The word drought often conjures up images of faraway countries suffering from months of baking sun and no rainfall. It is not often a word which you’d instantly link with Britain, but unfortunately times seem to be changing and hosepipe bans are becoming more frequent.

Where possible every gardener should have water butts to harvest any rain that does fall. If you do decide to water your allotment, the best time of day is during the cool of the morning or evening. Water the roots of the plant and concentrate the watering to once or twice a week, as opposed to giving your plants frequent light showers, otherwise you’ll encourage the roots of the plant to seek water near the surface of the soil, as opposed to deep down in the earth.

Manure and MulchesThere is something that all gardeners can do to help prepare themselves for drought conditions and hosepipe bans and that is to ensure that your soil is fertile and contains plenty of organic material, which will help to retain moisture. The condition of your soil is of paramount importance to your crops, and the easiest way of ensuring your plants have a good start in life is by ensuring that the four main growing chemicals needed – calcium, nitrogen, potassium and phosphorous, are present in your soil. You can check this by buying a good quality soil testing kit from the garden centre but as a rule of thumb, add back into the soil whatever was taken out by the last crop grown. One of the quickest ways of adding these nutrients is through the addition of farmyard manure (well-rotted over a twelve-month period), green manure (crops high in nitrogen, grown specifically to be dug into the soil e.g. clover) and good quality homemade compost (garden and food waste, not cooked meat, well -rotted and turned over a twelve month to two-year period). Not only will these products improve the quality of the soil, but also the soil’s ability to retain moisture, meaning you won’t need to water your plants so frequently (and in some cases not at all). Dig the manure into the soil during a dormant period, end of the summer or early spring are ideal times.

Ensuring that your soil is always covered with a layer of mulch will help to retain moisture and supress weeds: the mulch could be garden compost, composted manure, leaf-mould or a geotextile etc.

Good plants to chose for dry conditions When choosing plants for your allotment it is good idea to go for those that originate in a hot climate and so have evolved not needing very much water, or ones where the edible part of the plant grows below the soil – meaning its roots (and the crops) all benefit from deep water.

Gardening in Drought

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Calendar of events 2018

January 2018

February 2018 Seed Exchange held on Saturday 24th February from 10.00am to 3.00pm

March 2018 Easter Fun Day held on Saturday 31st March from 11.00am to 3.00pm Cancelled

April 2018

May 2018

June 2018

July 2018 Patchway Festival - Lottie open to public – BBQ, table top activities and scare-crow competition Date 14th

July 1.00pm to 5.00pm Cancelled

August 2018

September 2018

October 2018

November 2018 November 05th at 6.30pm. Bonfire BBQ and Refreshments.

December 2018

Good plants to choose for dry conditions Cont’d

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For Example: Carrots - never water, it will lower the yield.Potatoes – Water only when the flowers have just opened, but otherwise there should be enough moisture in the soil to sustain the plants.Parsnips – watering doesn’t benefit the cropJerusalem artichoke – never water, otherwise you encourage the formation of leaves and not tubers.Rosemary & Thyme – woody herbs which can withstand dry seasons.Beetroot – don’t over water as this will increase leaf size not root size, but don’t allow the soil to dry out completely.Brussel Sprouts – established plants will only require watering during exceptionally dry weather.Kohlrabi – the root system of this is plant is well developed for sourcing water and so can withstand very dry seasons.Onions – after the plant has established, they require little watering and never after mid-July as this will delay ripening.

There are some plants which survive very well during wet weather and as such require a lot of watering during a drought. Therefore, it is best to avoid the following – celery, courgettes, marrows, pumpkins, squash, rhubarb and spinach.

Fund Raising Events during 2018

The Committee had two events planned this year, being the Easter Fun day and the Patchway Festival Allotment open day. The Plot Holders have poorly supported these important events and also due to insufficient Committee support this year, we have had to cancel both these events and lose the valuable funds we normally raise. Last year we raised £200.00 on the Easter fun day and £186.00 on the Patchway Festival open day. In addition, £500.00 was donated by Asda to the Allotment Society. We opened the shop this year during the festival and raised just £15.00 for funds.

At the AGM it was raised by plot holders how we could improve our fund raising and was agreed to have more support by plot holders and committee members for future fund-raising events.

We have had our Bonfire Night event, at which we provided Burgers, Sausages and bacon. There were also drinks hot and cold and we had a generous donation of Soup from Diana Sidwell and a Pumpkin pie from another plot holder, Jamie.

The evening was a success and we could have sold even more if we had had the stock. But it was felt that it was better to run out of food, than to have it left over.

The figures for the event are as follows…

Takings £139.15Expenditure £87.35

Net Profit £51.80

All in all we consider it to have been a success and look forward to doing it again next year.

Contact the committee: allotmenteer@outlook.com website:

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