Plot 47a & b - sharon underhill

ROYALTY can’T eat better

One of the rewards for being the farmer here on plot 47 is to eat stuff straight from the plant - grazing as i go from job to job.

it simply sensational to have ripe, sun warmed, fragrant fruit juice filling your mouth & trickling down your chin.

the flavour of chilled supermarket food, picked before it’s ripe, can’t compare to your own.

response to climate change

  • Charentais French Muskmelon - Anasta

  • Galia Melon - Outdoor Wonder

  • Cantaloupe Melon - Emir

Water Melon - Mini Love

4 years ago I think i might have been the only plot holder growing melons on the site, now we’re all at it !

this year i’ve got 12 melon plants, so I should get loads of melons - but they all ripen at once, over a 3 week period in Sept / Oct, so i normally give some away.

Melons are relatively easy to grow - Outside I grow them on black plastic sheeting & under cloches to build up the heat & humidity they need to thrive & ripen.

They grow better in my greenhouse though - in there I will get a slightly earlier crop.

Deterring pests and encouraging pollinators

Creating net cages, scattering eggshells around young plants, companion planting & ENCOURAGING PREDATOR INSECTS all help to stop the UNWANTED pests eating or laying eggs ON THE CROPS.

Bird scarers work well in keeping the pigeons off the fruit

Alongside Borage & Comfrey, the purple Phacelia flower is an absolute magnet for the bees - these 3 are in the top 5 most attractive plants to pollinators - capable of replenishing the available nectar in their flowers incredibly quickly - Borage can do this within 2 minutes .

SUSTAINABILITY PRACTICES