A Beginners Guide to the Allotment

Louise and I have had the allotment for just over a year now and I thought it would be a good idea to get some thoughts down on our "Lessons Learnt" and some general advice for starting your own allotment.

Getting Started:

1. Wait times for allotments can be very long! Up to 6 months in some councils as allotments need to be vacated before they can be reallocated.
2. Allotments are measured in rods where 1 rod is around 5 meters
3. Cost varies from council to council
4. The first few tools you'll need are some pots, a spade, a fork and a watering can
5. You will need a compost bin, pick an out of the way location that is relatively flat
6. Start small, no need to dig the whole thing over at once.
7. Ask neighbours for advice, most will be happy to help
8. You can buy old tools very cheap at weekend markets, and local allotment organisations often sell seeds and compost, your local farmer will sell horse manure very cheap too

The What's What:

Some things look weird can you may find yourself wondering what other people are doing and why they have done them:

1. Raised Beds - These are wooden borders around a small patch of land, they make it harder for slugs to eat your seeds.
2. Fire Pits - Not all allotments allow them, and some only allow them between certain times. But here you can burn your weeds (like bind weed). The ash also makes great fertiliser!
3. Fruit Cages - These keep the birds off the berries and trees
4. Nets -  There will be nets and tunnels over seedlings, again to stop the birds. Some nets are specially designed to keep off frost, snow and bugs but still allow rain and sunlight.
5. Tarp - This is usually put over a particularly weedy patch of land, it blocks out sunlight and kills the weeds at the roots. Normally left over the year ready for the new year.

Chemical Romance:

Here's some of the do and do nots around chemicals

1. Slug Killer - in small doses keeps slugs at bay. However, pellets stay inside the slugs and the poison can have adverse affects on hedgehogs who can die from poisoning as well. There is also the case whereby if slug levels become too low there will be less millipedes, frogs and hedgehogs on your allotment meaning future slug populations will thrive without natural predators! Alternatives include; slug traps, putting them in the compost bin, raised beds, salt walls around plants.
2. Weed Killer - I'm not adverse to weed killer itself but in the wind it can blow to other allotments killing other peoples vegetables. This is a big no no for obvious reasons. 
3. Bug Killer - There are lots of home made formulas for killing white fly and aphids but some store bought products work just well.

Lessons Learnt:

We've all made mistakes in our lives, here are some of ours:

1. Make sure you know what fruit/veg is what! We've pulled out strawberries we thought were weeds and grown raspberry bushes we thought was cauliflower. There's lots of apps for knowing what is what and books too!
2. Plan what you will grow and when. Veg needs to be seeding pretty early in the year and inside your house is a perfect place whilst you get the allotment ready. Plants grow better in the greenhouse but the house can be good.
3. Find a friend to agree to water your allotment whenever you're away. Alternatively fellow allotmenteers will sometimes offer, hence why we don't spray our neighbours allotments with weed killer! This is mainly important at the seed stage, less so when they're out in the wild.
4. If you can't find someone, then there's ways of watering your seeds without human intervention. I've mentioned these before here: and we personally settled for this.
5. Be careful when digging grassy bits of land, creatures great and small live there. Mice, frogs, hedgehogs etc. Killing a frog by accident is the worst! :(
6. Composting can be a bit of an art. There's green and brown types of waste that can go in. Green is veg, leftover food and some weeds. Browns are dry leaves, cardboard from your house, tea bags and coffee grounds. The eden project do a good introduction here and a comprehensive video guide here.

That's all I have time for in this sitting! But I'll no doubt be back with a Part 2!

Do you have your own tips for new allotment holders? Are you having any particular problems on your own allotment? 

Leave a comment below to get in touch :)

Building A Frog House - A Ribbiting tale

As autumn has moved towards us it is time to harvest the last allotment produce of the year and turnover the plot ready for a fresh year of growing. Whilst Louise and I were doing just this we decided to dig out the strawberry section we had, but in doing so - and so fervently - it ended with the heartbreaking murder of a little frog with my fork.

