Month: July 2024

The expression “organic” gardening’s come to mean growing using only naturally-occurring materials and substances as fertilisers – as well as for pest and weed control, along with other manual or mechanical methods – which replace the use of synthetics. It’s not a condition of any Cardiff allotment that gardeners grow in this way, but plenty do, and many more do so in a practical, if not absolutist way too.

Organic growers will also often have a keen interest in environmental and ecological things – for instance be re-wilding activists – and have their own ethical angle, which can lead them to be vegetarian or vegan too.

The common – and sometimes unkind – caricatures of such people have led many to be misled, about what an organically-gardened plot would look like, and on the part of people taking on a plot to garden in that way, perhaps a mistaken idea, as to what one should look like, along with a sense of needing to conform to that. (That is, that it’d be a tangle of all manner of wild plant life, and of everything which goes with that – including exasperated neighbours, despairing at the myriad pests, seeds, and roots, which find their way onto their plots from it.)

Let’s recognise then, that if a plot’s going to be productive of food – as the Allotments Acts ask – then it’s unavoidable that there’s to be effective pest and weed control on it.

So, on a productive organic plot, typical methods would be the removal of, and constant disturbance of, the habitats for pests. That’d mean, for instance, that there wouldn’t be any dense patches of weeds close to crops, from which armies of slugs and snails would otherwise come to eat the produce. Along with this, if the ground were frequently hoed and raked to kill weeds organically, then at the same time, most slugs and their eggs living in the loose soil would also be destroyed.

Alec and Angie’s plot beside the spine road is one of the most efficiently productive on site, and this is exactly the approach that they take. The regular use of hoe and rake is made easier by their keeping the soil in good, workable condition with the frequent digging in of well-rotted manure*, and recycled compost from their heap.

Bought fertilisers can be organic too, such as fish, blood, and bone, although vegetarian gardeners may understandably avoid some of these. Naturally-occurring dressings, such as gardener’s lime (mainly chalk, actually), the phosphorus-containing guano, and, for magnesium, Epsom salts, are also generally acceptable for the organic gardener.

Apart from its use as a fertiliser and soil conditioner, manure’s also hard to beat as a weed-suppressant mulch. Put on in a layer about 100mm (four inches) thick, after harvest and weeding, it’ll prevent the survival of the great majority seedlings which germinate beneath it, by sheer thickness and impenetrability. This’ll steadily rot until the next growing season, and at the same time soil life will also break it down, and mix it in with the soil.

Happy gardening – and eating!

*For the purist, allowing manure to rot for a good period before use – ideally two seasons – ensures that any veterinary medicines – or hormone weedkiller residues in the hay eaten by horses – will have been broken down by microorganisms and reduced to insignificant levels. (The RHS advice is that this is less important if the manure is simply to be used as a mulch, rather than being dug in.)

PPA Website Team

Hogweed – and its near relatives – are endemic on and around PPA site. It’s a member of the carrot family, and quite a few of these, but notably hogweed, are capable of causing skin injuries, such as blisters and rashes. These may be picked up by handling the plant material, allowing its hairs or prickles to penetrate the skin, or by the splatter of semi-liquid material when strimming. The harmful effects are greatly increased by exposure to light. Common hogweed is not as virulent a danger as its giant sister – which may grow to the height of a lamp post – but it contains exactly the same toxins, albeit in lower concentrations.

The blisters and sores can be nasty, and leave long-lasting marks on the skin. It can be a particular danger if splatter should enter the eyes in sunny weather, so when strimming anywhere near this plant we should cover up well and wear a full face visor. PPAA Committee volunteers, and plot holders, have recently been hurt by both of these means.

Left alone the plant is harmless, and its flowers are a great source of nectar for bees. However, it is a prolific seeder, and its deep tap roots – it’s sometimes called cow parsnip* – can make it hard work to eradicate by non-herbicidal methods.

*The folk name cow parsley is usually applied to anthriscus sylvestris or wild chervil, but is also sometimes used for a range of plant genuses of this family of similar appearance e.g. wild carrot, and so on.

PPA Website Team

The other day I found a greenfinch – I think – trapped inside our cabbage netting. I’ve no idea how it got in, the mesh is too small and it’s well-pegged down, but there must have been a gap somewhere. Fortunately I was able to release it easily enough.

Today I came across what appeared to be a sparrow hawk, trapped in a neighbour’s netting, but this had quite large gaps at the bottom, and it was easy to see how it had got in. Again it was no problem to release it.

If I personally have come across five or so cases like this in this one season, then it must be very common on the site.

So this is a general heads up, for everyone to make sure that there aren’t any ways for birds to end up inside our nets. Any unused net should also be bagged – an old carrier bag, anything will do – or boxed, and not left lying around for hedgehogs to become entangled in it.

This said, netting, when used with care, is a far better way to protect our food from the cabbage white butterfly, and from pigeons, than insecticide sprays and bird scarer kites are.

MP

Bamboo can be an attractive garden subject, and also produce useful canes, but this article in the press – and other recent media coverage – reminded us, that there can be problems, and that a few years ago, the then site rep noticed that several plot holders had this growing on their plots.

