Anyone with an allotment?

Finally moved my raspberries and Tay berry’s to their new permanent home complete with fence posts for supporting the canes. I’m going to try and plant a combination of sweet corn and purple sprouting broccoli in the same bed and maybe some onions too.

Currently some great deals on allotment stuff in Wilkos. Seed potatoes £2.50/2kg, Onion and shallot sets, Garlic cloves, asparagus crowns, strawberries and rhubarb all £2 a pop.

I’m near a wilkos tomorrow so will have a look around.

Some more asparagus crowns would be good

Bought my first onion since July today as our allotment ones have finally run out. Reckon if I plant double the amount I did last year maybe I can become entirely onion-self-sufficient. Last year’s garlic already looking like it’s going to last until this year’s is ready to harvest.

This is the only issue with the plot sizes. For me to be self sufficient in garlic and onions, I need to grow those two thing exclusively.

I stocked up on Sweetcorn and tomato seeds at Wilko for the forthcoming season, i also bought a load of stuff from https://moreveg.co.uk/ - i have no links just always found them nice people with good stuff at reasonable prices

I grew them both in a 3x1.5m raised bed. Reckon I could grow a year’s onions in one bed the same size. Although the thing which made the onions so good is that they got absolutely huge. Most were over 400g and some were touching 500g. We only needed to use half for most of our meals.

Which onions were you growing. I’ve never had any that big. Although only grown them twice.

I’m going to order some red, white and yellow. I’ve got some beds that are empty at the moment. Just struggling to more the horse manure because it’s so wet

They were sets, autumn sown and a variety called 'Troy'. I will definitely do them again, they probably grew better than anything on the plot last year, but I wanted to try some different varieties this year.

Has anyone planted and seeds indoors yet?

I’ve got some cauli and tomato’s that I’m itching to plant

I don't start until February generally, but I don't have much greenhouse space to transfer into.

I'm going to plant chillies and sweetpeas next weekend. I usually don't start till late Feb but I'm itching to grow something.

we started around now last year, we have a heated propagator that lives on the windowsill and a weed-farm style UV light thingy. None of those plants did very well, despite our best efforts, and were overtaken by seeds that went in later on.

I think patience is worth it for sowing many (most?) things. It is still only January, basically mid-winter. Some stuff, garlic, onions will be OK if the ground isn’t frozen, but most seeds/growth will respond to the increase in daylight hours that we see roughly mid-end March. Check one of the many sowing calendars online for more detailed sowing times, but Jan/Feb isn’t the time in general.

I’m an impatient gardener

Went to buy & move more manure from the communal stock...

Disaster.

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Bummer. At least you get a communal drop, though.

Anyone grown winter squash vertically* to save space?

*grown it up a trellis, that is.

I've grown small acorn squash that way

Yes, it is useful.

Time to get started….

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^ looks good already!

8 barrow loads done today, small jobs left to sort the big planters and where past years runner beans were then just wait until planting out time.

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Tried to get the arty panoramic view...

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That’s a proper allotment!

I love watching the plot start brown, then green, then a riot of colour. Before back to brown again

Did a couple of hours today, finished that run on the second plot and we got garlic in. Your leeks look good.