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2008 Planting Plan Below is the planting plan we are going to be basing our activities on the allotment on this year. As you can probably see, now that we have had a couple of summers under our belt we are rather getting into the swing of things. One further bonus of this is that we are quite clear this year on what we want and what we dont, so instead of having the huge variety we have had in previous years, we feel more confident in just growing what we like, and more of it. We also hope this plan will make the layout and style of our plot more apparent than it seems in our photo's.   The rear portion of the plot this year is to be manured and house the crops such as beans, sweetcorn, potatoes and sqashes, the compost bins and monolith remain in the same area (with the addition of two new ones next to the shed). The central and side areas are to hold our root crops and onions, whilst the front is to hold the brassicas. We have extended our decorative and path areas, as well as added a herb bed, new strawberry patch. and fruit cage. This year we will be warming the soil well before planting as well as making use of cloches, netting, wire fences and horticultural fleece to deter pests as organically as possible. Were hoping for a successful, organised and bumper year, well keep you well up to date with how we get on and please check out our seed and cultivation diary for which varieties we will be using, along witht he hints and tips page which should hopefully help answer any questions you have. Happy gardening. Planting Plans 2006 and 2007 Please see below our planting plans for 2006 and 2007, they are interpretations made in Excel of how the plot would look from the air and document the varieties and planting style we have utilised in each year. .bmp)
This was our first year on the plot and as such we only had a rough idea of what goes well with what or where and how we should be cnsidering planting each variety. For some information on the sucess (or lack of sucess of these varieties, please see the "Seed and Cultivation Diary". The main thing we wanted to achieve with this planting style was the discouragement of carrot fly by interspercing the planting of Carrots with heavily scented crops like Onions and Garlic. This had some limited sucess yet towards the end of the season we did see some significant damage inflicted by the little blighters. The beans flourished on the northern side of the plot as did the pumpkins and squashes to the east, however some downy mildue did present itself towards october as a result of an infected and sprouting Oak Tree stump. 
The planting plan for 2007 is a little different as we began to rotate our crops on a three year cycle and so, plant accordingly to thier PH and soil preferences. The front of the plot nearest the shed was manured wth liberal quantities of well rotted horse manure whilst the strip along the side of the path and a patch in the middle of the plot was left fallow. The rear patch which housed our pumpkins in 2006 was quite stony and weedy and so was not ideal for the root vegetables we put in it. However it did seem the most suitbale place to lime and so these crops were planted there with more soil preparation. In the manured area we planted very hungry crops such as beans, pumpkins and squashes as well as potatoes. We had heard differing accounts of what to do with potatoes at the time, and we remembered that in 2006 we did have a significant ammount of scab present. In orderto counter this we placed them within the fallow area, howwever this would have been in the same place as 2006 and so, not suitable if we are trynig to discourage the build up of pests such as wire worm. So they were placed in the mainly in the manured area and a keen eye on thier growing progress and the end result was kept for 2008 in our Seed and Cultivation Diary 
We attempted to keep the brassicas on the fallow areas of the site which will shortly be limed. Carrots were once again intersperced with highly scented crops such as onions etc to try and deter carrot fly although horticultural fleece and some "earthing up" was also used. A different stratagem for the hot crops like tomatoes, chillies and methods was devised for this season, in particular, the monolith was moved to a new permanent home and they were all placed inside it, which seemed a very good scheme, until blight struck. |
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