Lots of sun and rain has kicked off the growing season and it looks like a good year.

Working up the photo



Sweetcorn
Peas
Courgettes and squash (leeks to the right)
Runner Beans and French climbers
Right at the back the biggest potatoes ever and broad beans behind
In front of the greenhouse we have strawberries in full swing and rasberries behind them.
Cranberries to the left of the greenhouse (out of sight)!

Note new shed!



Here we have

Kale
Winter cabbage
Red cabbage
Broccoli (never works but trying again!)
Sweetcorn
Broard beans far right
To the left of them pumpkins and also some leeks
Rhubarb and gooseberries at the back along with sage, thyme and mint
Jerusalem artichokes coming up too



So here we have

Lettuce
Garlic
Leeks
Radish
Kooli
Spring onions
Spinach
Beetroot
Basil
Dwarf runner and french beans just visible on the left
To the left of them Winter squash just out of sight

I am very very impressed. Looks fantastic, nice one. How far away is your allotment and how do you get on in times of drought? Are slugs and other pests a problem as those veg look in fine form?

Nice lay out and shed by the way.

We are very lucky in that we are 4 mins walk from the plot.

The greenhouse has to be watered every day if hot (tomatoes and cucumbers in there).

For the main plot - every 3 days a really good soak rather than a little every day, early salad veggies a bit more regularly, leeks much less.

Some of the brassicas just look after themselves (kale is bullet proof).

We hold back on the carrots to encourage the roots to go down and water when they wilt - works well.

Awesome work

Very impressed indeed

Do you get time to go to work?

I've got about 15 square feet in my back garden that I want to turn into an alotment and still haven't even found time to clear them of all the old grass cuttings and shit so that I can start growing something.

Going to have to pull my finger out and have a burn up tomorrow night.

I think I'll be on FISO more over the summer now, following your gardening/allotment threads than I was during the football season. Excellent work, although not a patch on my 'allotment' - pics to follow

reminds me of my grandads allotment, he had two on the go as well as a massive garden which was fantastic thinking back. one of the saddest things was clearing the overgrown garden a year or so after he died.
I would have loved to have him here now. He was a real gent.
He played for crewe back in the day and i always remember him telling me about playing vs dixie dean. Was a very decent player from what i remember being told.

It's pretty rewarding - you still have loads of time to get some quick growing stuff in - lettuce, radish, beetroot, rocket - you might even try some courgettes and some runner beans - get on it tomorrow night!

outstanding knulpuk - must be incredibly rewarding.

going to build my veg patch in the garden this summer - i'll be plugging you for advice

Nice one! Looks a bit further on than my allotment. You must be further South/less exposed...... The cold spell we had recently crocked my runners I reckon it must be a good year for spuds as mine are bigger than ever before..

I'd love to have a greenhouse but the local kids have smashed the glass on the only one currently in the field

Can you grow carrots and potatoes and other stuff on the inside of your windowsill as i don't have a garden.

Potatoes get a bit big (our our nigh on 5ft this year) - so probably not.

Carrots - maybe - but they need a fair bit of depth and takes ages too.

If I had a "window box" I think I would be thinking lettuce / rocket / mixed leaf - the type where you can cut a bit off and it will come again - its quick growing too, maybe a few herbs, perhaps radishes.

I grow blueberrys, tomatoes and herbs in a small front bit of concrete

Well after being on holiday for a week things have moved on massively - including the weeds - I will take a few more pictures at the weekend. Broad beans, raspberries, spinach, lettuce, radish, runner and french beans, gooseberries, spring onions, Kooli radish, potatoes and peas are now in full flow. The challenge now is freezing, pickling, jamming, baking and eating of course to make sure nothing goes to waste.

Oh and this is what you get in 4 days off of 6 courgette plants! If they are well watered they grow massively quickly this weather.

Last night we picked the last remaining pumpkins from the last remaining plant. None of these pumpkins were record breakers but this last plant bore 5 pumpkins - previously

25lb,28lb and 30lb

and the 2 last night were 32lb and 33lb.

That's a lot of pumpkin. Strictly speaking you are supposed to pare back the plant to maybe just 1 or 2 fruits to get them big but this one we let go.

[quote="Knulpuk"]Lots of sun and rain has kicked off the growing season and it looks like a good year.




]




This week i 'ave mostly been eating acorns-

Wow, what timing Knulpuk! My dip into the world of veg this year ended up with me harvesting a crop of carrots (largest one 25mm) and a crop of parsnips (largest one about 40mm with a width of about 5mm) Admittedly I didn't have a clue what I was doing and was actually quite impressed with the results

I've just taken receipt of Vegetable Growing: Month-by-Month by John Harrison and I've got a real buzz off something that I'm keen to do but currently know nothing about. I intend on beginning a thread (lots of pics) in the next few days which will begin with the creation of my vegetable garden which I began designing yesterday on paper.

I hope to become to vegetable gardening what CY is to long distance running

Oooh look forward to that - I will chip in with the odd comment / photo too.

John Harrison set up a forum on allotments / gardening which is now the biggest forum for that kind of thing - been a member for years - it's quite helpful for several things - he wrote the book off of the back of that.

We've just removed a feature from our garden leaving approx 15ft x 6ft of space which I would like to use for vegetable growing if possible.

issues...tree roots and the area is pretty much shaded at all times.

if we add enough top soil or whatever can we cope with a fairly root laden area or should we just do something else?

