Conservation

Some useful tips

The soil here is mostly heavy clay. It needs hard physical labour and organic matter to keep in good condition. Even so, you will be expected to cultivate (ie dig over and keep free of weeds) at least 2/3rds of your plot for the production of fruit and vegetables. Be prepared to dig! The remaining third of your plot can be planted with flowers or wildlife-friendly plants, and this is where your toolbox and any small patches of lawn for sitting out on will be.

We share this land with foxes, crows, kestrels, magpies, pigeons, jays, woodpeckers, squirrels, frogs, newts, bees… and many, many slugs, most of whom will happily ‘share’ your crop to the point of taking it all…

How you manage your relationship to the wildlife is up to you, but inorganic gardeners will be expected to keep their chemical use within reasonable limits, and strictly only on their plot – no spraying next door’s organic plot in a high wind! But by the same token, organic gardeners may not have a large area of seeding perennial weeds by claiming it as ‘wildlife friendly.’

Ponds, to encourage slug-eating frogs, are allowed as long as they are too small to pose a hazard and show demonstrable wildlife activity (as opposed to baths filled with stagnant water!)

Aluminium sulphate slug pellets are preferred to blue metaldehyde, which eventually kills thrushes, hedgehogs and other slug predators. Planting of bee and butterfly-friendly plants and flowers, in small patches, is encouraged. All organic waste is to be composed on your plot and we encourage you to compost your domestic kitchen waste, too. You’ll improve your soil.

Annual cycle. "Nature will not wait." The best plot-holders are those who understand the need for regular attendance and close attention to soil condition, the weather and natural processes. We do not ‘grow’ the vegetables, they do that themselves. All we do is attempt to provide the best possible growing conditions according to the plants and the seasons. This requires the kind of skill that only comes from being here enough, all through the year, to gain a thorough knowledge of local conditions. The soil is pure bog in winter, baked brick in summer, so we watch out for the best two weeks in autumn or spring when the soil is easy to work and then the digging is easy. If you’re on holiday for that period, you’ll have a lot more work to do! If you are often away for months at a time a plot can go from well-kept to overgrown in a very short time. It will be your responsibility to inform the chairman of any periods when you are unlikely to be working your plot, whatever the reason, if you wish to keep it.

A plot will work best for you if you build it into your weekly routine. It will require a lot of work in spring/early summer, more again in autumn and less in winter (assuming you got your digging timing right).

You are working with natural processes that have nothing to do with 21st century instant gratification culture. Get it wrong and you won’t get a crop. Get it right and you’ll be amazed at how much produce, and satisfaction, you can derive from a small piece of hill.

Tom Green, Conservation Officer