Alexei Charkham
My name is Alexei Charkham. I am 36 years’ old and live in north-west London with my wife Gaby and our two daughters Vita and Bea. Gaby and I both work part time as teachers; I try to spend as much of my spare time as possible on my allotment, round the corner from our house.
I have had an allotment since 2006 and now have three half plots, totalling about a third of an acre. I grow lots of fruit and veg, have several greenhouses (some freecycled ‘proper’ ones, and others which I’ve thrown together using old window frames and salvaged timber) and am constantly undertaking somewhat unnecessary, exhausting and relationship-straining projects either on the allotment or in our garden.
Allotment Blog
Big Green Jewish would like to introduce Alexei Charkham, a Jewish Allotment holder from North London. Alexei will be updating and writing his growing blog here. Alexei sells his surplus veg and fruit and he can be contacted on acharkham@hotmail.com for more information. He also likes to hear from other veg growers, so feel free to email him.
February 2010
It’s still too cold and wet to do much with the soil, so indoor jobs continue to take precedence for now. I’ve just finished building a bed for our two-year old Vita, which Gaby plans to decorate. My main mistake was in skimping and not buying PAR (planed-all-round, or nice and smooth) timber, meaning that the finish won’t be IKEA perfect. Still, I’m very pleased with it, and have slightly improved my basic carpentry skills. Now that I’ve done that, I’m going to start building an outdoor run on the allotment for the chickens, who’ve moved out of our garden after having made an unholy mess out of it. I’ve soaked some stakes in faux creosote, which I’ll whack into the ground once dry; and then build a structure around that. 
If you have an allotment, now’s a good time to get a delivery of manure. I know two chaps who deliver (cow and horse muck) in NW London, and I can give anyone their numbers – contact me via email. Both charge about £35 per trailer (about three tonnes). For the record, I get no commission from either of them, nor from anything else I recommend here.
Monty Don says that if using no fertiliser, well-cultivated land (ie one on which a lot of produce is grown) needs six inches of manure a year to replace all lost nutrients and goodness. Like most people, even the great Monty can’t manage that amount of muck, so tops up lost goodness with all purpose fertiliser such as Growmore.
If you know where your – wonderful and heavy cropping - runner beans are going to go, you can now dig and fill a trench to be filled with rough compost, lots of wet paper, manure and anything organic you’re getting rid of. They need lots of goodness and moisture, so will grow very happily on this, albeit in several months’ time. The trench should be about a foot wide, and the same deep, and should be covered in soil once all the organic matter has gone into it.
Although there’s still time, you can get all necessary seeds now if you’re keen. Wyevale in Mill Hill sell off all surplus seeds for 50p a pack from September-December, as do many garden centres. If you missed out, Alan Romans seeds (alanromans.com) are very good value indeed, at about 50p a pack, as he doesn’t spend money on fancy packaging or catalogues.
You can also get your early seed potatoes now and chit them: ie let them grow sprouts about an inch long, before planting in from mid-March. They should be left to sprout in a cold but frost-free shed, greenhouse or unheated room. For the last couple of years, B&Q have sold two packs of seed potatoes for the price of one, which is a very good deal as seed potatoes are quite pricey.
If you have a greenhouse and want to dedicate space to them, you can start sowing peppers and aubergine under heat now (ie in a heated propagator and then a greenhouse which is kept warm on cold nights). I don’t bother with either of them, after a few quite under whelming attempts at growing them. My greenhouses will grow mainly tomatoes, which I’ll sow under heat some time next month.
January 2010
With all the recent snow and rain, it’s not a great idea to be doing too much on the plot right now. I remember learning at primary school about farmer’s year, and how winter was generally set aside for little other than ‘mending fences and clearing ditches’. I have neither fences nor ditches on my plot, so am busyish at the moment finishing off yet another makeshift greenhouse – my biggest yet, about 6 x 4 metres - which will soon house our four chickens so they’ll stop making a mess of the garden. I also have some indoor hobbies, like wine and beer brewing, which are useful time fillers in the winter.
Digging a new plot: One shouldn’t disturb soil when it’s wet and cold, as it damages the soil structure, particularly on heavy soils like London clay. If you have a newish plot you’ve recently cleared, and you don’t think you’ll have time to dig it in early spring, it is probably worth giving it a very rough dig now, using a fork to pick out any perennial roots like bindweed, dandelion, couch grass etc (don’t put these on the compost heap as they will live on). I don’t go for rotavating new plots, as one only ends up chopping all rooted weeds into tiny pieces, which will end up as dozens of weed plants rather than the one you started with.
It’s a good time to plant garlic bulbs, shallots and winter onions. Make a hole with your thumb and gently push the bulb, onion etc into the hole, pointed side upwards, leaving a small point sticking out above soil level. That’s about all you need to do, other than weed a few times over the season and water occasionally if we have a prolonged dry spell.
If you have any fruit trees, it’s now time to do a little work on them. Apple and pear trees should be pruned now (not plums, though). If you have an established tree that needs tidying up, don’t prune too hard or the tree may not give you fruit this season. On any tree, you should aim to prune about a third off all longish branches you’re aiming to keep – find a bud that is facing outwards, and prune just above this. One of the main aims of pruning is to encourage open growth, which allows more air around the leaves and discourages fungal growth.
You can also plant fruit trees now. They are extremely easy to look after and will give you fruit for a very long time with little effort on your part. Dig a largish hole about 2-3 foot cubed, clear away any perennial roots, chuck in half a bag of compost and then drive in a stake, which doesn’t have to be hardwood as it only needs to last 3 years. Plant the tree using soil and the rest of the compost, and firm gently with your feet, making sure not to stamp; then tie to the stake. In the unlikely event of a dry summer, water heavily every three weeks or so.
You can also just as easily plant fruit bushes such as gooseberries, blackcurrants (ridiculously easy to look after), raspberries (which don’t like clay) and any others you can think of. You just need to dig and clear a slightly smaller hole than for a tree, plant (no stake needed) and leave the plant to establish itself over the winter. With blackcurrants you should prune down to the ground straight after planting. Blueberries like acid, so need to go in a large pot filled with ericaceous (acidic) compost.