Expert advice How to make your allotment look pretty

HUW RICHARDS offers some inspirational tips on ornamental edibles and plot design

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LLOTMENTS bring rich harvests of fruit and veg but so often end up functional rather than beautiful to look at.

But it doesn't have to be that way if you use ornamental edibles and pretty, scented herbs to enhance your plot, says gardening expert, author and YouTube star Huw Richards, head judge of Top of the Plots, a new competition celebrating the best in 'grow your own' culture, launched by Gardena with the National Allotment Society.

Huw offers the following tips to make your allotment space prettier.

GO VERTICAL

"Use a vertical layer. A lot of allotments are quite traditional, in that they'll have their rows of potatoes and rows of carrots, and then maybe on one end, they'll have all of their runner beans, whereas if you created a few pyramid structures throughout your allotment and splitting the vertical layers it creates a warm inviting look and a feeling of 'What's around the corner?'

CONSIDER WATER

"Think about water and reflections. Even finding something like a half an old whisky barrel, or you could even buy a pre-made little pond and you just fill it with water and plant around it.

"When you've got that reflection or slightly glistening water, it creates a calming feel. It's fantastic for encouraging beneficial insects in your garden to help you with your natural pests and disease control."

USE CURVES