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Organic allotments: waging war on pests

Gardener's World magazine's Jane Moore draws up battle plans to defeat the ever-present, hungry hordes and tries to stay one step ahead of the enemy

Reproduced from August 07 issue of Gardeners' World magazine. This month's issue on sale now. Subscribe now by direct debit and save 25 per cent.

The fruitfulness of the plot in August is a wonderful thing. But there's a war going on out there between allotmenteers and bugs - aphids, slugs and snails, things that fly, crawl and slime, all munching away furiously at our lovingly cared-for crops.

a woman gardening It's not easy being organic, but I work hard to keep on the path of righteousness and always find it so satisfying that we manage to grow crops without resorting to chemicals. I'm sure they taste better, too. It's a constant battle against slugs and aphids. And although we always write off a proportion of our crops to the bugs, we have found that the strongest and healthiest plants do survive and produce plenty for us to eat. It's a bit of a balancing act really.

We always grow more than we need, and if we lose a few, so what? And, by being organic, we definitely have more good insects around, such as ladybirds, to eat up some of the baddies. Not to mention the birds and hedgehogs that happily call our allotment home.

Organic controls

Being organic is a labour of love. It's not simply about stopping spraying, although that's a good start. It's about minimising the chances of your plants being attacked in the first place. A healthy plant is a happy plant that grows strongly and can resist the onslaught of pests and diseases.

To start with, you need good soil that has been well fertilised with plenty of organic matter in spring. Second, your plants need to get off to a good start, which means sowing fresh seed at the right time and in the right way, so germination is swift and early growth rapid. Carrots just won't germinate if it's too cold or if you sow them too deep - 2mm is perfect, which is barely below soil level. Slug and snail favourites, such as courgettes, are always best grown in pots until they're big enough to plant out, and you only need a couple of plants to feed a family.
Tidiness is next to godliness on the plot, because a mass of weeds or long grass can hide an army of slugs and snails. That's one of the reasons why raised beds are so good. The edges are clearly defined and keeping the paths in between clean is easy. The beds at one end of our allotment are not edged and 10 times harder to manage than the edged ones, because the grass paths that surround the place spread into the crops as the season progresses and we can't keep it tidy.
Finally, crop rotation is a must for organic gardening because it stops diseases building up in the soil and allows you to clean up areas, as well as making the most of nitrogen fixed in the soil by crops like beans. We try to follow beans with a fast-and-furious leafy crop such as salad leaves or cucurbits (gourds). And this year we're trying to clean up a bindweed-ridden corner by covering it with weed-proof membrane and planting courgettes through it. Hopefully, the courgettes will grow well and the bindweed will be weakened after months without light.

Disease-resistant varieties

Plant breeders and seed suppliers are always looking for varieties that show resistance to certain diseases that are common to particular plants. For example, maincrop potatoes often suffer from the fungal disease, blight. Many gardeners get around this by growing early and second-early varieties that are harvested before blight strikes, usually in August. Or you can grow one of the new wave of blight-resistant varieties, such as the Sarpo series. These did prove to be blight resistant when we tried them, but they didn't have the best flavour so we've dropped them in favour of riskier, but more flavoursome, varieties.

One disease-resistant variety I am keen on is parsnip 'Avonresister', which is tasty, a good grower and only gets the odd spot of canker. I have had whole crops infected with this unsightly fungal disease in the past, which is so disappointing, so now I stick to 'Avonresister'.