Vegetable growth slows down quite markedly this month as the nights draw in and get colder, but there’s still lots of jobs that need to be taken care of on the allotment. As the summer harvests come to an end and crops are harvested for storage through the winter, this creates a large amount of [...]
Aug 4
Allotments in August are just about at their maximum production, and harvesting can at times be a full time job. This month is also a good time to take stock of where things are planted and start to make plans form next years crop rotation. To make this just a bit more fun than writing [...]
New Potatoes for Christmas Dinner. The old trick was to try and store a few tubers of the first early varieties planted out in spring. This often resulted in very varying results. But now the seed potato suppliers store them for us just at the right temperature so they are ready to plant at the [...]
Jul 2
The vegetable garden will be in full production and crops will need regular picking over to sustain the continued production of fresh young produce. Leaving vegetables to get to their maximum size is counter productive, as this slows down their growth and the result is less harvest from the plant, plus they taste better when [...]
Jun 1
June on the allotment is the when all the hard work of the past few months really starts to show rewards. Early crops should be in full production, main crop varieties will be growing away steadily and all the cloches and rolls of fleece can be removed as the damaging frost should be a think [...]
May 5
May on the allotment or in the vegetable garden can be very frustrating, the weather can be ‘high summer one day and then ‘mid winter’ the next. Gardeners have to be on their guard to cover tender crops that will be vulnerable to any late frosts or persistent cold winds. Start as you mean to [...]
Apr 6
The month of ‘All Systems Go’ every thing suddenly starts to burst in to growth as the soil warms up and the suns strength increases. On an allotment or in the vegetable garden this is probably the busiest month of the year for the serious vegetable gardener. Its all too tempting to sow all the [...]
Mar 2
This month has to be the most difficult of the vegetable growing season, yet one of the most enjoyable. Trying to time seed sowing, so the plants are ready when the worst of the frost has gone is an art form its self. I try and combat this by sowing quite small quantities of seeds [...]
