Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: Ema on April 25, 2015, 09:57
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last year or the year before I posted about needing a fast growing hedge/barrier to keep the general public off one side of my plot where there is a path as my allotment site it open to the public.
2 years running I have grown fartachokes, about 20 plants of them. They have provided a lovely hedge thick, quick growing barrier, the plants dont mind being cut to 4 foot and the stems thinned out.
The disadvantages are I really cant eat this many or give them away! currently I've still got 6 plants in the ground and am feeding someones pigs with them.
Any plants grown near them dont seem to do too well, maybe its because they suck all the water up and shade a little. This means the ends of my rows dont get a good crop.
This year I want to try something new.
Rasberries would be great but I dont have enough plants, the plants are expensive, take a while to establish/become a thick barrier and the fruit would get picked.
I have really run out of ideas for fast growing tall veggies, any bright ideas?
If not I may have to resort to flowers....was thinking cosmos
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You'll be finding fartachokes in that bed for a while :nowink: Could you put up a post / wire system with the excuse of training fruit ? That would keep people off your plot and give the fruit canes time to establish. As I said in a previous thread I also think asparagus ferns make an attractive screen.
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I agree with Lardman or if you put up postS and wire and grow peas, beans and squashes. :)
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Anything like raspberries, peas and beans will get eaten
I don't really want to invest in fencing as I will probably move plots this winter
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It would be easy to step over a row of cosmos, they're quite an airy plant.
I'd put up a row of canes, with a few beans/ tall peas/sweet peas to grow up them - Does it matter if the beans/peas get eaten - if it keeps people off your plot? After all you're giving away the artichokes at the moment?
Any that you do get to eat from your side will be a bonus ;)
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If you grow runner beans it isn't as if people will eat them raw so they would have to be 'dedicated' to pick a fair few and take them home to cook them - not many people would do that...
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if your planning to move plots at the end of the year could you put raspberries in pots and sink them into the ground.
at least you will have healthier more established plants to take to your next plot
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Thank everyone I've found some phalecia seeds in my seed box and wondered what these would be like as a hedge/boarder. They are good for ground coverage, grow to 90cm but I wonder if they are quite thin at the top. Has anyone grown them?
The few rasberries I have in pots will be going into a little bed I've prepared. The visitors would happily eat any rasberries for me. The edge I'm trying to block them from wandering onto my plot/talking to me constantly is 15m so I would need a lot of rasberries to have any effect this year, and might not have the space for them when I move.
My bean frames are already up and the soil prepared. I'm also only growing a few tall beans this year as the wind is a pain, lots of dwarf french beans instead.
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Phacelia - what do you think?
(http://www.ecoterralandscape.com/images/phacelia-bipinnatifida.jpg)
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Phacelia - what do you think?
(http://www.ecoterralandscape.com/images/phacelia-bipinnatifida.jpg)
Thanks they look like weeds not tall at all hmmm