“You look so happy.” Danny said.
We were resting from digging on plot 90B. The wind was warm. And yes I was happy. We were out and working together on our new project. An allotment, five miles from home, that feels like paradise.

I’m finding it very hard to tear myself away from our allotment. There’s a lot of work to be done – preparing the ground and working out a rough layout. For the time being we’re going for long borders that are roughly 6’ wide, separated by grass paths. But it’s not the work that makes me happy – it’s the promise of new land and friends away from home. An escape.

We live in a beautiful cottage with a third of an acre of land but as we now both work from home and go out rarely, sometimes our home can seem like a gilded cage. We also lead fairly independent lives. On the plot we are working together.

We spend hours sitting on the two plastic garden chairs that were left on the plot dreaming about sheds, arbours and the obligatory pond. A plot wouldn’t feel right without a small army of frogs to deal with the pesky slugs. Here we have the space to experiment with new (to us) vegetables and fruit.

The allotment is in our nearest town, Newmarket. It’s a big site – over 140 plots – with a good relaxed and friendly feel. The committee is very keen on community. The fruit from the numerous fruit trees is generally shared. Here you can fine Williams pears and old tasty apple varieties – their names long forgotten.

Our village is on much higher ground than the town. The temperature down there is several degrees higher – that combined with the slight wind and ryegrass gives our plot a beachy feel. Our kitchen garden is fairly shady – getting sun in the afternoon. On plot 90B there is sun all day – when it’s shinning.

Germination is swift too. 3 days for Kohl Rabi and just a week for carrots. It’s a very special place and when we return home we feel relaxed and refreshed however tired that we feel when we arrive.

As you know The Chicken Lady and S have got an allotment near by and we are beginning to make new friends too. It’s so good to see other people even if we don’t have time to chat for long.

I have planted some perennial vegetables. More details on these in a few days time. A few celery plants, squash plants from Magic Cochin and a long row of leeks. I’ve also sewn quite a bit of seed – autumn carrots, pak choi, winter lettuces, chicory, raddichio, chervil, speedy cut and come again salad leaves and spinach for baby leaves. Radishes, turnip oasis, beetroot and collard greens. These last seeds were a present from Terry Golson who writes the excellent Hencam.com site in America – they take 70 days till harvest and are a biannual. I reckon that these will be similar to the cabbage trees that we have in our kitchen garden. In the next few days I’ll sow coriander and parsley between the perennial vegetables.

The soil is very fine and dries out very quickly. We’ve bulked each border up with loads of the free compost available on site.

I met our neighbour Mark who tactfully looked at our mountain of ryegrass and told me that a neighbour of his had suggested that he to dig it into the ground. Over the winter the turf had broken down releasing nutrients into the soil. We decided to go with this idea. To make this a bit easier we’ve dug pits 1.5 spits deep and laid the turf grass side down. This is covered in a layer of compost and then the topsoil is raked over the top.

So far this has produced gorgeous plumped up beds.

When sowing seed I fill the drills with much more water than I would usually do – here I use the water from a 6.5 litre watering can for a drill of about 10’. This provides an underground oasis for the seeds and seems to be having the desired effect. When I come to water at the end of a long sunny day I can still see the moisture beneath the rows of seedlings.

Last week the UK was celebrating National Allotment Week. Hopefully we will be celebrating our allotment for years to come.

Wimpole Home Farm Pigs

We have two big borders at the bottom of our kitchen garden that formerly were just a rough patch where very little thrived.  With great hope and optimism these became our first space for growing vegetables. I scattered a bit of Growmore and watered my seeds fervently. Things germinated and grew in a spindly sort of way, the nasturtiums were the only great success – these don’t mind a poor soil and will grow virtually anywhere.

We extended our kitchen garden to a slightly more fertile patch. Now we had the opportunity to compare the fertility of the soil. Slightly better growth but not the luscious jungle that I’d imagined. We blamed the overhanging trees, the shade and even the sun. In fact everything that we couldn’t control.
“This is what we have. We just have to put up with it.”

It was only when we hacked down the rose walk and extended the kitchen garden to its present size that we realised that the new kitchen garden borders were far more fertile than the others. This was the site of the basket weavers’ vegetable patch all those years ago.
“Well old Danes had all that pig muck back then.”
Doug leant over the fence to expand.
“The muck had to go somewhere so he just dug it into his patch. He used to grow some wonderful cauliflowers – never been able to grow them myself with the club root over here. You don’t happen to grow them do you?”

In an instant my interest in soil conditioning was born. How could I miss something so obvious? Unfortunately soil conditioning can take years and it’s not just a case of spreading manure in the autumn. You have to be a bit careful with manure, as my Grandmother found to her cost. Too much is worse than none at all. Manure is best when mixed with straw and other material and very well rotted down.

We hadn’t managed our composting very well. John’s grass cuttings compost heap was massive but had never generated enough heat to kill the pernicious grass and weed seeds. Our kitchen waste compost was rich but far too moist.

