Weeding the Web

DIY Garden Projects in the Greenwood

NB I've left this post on for interest's sake, but sadly the Allotment Forestry website has disappeared and I haven't been able to track it down at a different address.

As Spring tickles our fancies, you’re probably itching to get out into the garden and do something, not just clearing and digging and sowing, but A Project. And there are certainly plenty of ideas on the web.

One site offering interesting ideas is Allotment Forestry a term originally coined to describe the small-scale growing of beanpoles, but which now encompasses the growing, management and use of 'micro' woodlands—individual trees, hedges and small woodlands—to produce all types of wood products. As the site says:

"A sad fact of gardening in Britain today is that it is easier to buy a Chinese ‘twig’, in the form of bamboo, than a locally grown hazel ‘twig’ to support runner beans. Our individual actions as gardeners may seem small and insignificant but cumulatively they have a massive power to do good or harm."

It also points out that we have, in our consumer culture, overcome any shame we felt in not being able to do simple tasks and have become increasingly dependent on the garden centre, instead of using what is growing around us.

Creating an allotment: Doctor knows best

Allotments are hot property these days. If you’re thinking of taking one on and are lucky enough to live in an area where there isn’t a waiting list, then you should get going now. You’ll need the winter to prepare the plot in time for spring sowing.

The best websites make no bones about the work involved. Dr George Cook- a GP with fifty years’ gardening experience – has an allotment in Liverpool which he transformed in only seven months (though, having it almost on his doorstep must have helped).

Last month the Liverpool Federation for Allotment and Leisure Gardeners* awarded him Third Place for the Best Plot in Liverpool 2009. His allotment website includes loads of information, including a thought-provoking monthly breakdown of the hours spent working it (a hefty 78 hours in June, only 5 in December). When I first visited over a year ago, he’d included the sobering calculation that a standard plot takes ten thousand turns of the spade to dig over and added, “the basic requirement…is exercise and commitment. If you are afraid of these, then try knitting.”