I found it all a bit sad so decided to giveback to the frog community by giving them somewhere they can live which is not between the vegetables.

I had a quick look online and it appears frogs like dark, damp places to hide over the winter. The obvious benefits being that they will eat the slugs and keep the population down. Having seen some examples I drew and showed Louise some options.

House 1: Plant Pot Vertical House 2: Wood Planks  House 3: Plant Pot Horizontal House 4: Stone, brick and logs

In the end I chose option 2 as we already had a bit of wood in the spare room. Some 2"x3" hardwood and plank like thin wood. I cut the wood into strips of 15cm. 4 of the 2x3 pieces per home and 3 plank pieces per home.

I then attached the 2"x3" pieces using a metal mending plate to hold them rigid together.

At the back, I screwed the plank piece at the back showing an even amount of space between top and bottom before tacking the remaining two pieces to the top. At this point it does not need to be even or smooth. Just roughly assembled.

 

At this point we could have left them as they were but Louise and I love a little competition so we decided to give them a paint and see whose was the best.

Louise's - Hop On Inn

 

Aiden's - Lily's Pad

Finally we put them out on the allotment with a hole at the centre and some dead leaves and grass for the frogs to hide in.

Now just to wait and see if we get any residents!

An Arduino Powered Watering System

So it's finally been made.

In preparation for our trip to Italy, Louise's housemate Alastair and I have made an Arduino Powered Watering System.

The idea we formulated was to have a large water butt which lets water flow into a secondary container at set times. Once in the morning and once at night outside of the intense sun hours.
This secondary container will have water taps that are always on so water flows through. This was designed so we only have to power one servo to let all the water supply needed out in one go.

The list of things we needed and our estimate prices were;
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rechargeable 12v battery lead acid - £8 - £20

Solar Charge Controller Panel Battery Regulator Safe 10A 12V/24V - £5 - £10

Tower Pro SG-90 SG90 9g Micro Servos  £2 -£4

Arduino Uno R3 - £5

25L - 45L tub - £7 - £25

long plant plot with flat sides - £3 - £10

air tight water taps - £3 - £4 each most retailers (5)

hose pipe - £5

Solar panel charger 10W 12V £15 - £40

2 Channel 5V High Level Trigger Relay Module - £1.50 - £5

Car wire Fuse - 15p

Dc Dc Step Down Converter Voltage Regulator 24v 12v To 5v Usb Charger Voltmeter - £1 - £3

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In the end the total cost was: £80 (including broken parts) + £10 for a wooden frame

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First we created a wooden stand to hold the 35L tub we had, hastily constructing it on the allotment using tools from the shed we'd inherited with the plot. We made sure there was just enough room for the secondary containers shelf so that the water was as high as possible. The higher the secondary container the easier water would flow into the pots using gravity alone.

The stand with two shelves

We then fitted the solar panel, a 12v 10w device that we connected to the roof of the greenhouse using bolts and a bit of wood. Making sure the solar panel faced south so as to get sun from morning to night. The solar panel hooked to the solar regulator which we attached to the left front stand so we could easily see the battery levels.

The regulator has three connection points; + and - for the solar panel, + and - for the battery and + and - for the thing being powered. In our case the Arduino. 

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Lesson 1: Just because an Arduino can take 12v input... it does't mean it should. 
hint - smoke and fire

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The servo - chosen after the terrible instrument called the solenoid, read more HERE - was attached to a water butt tap which it turns 75 degrees to an open position for x amount of seconds before closing. It then repeats the process having left enough time for some of the water to have got into the soil.

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Lesson 2: If you can't find the right resistor, do NOT connect a 12v power source to a 5v servo

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To make sure the servo isn't always on and therefore draining battery. The servo needed to have power to it stopped when not needed. To make this happen, the arduino was connected to the relays IN1 so that control of whether to power the servo could be decided by us. We then wired the servo to the IN1 relay output so it could be powered in these time.

