2008 - A success on the Allotment?

By James Middleton - Added 4th of November 2008

Ok, yet again the weather has been absolutely barking mad this year. With a wet and very windy summer, at early blast of winter in October and plenty of carrot root fly, scab, blight and other nasties. So, did the allotment yeild a good crop?

We had a few failures, here on our allotment plot in New Arley, nr Coventry. Many of the brassicas were eaten by an over whelming storm of Cabbage White catapillars. Our entire crop of tomatoes were hit by blight and within 48 hours were reduced to a blackened mess - no ripened fruit at all due to the lack of sun light. Many of the squashes - butternut squash, marrow and courguette didn't fair too well, what with the strong winds battering them and braking stems. The beans were late and as a results provided only a short growing season.

Aside from all of the failures - a part of being an allotmenteer - we did have some really successes. Our onion from seed did very well and produce a crop of about 400 lovely goldens bulbs. The sweetcorn was amasing! Large, lovely colour, great taste. None of them went to waste. I planted 80 plants and only 4 died as a result of the high winds. About a quarter of the crop actually produced a second cob, so a really bonus.

The pumkins did pretty well - they seemed more resilient to the cold wind than any of the other squashes. One pumkin grow to a diameter of 100cm! Okay, not a record by a long shot, but this is my first attempt at growing pumkins! The butternut squashes only produced an embarrasing 2 fruits in the end, but they were big and very delicious.

Garlic was mediocre, as were the potatoes, but the Scorzonera produce a great crop. Their black roots seem to keep for ages - one for next year I think. They don't have a strong flavour, but are nice roasted or as a substitue for water chestnut in a stir-fry.

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Article written by James Middleton - www.theallotmentgarden.co.uk.

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