Steve’s Handy Hints Page
March 2008

In March the north south divide is at its widest it may be spring in Devon but it is still winter in the highlands, listen to the local forecasts as the weather is critical now.

As the soil warms up keep a hoe handy to deal with annual weeds dig out perennial weeds and burn them. To get ahead of annual weeds make a stale seedbed. Prepare the bed and let the weeds germinate. Hoe them off then sow your seeds, the plants should be up before the weeds appear. Covering the soil with fleece for a week or so will warm the soil and encourage the weeds to grow.

Pests will be multiplying now so keep a sharp eye and treat early. Put out beer traps for slugs and snails ensure that grease bands around fruit trees are secure.

Vegetables planted outside this month will need protection with fleece or cloches.

Animal manure is definitely worth the effort, if you can have a chat with your local farmer or stables. Try to get manure with a good straw content never use fresh manure it could contain chemicals, wormers, hormones and pathogens. Form a heap 5ft high and wide, covering it with polythene will create more heat and it should be ready in about 4 months. It will produce a good soil conditioner, when ready it will be crumbly and black and smell quite pleasant. Manure with wood shavings will take a year to mature. (The Fulham Palace Allotments get deliveries from the Royal Mews!). Now is a good time to acquire some manure before farmers clean out winter bedding.

THE HISTORY OF ALLOTMENTS - Continued

There were, by the 1870s, 240,000 allotments averaging ¼ acre, and 1 in 3 agricultural workers had plots. Rents were quite high at around £1 - £2 for a ¼ acre plot, 4 times the price of farmland, the average labourers wage was 12s - 15s per week. Several acts were passed and the General Enclosure Act in 1845 allowed the formation of a field garden for the use of the poor after the enclosure of land in a parish. This was not very successful as the enclosure commissioners set only a small amount of land aside.

Allotments were associated with rural areas but as the country became more urbanised undeveloped land within towns and allotment sites swallowed up by development meant that towns such as Leeds and Southampton had allotments. Urban dwellers were becoming allotment holders about this time plots were 10 poles the size of most plots today.

Between the 1870s and 1913 the number of allotments grew to 1.5 million the reasons for this increase were legislation, changes in local government, and shortage of food during the war years.

To be continued...

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