I am going to put up bird feeders as I love listening to bird song whilst I am outdoors. But then I have concerns that I will be encouraging the wrong birds into my allotment or worse,rodents.
Cotty , I have 2 metal bird feeders for fat balls and 1 for seeds that hang from posts , I also put some mealie worms out if the Robin visits
I would avoid putting bird food on open trays
We have rats and feild mice but the allotments is next to farm land , also lots of plot holders have chickens which seem to attract rats ? and chicken feeders have to be rat proof
We got rid of lots of carpets from the site and banned it from future use as they like to nest under it
We have one plot holder who puts the poison out that we get from a local farmer , not available to the general public
I do have a plan in mind. I am going to erect the greenhouses without glass and then place where I think is ideal. I will then mark out areas for path and borders and can see then from a logistical and orientational point of view which is best.
Then over the winter I will write down what seeds I have got(as I have been given so many)and plan my sowing calendar for next year with another plan on what will go where. I will trial the three sisters and inter cropping. I will then write down my results for experience.
That's interesting. I'd never heard of three sisters or intercropping although the latter makes perfect sense. I will now say that is why some of my garlic is inbetween the currant bushes
Are you having any permanent planting or concentrating on seeds? I think most of my fellow plot holders mainly do annual crops if that's the right term whereas my plan is to end up with many fruit trees and bushes and only a small amount of annually grown crop.
Will follow your activities with interest, it's very exciting and rewarding I think
Hi Victoria, 'three sisters' is/was used by native americans and consists of growing maize (sweetcorn) climbing beans and a squash plants together. Beans have symbiotic bacteria which grow in nodules on the roots and these fix nitrogen and produce more than the bean plant needs. Sweetcorn needs lots of nitrogen so growing the two together is beneficial. The squash plants act as groundcover and keeps the roots cool in hot weather as well as keeping down weeds. Finally, the climbing beans are trained to interweave between the corn plants and this protects them from strong winds without having to stake them. I've tried it in my garden and it works! I used sweetcorn, climbing french beans and butternut squash.
In a similar vein, I grew early broad beans in between the rows of potatoes this year and had good crops of both. The beans were planted on mounds of earth between the rows and then pulled up after cropping; At that point the soil from the mounds was used to earth-up the rows of potatoes.
A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
That is very interesting Bob, never heard of that method either. Do you sow your broad beans now in pots or in the ground or do you wait and plant seeds in spring? I tried both last year and I would say the sown straight in the bed ones did as well as the ones sown in pots and then planted out in spring, if anything, the plants sown in spring were a little taller, but both cropped equally as well?
I normally start broad beans in pots and plant out in spring as mice are a problem if direct sown here, Loana. Last year I started them in deep root trainers and they did exceptionally well so will be doing that again. However, in general I agree and find there's often not much difference between early-sown veg under glass and those sown direct when conditions are naturally suitable. I often do a bit of both so all angles are covered.
A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
Posts
I am going to put up bird feeders as I love listening to bird song whilst I am outdoors. But then I have concerns that I will be encouraging the wrong birds into my allotment or worse,rodents.
Cotty , I have 2 metal bird feeders for fat balls and 1 for seeds that hang from posts , I also put some mealie worms out if the Robin visits
I would avoid putting bird food on open trays
We have rats and feild mice but the allotments is next to farm land , also lots of plot holders have chickens which seem to attract rats ? and chicken feeders have to be rat proof
We got rid of lots of carpets from the site and banned it from future use as they like to nest under it
We have one plot holder who puts the poison out that we get from a local farmer , not available to the general public
Agree it is nice to see the birds ?
Looking good cotty, I can see it is going well.
You seem to have a good amount of space, have you already got a plan of what you are putting where?
I do have a plan in mind. I am going to erect the greenhouses without glass and then place where I think is ideal. I will then mark out areas for path and borders and can see then from a logistical and orientational point of view which is best.
Then over the winter I will write down what seeds I have got(as I have been given so many)and plan my sowing calendar for next year with another plan on what will go where. I will trial the three sisters and inter cropping. I will then write down my results for experience.
Cotty sounds like a sound plan
That's interesting. I'd never heard of three sisters or intercropping although the latter makes perfect sense. I will now say that is why some of my garlic is inbetween the currant bushes
Are you having any permanent planting or concentrating on seeds? I think most of my fellow plot holders mainly do annual crops if that's the right term whereas my plan is to end up with many fruit trees and bushes and only a small amount of annually grown crop.
Will follow your activities with interest, it's very exciting and rewarding I think
Hi Victoria, 'three sisters' is/was used by native americans and consists of growing maize (sweetcorn) climbing beans and a squash plants together. Beans have symbiotic bacteria which grow in nodules on the roots and these fix nitrogen and produce more than the bean plant needs. Sweetcorn needs lots of nitrogen so growing the two together is beneficial. The squash plants act as groundcover and keeps the roots cool in hot weather as well as keeping down weeds. Finally, the climbing beans are trained to interweave between the corn plants and this protects them from strong winds without having to stake them. I've tried it in my garden and it works! I used sweetcorn, climbing french beans and butternut squash.
In a similar vein, I grew early broad beans in between the rows of potatoes this year and had good crops of both. The beans were planted on mounds of earth between the rows and then pulled up after cropping; At that point the soil from the mounds was used to earth-up the rows of potatoes.
That is very interesting Bob, never heard of that method either. Do you sow your broad beans now in pots or in the ground or do you wait and plant seeds in spring? I tried both last year and I would say the sown straight in the bed ones did as well as the ones sown in pots and then planted out in spring, if anything, the plants sown in spring were a little taller, but both cropped equally as well?
I normally start broad beans in pots and plant out in spring as mice are a problem if direct sown here, Loana. Last year I started them in deep root trainers and they did exceptionally well so will be doing that again. However, in general I agree and find there's often not much difference between early-sown veg under glass and those sown direct when conditions are naturally suitable. I often do a bit of both so all angles are covered.
Learned something today
Thanks Cotty and Bob.