Top Allotment Tips With Maria!

Whether you're brand new to growing your veggies or you’ve already got your hands in the soil, a little planning, and understanding, can make all the difference.

With that in mind we've asked green-fingered Maria to provide us, and you, with some top tips to get your started!

🌱 Before you begin: Plan with purpose and map your journey 🌱
A great crop starts on paper long before the spade touches soil. Map out your space,
thinking about how your allotment will both look and grow. Ask yourself some key questions before you begin: How much space do you have? Where does the sun hit?

Sketch out your space and group plants that work well together using a technique called 'companion planting'

It is well known within the community that certain plants help each other thrive. Whilst some enrich the soil, others deter pests and can therefore live in harmony and thrive through the teamwork. For example: Marigolds near tomatoes can deter aphids whilst beans fix nitrogen into the soil for leafy greens.

Similarly some plants struggle to protect themselves and brassicas (such as cabbage, kale, broccoli) need boundaries. A simple way to look after them is to keep them together and under some light netting to protect from butterflies and other hungry creepy-crawlies.

🌱 Now you're ready to plant your first batch - don't fear the seeds  It's okay to over-sow! 🌱
You can always thin seedlings later and, taking the law of averages in account, it's better to have too many than too few!

Once you've planted the seeds care and patience is essential, so here are Maria's tips for keeping things healthy without overdoing it.

The first tip is to go easy on the water! Let the soil guide you, if it’s damp an inch down, skip the watering because it's a little known fact that overwatering can be just as harmful as underwatering your plants. This is particularly dangerous in the UK as the weather is SO unpredictable!

Try and keep your plants either outside, or on the windowsill making sure they get plenty of natural light—especially fruiting ones like tomatoes and peppers. Try not to crowd them otherwise some may cast shade on others giving you a wonky crop!

Make the most of the natural pest controls you have around the house, for example on the farm we go through hundreds of thousands of eggs a year and this is perfect for me because crushed eggshells can help keep slugs and snails away from the plants AND they add calcium to the soil as they break down.

Something I've had to learn living life at 100mph is that gardening is all about patience, and what better to do while you're waiting for your crops to grow than head out and enjoy some snacks from your favourite farm shop, we highly recommend Nelly's Farm - it's great food and people love it!

🌱After the harvest: Learn and Experiment🌱
The season doesn’t end with the harvest—it evolves.

Play with the flavours you've grown, mix things up and try new recipes, we love making pesto's from our crop and they go beautifully on some homemade pasta! 

Being a bookworm I've always kept a garden journal. I can't speak enough on the importance of understanding what worked, what didn’t and why. This is my secret to becoming a farmer in my own garden - you'll thank yourself later, I assure you!

My Final Thoughts
Taking the leap into allotment gardening is so rewarding and a great way to escape the fast-paced life that we are thrust into everyday.

It's an escape, growing knowledge at your own, developing patience, and feeling pride in your crop. So plan well, get your hands dirty, and don’t be afraid to experiment!