I bought a great book the other day, which has given me some really good ideas on redesigning the allotment.
I think I’m going to do 5 beds with a curvy path going between 4 of them (the 5th will be at the bottom end of the garden which is seperated off by a stone path and a big rhubarb plant). By digging the path we can raise the beds slightly, and make the path also into a watering system (a bit like terraces) because we are on a gentle slope, in theory the rain will travel round the path and round the edges of the beds instead of just running down the hill, taking all the soil with it. In theory anyway.
Round the edge of the beds I am planning on planting herbs, garlic and other alliums to deter pests. Some of the soil is really fertile, but some is really bad so on the bad patches I have planted alfalfa which has long roots to bring up nutrients from the subsoil so when I cut it down, it will rot on the surface and give the soil loads more nutrients. We also have a comfrey plant which needs cutting down roughly every 6 weeks. We used to put the leaves in a water butt for weed tea (although it stinks), or on the compost heap but now we are going to lay it directly on the soil around our plants so it can rot in directly.
