Just got our first allotment - what to grow for the first year?

Primrose

Congratulations. Bet you're dying to get started. I'd opt for growing things that are expensive to buy in the shops, or where you can have the pleasure of growing varieties that arn't commercially available. Runner and climbing French beans are good as it's difficult to buy quality beans in a supermarket and there are so many exciting red and yellow tomato varieties you can buy. Ferline is a blight resistant tomato which is worth trying because tomato blight can spread quickly on an allotment where several people are growing it, so it's worth trying to get that extra protection.

Strawberry plants are only supposed to be really viable for about four years, so I'd be very tempted to dig up anything that looks like a young runner and plant them in a different location so that old and new plants don't get mixed up and you know roughly how old they are.

I'd leave your current bushes alone for this year. If you prune now, you will lose this year's crop. Also leave the raspberries alone until you can find out when they crop - June or late August/September. If it's the latter, they're an autumn fruiting raspberry and can be cut down to the ground every year after fruiting.

If you like courgettes, plant a couple of plants but don't go overboard as they're very prolific and quickly grow into marrows. Trouble free greens are Swiss Chard (like Spinach but it doesn't bolt) and Cavalo Nero Kale which is very winter hardy. Leeks, if you like them, are also pretty trouble free.

Various salads are always worth growing, and if you like cucumber, Mini Cucumbers can be grown outdoors (but germinated indoors) and are deliciously crunchy.. They also crop prolifically in good conditions and are just the right size for putting in lunch boxes.

Good luck with your efforts. Hope you have a lot of fun. Growing vegetables and watching them thrive is enormously satisfying and keeps me sane !

charlies-aunt

Thanks Primrose! Really looking forward to browsing the seed packets at Wilko's next weekend

Never ever eaten Swiss Chard or Kale - are they like winter greens? and when do they crop? I hope to plant so we can keep ourselves going with veg throughout the year

I really love sprouts and purple spouting brocolli so they will be hopefully on our shopping list.

I am really surprised that you say that celery is easy to grow - I was always under the impression that this was very difficult so as I currently buy a head of celery every week - that will definately be in the shopping basket and we'll give it a go!

Is it worth sowing things like marigolds to deter pests? We live in an old stone cottage and spend a lot of time and slug pellets trying to stop the slugs and snails that emerge from the stone walls at night from scoffing our container plants - will slugs/snails be a problem in an allotment?? Keen to do things as organically as possible

Courgettes! More-gettes! In 2009 we couldn't get any seed to germinate and never grew any...last year - determined not to miss out, my DH bought two packets and loving coaxed them to germinate - they ALL came ..the problem was he was so proud of them, he planted the lot in our tiny garden - where they rapidly took over every spare spare inch and they all grew+grew+grew like the vine in Jack and the Beanstalk :rotfl:we were eating them every main meal for weeks :rotfl: picked while small - they were really delicious so not complaining.

Can you suggest a white cabbage variety - I really love the tight pale green crunchy one!

I think I will try transplanting some of the strawberry' babies' - the parent plants don't look massive so maybe not all that old. Guess we will have to be patient and wait and see.

Lighter nights now - can't wait to get cracking!

cootambear

Personally, I would leave the little strawb plants alone until mid april.

Primrose

Swiss chard is virtually an all year round green - the leaves are very much like spinach but it's easier to grow because it doesn't bolt like spinach does. I sow around April and if you grow plenty of it you can pick some of the young tender leaves and use in a mixed green salad.

Kale is a hardy winter vegetable. Ours survived all the recent frosts and snows. You can get various varieties - curly kale which looks like giant curly parsley. You can get green & red leaved varieties. There is also another type of kale - Cavalo Nero, which has crinkled flat leaves, rather than curly frizzy ones, which tends to be a stalk-like plant as it grows throughout the year - rather like Brussels sprouts. They're all hardy and a useful crop to grow when there's not much else to pick during winter. I thinly sow these in situ around mid April and thin out as necessary to save the bother of growing seedlings & then transplanting.

If you like tomatoes and don't know how much time you'll be able to devote to your allotment, remember that the normal tall varieties need a lot of attention staking them up and taking the side shoots out (probably at least twice a week). An easier way is to grow tumbling varieties (Red tumbler or Yellow tumbler) which are effectively low bush tomatoes growing no more than a foot high. These produce cherry tomatoes which don't need sideshooting at all, so apart from watering, are trouble free.

if you like celery, you might enjoy growing celeriac which has a similar taste and which grows as a bulb rather like a swede, but it's difficult to find seedlings of this so you would need to grow from seed yourself, starting off under cover around March and planting out into little modules until the seedlings are hardy enough at around 3 or 4 inches high, to plant outdoors. But these are winter hardy and I leave mine in the ground all winter.

I've never had much success with Sprouts & cabbage because of catterpillars. Purple sprouting broccoli is winter hardy but really attracts the white cabbage butterflies and caterpillars can decimate it in summer unless you're prepared to keep them permanently covered with garden fleece. For some reason, they always seem to avoid the kale plants in our garden.

One thing to remember about climbing beans. Runner beans need insects to pollinate them so if you have a poor cold season, or a very hot season where heat makes the flowers drop off, you'll get a poor bean crop. Climbing French beans on the other hand, are self-fertile so are less tempramental about weather and the presence of insects to pollinate them so try growing some of each and see which you prefer. Cobra is probably the best French climbing bean variety. If you want to try something different and grow a purple podded climbing French bean, try Thompson & Morgan's Blauhilde (although disappointingly, they turn green when cooked.).

ukbill69

Well done for getting one you will have great fun growing your own bits and you will never taste any better. Good luck.

Sambucus_Nigra

charlies-aunt wrote: »

Is it a sign of middle age that we are looking forward to this? :rotfl:

No - it's a sign of being fit, active and interested in what you eat.

I was approached by a 15yr old about getting a plot on our lottie site; and I grow in schools and have many 8-15yr olds who love their school lottie.

Middle aged - pah!

charlies-aunt

Sambucus_Nigra wrote: »

Middle aged - pah!

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

We are treating ourselves to a trip into town today - to browse the 3 for 2 seeds packets in Wilko's and then home to spend several evenings planning a planting scheme

Are there any plants/flowers that can be planted in amongst vegetables to deter aphids/caterpillar? vaguely thinking of marigilds and garlic...

angelavdavis

I grow the following companion plants:

French Marigolds
Field Marigolds (calendula)
Poached Egg Plants (Limnanthes douglasii)
Nasturtiums (diverts blackfly away from crops)

All are supposed to encourage pollinating insects and hoverflies which eat aphids.

I also keep a patch of nettles by the compost heap - the bees and butterlfies love them but I cut them down before they flower to stop them spreading and put some in a bucket of water to create a nettle tea to feed the plants and the rest on the compost heap to speed up the rotting process.

I haven't tried others myself, but this link provides all sorts of advice - some I haven't heard of myself:

http://www.gardening.ie/in-the-garden/level-4/vegetables/148-companion-planting

DH and I spent the day at the allotment yesterday clearing, planting fruit trees and moving a tayberry left by the previous owners to a far better suited position. We had a great day and although tired, really enjoyed ourselves. I hope you get as much joy from your plot.

zarazara

How very exciting, I can only suggest to try what you like and also things which are easy. no point in growing lettuce if you dont like it! for example.
try broad beans peas and courgettes. most of all just enjoy being down at the allotment. Some things will tiurn out spectaculally well and the slugs and greenfly will get others, some things just wont thrive, whatever its a great learning curve and theres a lot of fun to be had.