What I've learnt in 5 months...

Brassicas

It seems as if I have had the allotment for way longer than 5 months, but a quick check of the calendar has confirmed that I picked up the key for the allotment almost exactly 5 months ago! This post is a summary of what I've learnt about the Anson Way Allotments in this time.

Beans
I initially planted 12 bean plants, 6 broad beans and 6 dwarf runners. The broad beans never really took off as it was too dry and cold when I planted them - hopefully overwintering them for next year will do the trick. The dwarf runner beans faired a little better and I managed to harvest a handful of beans 3 or 4 times.

Two short double-rows of broad beans

Carrots
I had noticed that the soil was a little stoney in places, which resulted in some very strange shaped carrots, but they did grow to a very large size - at least the ground is pretty fertile even if it is full of stones.

Beetroot
As with most of my planting this year the beetroot were planted from seedlings and about 75% of them took hold. They were rather irregular in size and shape, but the all look the same sliced and pickled in vinegar so another success.

Potatoes
I was pretty late in planting potatoes, and I could only find a couple of bags of seed potatoes so I wasn't expecting much. Each plant produced a small handful of very good potatoes, so for an outlay of £2 on seed I am pretty pleased.

Courgettes
The courgettes have to be the great success of this year. The two green courgette plants that I obtained from the market started producing very quickly and were still producing courgettes well in to september. The two yellow courgette plants were grown from old seed that I had lying around and took a little longer to start producing fruit but once they caught up, they again carried on until the middle of september. I already have some courgette plugs on order from Suttons for next year - 3 each of a green and a yellow variety...

Leeks and Onions
The small salad onions that I planted from seedlings never really took off that well - next year I will grow salad onions from seed which hopefully will produce better results. The leeks, however, have done very well and they are still growing in the ground so I am sure that we will have some right up until christmas and maybe on in to next year.

Squash and Pumpkins
The squash never really produced much fruit this year so I pulled them up fairly early on and composted them. I did manage to get 4 pumpkins, 2 very small and 2 a half decent size. However the 2 larger pumpkins were taken from my front garden where I had left them in the sun to ripen.

Brassicas
The cabbages have grown well and I am just beginning to harvest them, the brussels sprouts are filling out and it looks like the purple sprouting broccoli will produce some good sprouts in the spring.

Looking forward to next year
The garlic and onions are shooting up now and I have just planted some peas and broad beans as an overwintering experiment. I am looking forward to getting the asparagus bed up and running, and growing carrots and parsnips in their dedicated raised beds. I am very pleased with how the first 5 months have gone, and can't wait to get the whole plot into production next year.

All I need to do between now and the spring is keep on top of the weeds, protect the beans/peas before the winter gets going, and purchase/chit the seed potato. Happy Gardening!

Onion and garlic sets shooting up