We had an allotment meeting last night to discuss the rotation / layout for 2009. We all had our own ideas on what we wanted to grow but I think Dave has the best plan by following this simple method.
Answer the following questions on each fruit / veg:
1) Is it tastier than the supermarket equivalent?
2) Is it expensive to buy?
3) Is it easy to grow?
If you answer No to 2 or more questions then it's not going in the ground.
So therefore we are culling the following:
Potatoes: Blight
Aubergines: Pain the arse - never have a decent summer.
Garden peas: Eaten by slugs / not a good cropper.
Spinach: Doesn't get eaten.
Brussell Sprouts: One good stem out of 5. Nuff said.
We need an anti-mammal technique for sweetcorn as we had literally NONE last year due to rats and squirrels. We are ,however, giving broadbeans another shot. (I'm dubious as I know it will be infected by blackfly in seconds but hey-ho - it's a May cropper so what the heck?)
We're also going to try Jerusalem Artichokes! No idea how these will turn out and we've got to get seeds/tubers (i have no idea as of writing this!!) and put them into action for Feb/March.
We are definitely doing:
Manage Tout
Tomatoes
Squashes
Leeks
Climbing French beans and dwarf variety
Runners (cos it's an alllotment staple!)
...plus moving the herb bed as it's overgrown.
We have also played with the idea of doing chillies in the cold frame. Risky but worth a try.
So, that's the plan. Better get a final version laid out. :)
1 comment:
My early sweetcorn wasn't touched by the livestock, but the later ones were almost all stolen by rats or squirrels.
I will be growing mine in my garden at home this year to see if they do better there, but you may have success with an early variety.
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