[Broadhaven]

I am new to growing and am fortunate enough to have a large garden, so can have mini allotment at home.

I have befriended a chap at my local allotment and he has been kind enough to give me advise when needed as well as all you guys.

I called round last week and compared to mine his sweetcorn, onions, carrots , toms are a lot more advanced than mine. Mine are looking healthy just small.

Just wondering if I will actually produce anything by the end of the growing season!

I have been reading on the forum that a lot of sowing goes on early in the year. Perhaps that is where I have gone wrong although I have sown in the time frame it says on the packet.

I am also not feeding any of my veg, should I be?

Has anyone got a list of what I should be doing - when.

Thanks

Polly

[BrianK]

Gosh  How long is a peice of string?

FIRSTLY.. someone else always has bigger/more/juicier veg/fruits/eggs than you.  fact of life.  If your goping to get a harvest of anything then be REAL pleased with yourself.

Secondly a lot of the time it's down to experience and knowing what happened last year with what... or the year before..

So  some basics.  Feed the soil. A lot of allotment plot holders ferttilise their soil in the autumn with manure etc.  Second  they may sow earlier in greenhouses/cold frames etc and get a head start... 

My advice would be get cold frames   make them or buy them, or a cheap greenhouse or a cheap polytunnel. They can cost as little as £60.00 off ebay inc delivery.

Then read the forums everyday

Twice...

[Yorkie]

Brian's right in what he says. 

In addition, I wouldn't try to sow too early.  If you scroll back through the many posts, you'll see a lot of new gardeners sowing earlier than advice would suggest, and then having leggy drawn plants which couldn't go out into the ground for another couple of months.  Far better to hang back a little and have sturdier plants. 

I'm having to bin my climbing beans as I started them off a bit too early indoors, they got too leggy before I could plant them out after the frost risk had passed, and they'd be damaged beyond repair whilst being separated from each other in order to plant.

There is a sowing and harvesting chart here:

http://www.allotment-garden.org/vegetable/general/sowing-harvest-vegetable-chart.php

Bear in mind that in Lancashire you're relatively far north so err on the mid-later side of a sowing period, unless you have a polytunnel, greenhouse or cold frame which can be used for certain plants.

Have you fed your plants?  A good general purpose fertiliser, perhaps a liquid one like Maxicrop, will give them a boost.  They should also take off once their roots have established and the warmth of the next couple of weeks should help too.

Patience 

[peapod]

an excellent reply from both Brian and Yorkie

Im lancs too, and theres no point starting anything early, it just doesnbt work...my cabbages sown to the seed packet date just ended up leggy and Ive ended with 1 red cabbge from 10 planted that has survived

We have a great bloke on our site who is a guru! I asked him today what he used...he said, come on love, you do it too! Its bl**dy orse muck!

Simply feed the soil, and the veg now an again.  And dont worry about what anyone else does...Im jealous of DDs perfick peas, and he wants to grow swede like me..sometimes it doesnt work, but we all find our best stuff in the end 

[Broadhaven]

Many thanks for all your sound advise. Thanks Brian for yours, I have a greenhouse already. I guess it is all about learning what went wrong this year and trial and error.

Like I said they do look healthy so hopefully this sunny spell that is due will help. And I will get some Maxicrop as I haven't fed them at all. There was a lot of manure put in the site last autumn.

I will just have to be patient.

[Kristen]

The Americans seem particularly keen on crop planning based on Last Frost (and first frost for that matter).  Obviously their weather varies a lot more than ours across the length of their country.

I think it is a worthy idea though, and the back of the seed packet is pretty general in this regard.  Many brands refer to "Early spring" rather than month name ...

This site
http://www.gardenaction.co.uk/vegetable-index.asp
has sowing / planting advice, and you can enter your UK Town for it to cutomise the Sow / Plant advise according to your Last/First frost

That apart, I expect your allotmenteer has been manuring his plot for generations, and it will be in much better heart than your soil.  Lots of things "catch up" as the weather warms up.  Feed and Water, watch up for bugs, and then enjoy!

[Yorkie]

Nice site Kristen, though I think their estimate of last frost for York of early May is waaaaaaaay too optimistic.  At my local horticultural college all of the lecturers say early June.

[Kristen]

Indeed. I think a map with contours of last-frost-by-date and then let you put in your own expected dates might be a better approach.

Bottom of "frost-pocket-hill" won't be the same as a nice sheltered spot, eh?!

[DD.]

We're early May as well.

Would have been OK for this year, but last year nearly three weeks out!