The Three-Year Allotment Notebook and the five month allotment makeover

It's been quite a month. Having failed to get the scruffy, barren plot I took over in March up to scratch by my first deadline of Chelsea Flower Show, I decided it absolutely HAD to be in order for publication by Frances Lincoln of the Three-Year Allotment Notebook (by Joanna Cruddas, photographs by Edwina Sassoon). Eureka! With help from family, friends and fellow allotmenteers, the plot has had its party frock on all month. It was short-listed for our allotments competition amongst a field of 410 plots, trashed the night before the RHS came to judge and, though we may not be cup holders, I reckon the pictures prove a good plot is always a winner!

Allotments in Siberia

Ever thought you were surrounded by a load of clowns down at the plots? Think it's a right circus at times? Talking of which...why not get tickets for an evening of drinks, canapes and a performance of Yasmine by Giffords Circus. The date: September 3rd at 6.30 for 7.30pm.

Venue: Stratton Meadows, Cirencester.

You would be supporting a small and, very pertinent to us allotmenteers, charity Sponsoring Allotments in Siberia. Its simple aim is to provide large, low-income families often living in communal and cramped flats with the opportunity to grow their own fruit and vegetables and get some space during the summer months. Just like we've got.

For more details: call 01963 440297

or email: merielbuxton@aol.com

Sponsoring Allotments in Siberia: Reg Charity No: 1083278

Big Butterfly Count

It was a first on the plot to see what I think is a Five-spot Burnet flitting between my lavender and nigella. Next week is the Big Butterfly Count. What a great opportunity to spend a quiet and peaceful 15 minutes counting the butterflies and moths we see. No worries when we don't know what they are. Just take a photo and send it in for professional identification.

The Big Butterfly Count Week runs from July 24th - August 1st. Could there be a better way to spend 15 minutes?

Photograph (c) Edwina Sassoon

Allotment Anecdotes at Snails Pace

Approaching the silly season, I am reminded of anecdotes which abound in and around the allotments:

A distinguished surgeon explains that were I to drop a snail in caustic soda, it would dissolve with the exception of the tongue which would remain intact - a serrated sword set to cut through our carefully grown leaves. I haven't put it to the test.

But at an event at the Garden Museum, I did find myself repeating this alleged fact to a representative from the Chelsea Physic Garden. He looked pensive and told me of a recent bereavement. For 8 years he had kept a pet Giant African Land Snail called He-She Humungus. H-S H had recently died and lay buried in a specific spot. My new friend plans to dig H-S up in six months in the anticipation of retrieving and keeping the shell. But will the tongue lie intact or have rotted?

The Plot Goes to Pot at The Garden Museum

For those with allotment envy, it has now been proved that an allotment can fit into a pot, scarecrow and all. The Garden Museum is displaying 34 planters designed by some of the country's best-known gardeners from today until Thursday July 1st. Want inspiration for filling your pots? Don't miss this fun opportunity to see (and bid for) imaginative and witty compositions from Chelsea Best-in-Show Winner Andy Sturgeon, BBC garden presenter Joe Swift, actress (and gardener) Penelope Keith and many others. Here are some tasters...Gardeners' World Allotmenteer Joe Swift compliments low level planting with colour coordinating pot, while photographer Edwina Sassoon fits the whole allotment into her pot, tumbler tomatoes doing just that, scarecrow perched high rise.

The Garden Museum's Matt Collins includes driftwood, Artist Charlotte Verity goes stylishly simple with a lemon tree in her elegant planter painted by Christopher Le Brun, and Richard Reynolds confirms that there's no stopping a Guerrilla Gardener.

Photographs (c) Edwina Sassoon

Perfect strawberries for Wimbledon week

It's an odd thing, but the reason I'm really proud of the strawberries I've grown at the plot this year is because they are so immaculate, they look bought. But you don't get perfection without some pretty determined action. I sprinkled Fito Slug Stoppa Granules, a 100% natural product, around each plant. On top of that went a thick layer of straw to prevent the fruit getting muddy or soggy. Next came fine mesh netting to cover the plants. Last year I used horrible flimsy netting with big holes and twice had to release small, panicked birds by cutting them out of the netting that was trapping claws and wings. Now it's the fine stuff or nothing on my plot. The only snag to my Fort Knox is that I find it practically impossible to get at the brilliant red wonders myself, but it's worth the effort and been a victory against legless, legged or winged competitors.

Out out d... (allelopathic) couch grass

All the excitements of Chelsea Flower Show and our own Open Day now over, it's back to earth. All allotmenteers battle with our old enemy, couch grass, but only recently did I learn that it had negative allelopathic qualities and can actively inhibit other plants from growing. Having just digested that bit of information, I hear on Gardeners Question Time that climbing beans don't have a hope if they are beside onions and heaven forfend that we should sow radishes near our red peppers. On the other hand, I believe growing mint near your roses helps keep aphids away so I thought I'd take it a step further and spray my rose with mint tea!