CHIEF CROPS The variety of vegetables, fruit and herbs you could grow is enormous, but practical considerations such as time, climate and limited space inevitably mean that you have to be very selective, concentrating first on staples and favourites, and adding a few minor or speculative crops if you have the room or inclination.
This section of the book includes the most commonly grown allotment crops in their traditional garden groups: roots (potatoes, carrots, for example), legumes (peas, beans), brassicas (cabbages, calabrese), onion family, pumpkin family (squashes, courgettes), leaves and salads (lettuce, spinach), stem and perennial vegetables (celery, asparagus) and fruiting vegetables (sweetcorn, tomatoes), together with a selection of herbs and fruit. For rotation purposes, however, the botanical grouping for certain crops may need to override popular perception – for example, most gardeners regard turnips as a root crop, whereas botanically they are brassicas.
SEE ALSO ▸ Crop rotation pages 32–5 Green manures page 119 Combining crops page 142 Growing under glass pages 170–5 Sowing for succession page 185
GROWING FOR SHOW
Rivalry is traditional on allotments and there will often be an annual show for the best produce: you have every right to be proud of a good crop and might like to consider entering a particularly outstanding sample. Growing crops for competition, however, involves dedication, careful attention to detail and even esoteric growing methods (these are widely alleged but seldom revealed). Special seed varieties, an early start under glass to ensure the longest possible growing season and lavish preparation are usually essential, as well as a knowledge of class qualifying rules in the show schedule. Winning is immensely satisfying, but it is a good idea to wait until you are experienced at raising conventional crops before venturing into this challenging field, where the size, appearance and grooming of the entry often count for more than consumer delight.
Don’t ignore marginal or less familiar crops, though: the plot is yours for growing almost anything you choose. You might like to try Asian vegetables like karella or chick peas, grains such as wild rice or bread wheat, grapes for wine-making, or those crops that are generally unobtainable in shops, for example, whitecurrants, hyacinth beans, golden raspberries, skirret or fresh fenugreek.
DESIRABLE QUALITIES Even the dourest gardener looks forward to the arrival of seed and plant lists in the winter – the annual opportunity to dream and experiment. Choices on offer may seem bewildering, especially varieties of popular crops like peas, peppers and tomatoes. The best catalogues give an honest appraisal of varieties, although you sometimes need to read between the lines, especially with new, highly praised introductions. Don’t readily abandon a dependable, old variety for a new, untried one; always grow it alongside for comparison first. Characteristics you might want to consider include:
Eating quality This is probably the most important characteristic, and includes flavour and texture as well as nutritional value.
Tolerance Hardiness and resistance to pests, diseases or drought all reduce the need for intervention or treatment.
Appearance We eat with our eyes, so crop size, shape and colour may be important, as are height and spread.
Time to maturity This helps you allocate space and plan early or successional sowings.
Performance Includes quick germination and predictable growth under a range of conditions.
Ease of care Self-supporting or self-blanching, easy to harvest or quick to prepare.
Adaptability Flexible sowing times or growing methods, or perhaps ability to overwinter.
Keeping time Stays good when mature or stores well.
SEE ALSO ▸ Crop rotation pages 32–5 Sowing & planting times pages 132–3 Keeping your plants healthy pages 154–7 Harvesting & storing pages 160–3
Quick guide to crop growing times
Knowing roughly how long a particular vegetable occupies the ground can help you match crops to available space and avoid leaving areas unused. Planning an ambitious growing programme may seem complicated, but sorting the various vegetables into slower crops and those that sprint to maturity can often simplify the task. First decide where to grow staples like potatoes and long-term crops such as winter leeks or sprouting broccoli, and then fit the faster ones around or between them. This table of sprinter and long-distance vegetables gives the number of months you can expect each to be in the ground, but this is an approximate guide and times can be longer or shorter depending on variety, locality and season.
allotment story FROM ONE COB…
Many tenants on British allotments come from all over the world, bringing with them local crops that might seem unfamiliar to their neighbours. A generation ago, novelties that are now commonplace would have included peppers, aubergines, sweetcorn, squash, mizuna, even garlic, but they have been replaced by more recent introductions such as callaloo from the Caribbean, Far Eastern rat-tail radishes and bitter gourds from the Indian subcontinent.
Interest and curiosity spread fast on an allotment site, and other plot-holders are generally keen to try any uncommon fruit or vegetable. Seed suppliers, always alert to something new, soon follow suit, with results that can be seen in their expanding and diversified catalogues.
Raising from seed is the mainstay of vegetable growing on an allotment. Every packet is a promise in the hand, each seed the simple source of a new plant from which more seeds can be saved to perpetuate a new, superior or favourite strain. Saving your own seed is the traditional way in which crops and varieties have spread from one garden 0r continent to another.
Charlie came to England from Jamaica decades ago, and having an allotment meant that he could grow some of his favourites from home, especially callaloo and sweetcorn. He didn’t always save the seeds, but one particular year he threw out a whole cob and its grains germinated. Soon he had the best corn on site, and now he never buys seed, just saves it in time-honoured style from one year to the next.
selecting your crops
root crops
The main root crops profiled here belong to several families, so their specific needs differ in various ways. Radishes, swedes and turnips are brassicas, sharing vulnerability to family problems like clubroot as well as a dislike of acid or dry soils. Most other roots enjoy well-broken, slightly acid soil with good drainage and fairly high nutrient residues from a previous crop, and fit well in rotations after legumes and brassicas. To avoid root distortion during transplanting, they are generally sown direct, in a deep, finely tilthed seedbed free from stones, although some varieties can be multi-sown in modules. Potatoes like rich, well-manured ground and are often planted on their own as a separate rotation course. (See also alternative root crops, page 180.)
Potatoes Solanum tuberosum
Easy to grow and highly productive in improved soils, potatoes are an important staple on most plots and can also be used as a pioneer crop on poor or reclaimed ground. Most