Planning and the end of allotments

I have been listening to the arguments about the planning system for years and years. It has been loaded heavily in favour of developers and large companies for as long as I can remember. When an application is made to build a group of new homes or a new super store it can be turned down with local politicians making a big fuss about how they have protected the local area from the blight of development, knowing that the applicant will appeal to the central planning appeal who often approve the application, but with some modifications. There is no appeal for the locals to prevent an application that has been granted by either process.

There has long been the cosy process where some large company and a local council cooperate to allow some improvement, such as a new road using an unused part of the company's land who miraculously get granted planning permission either to extend their site or build lucrative housing on other land they own.

The current planning guidelines insist that most new houses are tiny boxes with no gardens because they must meet a criteria to cram a certain number of homes into each hectare. They have stupid restrictions that minimise the size of driveways so second cars end up being parked on the roads, blocking the footpaths and cycleways the council insisted on.

All of this, and much more, is badly in need of change, so when I heard the Government was reforming the planning laws I was hopeful. In addition they trailed it by saying that local people would gain more control over the process. As soon as I saw the minister in charge was Mr Pickles my heart sank. I don't believe he is fit to lead a dog for a walk and certainly not lead a Government department and the fiasco he has produced confirms my belief. Actually I don't believe Mr Pickles did write the document, but he is the front man for it.

The essence of the proposed reform is that planning applications in National Parks, Areas of Outstanding natural Beauty and existing green belt will be resisted, but everywhere, everywhere else the presumption will be to approve development of any kind except for coal mines. There will be no option for locals to appeal so developers will have a free-for-all. The worst is that these changes are supposed to promote growth. Great. Lets chase growth by smothering the country with concrete.

Green field sites are an obvious target, but that requires services, like water, gas etc to be extended to the new area. This makes allotments look very vulnerable. Plots of land inside villages, towns and cities, like allotments, are already close to facilities and services so building on them would be easy and cheaper. Cash-strapped councils would make a tidy sum from selling the land for development. You don't think it will happen? Well I want to be sure and the only way is to ensure these outrageous plans are scrapped.

I want the planning laws reformed, but not scrapped. Please write to your MP to object to a free-for-all for developers and to encourage real reform, allowing local plans to determine the local priorities and to remove the opportunities for corrupt and disingenuous practices. If you want any and every piece of green space concreted over don't bother.

Final beetroot

Yesterday we dug up the last of the beetroot. I thought it would be a small harvest, but actually it was loads. Jean boiled it, sliced it, bagged it and froze it so we will have beetroot for some weeks to come. Another batch of French beans have been added to the freezer. As the days get shorter and cooler I'm not sure we'll have any more, but they have been a success and I'd grow them again. We've been taking more sweetcorn and it's lovely, but one of the cobs today has not got many kernels on it, so the fertilisation has failed again this year, at least to some extent. I have tried to take pollen-bearing flowers and dust them onto the female flowers, but clearly I missed that one.

The rabbit trouble continues, with a small hole in the bank next to our plot. I have filled it in with stones picked from the freshly ploughed field next to the bank - the farmer will be happy to have fewer stones and I'm happy to block up the rabbit hole, not so sure about the rabbits though. They have abandoned the hole for now. I don't know if it was me or the fox that left its tracks in the freshly ploughed soil. I'm going to find a way to put wire netting over the bank to deter the rabbits from digging there. There is another rabbit hole near to Jim's plot. There may be a hole under someone's shed too. It seems we need to deal with them quickly to persuade them to move on before our crops are eaten or Jim gets his gun out.

The delight that is fresh sweet corn

There are highlights of the year on the allotment, particularly when each crop is ready for the first harvest of the year. The first asparagus and the first rhubarb herald the spring, the first beans and the first salad crops the start of the summer season. All of these I look forward to, but none as eagerly as the first sweet corn. Today it arrived.

Our first cob was ready, with brown tassels and a fat cob so I opened the leafy parcel to reveal the little corn kernels which produced a milky ooze when squeezed with a thumb nail. That means it was ready to eat. I took one cob to try and it was wonderful. We have many more to look forward to.

Once you have tried really, really fresh kernels you will always be disappointed by the ones shops sell - they can never be fresh enough.

We also took some carrots, beetroot, French beans, courgettes and Jim gave us a cucumber which was also very much tastier than a shop-bought one, just because it was so fresh. Jim does know a thing or two about growing good stuff too.

