The Allotment Book. Andi Clevely

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СКАЧАТЬ frames can have a soil floor for planting, or a solid base of slabs or gravel spread over a weed-proof membrane, which is useful for housing pots and trays. A portable frame can be moved directly over a growing crop for protection until established, after which it is moved elsewhere in the same way as cloches.

      

      SITING A COLD FRAME You usually have little choice over the position of a greenhouse on your allotment – it may be decided for you by accessibility or site rules – but a permanent frame can go almost anywhere. The traditional position is against one side of the greenhouse to avoid carrying plants far and to share some of the stored warmth (some sophisticated frames have adjustable rear panels to allow heat transfer from the greenhouse). Installing a frame on each side of the greenhouse should provide all the space you will need for protection and hardening off.

      There will probably be a lot of plant movement to and from the frame, so site a freestanding version in a convenient position: placing it at the end of a nursery bed would keep all plant-raising activities together, or you might prefer a corner of a main vegetable bed to save time when planting out. Make sure the frame is easily accessible all round, and ideally not too far from your water supply. If possible, provide shelter from prevailing winds and avoid shade from overhanging trees. A frame is normally aligned so that its sloping lid receives maximum sunlight and heat, but a lightly shaded frame can be equally useful in summer to avoid scorching sensitive plants.

      

      Covers Protective sheets such as transparent plastic film and woven horticultural fleece can be used to cover crops and exclude a couple of degrees of frost. Horticultural fleece is light and permeable, and may be left in place over the lifetime of a crop for warmth or protection from pests or diseases, floating higher as the plants grow.

      

      Cloches Glass sheets (discarded window panes, for example) are joined with special clips (see page 146) or a home-made arrangement of clothes pegs, string or wire to make tents for covering rows or individual plants. Traditional lantern and commercial barn or tent cloches are also available. Plastic cloches and continuous mini-tunnels of film supported by wire hoops can cover a large area. Use cloches early and late in the year to add several weeks to the growing season.

      SEE ALSO ▸ The greenhouse year pages 170–4 The cold frame year page 175

      USING A COLD FRAME

      ▸ Spread a layer of gravel over a weed-proof membrane if you intend to use the frame for containers or for trays and plugs of seedlings (below).

      ▸ Fit a hinged lid with casement stays or notch a strip of wood to make a support for adjusting ventilation. Hinge the lid and prop it open to ventilate the cold frame during the day (bottom), then close it at night to keep in the heat.

      ▸ When not in use, prevent wooden frames from rotting by lifting them clear of the ground with a block at each corner.

      ▸ Stand pots and trays on a layer of gravel over a woven plastic membrane to suppress weeds and deter slugs and snails.

      ▸ Treat a soil-based frame like an extra vegetable bed: water, manure, mulch and rotate crops as you would in the open ground.

      Fruit cages If you can disperse fruit around the plot, it is possible to harvest good crops from unprotected plants without significant losses to birds or squirrels. But smaller plantings, especially of attractive fruit such as redcurrants, raspberries, strawberries and blueberries, may be stripped before they even show colour, and some kind of protection could be vital.

      An individual bush can be enclosed with netting draped like a tent over 3–4 flexible canes arched to meet at the top, where they are tied. Protect a row of raspberries or cordon redcurrants by erecting a post at each end, with several timber cross-pieces, like a telegraph pole: attach wire to these, stretched from one end of the row to the other, and arrange curtains of netting over the wires and clear of the fruit.

      Gathering vulnerable fruit together in a cage is a more permanent solution. Various ready-made cages are available to buy, or you can build your own from strong bamboo canes, coppiced hazel poles or metal pipes. Erect uprights 1.8–2.1m (6–7ft) high for clear headroom, space them about 1.8m (6ft) apart, and join their tops with cross bars to support the roof. Clad the sides with 1–2cm (¹/₂;–³/₄in) mesh plastic or wire netting (but note that squirrels easily chew through plastic), and the roof with 2cm (³/₄in) plastic netting.

      RECYCLING SCAFFOLDING

      Discarded scaffolding poles and their unions are a valuable resource for a host of structures on the plot. Use them, for example, to build fruit cages and low frames round brassica beds for netting against birds in winter; use them as row supports for runner beans or sweet peas and trained fruit like raspberries or tree-fruit cordons and espaliers; also for arches over paths, planted with squash, climbing cucumbers and thornless brambles.

      Either fold back part of the side netting for access or add a hinged door, but make sure this fits tightly. The roof net can be removed after fruit crops are harvested to allow birds to clean up any pests, but leave it in place if finches tend to attack the fruit buds in winter. However, the roof should always be taken off if snow is forecast. Open the door or (where this is possible) roll up the sides while the fruit is flowering, to admit pollinating insects.

      

      Somewhere to sit As in any other garden, an allotment plot should have a place for you to recover from hard work, entertain friends and other plot-holders, or just plan and dream. It doesn’t matter whether you choose to sit on an upturned bucket or a cast-off chaise longue, although comfort is obviously important.

      Collapsible furniture such as picnic tables or deck chairs can be stored safely in a locked shed. Permanent structures like benches or café tables need to be secured by bolting them to the shed wall or anchoring them with metal straps to pegs or piles driven firmly into the ground. Treat your furniture to an annual spring clean: treat or paint metal with rust-proofing, and paint or oil timber pieces to keep rot and woodworm at bay.

      FAMILY AREAS

      Looking after a plot is often a family activity that can be made more appealing to children by creating one or two areas especially for them. While you might feel that a small lawn and its attendant mowing is a waste of space and effort, other places for play will often fit in unobtrusively.

      ▸ Perhaps the most popular piece of equipment is a swing, easily made from a strong board, old tyre or special rubber safety seat suspended on lengths of rope from a tree branch. Ropes on their own or a rope ladder may be suitable, but check for wear once or twice a year.

      ▸ Younger children might prefer a sand pit, made from a sunken rigid pond liner filled with clean silver sand; when no longer used, the sand can be incorporated into potting compost, and the pit transformed into a pond.

      ▸ If fires are allowed on site, construct a simple fire pit for those end-of-day family gatherings. Excavate a circular hole a spit or so deep and line it with 3–4 courses of bricks to form a neat ring wall. A fire of wood offcuts and dry prunings will make a safe fire, where you can bake some of your own foil-wrapped potatoes.

      Watering equipment

      Changing environmental conditions mean that conserving СКАЧАТЬ