In my last post, I ennumerated all the reasons I am happy about the kitchen garden. Nearly everything has turned out well, and any failures have been slight and easily overcome.
Let's talk about the allotment now.
In the first place, I have had some successes so far this year: the raspberries have been crazy productive, the peas and broad beans are acceptable, and the garlic was great. We've had some good beets, artichokes and strawberries. Some good things going on, yes.
But I like to keep it real, so here's some of the things which haven't been a success:
Disappearing plants. All the corn, cucumbers, squashes and zucchinis, about half of the peas and broad beans, and various other transplants just never made it. I posted about trying soil blocks this year, in the hopes they would transplant better: nope. No discernible difference at all. Pretty much everything in a soil block that went to the allotment simply vanished.
Grass and weeds (but mainly grass). I have dug it out--multiple times. I have sheet mulched it--even more times. I have put the chicken tractor on it. It keeps growing back and is constantly on the edge of taking over. The only place it is not growing is on the paths covered in carpet (and not all paths are thus covered), and in the chicken yard. And the chicken yard is only de-grassed because the chickens are currently in it--it regrew when they were locked up at home over winter.
Slugs and bugs. It's bad. It's really bad. This is probably the main reason for disappearing plants/food--there are so many slugs. And part of the reason for the slugs and bugs is the grass--it hides and shelters them from predators (and from me). If I could clear the grass and weeds, it would reduce the slugs and bugs by a huge amount, which would reduce the amount of disappearing plants.
In conclusion, allotment: not that great. Need a better strategy, particularly for the grass.
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