Wet Winter Weather and The Year Ahead

Almost as soon as the last weeds were hoed, plot raked and covered for the winter, the long warm summer evenings gave way to winter storms and torrential rains, seemingly missing out autumn entirely.

And so thoughts turn to next year, crop rotation and planting schemes for 2015.

The compost heap/weed pile at the head of the plot is going to be put to good use and have a variety of marrow, squash and courgette grown on it.

 The currant rhubarb crop is to be split and planted amidst a sea of lavendar. I read somewhere that this is a perfect growing combination, but we'll have to wait and see...

After having potatoes in the allotment this year, standard crop rotation dictates that we have legumes the following season.

With that in mind we are planning a mixed crop of borad and runner beans where the 'pink fir apple' were this summer.

The main area of the allotment was given over to sweetcorn, peas and beans this summer.

Next year we will split this area between root vegetables and potatoes.

Planting carrots and parsnips in short rows, seeded a few weeks apart, will extend the crop throughout the year.

Adding a twin crop of earlies; providing salad potatoes from May, overlapping nicely with the lates, which should be available right through to October.

The small planters will be filled with shallow rooting fruit and vegetables.

The strawberries we have produced a number of young plants this summer, giving us a new crop for the allotment next spring.

The main planter will have flowers in a central pot, with the rest quartered between radish, rocket, spring onjons (scallions) and mixed leaf lettuce.

The girls will have an area of their own, where they plan to make a miniature model of our plot, complete with shed, little planters and veg.

The raspberries will be lifted and split into a more manageable arrangement, in a new fruit cage.

There is a small area at the rear of the shed, alongside the new waterbutt. Over the winter I plan to build a basic cold frame, allowing the seedling we grow in the shed at home to be brought on and hardened off at the plot reading for planting out.