[peter168]

top tip log in here regularly, always something to learn and always something humerous to read which reminds me i do pretty well already! 

2. plant everything you can and learn, the failures are especially a learning curve but enjoy em if i didnt i wouldnt have that much to smile about! 

3. stretch your limits and explore, although not my best tip as a pulled back, tendonitis, various cuts and bruises including a sledge hammer injury to my shin from knocking in supports for the compost bin will testify! 

[chimaera]

1. Spend a while wandering around the allotment looking at what others are growing and see what does well in the local soil and climate.

2. Only grow what you AND YOUR PARTNER like to eat; if only you like it you'll never get a chance to cook it!

3. Don't worry about a 20% failure rate and be really please if you do better than that.


Charlie

[rugbymad40]

1) Make a careful plan every year - but be prepared to change it
2) Only grow what you are going to eat - successional growing will help here
3) Learn from your mistakes and don't be affraid to listen to advice.

There is a definate 4th required on all the entries . . .

. . .Look at this site on a regular basis - it is invalueable.

Well Done John.

[Totty]

Add lots of manure

Spend as much time as you can on your plot

Dont force yourself to spend too much time on your plot, thus resenting it

[Zippy]

Shouldn't the logo in your signature say "DON'T Dig for Victory" ? 

Nice one Aunty. No - I am 100% behind the original idea of every family having a space of land to grow their own veggies and to "Dig for Britain", but I just don't go with the digging bit.  I sport the Dig for Victory logo out of a "caps off" respect for those who did during such troubled years - I'm sure you know this.

Nice hat Aunt Sally - very festive. Do we get the Christmas stockings out later?

[Elaine G]

1. ALWAYS label what you sow 
2. Do it your way, you will learn what works for you
3. Take time to sit and enjoy.

Elaine

[littlelisa]

Ooh, great thread guys!!
1. Keep making compost, and keep using it to enrich your soil.
2. Cut back growing plants properly, especially on tomatoes. As in: almost all the leaves below the fruit, and keep trimming the leaves as they get overgrown.
3. Harvest the lettuce before it starts going to seed (always forget this!).

[Paul Plots]

1. ALWAYS label what you sow 
2. Do it your way, you will learn what works for you
3. Take time to sit and enjoy.

Elaine

I find your number 3 the hardest one to do.
Number 2.... Exactly!!  

[barbarella]

Keep a gardening diary - I've kept mine for the last 3 years and am always referring to it

Join your local horticultural society - as well as free entry to the flower shows, you can save the cost of membership by ordering your seeds through them - up to 40%+ off  list price.

Hoe, hoe, hoe!

[RichardA]

adapted from the prayer above my desk
1. Have the courage to change what can be changed (and that includes yourself)
2. Have the serenity to accept what cannot be changed (other people mostly and white fly !)
3. have the wisdom to know the difference. (hardest bit)
R

[pigeonpie]

adapted from the prayer above my desk
1. Have the courage to change what can be changed (and that includes yourself)
2. Have the serenity to accept what cannot be changed (other people mostly and white fly !)
3. have the wisdom to know the difference. (hardest bit)
R

What a lovely motto for life as well as gardening.   :happy:

[Trikidiki]

1. Compost, compost , compost.

2. Enjoy what you're doing. Even weeding can be therapeutic.

3. Make time to sit back and survey your plot (preferably with a beer), bathe in the glory of your success and don't worry about the failures.

[Springlands]

1. Try to be two weeks ahead not two behind (I am usually the latter) but be prepared to wait for warmer weather before planting/sewing
2. Better to give your plants a good watering every couple of days than a short sprinkle every day.
3. Gardening is meant to be fun - enjoy what you do - even when things go wrong.

[kermit]

A few folk have said only grow what you like to eat.  My advice would be the opposite.  I hated beetroot until I tasted a home grown one properly cooked.  Same for runner beans. 

My other two:

- succession sowing
- thin as soon as possible (when will i learn     )

[barbarella]

A few folk have said only grow what you like to eat.  My advice would be the opposite.  I hated beetroot until I tasted a home grown one properly cooked. 

I though the same about beetroot until I tasted Jamie's beetroot and feta salad - ambrosia . I copied the recipe off the internet, though it's not available now so I give it below:

For the beetroot salad
•   1 x 250g pack of cooked vac-packed beetroots
•   Balsamic vinegar
•   ½ a lemon
•   A bunch of fresh flat-leaf parsley
•   50g feta cheese
Beetroot salad: Grate the beetroot in the food processor. Remove the bowl from the processor, take out the grater attachment and pour in a couple of lugs of balsamic vinegar and a few lugs of extra virgin olive oil. Squeeze in the juice of ½ a lemon. Finely chop a bunch of parsley and add most of it. Stir to dress, then tip into a nice serving bowl. Scatter over the rest of the parsley. Crumble over the feta. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and take to the table

I have since bought the book and done several of the menus - it is absolutely brilliant.

And I will be growing beetroot for the first time next year!