More rabbit trouble

The fence around the plot was patchy, with some of it from before we took the plot over. Last winter some of it collapsed under the weight of snow and rabbits invaded by clambering over the mound of snow with a collapsed fence under it. When the snow had melted we still had a problem with a warren that had an entrance into the plot and a hole in the fence that had gone unnoticed. All of this we dealt with, including replacing parts of the fence with a new one. Part of the plan was to move some of the fruit bushes to a space outside of the fence near the hedge between the plot and the fields. This turns out to be a mistake.

Rasps stripped by rabbits

The unfenced raspberry canes have been eaten by rabbits. This is a serious loss, because next year's fruit would have grown on the canes the rabbits have eaten, so we will get much less fruit, if any, next year. Fortunately I had only moved the raspberries, I was going to move the gooseberries and blackcurrants too, but I hadn't decided the best way to do it. Now I need to fence the fruit space first, which is a nuisance because I used the unfenced space as a way onto the back of the plot without needing a gate. Now I need to think again.

We have dug the remaining onions, taken some lovely carrots and more beetroot is boiling in the kitchen. We planted out some broccoli along with some spring cabbage Rob gave us - I have covered the young plants to keep the birds off. The sweet corn is forming more cobs, but none are ready yet. Leeks are swelling nicely. We sowed some spinach to grow in the cooler autumn days which it seems to like.

More produce and a chewed door.

Today we took a break from building work at home and went to harvest some more produce. Jim gave us another of his lovely cucumbers and we pulled some carrots, courgettes (of course), beetroot, French beans and spring onions. Some the onions we dug last time have dried gently in the greenhouse and are ready for use. A few are slightly softer than others so we took these to use first, hoping the others will store for longer. All of the onions look good, with the average size much bigger than last year.

The sweet corn is coming on nicely. Cobs are forming, with the tassels collecting precious pollen. The top, male flowers are bursting with pollen, so things look good. I suspect the first ripe cob is still a couple of weeks away, and there looks to be lots of cobs forming so we should be overrun with wonderful sweetcorn very soon.

The site is on the edge of the village, largely surrounded by fields with a woodland nearby. There are often wild visitors on the site, especially attracted to so much food in such a compact space and like all allotment holders people here try to stop their precious produce falling into the clutches of crop-noshers. Fences keep rabbits out most of the time, nets keep birds and some insects off fruit and cabbages, more elaborate fruit cages and green houses help too, string, silver foil, CDs and other deterrents dance in the wind and a couple of plots even boast scarecrow. None of this stuff protects my shed door from attack.
The close-up picture shows the way the surface of the door has been systematically scraped away, probably by the jaws of wasps to carry off to make the paper that their nest is made of. Oddly enough, we haven't seen may wasps this year, but they must be out there ...

End of the peas

The mange touts have been pretty good, after a sticky start with partridges helping themselves, but now they have finished. I pulled them up while Jean did some much needed weeding. I checked our hazel nuts, which are ripening nicely and have not been found by squirrels or jays. The sweetcorn is producing more cobs. They are beginning to get tassels and the male flowers are beginning to open. I've been trying to shake the pollen onto the cob tassels.

There were some french beans to take. They have not turned out to be as prolific as people told us they would be, but they are very good to eat and they freeze well too. There were some more carrots, which are a good success this year, after a couple of failed years. Naturally there were courgettes. The neighbours are beginning to hint that they can't keep up with the supply. Next year we must grow fewer plants.  The onions are laying down, so I pulled about half of them and laid them out in the shelves in the greenhouse to dry. I would have pulled more but the shelves are full. They smell fantastic.

Our leeks are fattening up now the ground has been soaked. One thing I noticed is that Tony has just planted out a bed of very small leeks. I think these are intended to be picked in the spring, which sounds a really good idea. It's too late to grow them now, but we might try that next year.

Rain, produce and weeds

The latest dry spell broke with very heavy rain showers. The plot has benefited from the rain, which does so much more good than we can ever do with a watering can. Over the last week we have had some beetroot, which is very sweet and succulent. We have had lots of mange touts and a few good harvests of French beans. The courgettes have been prolific, one harvest produced 8 good sized courgettes and then more a couple of days later. Our spring onions have been delivering well. Carrots have begun to produce very good roots which are sweet and so crunchy.

Sweet corn is showing the male flowers on some stalks and the beginnings of a few cobs are forming too. The rain should help them. The rain will also swell the leeks which look good, but the need the water to swell while the days are still long. The onions are looking very good. Some of their tops are laying down, but they are not shrivelling yet so we will leave them in the ground until they do.

Jean has sown some broccoli, which is growing very fast. It was sown a bit late but it is experimental winter crop this year.