Cavendish Allotments

It is essential that cans and containers which have been used for any chemicals or pesticides, organic or not, are NOT washed out in the tanks. Please ensure they are thoroughly rinsed via the tap and emptied onto the soil before they are immersed in the tank. Also, please don’t wash tools in the tank as this can create a build-up of sediment at the bottom.

They may be small at the moment, but very soon the courgettes, tomatoes, beans and all your other crops are going to be bursting out. How do you deal with the glut? Make chutneys, main dishes, puddings, cakes, wine? Recipe suggestions please to the editor.

To start the ball rolling, here’s one from Michael, adapted from Nigel Slater’s Real Fast Food recipe book.

Try cooking your green beans in vegetable stock spiked with a little chilli (this works well when they get a bit old and stringy):

Top and tail the beans, chop roughly and fry in a little vegetable oil with some chopped spring onion and a small chilli pepper. After a few minutes, pour in enough vegetable stock to just cover the beans. Then simmer for 6 or 7 minutes. Delicious, especially when served with spare ribs or pork chops!

A few holders have ponds on their plots. The pros are that they can attract wildlife, especially frogs and toads, and water-loving plants can be grown. The cons are they can be a breeding area for mosquitoes and there is the possibility of danger to children and others. If you have a pond, put in oxygenating plants to keep the water from becoming stagnant and cover the pond with a strong wire mesh.

Do you have one to pass on to other gardeners? Here are a few from plotholders. Please send in your own. Even if you think it may be well known, there will always be someone for whom it’s new.

“Last year I was too late to buy seed potatoes. I had some shop-bought ones that were beginning to sprout, so I put them in and had a good crop.”

— Abigail Bunney (8b)

“Lidl in Feltham is a good place to buy gardening items. I bought some cloches with hoops and a perforated plastic cover for £2.99.”

— Daphne Wheeler (13a)

“I sow onions and carrots together and have not had the carrots affected by carrot fly. I found this better than using fly-resistant varieties.”

— Sue O’Callaghan (20a)

“Lots of the plastic materials used for food packaging can be used for gardening. Make holes with a hot skewer in large yogurt pots and cream pots for seed sowing, especially for peas and beans. Use the base trays from ready meals for seed trays. Cut up the lids of ice cream boxes to make labels. Wash the spray containers for bath and kitchen cleaners and use as sprayers for fertilisers, insecticides, etc.”

— Anne Neville (16b)

“Interplanting sweet peas between runner beans and climbing French beans helps to attract pollinators, as the flowers of the sweet pea are stronger scented than the bean flower”

— Michael Thierens (16)

In the last newsletter, we touched on companion planting. This can be a very beneficial approach to natural gardening, in terms of both pest control, and in helping pollination.

The common marigold (Tagetes patula) and Meadow Foam (Limanthes dougasii), also known as ‘poached-egg flower’ are perfect habitats for ladybirds and lacewings, which are natural devourers of aphids, etc. Similarly, Californian Poppy (Eschscholzia), fennel and alliums also attract beneficial predators.

A wonderful addition this summer is Hilliers Nurseries selling larvae of both ladybirds and lacewings which you can release on your plot. The nearest Hillier garden centre is in Sunningdale, just off junction 3 of the M3, or you can phone them on 01344 623 166.

The carrot fly can also be a pest but interplanting double rows of onions between each row of carrots can help to deter them, as Sue O’Callaghan has proven (see Top tips).

The website www.gardenorganic.org.uk of ‘Garden Organic’ provides much good advice to help us, for example:

“Bindweed hates disturbance so it flourishes where the soil is not cultivated. Dig out or hoe off every new shoot you see. When you dig the soil, keep on pulling out all the roots you find. If you do this constantly you should be able to eventually conquer it — regular cultivation is what bindweed hates. Put the shoots and the plants into a black bag and leave till they rot down to mush then put it in the compost bin. Incidentally, all perennial weeds can be composted if they are bagged and left to rot first.

Couch grass is more difficult to eradicate. It can be conquered if the area is covered over winter with a tarpaulin or similar material to exclude all light and then the roots dug out next spring.”

Angela King (15a) produced a muchpraised salad for the open day:

Summer salad with manchego cheese and spicy sausage.

• 250g broad beans (podded weight, fresh or frozen)
• 200g peas (podded weight, fresh or frozen)
• 130g spicy sausage
• 100g watercress
• 100g Spanish manchego cheese (or other)
• zest and juice of half a lemon
• tablespoon olive oil
• tablespoon of chopped mint.

Cook the beans for 3 minutes, add the peas and cook for a few minutes more till tender but not squashy. Remove skin from sausage, slice and fry quickly. Dice the cheese. When vegetables and sausage are cool, mix the oil, lemon zest and juice and mint in a serving bowl and stir everything together until just mixed.

A useful book to give you ideas for your produce is The Allotment Cookbook, by Kathryn Hawkins, New Holland Publisher s, £12. It has a fruit and vegetable glossary with information about harvesting, preparation and cooking, plus recipes for savoury and sweet dishes, accompaniments and preserves.

This year’s AGM will be held at the Winchester Hall (adjoining the Turks Head pub in Winchester Road) on Sunday 18 November, 3 to 4.30pm. During this last year, many plot-holders have commented on the good atmosphere on the site.

Perhaps you have ideas on what could be done next year? So please come and discuss them!

Soft drinks and snacks will be served.