Plot 15C Plan!

Last year was such a great year, it was my first full summer on my plot so it was a lot of trail and error, trying to find which varieties grew well in my soil and which vegetables tasted the best. There were a few crops that shone through so this year I will be growing a few of the same varieties that I grew last year simply because they were great croppers and tasted great too. However, there are a few new varieties that I can’t wait to try out!

As most of you know, my Dad has an allotment which is twice the size of mine. Therefore he will be focusing on all the maincrop potatoes and all the standard vegetables which we eat near enough everyday. This enables me to grow a few vegetables which are a tad different, ones which we wouldn’t necessarily eat or grow if we didn’t have the extra space. There’s also more room to grow flowers, more room for the chickens and more room for the wildlife!

Let’s start with the chickens. I’ve made some space on the old legume bed where I will be building a walk in cage, inside the cage will be the coop and a dustbath station. The coop will be raised on stilts for extra shelter and space underneath and I will be putting some weld mesh around the outside of the cage to deter foxes. This all needs to be done in the next couple of months! There’s also going to be a small wooden compost bin where I will be storing the chicken poo for use later, I’m hoping the flowers will help to mask the smell! (I’ll talk more about the chicken area on another page very soon.)

The Vegetables:

The only huge change this year is the layout of the beds. I had to move the three vegetable beds around to make way for the chickens which will be moving in soon. This simply means that the three beds are slightly smaller but also rather neatly placed altogether, side by side. I do a three year crop rotation so the beds will be brassicas, legumes and roots and I’m hoping to build some small hazel hurdles to seperate the beds, just so it looks a little neater! The root bed will be completely filled with salad potatoes, I’ll be growing International Kidney again as well as having a go at growing some Charlottes this year too. There’s carrots, broad beans, french beans and swiss chard in the Legume bed. Then last but not least, garlic, kale, red cabbage and pumpkins in the brassica bed. The pumpkins are something that I’m very excited about and I’ll be growing two different varieties this year, Crown Prince (which have a beautiful blue skin and delicious flesh) and I’ll also be trying to grow a giant pumpkin (me and my Dad are having a friendly competition!)

The archway is staying and remains rather solid. There will be Munchkin pumpkins, borlotto beans and sweet peas climbing up there again, although I may decrease the amount of pumpkins so I can actually walk through it this year! I’ll be growing another gherkin in the far end of the trough again and this year I’ll be attempting to grow some ginger in a pot.

Vegetable Seeds:

• Artichoke ‘Violet de Provence’ (Sarah Raven)
• Cucumber - Gherkin ‘Venlo Pickling’ (Suttons)
• Pumpkin ‘Munchkin’ (Sarah Raven)
• Climbing Bean Borlotto Lingua di Fuoco ‘Firetongue’ (Thompson and Morgan)
• Leek ‘Musselburgh’ (Suttons)
• Carrot ‘Amsterdam Forcing 3’ (Suttons)
• Broad Bean ‘Aquadulce Claudia’ (Suttons)
• Dwarf French Bean ‘Purple Queen’ (Unwins)
• Climbing French Bean ‘Cobra’ (Suttons)
• Swiss Chard ‘Bright Lights’ (Suttons)
• Garlic ‘Provence’ (The Garlic Farm)
• Turnip ‘Purple Top Milan’ (Suttons)
• Kohl Rabi ‘Purple Vienna’ (The Lost Gardens of Heligan)
• Curly Kale ‘Scarlet’ (Suttons)
• Cabbage ‘Red Drumhead’ (Suttons)
• Pumpkin ‘Crown Prince’
• Potato ‘International Kidney’
• Potato ‘Charlotte’

I’ve also created a second growing season plan for when those early crops have finished and new crops can be planted the same year. For instance, the garlic will be harvested around July and there’s plenty of time to sow some turnips and kohl rabi. The broad beans will be harvested by May and some dwarf french beans can go in, and when the internations kidney potatoes have been harvested by August I can plant some rows of leeks. This way I can get more from my tiny plot throughout the whole year.

