We've had our allotment since late May. It was over grown we got it but thankfully the previous person had put carpets and plastic in some areas. We both work full time and have 2 kids (10 and 8 years) but through hard work we managed to get about 3/4 of the plot dug and planted. We even went to the effort of creating paths out of pallet slats which the girls painted bright pink and blue.
We have heavy clay soil. Stewart did the hard work creating 3 dug beds, all with well rotted manure, weeded and rotorvated. I created 1 deep mulch bed and created 4 towers from used tyres filled with soil mixed with compost.
Several of our neighbours gave high praise for the progress we'd made. I'd agree it looks great but I still feel quite disappointed with what we managed to grow. Here is a summary
Success
Courgettes - brilliant (in deep mulch bed)
Radishes - excellent but then not exactly hard
![blush :blush:](https://chat.allotment-garden.org/Smileys/green/blush.gif)
Mange tout peas - brilliant (deep mulch)
French beans - ok but VERY slow to get going (deep mulch)
Onions - good (dug bed)
Savoy cabbages - surprising ok despite massive caterpillar destruction (dug bed)
Rubbish
Borlotti beans - virtually no pods (tried all beds)
Edamame - don't even get me started on this failure...
Sprouts - blown (in tyre towers)
Leeks - too woody / went to seed (dug bed)
carrots - didn't really grow (dug bed)
Mediocre but low yield
Potatoes - Ok (dug beds) - but fell a bit too much on cooking
Sweetcorn - (dug bed)
Turnips - leaves with holes (?flea beetle) and very small (dug bed)
I think I watered too much but interested to know if anyone else can see a pattern with these successes and failures. Maybe its just an experience thing...