We got our allotment patch in Bournville just about a year ago so I thought it worthwhile to list what we grew and how successful we were:
- Cabbage – I now love cabbage, having hated it from childhood. Problems with white cabbage butterflies but still had about 6 heads.
- Carrots – total flop, carrot root fly won the day
- Cauliflower – slugs had a field day but plants recovered to give us about 6 big caulies
- Corn – stole the seeds from my neighbour and reaped a full guilty harvest.
- Courgettes – one plant gave about 8 fat courgettes.
- Garlic – flop, sprouted but then died off.
- Herbs – got a nice herb patch going with transplants from the garden.
- Leeks – again from a neighbour, very tasty.
- Lettuce – a triumph, this is so easy to grow in many varieties
- Onions – about half came through but small.
- Parsnips – a surprising success. Enough for about 4 meals only but will do more next year.
- Peas – a brief but bountiful harvest
- Potatoes – earlies were wonderful, main crop floury and disappointing.
- Rhubarb – lots of it, so much we gave it away.
- Pumpkins – did the lack of bees this summer result in the total flop of the pumkin crop? I had such high hopes.
- Runner beans – way too many, there are only so many things you can do with them.
- Swiss Chard – easy to grow but have made little use of it on the dinner table.
Overall a good start and we ate well off it, I can only hope next year proves as good. I’ll bore you with the occasional update as we progress in 2009.
Our allotment had some incedible successes this year (I say “we”, actually, I did nothing. It was husband…).
Re carrot fly, we have found that growing them in tubs alleviates the problem to some extent – you also need some extra fine mesh and that helps, too.
I’m sick of the sight of rhubarb.
We have more onions than a French market (and they will last til about April, we reckon).
Squashes weren’t good and corn on the cob was a compete flop this/last year; parsnips – enough for a few meals but lots of canker on some; garlic didn’t split (winter not cold enough?)
Too much lettuce – not even friends and family could cope with it; ditto, courgettes
Many leeks and cabbage – “we” had a few sacrificial few cabbages for the flies.
Soft fruits were incredibly successful (raspberries, strawbs; blackberries)
Good luck for 2009!
Thanks Dave – that report gives me some encouragement, as I am still at the getting rid of the bindweed stage and is pretty backbreaking and soul destroying. I took over an allotment in Wylde Green which had been “let go” for about 10 years, but am lookingofrward to getting my own veg out of the ground.
Hi Dave (et al) I am looking for advice on setting up a social networking space for the allotment of which I am now a member. Want to be able to organise events, have discussions, report news, have pics, sell veg etc. Any suggestions as to best software or model to use ? Users will be reasonably computer savvy and mostly 45+.
John Kirk
Hi John. How about a Ning? They’re pretty easy to set up. I see allotment holders are on there already.
Ning is just the thing – have set up the site right away. Thanks.
http://sunnybankers.ning.com/
The site now has 8 members and several of them have spoken in person as a result of having seen each other on the site. I think we have several older “lurkers” who look at the site without adding anything. Am going to use it to organise BBQ and veg exchange in June. What a good suggestion – nice one Dave !