Landshare

On “River Cottage Winter’s On the Way”, Hugh met Marko Bojcun, a man who stopped dreaming of having a vineyard and set to planting his own vines in his back garden in central London and on a nearby allotment.

Living in an urban space does not mean that tree planting and forest cultivation is beyond your reach, as Clare Ewins has discovered. She has just finished charting her first year of creating an urban forest garden in her backyard. Not only has it provided a scenic garden rich in biodiversity and providing food, it also is a garden that requires much less maintenance than a conventional garden, allowing nature to do most of the work…

The nights are arriving earlier, and the temperatures are swinging down sharply into the evening. We can expect the frosts to come fairly soon: it’s autumn proper. Along with the arrival of spring, this is one of the main corners of the growing year – time to enjoy the end of a few harvests and welcome in some others, and to invest a little in next year.

Sir Julian Rose has joined Landshare and is offering growers near Goring Heath the chance to have plots to grow fruit and vegetables on his Hardwick Estate.

Read full post for more about Sir Julian's plans and a link to his Landshare listing.

Thanks to glallotments for passing on the following info for us:

I'm sure you must be aware of the problems experienced by allotment holders last year due to the use of manure contaminated by a persitent herbicide called aminopyralid. Information has been collated about this problem at this link:
Contaminated Manure

Read full post for more information.

August and September are traditionally the months when your patch will be pumping out the produce in pretty convincing fashion, but after a wet July you may find a few harvests taking their time to come to full readiness. Relax. It will stop raining, it will be warm again, and chances are most things will catch up.

It’s also a time to keep your eyes a little higher, to look to the cooler months ahead and lay the foundations for a few wintery feasts. And if you're new to your plot, these are things you can get started with.

Whilst contamination could be a serious issue in some places (and see the blog entry on contamination advice) it seems that contamination may not be as prevalent as some people may think.

Environmental Protection UK has just released a guide for growing edible crops on land that could be contaminated. A useful read, particularly for anyone looking to grow on land that has been derelict or previously used for industrial purposes.

If you’re only just getting started, relax: you've not left it too late - you can still play catch up and there’s plenty of things that you can plant at this time.

If you're interested in Community Supported Agriculture, do a keyword search of CSA in the Landshare listings to find others like you. The Soil Association also provides advice that could help get you started.

If you're worried about the potential effects of air pollution on food that you're growing or foraging, there has been a survey done by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) which might be useful.

Gardening can be surprisingly cost effective. But you could be at risk of losing the potential savings without some planning and care.

Tips on how to get maximum haul for minimum effort - edible equivalents of self-refilling pints.

Agriculture has a lot to answer for when it comes to your veg patch. The notion of strict patterns of rotation and of growing in lines suits the larger scale of field production, but you can be a little more creative. Square foot gardening has more in common with ornamental gardeners’ block planting. It’s as simple as its title suggests: you plant in foot square blocks rather than rows and in denser groups to ensure maximum harvest.

There’s every reason to love raised beds: put a simple border around your veg patch and every aspect of growing your own food somehow becomes easier. If the idea of sawing, nailing and leveling seems like a palaver, be assured it’s a molehill of work up front that saves a mountain of messabout later on.

The first thing to do when you finally lay your hands on your plot is to resist the urge to panic. Don’t allow yourself to swap the stress of searching for your piece of ground for the stress of having it. Have a wander around, take a few pictures and maybe make a sketch, but don’t be tempted into DOING anything constructive!