So I decided to take matters in hand. I ordered a square metre of compost and farmyard manure and dug it into our kitchen garden borders. This bulked up the soil and gave it greater water retention. In the autumn I ordered a few sacks of Rockdust soil conditioner and spread double the minimum amount. This spring I dug over the borders and the soil felt almost friable. It was full of worms.

The Grand Pond Cleaning Project produced loads of slurry from the pond and I spread this in the kitchen garden. A very satisfactory manoeuvre, racing down the garden with a wheelbarrow full of sloppy, gloopy sludge and whoosing it across the surface of the borders.

We are not yet growing giant vegetables but the results are far more promising than the early years. Improving the condition of the soil is now as important to me as growing fruit and vegetables.

The soil on our new allotment is fine and sandy. When it’s dry it’s like dust. Judging by the great quality of fruit and vegetables that people are growing on the site, the soil is fertile. Although I have no idea what fertilisers and chemicals that they use. Luckily, early on, I had a conversation with a lady who has gardened there for years.
“If we get a windy day after rain, it dries the soil out within hours. We grow great carrots but only if we have enough rain.”

There is free manure on the site. Donated by the horses that pass through Tattersalls during the famous Newmarket horse sales. Although we’re longing to start planting and sowing seeds, we are barrowing this free muck up the hill to our plot. It’s dug in at the ratio of a barrow per couple of square meters or so. This stuff is full of worms – hopefully happy to join the solitary worm that we found after 8 hours of digging.

In the long run this compost will build up the soil and save on watering. There is water on site but hoses are banned and just watering cans are allowed. Every time I tramp up the hill I distract myself from the load by trying to work out how many trips to the water tank that this will save. It’s quite fun too, digging the rich organic matter into the soil. A bit like stirring the Christmas pudding and making a wish. All hope and expectation.

In the autumn we are going to spread Rockdust too. I’ve used it in areas of our garden that were not given the farmyard manure treatment last year with very good results. Of course we will be building a compost area on the site that is designed to generate good heat and break down unwanted seeds quickly and efficiently.

Although most people up at the site think that we’re mad, we’re investing in our future and I know that this preparation and ongoing investment in the soil will pay dividends in the end. Basically I’m pretty lazy – I don’t want to have to water every day and am determined to give my plants the chance to thrive without needing to be coddled.

Corner detail of raised bed

Our cottage is set quite a way back from the road. We like this as it gives us a lot more privacy than a house set beside a pavement. This front garden faces south west and is a much warmer and more protected spot than the kitchen garden – which lies in a bit of a frost pocket.

Last year we extended the long south facing herbaceous border that runs from the gate to the cottage. This year we decided to use some more of the front drive for raised beds. Our drive is full of rocks and the soil is heavy clay – so raised beds seemed like a good idea.

If I was going to the palaver of making some raised beds, they had to be large and substantial. Some farming friends had made a series of rather nifty raised beds out of old rafters. Good solid beds that looked as if they’d last for years. This was back in my decorating days. When I spotted a pile of these rafters in one of their barns I bartered some painting for rafters and stakes.

Two years later I finally pulled my finger out and started to make the raised beds this week. The design is very simple, an 8’ square, 8” deep. The sides of a raised bed must be at least 6” deep and even deeper if you are planning to grow parsnips or anything that has long roots.

Deatil of stake before being attached to the wooden board

There are two key rules when making raised beds. Attach strong pointed stakes to two sides to make the beds firm and stable. The other sides butt up to these and are secured with long coach bolt screws – these have square tops so can be driven into place with an electric drill.

The other vital point is to make sure that each side is level and that the corners are square. If the ground isn’t completely flat this might take a bit of digging and jiggling around.

I couldn’t find the right length of coach bolts locally so as a semi temporary measure I used galvanised nails. Trying to force 5” nails through the rafters and into the oak stakes was impossible with an ordinary hammer so I wielded a fencing hammer with good, fast results.

Today we have been filling the first bed with Fenland soil. Beautiful stuff, dark and friable. We bought it from Madingley Mulch – and I reckon that it’s well worth the investment. Trying to improve the poor soil in the garden has been a real bane these past few years. Expensive too. We’re slowly getting there – the vegetables in the kitchen garden are looking much stronger and bigger this year.

My farming friends used potting compost to fill their raised beds. I reckon that this was a mistake as it just doesn’t have the welly to provide a really good growing medium year after year.

It’s great to have good soil to start with in the raised beds.

When the bed is filled with soil (leave at least 1.5” space at over the soil to avoid run off) water the soil well and leave for a day or so as to allow the watered soil to warm up. The soil will drop a little so fill up and rake smooth. By watering well before planting your plants will have a good reserve of water to draw on from the word go.

We have also discovered the joy of turning pallets into something even more useful. We have plans for a few smaller raised beds for yet more salad and samphire! These have to be well out of the way of boy racer reversing though.