Bamboo isn’t a broadleaf, nor a conifer, nor a willow tree, and so the Tenancy Agreement doesn’t seem to cover it. It is, in fact, a kind of grass. This uncertainty has led to problems for councils and tenants alike, with councils one moment directing committees to tell plot holders in no uncertain terms to remove their bamboo, only apparently to change their minds shortly afterwards. Furthermore, if the council failed to make clear to the plot holders concerned that they had issued the earlier directive, then this in turn could lead to problems between tenants and committees, or their members, whom the former might assume to have been needlessly bothering them.

As the article makes clear, bamboo – when not constrained, e.g. in a planter, sunken or otherwise – can be a serious invasive problem.

Cardiff Council are presently holding Working Group meetings to examine reform to the terms of allotment tenancies, and to the fees and charges relating to them. A PPAA Committee member is one of its attendees, and at the last meeting the Chair of Cardiff Allotment Holders’ Association (“CAHA”) proposed that bamboo and other invasive non-native species be expressly added to the list of subjects which may not be planted or maintained. (Whether that might be implemented remains to be seen, however.)

Whatever, for the time being, if anyone has this growing on their plot, then they need to make sure either that it’s properly controlled as outlined, or to remove it completely.

(Any container needs to be proof enough so that the spreading roots or underground stems – rhizomes – don’t escape through any holes to invade neighbouring plots etc.)

PPA Website Team

Present: Sue Jones (Acting Chair), Wendy Gunter (Treasurer), Mike Powell, Rhys Williams, Jane Davies, Martin Pasek, Keith Ball, Nerys Lloyd-Pierce, Gordon Goldsmith

Apologies: Lewis Evans

The meeting opened at 19:00.

Previous Minutes:

Matters covered below. 

Chairman’s Report:

Covered below.

Site Secretary’s report (shared role):

Sue reported there are currently five vacant plots. PPA welcomed eight new plot holders in June. Plot viewings are ongoing, as is some clearing work where needed. There have been two structure applications approved.

Work continues by the Parks Department towards a new computer management programme. The expected completion date of June has now passed, but with no new completion date yet provided. While this is ongoing all of the Cardiff Allotments waiting lists remain closed.

Fly-tipping: 

Three related incidents of fly-tipping on the 22/6, 23/6, and 24/6 have been reported to the Police and to the Council Waste Enforcement Department, supported by CCTV images and by the accounts of two eye witnesses.

Treasurers Report: Wendy 

The sum raised by the June plant sale has now reached £472.05 and the accompanying shop sale £194.50.

Our annual grant from the Council of £5085.29 has been received.

Plot Inspections: Mike

Between the 10th and 12th June the first plot inspections were carried out by a team of four. This resulted in thirty-six ‘Letters of Concern’ being issued. In response three potholders voluntarily ended their tenancies.

Fourteen days later the second inspection of the remaining thirty-three plots was carried out. Eighteen had improved significantly and the remaining fifteen were issued with a ‘Notice of Non Cultivation’.

The final inspections will take place 28 days after the second.

Going forward the Committee discussed starting the Plot Inspections process in March to fall in line with other Cardiff sites.

Trees: 

Mike has carried out a tree survey of the site. He identified four dead or dying large trees on the sites boundaries. Mike to follow up with the council.

Twenty-nine trees were noted on plots which required major effort to bring into line with the Council’s rules on trees. Lewis Evans had asked in his absence for there to be a discussion about legacy trees, and help with management. Gordon suggested a five year plan. Mike and Rhys to progress.

Allotments Fees and Charges, And Conditions Of Tenancy Working Group Meetings:

Martin attended the first workshop. Jon Maidment Head of Parks chaired the workshop which was attended by two other council officials and five representatives from various Cardiff Allotment sites, National Allotments Society and CAHA. This was the first of four proposed meetings, it’s aim being to focus on desirable revisions to the tenancy agreement.

As a result of discussions at this meeting Martin proposed a motion to the PPAA Committee, to enable him to represent a consensus view in response to particular proposals at the next meeting.

The motion was – ‘This Committee believes that its main purpose is the promotion of the use of PPA’s allotments as defined by the Allotments Act 1922’*

The PPA Committee was unanimous in passing the motion.

AOB: 

Rhys commented on the success of the wildlife cameras in capturing antisocial behaviour.

Wendy mentioned plot holders wanted to know about wood chip deliveries. Discussion resulted re the seasonal nature of supply and quality of wood chip.

Jane wanted to be assured that all emails received on the PPAA email are answered, when an answer is required. She was assured that they were.

Nerys raised hedgehog ‘highways’ and will report back. Ponds on plots not having a means of exit eg a ramp, for wildlife if they fall in was mentioned as a concern.

There being no further business, the meeting ended at 2025.

The PPAA Committee meetings are regularly scheduled for the first Tuesday in the month, but it was agreed to not meet in August to allow for holidays, therefore the next meeting will be Tuesday 3rd September 2024 at 1900, at the Butcher’s Arms, Canton.

*”For the purposes of this Act, where the context permits—

The expression “allotment garden” means an allotment not exceeding forty poles in extent which is wholly or mainly cultivated by the occupier for the production of vegetable or fruit crops for consumption by himself or his family”