Topic: what would you do differently next year?

[vee]

I've learned so much this last year as it's my first season on an allotment. A4A has been great for advice and encouragement, I can't imagine what I'd do without it.It's also my first year growing vegetables so it's all been new to me. I have made lots of mistakes and also had some successes, but there are definitely some things I will do differently next year.

I will :
1. Plant things in wide enough rows so that I can hoe between them instead of in blocks that look pretty and so have to be hand weeded(or not!)
2. Grow more things in cells and have lots of spares so that I can replace them when they get eaten by slugs(or die, or fail to germinate, or ad infinitum...).
3. Remember that digging the soil will be so much easier the second time around and it will never be this hard again(hopefully!)
4. Be better organised for the autumn planting which has just passed me by this year.

Can't wait to get going again when the spring comes.
These are the most important things I've learned this year but what are your most important things?

[terrace max]

I have learnt this year:

- I just don't like radishes

- you can't have too many leeks, onions or potatoes; or too much compost

- planting brassicas too early or too late is a wasted effort because the snails eat them

- put new felt on your shed in summer, not autumn

- never eat yellow snow

[wardy]

Lesson 1)    I've learned that my lotty suffers from frost as late as the second week in June and it killed my runner, french beans and sweetcorn  :'(

2)  I had none of the above in reserve.  So would make sure of plenty of spares

3)  Prepare for cabbages properly instead of just bunging them in undug rock  hard soil.  They do like firm soil but not that firm  :)

4)  Grow more carrots.  Didn't do nearly enough.  Ditto celeriac

5)  Get more than one lotty shed water butt so no water goes to waste

6)  Grow fewer courgette plants  ;D

So this is my lot, who's next up ...............  :)

[busy_lizzie]

I would keep better records,so I knew the date we planted things the year before.  Be more particular with the varieties of veggies I grow.  I think I should also stagger things a bit more like lettuces.  I want to grow more carrots too as ours did quite well, but I would just like more of them. I am also going to dig out my parsnips bed better so it is finer and then I hopefully won't get so many that are forked.
 
 We had loads of courgettes too this year and we could have put them to better use.  I always think I will try harder to be better organised in the freezing and storing of our excess vegetables.  I want to grow some different varieties of squash too, now that I have caught the bug.  I could probably go on, but I am quite pleased at how this year has gone and if we do as well next year, I will be happy.   :) busy_lizzie

[lorna]

I will grow my usual flowers. shrubs.toms. runner beans. cucumbers. and I WILL grow a small selection of veg that I have never grown.. Have filed all the info and advice that you lovely people have taken the time to give me.

[chriszog]

I think the main thing I learnt this year is to never plant/transplant too early. I know we all like to sow at the first sign of a sunny day in late March but I think plants naturally catch up. The late frost certainly caught a lot of people out this year.
Regards
Chris

[Derekthefox]

1) I won't panic to get crops into the ground

2) I will try and spread the planting out so the crops don't all occur at the same time

3) I will weed in a more orderly way, so the crops don't disappear under the weeds

4) I agree with terrace max on the yellow snow ...

Derekthefox :D

[ellkebe]

1. Don't start things off too soon - be patient!

2. Get the shed cleared out so I can huddle in there and enjoy the rain.

3. Have a hip flask with me ;D - ok, flask of tea then  :(

4. Don't plant things out too early - be patient!!

5. Learn to love couch grass - "tough love" of course, but as it's not going anywhere, and neither am I, we have to find a way to co-exist!!

6. Accept that I'm not going to be that tidy, organised allotmenteerer - and just enjoy doing it my way  ;D

7. Don't harvest things too early - be patient!!!

[sid]

as i have just had my allot a few months i have lernt how hard work it is
i have just finneshed the fencing off and put in my first 2 plants i had given of sumone of here it looks so sad lol

[Derekthefox]

Well done on the graft front sid, setting up an allotment is always harder than maintaining it, so hopefully that is good news !!! Also your plants will grow, it just needs time. This time next year, hopefully you will be overwhelmed with vegetables !!!

Derekthefox :D

[terrace max]

Ellkebe's post reminded me of my biggest lesson of all from this year:

- Don't be anxious about the allotment - just enjoy it.

(At very best, I've only got 50 allotmenting years left) 

[ellkebe]

50 allotmenteering years left - that is such a heartening thought  ;D 
I've probably got rather fewer - and it looks like the government's going to make me work for rather more of them than I'd hoped  :(  - Who else was looking forward to a happy early retirement on the allotment?  ;D

[vee]

What a useful lot of replies! I definitely agree with the ones about not planting too early. I sowed lots of things far too early, I think I was just too eager to get going. When I planted my french bean plants from cells, I also planted some seeds at the same time. After a few weeks there was absolutely no difference between them.

[AikenDrum]

I'm going to bang it into my thick skull that I started doing this as a hobby, it's not a competition. I don't have to be better or more productive than anybody else. All I have to do is enjoy myself .... more than anybody else does of course  ...     {:¬)#

[vee]

 ;D ;D ;D That's so funny - I know just what you mean!

[daveandtara]

we only started this this growing thing in june, so we too have been on a rather steep learning curve!
what we've learnt so far is..........
1. stop trying to be clever, nature's been doin' it her way forever and she always knows best.
2. what looks like LOADS of seedlings on my windowsill is rarely enough to fill one row on the lottie, let alone enough to freeze extra at harvest time!
3. a day spent freezing cold, doing back breaking work in knee deep mud while enduring stinging, sideways rain can be strangely theraputic.
so next year we will plant more veg. eat more veg. dig more veg and spend more time on veg.
can't wait.  ;D
Tara xx

[AikenDrum]

tara, don't forget to take a little bit of time out and wander around looking at other peepz plots, and have the occasional snigger .. it's in the rules, you're allowed to do it   ;D

[Derekthefox]

Its not only in the rules AikenDrum, everyone on our site practices it vigorously ... !!!

Derekthefox :D

[Svea]

things i have learned? hmm

that the really busy season for me was march to may - with raising seedlings, preparing beds and planting out (i am not naturally green fingered and looking after seedlings on all window sills took a lot of discipline, watering them etc)

things that are not worth growing on my tiny plot because they take lots of space for a long time - i.e. brussel sprouts. much as i love them i am better off buying some when i want and use the space for something else.

stagger plantings of cabbage more so i have a longer season with them.

keeping a planting diary IS a good idea (i should have listened to tim) - i have noted it here in the forum when i sowed and planted but not in one handy reference at home

[adam04]

Everything  ;)