Some things eg runner beans, courgettes need sun - pretty much they are out. Somethings though are more shade tolerant than others. If there is any way you can prune the trees to allow in a bit more sunlight you will reap the benefits.

The biggest problem is not necessarily the effect tree roots have on the space but the fact that thet zap the nutrients from the soil. I would perhaps try some some raised beds filled with top soil / compost which may solve both problems in the short to medium term.

Veggies which need less sunlight include hardy brassicas - eg spinach and kale, root veggies, radish, beetroot, carrots, parsnips. I would though be tempted to try the root veggiese in containers on the plot than in the ground. Best bet though are things that grow in shade in the wild - blackberries gooseberries and raspberries - they will all do well.

If in doubt grow Jerusalem artichokes they would grow on the M25.

cheers, very helpful.

My lad thinks that any veg beginning with the letter A is the work of the devil after trying Artichoke and Aubergine He will not even try Asparagus at the moment.

One reason for me beginning a thread - I need as much advice as possible

OK - I shall update this thread through the year - may be a prompt for anyone thinking of growing something (not that I pretend to be an expert!!).

So with the passing of the snow and ice I think there are 3 immediate jobs this weekend (I will post some pictures weekly) / next weekend.

1) Seed potatoes. Potatoes should be going in in March time - some people swear that Good Friday is the ideal day - but I think that is in April this year. Seed potatoes are usually distributed (from Scotland) towards the end of this month. Ideally that gives a few weeks to "chit" the potatoes before planting.

I ordered: Picasso , Pentland Javelin and King Edwards. Cost is around £3 per 7lbs as a rule of thumb. I have 7lbs of each and that is enough for 2 people - so net £5. (also ordered £1 worth of Pink fir). That is a mixture of early season and main crop spuds.

I will include the cost too so you can see what you might save.

Even if you are not an allotment holder - the "trading shed" may still sell you some and the bulk buying power keeps the cost down. Seed spuds from Homebase will do the job just as well - but will be more expensive. Those sprouting in your cupboard will grow too but may not be so resistant to disease.

2) Clean the greenhouse and pots. Broard beans usually get started off in the greenhouse early in Feb and planted out early as it keeps down blackfly.

3) Prune raspberries - when I say prune - I just cut the whole lot off a foot from the grounds - and back they come every year.

Knulpuk, I look forward to following this thread and I WILL get round to starting my thread. Yesterday I managed to get round to digging my raised beds (I cut the beds 3-4 months ago!) and intend on picking up the scaffold planks which will be used to build the beds next weekend. What a shockingly slow start to my veggy growing life, but I plan to make up for lost time

I'm going to give spuds a miss this year as with limited space I want to get other stuff off to an early start.

This season I want to master the art of sprout growing as I have always had problems in the past.

Carrots, beans and broccoli always go well so they will be going in later. I may have another go at turnips although whilst I can grow wonderful turnip foliage I am always missing the turnip part.

I've still got parsnips in the ground that I am hoping are okay.

Happy days now that the sun is out. Make hay whilst you may.

Well managed to get down the plot last weekend and even do some digging, manuring and general tidying. Very hard work though as the ground was really heavy.

Planted out broad beans in pots in the greenhouse (Aqualduce) - not grown these before.

Potatoes were delivered and are now chitting under the bed in the spare room! (see above for varieties).

Really am behind with a few things but its better to start late than lose stuff to the frost and there appears to be one of those every morning at the moment.

I am going to start the garlic off in pots this weekend - should have been in just after Christmas.

Last year we had a lot of success with Shallots and we wish we had grown more and this year we will be trying Picasso and Yellow Moon - which are both Dutch varieties and for us at least we prefer the Dutch to the French as they seem more bolt resistant.

Looking forward to the start of Spring - itching to get started now.

the Ledge - I don't think you are behind at all.

Any chance of an update Knulpuk

Off down there now!

Camera in hand

So the first thing to say is that everything is a bit later this year. The grass needs cutting etc too - that is tomorrows job...



In the foreground we have red cabbage and to the left some sprouts, behind that garlic, onions and shallots. These will soon be joined by the recently crowned unpopular cauliflowers - which are still in the greenhouse. Broad beans behind that and to the left of the beans sweetcorn - only just planted. Just in front of these - not visible a row of parsnips..

Right at the back rhubarb and gooseberries (lost some to frost ). To the right some rhubarb right at the back some spinach which is just in front of parsley, which can be seen better here...There are blackcurrant and redcurrant bushes back there too for the first time.



This also shows beetroot in its early stages at the front - the 8 green bits are celery - behind that lettuce (normal and lambs leaf) - rocket and similar and radish.

Looking back: a better view of the spuds / broad beans and corn with the shed too.

Then we have



Great looking strawberries and raspberries to the right.

Still to go out:



At the front just coming through - winter squash - to the left more peas ( see canes at the back on the earlier photo as top where they will go) we are growing a smaller variety this year and I am disappointed - I should have stuck with Alderman (5ft -v- 2ft).

Cauli'f just visible far left.

Tomatoes, chillies, basil all coming through (lost some to frost) - they will stay in the greenhouse with the cucumbers which are visible just coming through on the pots on the floor. Behind these on the floor leeks and spring onions.

Courgettes and Pumpkins also visible to the back - but right at the back climbing french beans and runner beans (we lost most to frost - but they soon come up again).

More corn over the back too - ready to go out with the runner beans tomorrow.