~ Carrots, leeks, courgettes, tagetes, cabbage, runner beans, tomatoes ~
:: The Regent's Park Allotment::
Being of a very curious nature, I do love a good nosey around other gardens and allotments. I find inspiration everywhere: the planting, the colours, the layout, clever use of discarded items… So, it was with a carefree heart that I pedalled off last Saturday to a half-day training in the Regent's Park allotment run by Capital Growth and Capel Manor College. The sun was shining as I cycled through the park, a highly enjoyable but somewhat rebellious act due to it being Not Allowed. (Why is that, I wonder? Children who won't walk any distance will often cycle happily, thereby allowing families to embrace the Great Outdoors together.)
But I digress… my hopes and expectations for the day were fully met: an excellent and comprehensive training in Growing and Preserving Soft Fruits was provided by Tom from
City Leaf (with handouts, which was lucky as I would never have remembered it all). In three short hours we covered the four Ps (Planting, Pruning, Propagation and Preserving) in relation to a range of soft fruits: gooseberries, red/white currants vs blackcurrants, strawberries, blackberries, blueberries and raspberries. Whew - feeling hungry yet? As if that wasn't enough, we also briefly looked at ways of training fruit, veering off into the realms of cordoned and espaliered apples.
~ Garden of Eden? ~
I must admit my motivation for going was to get access to an Idiot's Guide to Growing Raspberries as our canes didn't do well this year. Poor little things. I now know that this is due to a combination of not planting soon enough (nor heeling in), not preparing the site well beforehand (it was nearly Christmas and we were desperate), not giving them enough space and also the poor plants being choked by weeds from a neighbouring patch. We'd literally plonked them into the soil in a spare corner of Leigh's allotment as the Veg Patch was not ready for them. See? Loads of info. I'm going to replace the canes and, this time, lavish care and attention on them.
We also looked at successfully growing grapes in an urban environment (apparently London is now warm enough for this, which is great news). Their grapes looked luscious:
And in anticipation of the wonderful harvest we'll all have next year, and in case any of it actually reaches our kitchens (mine will all be eaten as it ripens by the children), our group was introduced to preserving your soft fruit harvest by a local guest speaker; a wonderful woman who brought along some of her produce and made it sound so easy. She scotched several myths: no, she doesn't use special preserving sugar (juice of a lemon will serve instead, if needed), blackberries do not set well on their own (throw in a Bramley) and the original jam jar lids are just as good as the cellophane/rubber band option, if properly cleaned. Mantra: Cleanliness is all when preserving!
I spotted this wonderful 1970s cookbook (Readers Digest, I think) on the table at the end. It caught my eye, set against the jars of chutney and melons grown in the allotment. Yes! Melons are possible in the UK - we had some of these fruits during the break. (Delish.) The allotment has an open aspect, sheltered by fencing on the North and East sides, with the melon vines planted at the southern end.
Elsewhere, other vegetables were all still flourishing and ripening (the carrots! the rhubarb! the beans! giant tomatoes!). You'll recognise the asparagus in the above photo - a huge bed of it, with ripening berries. The volunteer gardeners try to nip them off when they turn red and before they burst and scatter the seeds. Bare patches in the beds were explained by the recent harvesting of the butternut squash which was set to one side in baskets - there was an open day 'Harvest Cook Off' the following day (at least I hope so as the weather had turned wet by then).
The entire allotment was full of inspiration, if excessively tidy (but then they are on permanent view to the public). Companion planting abounded: Basil and cabbages, crimson nasturtiums under the runner beans and around the rhubarb, and bright orange tagetes were planted (and interplanted) everywhere - around tomatoes, apples, beans, herbs - and doing a fantastic job of bringing in the bees.
But I especially l-o-v-e-d the use of recycling: peppers, tomatoes and herbs grew in large empty white Italian tomato cans, an old Royal Parks watering can had been planted with herbs, and … the best bit for me … the fibreglass poles from a defunct tent used to hold up netting. I'm
SO pinching that idea!
There, I think I've rambled on long enough. It's worth a visit if you find yourself near Regents Park and also very handy the Cow and Coffee Bean Café. (Here's the
Google map link). I took far too many photographs and am now making a Flickr page so, once the link is up, pop over there if you want to see more!