What to grow in your first allotment year
A first allotment can swallow every weekend. Grow a few easy crops well, cover the rest of the plot, and learn your soil before you plan big.
The Allotment Letter
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Plant garlic in autumn for a summer harvest
Plant garlic in autumn and it needs almost nothing until summer. Choose good cloves, plant them pointed end up, and keep the bed weeded.
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Sow green manure to cover bare soil in winter
Green manure is a crop you grow for the soil, not to eat. Sow it on bare beds in early autumn and cut it down in spring, a few weeks before planting.
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Make leaf mould from autumn leaves
Leaf mould is fallen leaves left to rot for a year or two. It is free, it improves any soil, and it needs only a bag or a wire cage and patience.
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Save your own tomato seeds for next year
Saving tomato seeds takes a jar, some water and a few days. Pick the right variety and the right fruit, ferment the seeds, then dry them well.
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How to water a vegetable plot in a dry spell
In a dry spell, water deeply and less often, at the roots, and give the water to the plants that need it most. Mulch does the rest.
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Make a no-dig bed in one afternoon
A no-dig bed turns a patch of weeds into a bed you can plant the same day. You need cardboard, compost and an afternoon, not a spade.