Allotment Planning

I've been giving our allotment quite a lot of thought over the last few weeks. If you want to see the beginnings of our allotment journey you can visit Home Grown Education - however I'm going to be blogging about the allotment here from now on.

The allotment was very badly neglected when we got it and despite working really hard in the first few months, an injury and a very challenging year kind of got in the way and I decided to do what I could to keep the land we had cleared, clear, and start a-fresh with renewed enthusiasm this year.

I'm trying very hard not to be too ambitious in my plans. I'm a perfectionist by nature and find it difficult not to think in all-or-nothing terms about anything that I do. I think this is an asperger tendency, I find myself constantly struggling with accepting anything that isn't one extreme or the other, although I feel I have come on in leaps about bounds in terms of recognising this, and being more comfortable with things, however they turn out.
Gardening is possibly the hardest thing to be "perfect" at because of so many varying factors that are out of my control. I find it refreshing though actually, that nature makes me learn to be more patient.

I have started a little savings fund in order to be able to buy in some help in early spring. I feel a little bit like I'm cheating, but I'm rationalising with myself that as a lone allotment holder with a lot of demands on my time already there is no reason why I shouldn't have a bit of help with the hardcore, heavy jobs.
I'm hoping I'm going to be able to delegate rotavating and the building of 4 raised beds. The rest, I intend to do myself.

Here's what I'm hoping to grow this year:

Potatoes - a LOT of potatoes! We really enjoy growing potatoes. They're pretty low maintenance. The harvesting of potatoes is like Christmas morning, uncovering natures gifts. Also home grown potatoes taste delicious! I'm planning to grow them in waves, so that we can (hopefully) keep harvesting until the Autumn.

Pumpkins - we grew our first pumpkins last year, almost by accident! It'd be great to carve our own, home grown pumpkin at Halloween again.

Red onions - grow and preserve onions is on my list of 101 things to do in 1001 days. Onions tend to form the base of nearly every evening meal I cook so I am really looking forward to using home grown varieties.

Garlic - We use a lot of garlic too and Cameron loves the smell of it growing.

Courgettes - we grew some courgettes very successfully in our first year of home education and then the years following have been rather disappointingly popular with the slugs! I'm looking forward to growing these on a larger scale so that if they do get munched on by slugs then we might not lose the entire crop.

Peas - the taste of fresh peas, picked and eaten straight from the pod is one of the delights we look forward to. Having the space to grow enough so that we don't have to buy any from the market will be a great.
Carrots - So far I haven't had great success growing carrots. I'm trying again this year but I'm not devoting a whole bed to them until I feel I've mastered them a little better.

Fennel - I grew some fennel in pots in our back yard for the first time last year and it was lovely! Hoping to repeat the success.

Strawberries - there is an existing patch of strawberries on the allotment so I'm going to watch with interest to see how well they do.

Blackberries - also, already thriving on the allotment. I didn't get the chance to prune the bush back in the Autumn so it's quite wild at the moment!

Blackcurrants - another thing we inherited from the previous allotment holder. We made strikingly colourful blackcurrant ice-cream with them last year.

Redcurrants - I'm going to buy a redcurrant bush this Spring. I remember being amazed by them as a small child. The taste, the amazing colours - especially when the sun is shining through them. Home made redcurrant jelly!
Gooseberries - for similar reasons to redcurrants really.
Blueberries - there's still a question mark over this one. I'm pondering over an offer for fruit bushes that includes a blueberry bush so we shall see. I've heard they can be quite high maintenance.

Rhubarb - I love rhubarb! Looking forward to planting some of that.

Sweetcorn - I was quite amazed that we managed to grow sweetcorn last year so am looking forward to growing a whole block of it.
Sunflowers - a sunflower growing competition has become a bit of a tradition. This year I want to harvest the seeds too.

Raspberries - there is already a raspberry bush by the shed which produced very well last year but the birds got all of the harvest! I will be netting them this year.

These plans will be subject to change, but they're a rough guide for what I'd like to achieve this year.

Cameron has asked for his own plot, which is fantastic. I have given him a good sized bit with the best light - an already existing raised bed at the back of the allotment. He's still deciding what he wants to grow.

We're going to be composting for the first time. The area we live in doesn't do gardening bins or composting and I haven't been keen to start my own in the back yard as it's so small. I'm looking forward to trying it out. I've been reading a lot about it.

I also want to add a picnic table with a big umbrella for shade. I can already picture summer days sat at the table, sketching in our gardening journals and enjoying fresh peas, home grown potato salad and raspberries with yoghurt while butterflies flutter past and a gentle breeze sweeps through my hair!
It's funny how I have such a rose tinted view of the allotment after being away from it so long - when I get back there I may feel down spirited until we've done a lot of work! I'm looking forward to the challenge though.

I'd love to hear what you're planning to grow this year in the comments section!