The Fruit:

Now the fruit cage is currently being improved, I’m in the process of laying down weed fabric and covering with a layer of homemade shredded bark. The only other thing that needs to be completed by the Summer is the cage frame, it needs to be heightened ever so slightly so I can walk into it and then covered in netting to protect all the berries from the birds. I’ve also recently purchased another cranberry bush and it will be placed in a pot inside the fruit cage. The strawberries will be left as they are with a lovely layer of well rotted manure, although I will need to take runners from them this year to replace the 3 year old strawberries in one bed. And even though it won’t be producing any grapes for a few years yet, let’s not forget the grapevine! It sits outside the fruit cage by the side of the pond and I’m hoping in a few years time it will be happily climbing up the side of the cage against a wooden frame.

Fruit Bushes:

• Raspberry ‘Autumn Bliss’
• Blackcurrant ‘Ben Lomond’
• Gooseberry ‘Hinnonmaki Green’
• Grapevine ‘Flame’
• Cranberry ‘Pilgrim’
• Strawberry ‘Unknown!’

The Flowers:

There’s going to be a massive increase in flowers, which I think I’m more excited about than the vegetables! A new bed will give me a little bit more room to grow flowers, it’s only going to measure 1 metre by 3 metres long but I’ll be filling every inch with beautiful cut flowers and foliage plants. There are also plans to grow a globe artichoke in amongst the flower bed in the far corner, I’ve never grown or tasted these before but they flower beautifully so the bees will love them too. As well as the new flower bed there are 56 tulips in the trough, tulips planted in pots, daffodils by the gate, and not forgetting the area around the pond. Now there were a few flowers around the pond last year but I’m hoping to triple the amount this year. In all fairness I put the pond in rather late last year so there wasn’t enough time to really sit down and plan the flowers out, something which I have been doing all Winter! This area is going to be slightly more wild, with flowers such as ox-eye daisies, cosmos, scabious, sea holly, dill, wild carrot, poppies etc. There’s going to be edible flowers too, nasturtiums (in with the cabbages), violas, borage, chives, malope and calendula too. The frogs particularly loved hiding under the calendula so I’ll be sure to plant lots next to the waters edge.

Flower Seeds:

• Daucus Carota ‘Purple Kisses’ Wild Carrot (Sarah Raven)
• Zinnia ‘Giant Dahlia Mix’ (Sarah Raven)
• Zinnia elegans ‘Sprite Mix’ (Sarah Raven)
• Gypsophila elegans ‘Covent Garden’ (Sarah Raven)
• Papaver somniferum ‘Candy Floss’ (Sarah Raven)
• Poppy Blue ‘Meconopsis betonicifolia’ (Thompson and Morgan)
• Scabiosa atropurpurea ‘Tall Double Mix’ (Sarah Raven)
• Scabious Pin Cushion Mix (Suttons)
• Sunflower ‘Junior’ (Unwins)
• Sunflower ‘Giant Yellow’ (Suttons)
• Linara Maroccana ‘Sweeties’ (Sarah Raven)
• Sweet William Perfume Mix (Suttons)
• Cosmos ‘Sonata Dwarf Mix’ (Suttons)
• Sweet Pea Floral Tribute Mixed (Thompson and Morgan)
• Eryngium alpinum ‘Sea Holly’ (Sarah Raven)
• Dianthus carthusianorum ‘Charterhouse Pink’ (Sarah Raven)
• Ox-eye Daisy (Suttons)
• Euphorbia oblongata (Sarah Raven)
• Dill (Suttons)
• Lagurus Ovatus ‘Bunny’s Tail Grass’ (Sarah Raven)
• Tulip ‘Spring Green’ (Sarah Raven)
• Tulip ‘Mistress Grey’ (Sarah Raven)
• Tulip ‘Groenland’ (Sarah Raven)
• Tulip ‘Apricot Beauty’ (Sarah Raven)
• Tulip ‘Brandy Snap’ (Sarah Raven)
• Verbena bonariensis (Established Plant)
• Snowdrop ‘Galanthus Nivalis’ (Established Plant)
• Rose Bush ‘Katie’s Rose’ (Established Plant)
• Climbing Rose ‘Penny Lane’ (Established Plant)
• Gypsophila ‘Baby’s Breath’ (Established Plant)

Edible Flower Seeds:

• Nasturtium ‘Black Velvet’ (Sarah Raven)
• Malope ‘Strawberries and Cream Mix’ (Suttons)
• Borage Blue (Sarah Raven)
• Viola ‘Heartsease’ (Sarah Raven)
• Calendula officinalis ‘Indian Prince’ (Sarah Raven)
• Garlic Chives (Sarah Raven)