The Gardening Register has an Allotment

Three weeks ago my brother, Allan, was allocated an allotment after being on the waiting list for just a couple of months.

The allotments are called Ashfiled Allotments and are situated round the corner from our mum’s house in Knotty Ash. It is just a half plot but is more than big enough for what Allan and I want to do. Infact it looks very big when covered in weeds!

Last week we went round and measured the site in preparation to producing a plan; oday we went over to do some weeding. We managed to choose one of the hotest days of the year so it was quite hard work.

The half plot we have is on an area which was derelict, the area was cleared out and top soil bought in to make the plots workable. This means that we have quite good soil of a good depth and that there are not too many really established weeds on the plot.

As part of the regeneration the committee planted a hedge of Pyracantha along the line of the newly erected fencing; this is to provide a physical barrier to the outside and to make the fence look a little better. Our first job was to remove as many weeds as possible from the area around the Pyracantha and lay a weed suppressing membrane. Then we put a weedkiller down on about a third of the plot and covered it with heavy duty tarpaulins; these will hopefully help the weeds die off and keep new weeds from coming up before we have a chance to go onto the next phase.

Phase II is to lay bases for a shed, a greenhouse, water butts, compost heaps and the paths around the area. Following this we will go on to prepare the remaining area and build raised beds surrounded by gravel paths. Our aim is to produce a low maintenance plot which is easily managed. The addition of an irrigation system driven from our water butts will help this.

It is going to be a lot of hard work initially but hopefully not too bad for the forthcoming years.

You can see from the photographs how bad it looks now and I’ll keep posting new photos at each milestone so you can see the improvement.

Planting under a Leylandii Hedge

Question: I need some advice on a stretch of garden outside my back door. It measures about 3.6m from kitchen step to neighbour’s fence. On the neighbour’s side there is a row of leylandii about 10ft high on our side there is a narrow shaped bed border by a gravel path. There are few plants struggling to grown in the bed with the exception of a rhodedendron. The stretch of garden is east facing. I wanted to know if it would be best to get rid of the narrow shaped bed and extend the gravel path up to the fence and then plant up pots with shrubs and climbers in order to disguise the fence. If I were to keep the bed, what plants would suit that position as it is quite dry and only gets about 2 hours dappled sun a day. Would grasses and evergreens thrive. Answer: Leylandii are a nuisance in the garden as they grow very quick and if not kept in check can soon take over a whole garden! It is extremely difficult to grow anything under a hedge, particularly leylandii as they remove so much moisture from the soil. The fact that your bed only gets a couple of hours sunshine a day is also a problem. I would get rid of the bed and extend the gravel up to the fence and, as you suggest, plant up pots to provide colour and interest. You will still have a problem with low light levels but most do plants are OK in pots for a few years. Try planting a few pots with spring flowering bulbs layering different types to get a succession of flowering e.g. daffodils in the lower layer, followed by tulips, then crocus or iris; anything that takes your fancy will do. Once flowering is over these pots can be moved into a corner out of the way until next spring. Replace them by pots full of summer bedding plants. For all year background interest you could have your evergreens and grasses; conifers also do well in pots and their size is kept in check. A good plant for autumn interest is Skimmia, they don’t mind low light and are great in pots. click here to see a selection from Crocus There aren’t many climbers which will survive against the fence but ivy should be OK and will give your gravel area an evergreen backdrop. There are lots of different ivy available, click here to see a selection from Crocus.