Anyone with an allotment?

Stuck in a load of potatoes, beans, tomatoes and a couple of squash today. As always with the kids it took forever to leave the house so we were working in the peak of the heat. Goosed now. Some impressive chits on the maincrop spuds.

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The only thing doing well on my plot is the grass. Used half of my water store last weekend so if we have another summer like last I'm expecting to lose pretty much everything.

Looks like I'll be taking buckets of water along in the wheelbarrow 😞

They have no water there? Seems insane.

Get thee sen a bore hole

Oof that’s harsh. I don’t know what I’d do without a full sized sheep trough on mains water on my plot.

No water on our allotment site. I know. I've got a big butt that was filled with rain over winter and a 1m³ container that at present has no way to fill it so I need to construct a collection system to go on the top and drain into it.

Is there any chance the council could put a tap in or a few butts? Seems so hard to get anything established without water. Trying to think what I’d grow if I didn’t have a water butt.

Earthed up the Maris Pipers yesterday.
Used Marshalls vegetable compost as lacking in soil and it's the 3rd year in a row that I'm growing potatoes so wanted to ensure that there was sufficient nutrients in the soil. Anyone suffered from a poor potato crop from growing them in the same spot year after year or does that only happen if not enriching the soil with more nutrients?

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Anyone want Hessian sacks? 4 of these free from BR7. It's a nice day for a cycle! I have some allotment books somewhere as well you are welcome to take.

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I think crop rotation is mainly to avoid a build up of disease in the soil (see: Irish potato famine). Charles dowding reckons ‘no dig’ means you don’t need to rotate as much.

We’ve only been on our plot 2-3 years but rotating. However hard I try we get surprise potatoes here there and everywhere.

Tidied up and reseeded the front flowerbed and put in some card/chip paths in between the fruit espaliers.

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surprise potatoes here there and everywhere.

Yr6 and I have random spuds in last year & year before spuds beds. Must harvest harder.

They’re handy gap fillers though, I’ll give them that at least.

It's a parish council and they are pretty slow to do anything but I can ask I guess. They're fairly well established so I won't hold my breath.

I see them as a bonus, low effort spuds.

Having thought about it. I reckon with minimal water available I’d go for potatoes, perennial veg (kale, asparagus etc), rhubarb and fruit trees.

Short downpour here earlier followed by nearly an hour of lighter rain. Hope it reached wherever you are @Arducius

I've got quite a few potatoes in, lost most of the spinach beet in the early hard frosts we had last winter after they didn't really get well established over the dry summer and the frosts we had this spring finished those off that survived and I haven't gotten around to getting more in. But have had well established chard go through winter before so I think you're right.
We've got herbs and fruit bushes which will be ok plus a couple of good rhubarbs.

Had an hour of good rain yesterday here in Wiltshire which will help loads. And some seeds I've shown at home have germinated so there is hope!

Oh and I have 5 of 9 Jerusalem artichoke come up which is a significant improvement on the one I had last year!

So it turns out the school bean I posted about in #3438 was a broad bean. We harvested one single bean last night however there's a few left on the plant. Was mega tasty. Not sure I've really eaten a meaningful no of broad beans in a fresh manner before. Was a bit fiddly to prepare. The success of the bean plant has given me fresh impetus to remove most of the paving in the back garden so I can grow more.

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Fresh broad beans are one of the best veg for being leagues better than shop bought

For me, others on that list are tomatoes & carrots. Interested to hear other ideas tho

Salad leaves are amazing fresh

Tbh almost anything!

almost anything!

Not sure i'd agree with that. For me, all the brassicas I've grown are tasty but not much better than decent shop bought

Chillies, you can grow a wider variety but being fresher than shop bought doesn't seem to make any difference

Same for plums and apples

Radishes actually although not the most exciting veg in the world are hugely stronger tasting than shop bought

I don't have an allotment sadly so I am growing in my small garden, and particularly keen to grow those things that just cannot taste as good when shop bought

Not tried them yet but keen to give carrots a go - local, organic veg box ones are incredible compared to supermarket, so thinking that freshly plucked would be another level still

If you've got some gaps to fill or haven't had time to sow everything, can highly recommend https://www.rocketgardens.co.uk/

Plants have turned up very healthy and packaging is plastic free and compostable. Prices aren't too bad either.

I love broad beans. They’re so nice fresh. I rarely bother cooking them because I’ve eaten them already.