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

Post a Comment

I love hearing from you and welcome thoughtful conversations :)

Comments aiming to link back and give credence to commercial websites will be composted!

Your essential reads

That blue flower: A spring spotter's guide

Image
Spring is a prime time for blue flowers and my daily walks currently have several from the same plant family* lining the local footpaths. As I walked past the Donkey Field the other day, I overheard some children ask their parents** what the pictured blue flower was. It reminded me it's often mistaken for those other familial blues and this time was no different, as they said it was forget-me-not, instead of the green alkanet it actually is. As well as similar flowers, most of these plants are hairy in their nature, flower around the same time, and favour damp, shady places. Many of them are great for pollinators too, especially bees and this week's warm weather has certainly drawn them to these flowers. This makes it even more likely for these plants to be mistaken for each other and it's a great opportunity for me to put together a spotter's guide in case you find the same flowers on your outings. Staying with green alkanet, the key features which set it ...
Read more

Jack Go To Bed At Noon

Image
Last year this rather exotic looking flower appeared on mine and several other allotments for the first time. Having been stumped (again) by Mr Allotment Warden as to its identity, I rushed home to find out what it was. It's salsify, aka the marvellous Jack Go To Bed At Noon - named as such because its flowers always close by midday. Here you can see both open and closed flowers - making it seem even more exotic and alien than in the first picture. I think this must be the cultivated version because the flower in my Francis Rose Wild Flower Key looks exactly the same in form, but is bright yellow in colour and called meadow salsify . Its other common name is Goatsbeard, which must be a nod to the fantastic dandelion-like clock which forms the seed head. With 'parachutes' like those shown above, who knows how far our plotted plants came from. I rather like the photographic dissection of the seedhead found in this link . Salsify is edible: its lateral shoots and fl...
Read more

Red Nose Day - Gardening Jokes Anyone?

Image
The nation goes ever so slightly bonkers on Red Nose Day - hurrah! Previously, it's been very easy to join in - usually via a dress down day at work plus lots of people up to mad things at the station and in the office. Everyone smiling for once - it's a real feel good day and all in a good cause. This year's different - every day's a dress down day for me now - my friend L suggested yesterday that perhaps I could have a dress up day instead and whilst that's a good idea, I confess that ballgowns and tiaras don't really feature in my wardrobe: scruffy student's always been my favourite look. So my Red Nose Day contribution for this year is to compile a list of gardening related jokes. For each one (clean ones only please) you leave in the comments below, I'll make a donation of 50p to the cause. Here's a few for starters just to get you warmed up: Q Why do potatoes make good detectives? A Because they keep their eyes peeled. Q What did the grape...
Read more

Salad Days: Mastering Lettuce

Image
I've decided one of my salad challenges for this year is to grow as many lettuce varieties as I can, ready for the publication of my planned Factsheet* later on. The idea is to grow as many of the Tried and Trusted lettuce varieties last year's Salad Challengers helped compile, then provide a visual guide and as many lettuce facts as I can muster. So far I've found around half of those listed**. Then naturally whilst I was out searching - because such is the way with seeds - a number of other varieties found their way home too ;) A couple of weeks ago I sowed 22 varieties***. Just the simple act of sowing them has me intrigued. Why are some lettuce seeds black and others white****? They split into about half white to half black in my sample and as far as I can tell it's nothing to do with whether they're a type of cos, iceberg, or whatever. I sowed them indoors and popped them into a propagator on the windowsill. The soil's too cold outside for sowing ...
Read more

VPs VIPs: Derry Watkins of Special Plants

Image
Last week I had the pleasure of visiting Derry Watkins at her home, garden and nursery - the acclaimed Special Plants - just a few miles along the road from me. I first met Derry at one of her open garden days last year and was keen to find out more about her wonderful garden and running an independent nursery. She specialises in tender perennials and regularly goes on plant hunting trips to find new treasures, particularly in South Africa. As well as running Special Plants and opening her garden under the NGS scheme , Derry holds day courses at her nursery, hosts Special Tuesdays from April until September, lectures and has written a couple of books. How did you find your way from Connecticut to the UK? I'd started a biodynamic vegetable garden in Connecticut and we used to have people come along at weekends to help out. A particular young man turned up: he returned many times and at the end of the summer I married him. So it was all down to love? Isn't that the...
Read more

