Page 37 - ALG Issue 1 2023

This year will be better!
Last year’s runner bean harvest totalled five – not 5kg or even 5lb, just five beans.
The season began well, with a good show of flowers on the plants and, thanks to the judicious positioning of marigolds, no blackfly and plenty of bees. Then the temperature hit 40°C, and the burgeoning beans all gave up and fell off.
However, by mid-August, we watched with fingers firmly crossed as the plants rallied and had a second
flush of flowers. In the end, we did indeed achieve a modest harvest. There was some consolation, too, in the reasonable show we had from our broad beans. Other things we’d set off earlier in the year – beetroot, spinach, garlic and onions – did
OK, too. Even the potatoes, which were never going to win any prizes, produced enough to keep us going for several months.
That said, 2022 was hands down
the worst growing year we’ve ever experienced in our 15 years of allotmenting (and years of growing at home before that). We used up our store of 4 tonnes of water and had to resort to using the mains tap, which caused us a lot of green guilt, not to mention the hard labour of carrying it up the hill.
last year. We used them in salads, omelettes, soup, pasta sauce,
more soup, chutney and jam, and homemade ketchup; they were so good it would give Mr Heinz a run for his money. We even put some in the freezer, and now they’re giving us a taste of summer in the depths of winter. Lettuces, too, were pretty good, and so were our herbs. We gathered loads of soft fruit, and one further bonus of the hot weather was the most successful harvest of chilli peppers we’ve ever had. It’s an ill wind...
SO WHAT LESSONS DID WE LEARN?
• You can never have too many
water butts.
• Mulching works, and no-dig works
too, once you get the knack.
• Now is the time to think about
what crops or varieties might
be more suited to higher temperatures and/or long periods without rain.
• That old cliché of watching the weather not the calendar has never been more important
• Our ecosystem is fragile and we must take care of it.
Last year was tough, but there is perhaps some small comfort in the fact that we were not the only people on our field whose allotment didn’t fulfil its promise. Be in no doubt, though, that the extraordinary weather we have been experiencing is as a result of the climate emergency. Note, I say ‘emergency’, not ‘change’. Maybe this isn’t the place to discuss the politics, but, where the environment is concerned, things are going to get even worse unless a concerted effort is made to make them better.
Julia Thorley
I doubt there’s anywhere that has emerged unscathed and unscorched from last year’s astonishing summer. However, for a moment let’s not dwell on what went wrong; I’m sure we’ve all had enough of miserable conversations with fellow plotholders. While not wishing to diminish the seriousness of the situation, we must look for glimmers of hope if we’re not to give up.
OK, so your courgettes might have been malformed, and your spuds are on the small side, but I’m willing to bet something went well. If you grew French beans, you might be sitting pretty, because they are relatively resistant to drought. How did your sweetcorn fare? Did the deep roots manage to find enough water to sustain them?
Our tomatoes were phenomenal
Allotment and Leisure Gardener 37