Now. Lesson 1 taught us what havoc charging 12v to 5v device could cause, so we decided to obtain a 12v to 5v step down convertor, this would allow us to regulate the incoming power to the arduino and the servo whilst also reducing power usage.

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Lesson 3: Powering a step down convertor in reverse - 5v in the 12v ports and vice versa - results in ringing ears

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The next thing we added, to reduce the possibility of blowing everything up too often was the fuse, which meant the fuse would take the fall. Its actually had some value and we've only blown one up so far!

In all these fires and explosions, the only thing we haven't destroyed yet is the 12v car battery which has thus far served us well. This also connects to the solar regulator -  a very simple device that controls how much energy the Arduino receives, how much the battery takes and when to fill up the battery. 

The final pieces to discuss is the secondary tub. This is only suppose to fill up with just enough water to release into the taps connected to its sides. It does't need to be large as it should be dispensing water at the same rate it is receiving it. If it isn't then you are releasing too much water, either from the primary store or the taps aren't open enough.

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Below is a picture of the system drawn out:

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In Action:

If you would like to see the arduino source code, feel free to email me on aiden.g@live.co.uk

       

Watering your plants whilst on holiday.

My girlfriend and I have an allotment. We also enjoy going away for periods of time to see family and friends, or to go and see a bit of the world. Which is fine in rainy Britain for my outdoor plants, but less forgiving for my green house plants which can range from tomatos, to seedling carrots, to strawberry plants and herbs.

So what to do when we go away? We COULD pester our friends and flat mates but we can’t expect them to check up on our plants all the time. As I probably wouldn’t want to do it for other people.

This is a short blog about some of the options available to me. Based on the following requirements:

·      Needs to be able to water for around 7 days

·      Needs to provide the right amount of water for the plant it's serving

·      Needs to be able to service seed(ling)s

·      Accounts for different sized pots

Option 1: Upside Down Bottle

The classic upside down bottle in the soil. This consists of putting a hole or slightly opening a bottle lid, turning it upside down, cutting off the bottom and filling with water. This slowly releases water into the pot for the eager plant.

Benefits: Quick, effective, simple to make, simple to use.

Limitations: Need to buy many to deal with demand, hard to regulate water flow and maintain water amounts, needs bigger bottles for bigger plants which takes up room and is ugly.

Option 2: Mighty Dripper Ultimate Plant Watering Kit

You can find this product here

Similar system which allows for more pots to be watered from the same source. This hangs off a hook and drip feeds water all day to your plants.

Benefits: Cheap (£17), scalable for water output, can give more or less water to different plants

Limitations: Limited to 10.5L so limited number of days it can be used before refill.

Option 3: Irrigation System
1. http://www.greenhousesensation.co.uk/click-and-drip-growbag-watering-kit.html

2. http://www.verticalveg.org.uk/how-to-make-a-genuinely-self-watering-growing-system/
Link 2 is a very impressive way of watering your plants, and given time and resources infinite, it would be my preferred choice of watering.
Benefits: Allows plants to take what water they need, self-maintaining, no need for pots, can water the garden for a long time
Limitations: Requires a lot of space, can be difficult to create and maintain, expensive.

Option 4: An Arduino controlled watering system

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOmF2KA9Z0w

An Arduino controlled system would be able to water plants at a specific time, using mathematics to work out how much water a plant needs, based on the type of plant, size of the pot and the current temperature/soil dampness.

Benefits: Scalable, easy to code (if you know how), can be supplied by any water supply, parts are cheap (Arduino costs around £5), can be hidden away

Limitations: Needs a battery (potentially dangerous in a home), hard to code(if you don’t know how), hard to build, can be expensive if you need to buy lots of parts.

This concludes an overview of the options I saw. There were some variations but all used similar techniques which gave it the same benefits and limitations.

Any hints or tips on what I should do? Have you made your own watering System? Let me know in the comments.