.

YEAR 3: ROOT CROPS

CROPS TO GROW Root crops, leaf crops and extras like sweetcorn.

CULTIVATION Add more compost. After harvest sow green manure to dig in before Legumes in Year 4.

YEAR 4: LEGUMES