Ron Heath

This is my second allotment, the first is also on the map - Hillside Allotments on Kenn Road.

it's about 60x20ft. As you can see from the photo, it needs a little work but it's a great opportunity to experiment with no dig. The good thing is that there appears to be no bind weed or mares' tail, perhaps it's too early to tell. So far, the plot has had a rough cut to reduce grass length and I'm now in the process of gathering cardboard (bike boxes from our local cycle shops, these when cut on one corner open out to cover 40sq. ft in one go) to cover the ground which will have the cut grass placed back over the top to help keep the cardboard in place.

Much of the plot for this year will be planted with pumpkins/squash to aid ground cover as a weed suppressant and produce green waste for compost or further ground cover through next autumn/winter, another patch will be experimented with by densely sowing white mustard as ground cover to also supress weed growth.

Hopefully, we may make enough progress over the weeks ahead to plant anything which we think may work in the space left available, our objective if is to bring the plot back to production within 12 months and to see if this can be achieved with as little expense if any as possible whilst limiting the amount of work needed at the same time, apart from seeds and plants which may be to hand.