Veg Plotting - 2009 Style


Click on image to enlarge if needed

This year's plot's a little nearer reality now I've sucked on the end of my pencil and produced my planting plan - the sole record keeping I have for my allotment apart from the task and buying information I record for both plot and garden in my RHS diaries. You can see last year's plan here, which also explains a bit more about my allotment's design. It's got a basic grouping of 4 sub-plots, which makes planning crop rotation a breeze as long as I keep the previous year's plan updated with what actually went where. Permanent features and planting are in glorious technicolour, the rest's in pencil until the actual planting takes place as the initial and actual plans are rarely the same. I'm hoping to start actual plotting next month if the soil's not too wet - with the shallots I've saved from last year's mega crop, plus the garlic currently in pots on my patio. Other jobs earmarked for next month include digging up some raspberry runners promised for G and R and all the strawberry runners promised to S and L, the latter have overrun the patch allocated to the Vivaldi potatoes!

When I did my Allotment News post last week some of you asked for more information about allotments. Rest assured I'd already planned to do something as a You Ask We Answer post, though I also need to research Victory Gardens first as I think they're the closest equivalent in the USA. In the meantime, you might like to read one of my very early posts on the strange world of naming plot measurements and the multitude of meanings of the word lug.

This is my third and final post on this month's Gardening Gone Wild record keeping and labelling design theme. The others are Tagging My Garden and Garden Tagging the National Trust Way.

Comments

  1. Anonymous29 January 2009 at 09:54

    Fabulous, I love see other peoples plans - yours are rather nice.
    K

    ReplyDelete
  2. The Constant Gardener29 January 2009 at 10:46

    I've just been doing this too :D one of my favourite parts of the year, all full of promise.

    I too have four sections to my allotment but they go across, not down, if you know what I mean. And I too need to keep reminding myself what's meant to go where - if spuds were in the bottom left last year, they go in the top left this year... and so on.

    I'd love to be able to do a nice artistic version like yours (you ought to keep them - when you're an old, old lady you'll pull them out with pride). Unfortunately I'm addicted to computers so have a graphic version instead. Perhaps I'll get around to putting that on the blog one day and we can compare notes!

    ReplyDelete
  3. TYRA Hallsénius Lindhe29 January 2009 at 11:14

    Hello VP, it is going to be just fabulous at plot 14. Very neat and tidy looking and it is decorative too. You have a lot of apples, do you grow them like cordons (is that the correct word?) or like ordinary trees? / Tyra

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hermes29 January 2009 at 11:35

    Looks a good selection to me - especially those lovely Apples. Here's to a great 2009 despite all the economic gloom.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Susan Tomlinson29 January 2009 at 11:58

    Oooh, I love a good map. Yours is so neat and tidy. I may have to try something similar.

    The allotment looks pretty big, actually. You must get a lot of produce from that. Are you able to eat all of it, or do you give some away?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Susan Tomlinson29 January 2009 at 12:00

    P.S. Eagerly awaiting the YAWA on allotments! ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Yolanda Elizabet Heuzen29 January 2009 at 12:35

    You've been a rather busy beaver, haven't you? Drawing up plans and such like, not to mention blogging so often that it's hard to keep up with you. ;-)

    BTW Only 1 pear? Surely that must be rectified asap. How about some wonderfully tasty Doyenne du comice?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Zoë29 January 2009 at 13:02

    Looking great,lots of delicious varieties there, especially the fruit trees.

    I got an offer of an allotment in the post today from my Parish Council having waited almost 5 years!It is probably the worst plot on the allotment, surrounded on two sides by huge native hedges, and a large tree in the middle of it! Never mind eh - will just have to go back on the waiting list for another year or five.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Gail29 January 2009 at 13:52

    I agree with all your previous commenters a neat, tidy, colorful and may I add organized! gail

    ReplyDelete
  10. Dave29 January 2009 at 16:14

    Great Plan, thanks for sharing. I love to see how other people do things. Guess I'm just nosey or maybe it's all part of learning.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous29 January 2009 at 20:34

    I particularly like the fire which, Triffid like, looks as if it aims to entrap the whole allotment in its tendrils (lol)
    The whole thing is very attractive.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anna29 January 2009 at 21:39

    Now that looks like a great plan VP. I am still still in the sorting out the seed box stage, but maybe the plan should come first. I see that we are both
    growing 'Red Baron' onions. I liked the exclamation mark by your nettles - I am sure that like mine they are planned patches:) Interesting to see that you are allowed fires - not so on my allotment site. Only a twice yearly community bonfire under strict control is allowed.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous29 January 2009 at 23:01

    What fun to look at your map in detail, VP. Like easygardener, I liked your fire artwork in particular!

    ReplyDelete
  14. HappyMouffetard30 January 2009 at 06:21

    A great plan, VP.
    I must keep SomeBeans away from your blog - he'll start demanding that I'm as organised as you!

    ReplyDelete
  15. VP31 January 2009 at 08:38

    Karen - thanks. Let's see what reality brings ;)

    CG - do publish yours, I want to see it! And I do keep them, just to make sure my rotation's going OK.

    Tyra - yes I do grow my apples as cordons and some are growing over arches :)

    Hermes - hear hear. You've spotted that apples are a bit special for me!

    Susan - the allotment is huge! About 30 feet by 100 - I must measure it properly for YAWA. They're designed to be big enough to feed a family of 4, so as we're a family of 2, stuff does get given away or preserved.

    Yolanda - a busy blogger that's me :) I do have 2 concorde pears which are a cross between conference and comice and are yummy when the badgers don't get them. Shhhhhh - I have guerrilla gardened a comice pear somewhere...

    Zoe - how typical is that! Do you think you can take it on at the moment, so you can get first pick when something better comes along?

    Gail - organised in theory, but in reality. Like my profile picture description used to say - calm on the surface, paddling like hell underneath!

    Dave - I think we're all a bit nebby, that's why we love blogs :)

    EG - I'm particularly proud of the fire bit too as it stretched my artistic abilities somewhat ;)

    Anna - I inherited the nettles and I need the exclamation marks to remind me to take care when wearing shorts ;) Fires are discouraged, so my fire area tends to be a bit of a weed dump until the conditions are right for a fire, or I gather them all up to take to the green waste tip.

    Nan - welcome! It's having a blog that persuaded me to go technicolour :)

    HM - it's all a disguise. I start out well and still end up in a chaotic heap just like everyone else!

    ReplyDelete

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