Update 5 October 2008
A third season at the plot is nearly over. Progress this year has been complicated by changing work hours, house moves, travel and a few other factors that have made growing fruit and veg less of a priority. Trying to manage an allotment without any form of transport has always been a challenge. Now that there’s only one person to man (these days ‘woman’) the plot, it has been neglected at times.
Nevertheless, progress continued. Much of the produce was of good quality, but small quantity. A few new crops made an appearance.
Grown or growing for the first time were:
Apples
Charlotte potatoes
Globe artichokes (planted last year, produced this year)
Nasturtiums
Red onions
Tromba di Albenga squash
Familiar crops:
Beetroot
Broad beans
King Edwards potatoes (second generation, from some left in last season)
Onions (Sturon)
Round courgettes
Spinach beet
Sunflowers (one or two)
Various herbs
Other fruit:
Blackberries
Blackcurrants
Loganberries
Plums (Victoria)
Raspberries
Redcurrants
Rhubarb
White currants
Grew but scoffed by something or someone, or otherwise destroyed:
Cherries (three varieties)
Dahlias
Gooseberries
Sunflowers
There were no pears in 2008, which otherwise seemed a good year for fruit.
Update 26 July 2007
More than halfway through our second season, I can add a few things to the above list.
I got rather carried away when perusing the seed catalogue at the beginning of this year and have learned the hard way that growing everything from seed means being super organised; predictably, some of the more adventurous things like scorzonera are as yet unopened and even the plum tomatoes never made it out of the packet. Most of the flowers would have been a bit fiddly to grow from seed and as such we never got around to planting them.
The following lists are in no particular order:
Already enjoyed, some still producing:
Courgettes (Defender, Jemmer, Tondo di Piacenza)
Broad beans (Bunyard’s Exhibition)
Onions (Stuttgart Giant)
Potatoes (King Edwards)
Rainbow chard (various)
Raspberries
Blackcurrants
Cherries
Beetroot
Radishes (Sezanne, French breakfast)
Spinach beet
Rhubarb
Herbs
Not ready yet but in the plot:
Runner beans
Shallots
Plums (several varieties)
Pears
Loganberries
Still under glass (and started rather late):
Cherry tomatoes
Borlotti beans
Asparagus peas
In the plot, not expected to crop in first year:
Globe artichokes
Gooseberries
Didn’t fruit:
Redcurrants
White currants
Died or didn’t appear:
Garlic
Blueberry
Red poppies
Planted themselves!
Love-in-a-mist
Chamomile
Pink poppy
Lots and lots of weeds
11 March 2007
After years as flat dwellers with nothing more than a limited balcony space for growing a few herbs and flowers, in 2006 we moved to a house with a little garden and acquired an allotment. In our first season we successfully grew courgettes, runner beans and tomatoes (until blight struck). There were small crops of the currants, loganberries, plums and raspberries already in situ.
Nice blog. I like courgettes and your photos make them even more apetising!
Love the site, a great inspiration.
I’m a complete novice, but a quick question: Can you grow courgettes in hanging baskets, I’m rather short on space!
Thankyou!
Thanks for the comment, Kev. Courgettes have shortish roots but like very fertile soil and I doubt you’d want to put manure in your hanging basket! Feeding well with tomato feed would probably suffice.
Our neighbour accidentally grew a courgette plant in her hanging basket (a bird must have dropped the seed from our garden), but it never fruited, perhaps due to not having enough room among the flowers. I would suggest that you try a trailing variety and don’t overcrowd the basket.