#mygardenrightnow: heading into summer with the Chelsea Fringe

Image
Ahhhhhh, that's better! I love walking through dewy grass in bare feet, not that there's much in the way of grass on my back lawn this weekend. My wild and woolly lawn has morphed into meadow of sorts this month, which even NAH admits looks attractive*. It's also proved a great source for my Flowers for mum project so far, yielding self-sown perennial cornflowers, lamb's ears, and lemon balm in addition to the blooms you can see. These originated from elsewhere in the garden, the ox-eye daisies must have blown in from the A350 nearby. * = he got very stroppy about the weeds aka self-sown foxgloves in the lawn one year, so he's come along a bit since then. Skimble's demanding to say hello to you too. He does enjoy the patio when it warms up. If the embedded video doesn't work try this link instead. The Nectaroscordum are a revelation. I planted the bulbs around 2 years ago, but it's only this year they've bloomed properly. The bee...
Read more

The Resilient Garden

Image
  Part of Tom Massey's Resilient Garden at RHS Hampton Court I've been pondering VP Gardens a lot lately. Last year's drought conditions set me off initially, then our harsher than usual winter combined with this summer's flip and flop weather means the thinking continues. It's a huge topic which I freely admit I'm struggling to get my head around. Tom Massey's Resilient Garden  at Hampton Court recently  tackled this topic brilliantly and was a timely interlude which gave me much food for thought. There he encapsulated the detailed research he'd found which informed both his show garden and book of the same name. I think it's one of the most important show gardens I've ever seen. It's clear the way I garden needs to change so that I have my own resilient garden. I haven't worked out the exact details yet, but Tom's book plus a couple of others (see below), alongside the rainwater management handout from the show garden's  sponso...
Read more

Chelsea Fringe 2014: Shows of Hands - Episode I

Image
The gloves NAH used to build the raised bed . The effects are L to R, top to bottom:  Original photo, Warhol, HDR, Green tint, B&W, Posterize, Boost, Cross process and Sepia Welcome to Shows of Hands - my Chelsea Fringe project for 2014! As you can see I've been having a bit of a play around in Pic Monkey for my first contribution. You're welcome to join in between now and 8th June 2014. The idea behind this year's project is to highlight the tool most precious to a gardener: their hands. How do I take part? It's simple. All you need to do is take a photo of hand(s) in a gardening context and then share it via your blog or other social media (such as Twitter or Facebook), then make sure I know you've done so. I've set up Mr Linky below for your blog contributions. The Chelsea Fringe photo on the right sidebar links to this post, so you can easily find it again when you're ready to add your contribution. If you share your photo on Twitter, ...
Read more

Make Use of Mildew

Image
On my garden patrol this morning I spotted some powdery mildew on a couple of my new Verbena bonariensis plants. I suppose it was almost inevitable as I prefer to grow my plants hard - this means no water for them unless they look absolutely desperate. This approach means plants root themselves more deeply and have a better chance of survival during spells of dry weather like we've had lately. However, it also means I run the risk of problems like today's, especially with any garden newbies planted late in the season. We've had a good drop of rain overnight, so this should help my plants survive. I'll mulch them later today to help lock in the moisture as it's water stress which encourages the mildew to take hold. I've also removed the infected leaves and sprayed the rest with a milky drink.* I'm also pleased to find there's a use for my infected leaves. Oliver Ellingham at Reading University has started a PhD - sponsored by the RHS - researchi...
Read more

Testing Times: Tomatoes

Image
  I've run a couple of tomato trials this year. The first is a revisit of the biochar trial with Oxford University I attempted some years ago (with a different organisation this time), and the second is a trial of a water gadget called Plantsurge which I was given to try at Malvern Spring Show earlier this year. Most of you have probably heard of biochar already and the claim that this inert, carbon-rich material can help soil fertility and plant health. The RHS information in the above link says results can be mixed, with reduced effects found in alkaline soils. This may help to explain the lack of difference I found in my previous trial as VP Gardens is on a lime-rich soil. Plantsurge is a different beast altogether. It's a strong magnet which is attached to a hosepipe as shown in the photo above. It's claimed that it softens water, with the result more like watering with rainwater. The higher nitrogen found in rainwater is thought to be beneficial to plants. Gardener...
Read more