[Closed] Allotments growing this year?

Planting this year

Beans lots of esp broard beans
Spuds 3 different variety all earliest
Asparagus
Strayberrys
Raspberries
Gooseberry red and green
Teyberries
Carrots
Parsnips
Turnips
Sweed
Beetroot
Pak choi
Courgettes green yellow round and trombone
Lots of pumpkins and squished
Plus lots of other stuff but need to get sorted for the over winter stuff esp Swiss chard

Can't grow sweet corn because of the badgers 🙁

Aha ! We've just got our first allotment and know nothing. What's easy to grow ? What should we be planting right now ? Is it true that you plant a small onion and just wait for it to become a bigger onion, surely not ?
Ta for any pointers

Planting this year

Beans lots of esp broard beans
Spuds 3 different variety all earliest
Asparagus
Strayberrys
Raspberries
Gooseberry red and green
Teyberries
Carrots
Parsnips
Turnips
Sweed
Beetroot
Pak choi
Courgettes green yellow round and trombone
Lots of pumpkins and squished
Plus lots of other stuff but need to get sorted for the over winter stuff esp Swiss chard

Can't grow sweet corn because of the badgers 🙁

Taking shape, our plot is bloody monstrous in size which is a challenge. It contains 2 massive old oak trees and backs onto a forest (my local trails) bliss in the summer (south facing)

Just finished levelling an old pond to turn into a seating and bbq area, complete with hammock and tree swing.

As you can tell, im not involved in the actual growing part, other than my hops 😉

@thebees...suggestions for first year:

onions are a doddle to grow and now is the time to plant. Buy a bag of baby onions from Wilkos or any garden centre. Plant them just below the surface 5" appart and wait...oh and weed!

Garlic and shallots are good and easy too.

For covering large areas, courgettes and pumpkins and sweetcorn are good. Little need to weed.

If you are sticking at allotmenting then asparagus is good...expecting our first YR3 yield this year from my wifes plot (we have two).

We have not yet mastered cabbages or other brassicas.

Tomatoes in the greenhouse and chillis in there too.

Just taken on my first allotment too so will look forward to any good tips.
my main priority now is building myself an awesome shed...
🙂

Potatoes, rubarb, and prob a random assortment of whatever the MiL brings from her allotment.
Also have some hop plants on the go - did OK last year, but long term project really - takes a few years for the roots to really get established by all accounts.

Have a small veg plot in the garden, but just doing a couple of rows of spuds this year. Nothing has been very successful the last few years so I think the soil - and the gardener - need a year off.

We took an allotment in August last year so we have our first full season ahead of us. We planted a lawn last year which seems to have taken and turned the earth over for winter. It was untended for 2 years prior to us and we know there is a problem with bindweed. Should be amusing though.

This makes me sad as I have so much work on with house, allotment will be just abandoned this year as I don't have time to look after it.

If I get chance, I'll just bung a load of tatties in there.

That's kind of not the point though, as I love the lifestyle and chats on a sunny weekend.

Sodding house 🙁

Overwintered I've got:
Shallots
Onions
Broad beans
Chard

Fruit
Strawberries
Currants
Cherries
Apple, Pear and Plum trees
Red and white gooseberries
Raspberries

In the greenhouse getting ready to go up to the plot later:
Potatoes chitting
Peas
Loads of lettuce
Spring onions
Squashes

Planned to sow later
Cucumbers
Sweetcorn
Herbs

Hoping for another great year!

I'm just wondering, how large is an allotment or do they vary in size from place to place?

Swiss Chard is very easy to grow and delicious, I have a great recipe for pickled swiss chard, which has done me over the winter.
I also go for the yellow courgettes, beetroot, springs onions, leeks, carrots and red currants.
Unfortunately not enough space to move my tomatoes, as they got blight last year, so that will be a year without growing them.
Chillies of course in the greenhouse along with lettuce and rocket.
There is a great book, a year on otter farm. Tells you about the growing of the veg in seasons and has some cracking recipes to go with the seasons.

Get some Cavolo Nero in there; God's own cabbage!

Apart from the usual suspects, I've got a plan for melons in a hot bed - a layer of growing compost above some recently delivered cowmuck/bedding. Got a couple of double glazed French doors to roof the bed. The heat from the manure should make the melons feel at home.

I over wintered 14 rows of garlic and onions. I've recently put in 4 varieties of potato. In the seed boxes I have beetroot, parsnips, turnips, leeks and marigolds. Digging over a new allotment is really important, I'm on my 4th dig in 18 months, removing weed roots and digging in manure. It is a joy. Courgettes/marrow are really easy to grow as are spuds, onions and garlic. You will notice the difference in the quality of the produce and get fit and tanned in the process.

Allotments vary hugely in size. The traditional plot was 1 Rod long I believe, they were huge to feed a family. Note they've mostly been split up into halves and quarters, some even smaller on private allotment sites.
I've got two halves, total area is approx 450m2.

BillMC, try and get hold of a book by Charles Dowding, "Organic gardening the natural No Dig way", or something like that. I got it as a present 9 years ago when I got my allotment. It made perfect sense and I don't dig any more. The time and effort saved is incredible and I have as much if not more produce than the annual diggers on my allotment site. I converted half of my second plot to no dig in 2013 and last year had huge amounts of produced with hardly any effort. Doing the last quarter in the coming weeks.