"Ed" wrote...((Big Snip))
I was really looking forward to the present series of Gardeners World when
it was announced that they would be doing an allotment from scratch as I am
in a similar position and was hoping to learn from this.

But then, unaccountably, the BBC put Joe Swift in charge of this!!

First off, he hires a JCB to skim off all the surface grass and weeds.
Well, how practical is that for most allotmenteers? I can barely get a
wheelbarrow to my plot!!

Then he goes ahead and rotavates the whole place, chopping up and
multiplying all the perennial weed roots. Is that good practice?

Next he lays out triangular , and other odd-shaped, raised beds!! Where
is the sense in that? Regular oblong or square shaped beds must make for
easier sowing of crops in a straight line and for subsequent hoeing? And
how do you rotate crops if your beds are all of a different size?


Being an allotment gardener I wanted to see how some TV gardener coped with
a new allotment too but after the first program I lost all interest. A JCB
to throw away all the best soil instead of using weedkiller and waiting, and
then he imports more soil from God knows where containing God knows what,
then he makes stupid shaped expensive raised beds (it's an allotment for
growing food!!) that will be difficult to plant and maintain. So realistic
.... not in any way!
What are we going to learn from it? Not much except that they have too much
money. What worries me is what young inexperienced gardeners might take from
it, I can see wonderful allotment soil being scraped off and dumped all over
the country because of a few weeds.

Now reality.... New young gardener on our site, nice chap, knows little but
is so keen. His plot was 3ft high in nettles except where it was dock.
Ground not used for about 20 years except for parking a few lorries so hard
isn't the word, also contains bricks and some rubble. Had to put up rabbit
fencing too and he found that costly so no JCB and new soil for him.

--
Regards
Bob Hobden




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