Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Welcome => New Across The Site => Topic started by: John on July 13, 2019, 01:06
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I know some people think I'm a bit stuck in my ways because I don't embrace every new idea that comes along. I'm actually quite open to alternative growing methods. The fact of the matter is that I look to use methods that are practical and generally work. Proven methods tested by many gardeners over time. But that doesn't stop me from trying out alternative ideas.
Permaculture Pumpkins (https://www.allotment-garden.org/garden-diary/6481/permaculture-pumpkins/)
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I did something very similar, but on a much smaller scale, when I took on my second piece of plot.
That was waist high grass and had been for several years, so I dug a bit for other crops and the rest was pumpkins and squash through weed membrane, sitting on cut weeds and anything else I could get my hands on. They were smaller and less numerous than crops grown in cleared ground, but I got them. The weed membrane attracts slugs, but once the plants get going, they don't seem to cause problems. Probably too interested in the rotting stuff underneath. There were also weeds growing through the planting holes in the membrane, but I just pulled the tops off the worst of them. Squash are roughty toughty plants that can cope with a bit of weed anyway. The added bonus was the soil underneath was so much easier to cultivate once the membrane was lifted at the end of the year.
I think it was a Bob Flowerdew book that set me off down that route. He was an experimenter as well and would trial any growing ideas he thought might have legs :) I reckon you might have a plan there ;)
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The thing with experimenting is that you can't fail. If it works, great but if it doesn't you've learned something. Incidentally, Bob Flowerdew is a gardener I really rate. Whenever I hear him on GQT I listen closely :D
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The plot I got last year had two 5 x 10ft beds that didn't grow anything but weeds last year. So in the spring they got strimmed and I turned the contents of a dalek onto each, and covered with cardboard and weed control fabric - just like you :)
There are now 6 squashes and 2 courgettes growing through it quite happily :D I put a watering pot next to each plant, just in case we had another dry year - I'm so glad I did.