Planning my 2010 Allotment

I'm starting to think about the coming growing season and what I want to plant. There are some things that really worked last year veggie-wise, the Rainbow Chard was not only gorgeous to look at it was delicious and easy to grow. I think I'll grow some the the ordinary white stemmed variety this year as it seems to grow taller and last longer into the Winter.

I really miss my Spinach, but in the last couple of years it hasn't done well, in fact this year, I planted loads of seeds and hardly got any leaves to eat. Some of it was pecked off by the pigeons, so I covered the plants with Agralan Enviromesh which sorted that out. But, despite experimenting with different varieties, plants either bolted, or did not germinate, or were weedy and hardly produced any leaves. I read this intersting article and am wondering whether I'm planting it at the wrong time - I'm going to try planting it earlier and later to see if it does any better. It's very galling, some of my fellow allotmenteers have tons of lovely spinach.

I'm delighted to report that every one of my Garlic plants has sprouted. Last year I had a success with one row, but the other did not thrive. The problem with the second row was entirely mine. I was over zealous with my Winter mulch and they did sprout, but subsequently rotted under a thick coat of stable manure. The first row were gorgeous. It's the first time I've planted garlic in the autumn to over-winter and as a result I got proper bulbs with individual cloves. There were so delicious and fragrant - you just can't buy garlic like this, but they were soon used up in curries, and chillies, and mushroom bolognese, and spinach dhal, and walnut rocket pesto, and you get the picture. So, this year, I left no room for failure and planted four different types in two long rows, and if all goes well I'll have a year's supply of different strengths and flavours of garlic for use in cooking next year. Can't wait.

My French beans were not so prolific this year, but I'm sure this is because during the extremely hot weather I wasn't able to get down and water every day. My tomatoes, on the other hand, were fab. The outdoor ones only succumbed to blight at the very last, and I managed to freeze enough to last almost until I grow the next lot. I froze them in different ways. I made batches of tomato sauce (onion, tomatoes, blender) with and without garlic. I normally add some red wine to my tomato sauces, but the flavour of the tomatoes was so intense that I didn't want to interfere with it - I may add a splash of wine when I use the sauce. I simply chopped others into quarters, open froze them on trays and then put them into bags. I use these to just drop into anything that needs a bit of tomatoeiness. Others I sieved for passata, the rest I skinned and chopped.

The Broad Beans last year were not as good as in previous years and I had a dissappointing crop, so I decided to try over-wintering them, it seemed like they were a massive success until it snowed. I was so mad. This is the first time I've got round to over-wintering my Broad Beans and then it goes and snows on them! They look a bit flat and sad, but I've still got hopes for them. I'll also grow some in my greenhouse in pots as soon as the weather warms up a bit. I've gone back to growing trusty old Aquadulce and Red Epicure.

I shall grow Cucumber Burpless as usual - they are tasty and easy to grow. I train them up a trellis and two plants produces more than enough for two people. I will not be growing Gherkins this year - they were a pain and I had hardly any fruit from them at all.

The Vivaldi potatoes were brilliant and I'll definitely grow them again. I always grow Rocket as my first earlies and Juliette as a salad variety. I'll grow Courgette Defender again, but I might try a different yellow variety this year as Parador did not do so well. I'll also be growing the same carrots - Flyaway and Purple Haze as they are both delicious and do well for me. I companion plant them with marigolds which I grow in the greenhouse and this seems to keep off the carrot fly as well as looking really pretty.

I've resolved not to grow either onions or shallots this year as I've had miserable crops in the past, but I'm sure I won't be able to resist the lure of the packets of sets in the garden centre. Any suggestions for improving the size of my crops gratefully received.

Of course, I'll be planting loads of Radishes, Spring Onions, Coriander, Basil, Parsley and salad leaves. The raspberry canes and fruit bushes will get a good dose of fertiliser and some extra mulch. I'm going to totally ignore my Gooseberries this year as a friend has told me they crop better if you don't mulch or feed them Last year and the year before I pruned them correctly, fed them, mulched them and got very dissappointing results. So, I'm going to treat 'em mean, I'll let you know what happens.

I'm sure I've missed something. I need to make a list and finalise my choices. I'll definitely try at least one new thing, but haven't decided what yet. I also need to look at my crop rotation plan - yes, I do have one, it's the only way to remember where things are in order to make sure you don't plant the same crops in the same place each year.