1. Gourmet ingredients
Don’t make the mistake of growing your herbs at the allotment. You should grow all your herbs within easy reach of the kitchen, in your own garden. To the cook, adding herbs is often a ‘spur of the moment’ decision before a meal is served – the last thing you need before plating up lunch is a ten minute cycle ride to your allotment.
2. Tune in
Get yourself a
small portable radio. Digging, planting and watering can all be lonely jobs if you are on your own. Obviously trendy types will go for an ipod instead!
3. No vegging out – just yet
Planning is smarter than digging! Take time to plan out what you wish to plant and create your beds around this plan. Permanent crops such as rhubarb and asparagus are great because they only require planting once!
4. Weekend tips
I found garden centres a little restrictive in their choice of plants. The online option gave far wider choice. Most garden centers sell the supermarket favourite variety of strawberry called Alicante. It is prolific and reliable but I think it lacks flavour against a Honeyoye strawberry or the French Gauruguette.
5. Wide range
Online, you will find many varieties of all the crops you wish to grow. I love
Chiltern Seeds – they give great descriptions of their seeds and the expected crop.
6. Recipe
Learn to cook… quick! It may sound obvious but I have met plenty of keen kitchen gardeners who are at a complete loss as to what to do with their bounty. Taking a keen interest in the cooking will also help you choose a particular variety of a certain crop over another.
7. Insider knowledge
Get to know a local builder. Loft conversions are going up all over my bit of west London and the heavy duty beams that they remove and chuck in their skips are ideal for lining beds and paths. I gave my mobile number to the local builder and he called me whenever he had a pile of timber that I could cart away.
8. Battle of the pigeons
Initially I did very little about protecting my crops from birds but soon realised that magpies and pigeons are big competition when it comes to vegetable consumption. The answer obviously was to cover the crops. I used
net tunnels which I bought online from Crocus. They are great because they are easy to store when not in use and simple to put up when needed.
9. Everybody needs good neighbours
Whilst books were very helpful in my pursuit of ‘vegetable self sufficiency’, the best tips I got were from my fellow allotmenteers. Get to know your gardening neighbours because they will save you much time in ‘trial and error’ experiments and general research. Just a short chat over a cup of tea will be packed with tips on what does grow and what won't in your particular soil type. The old boys on the allotment love a beginner so expect the full force of their years of experience (whether you want it or not!)
10. Little ‘uns
If you have young children then you probably need to read my book. I intended my book to be a story about one family’s joyous pursuit of a greener life. Actually it turned into a book chronicling the ongoing battle I had with my children to get them to the allotment and to eat anything produced by the allotment.
Paul Merrett is the author of Using the Plot – tales of an allotment chef (£16.99, published by Collins).
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