Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: Ema on December 27, 2012, 16:48
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Hi All
I've just had a good read through this tread http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=100745.0 which was so helpful.
I am shortly getting an allotment 10*15 meters and looking forward to upgrading my home grown veg.
I would be so grateful if you could all share with me what went well for you in 2012
veg/fruit type, variety and any special care given :)
I wont be able to make it down daily and am planning on a good 1/4 of the plot being allocated to spuds in 2013 to help break up the soil.
I love all veg and have a couple of bunnies who will help me out too.
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Bunyards exhibition broad beans always perform well for me.
I would not be without runner beans. They always give a good crop and are expensive to buy.
I never do very well with sprouts, but this year they have no aphids in them due to the wet weather.
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This year was an exceptional year and many crops failed because of the poor weather. Your soil will also be different to many of us so you need to take this into account.
If I were you I would make a list of things that you like to eat and try a few of them, pick the ones that are most expensive in the shops like fresh runner beans or french beans. Also try a few tomatoes as the taste is so much different to the shop bought ones.
I would also take the time to decide where you would like to put your permanent plantings like fruit bushes, trees, rhubarb or comfrey for feed
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I grow Joan J Raspberries - a great Autumn fruiting variety, Alderman peas - nice strong growth with waist high picking, White Lady runner beans - superb taste and yield and winter squash too many varieties to mention, but Thelma Sanders is most reliable for me here :D
Nothing gets particularly special treatment here things have to get on with it or they don't get grown again.
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I always think the best veggies to start off with are peas and beans, because they're so easy to grow, so useful (as long as you like them), freeze well and are quite pricey in the shops. Even with this year's horrible weather, I've got a freezer full of runner and French beans, in fact so many that those alone could keep us in green veg until next year's crops start coming in. Garden peas need a lot of space to give much crop, but mangetout don't and are very useful veggies. Curly kale and chard will stand and crop all year, so you get very good value out of the space, but only if you like curly kale and chard. Courgettes are tender and might not do well in a horrible summer, but most of the time they'll give you a huge crop for very few plants. I think it's nice to have a core of veggies like those that will reward you for your efforts and make you feel it's all worthwhile.
Garlic are also good value for space, I always think, because they're dead easy to grow, just about everybody uses them, and once you've spent a couple of years finding out which varieties do well for you, you'll never need to buy them again.
Tomatoes and cucumbers are so much nicer grown at home, but if it's a bad year for weather or if you're hit with blight, you might not get much crop. Lettuce are dead easy, everybody buys them and are so much nicer fresh.
And I'd get some fruit going too. Gooseberries, raspberries, loganberries, rhubarb, whichever you like best. All are very easy to grow, freeze well, and they charge a shocking price for them in the shops.
I think which varieties do well for you is something you need to find out with experiment or by talking to people growing near to you. It depends on the soil and the local weather conditions, so what does well for someone else on here might not do well for you.
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You've not included your location * in your personal profile Ema so we don't know where you live, but if you like sweetcorn don't be too put off by some of the reports of failure - it certainly wasn't a vintage year for them here in Sheffield but I still got a fair crop and there is nothing to beat home-grown. Swift and Lark are readily available "early" varieties, although if you live in the Outer Hebrides perhaps they are not for you!
Agree that French and runner beans are pretty reliable, prolific, but expensive to buy in the shops, so a good beginner's choice. White Lady runners did very well for me again this year despite a slow start (and having to win the slug war until they were established, but slugs were a problem with nearly all crops this year.)
* I see you have introduced yourself on the "Welcome" board Ema and you live in Dorset (lovely county!) - if you add your location to your personal profile we won't have to ask in future when location is an issue affecting the answer to growing questions. ;)