Hello everyone!
In this muddy corner of North Yorkshire it feels like the new allotment year is just starting. Before the old one is gone, I just wondered which crops (or varieties) you tried for the first time in 2004 and wished you'd tried years ago...
Hi Terrace Max, welcome to A4a. My best new thing for last year was Red Salad Bowl and Green Salad Bowl lettuce. I sowed the seeds quite thickly and picked individual leaves, treating it like a cut and come again lettuce. I had a plentiful supply of salad leaves all summer and they were very tasty too. I'm trying some other lettuces this year but will be planting the Salad Bowl lettuce in the same way again and will grow it handy by the back door along with my herbs.
Although it wasn't my first year, 2004 was the year I attempted a large yield of sweetcorn - Kelvedon Glory.
I managed 129 corn, and I am still eating them out of the freezer, cooked to perfection every weekend on my barbecue on the allotment.
I will be repeating the exercise again this year. . .
Hello Terrace Max
I'm oop t'north anorl and I guess we'll be behind everyone else for planting and seed sowing by a few weeks. I grew courgette Sunburst for the first time last year.  They are little yellow squash types which are delish.  I also grew pumpkins for the first time as well last year and plan to grow more varieties this year as they're fun go grow.  I was recommended to grow the Uchiki one and I've got the seed and can't wait to get started. I cooked them every which way and enjoyed them all.
Wardy :)
I had a pretty dismal crop of everything in 2004, most things failed totally. :'( But I adored the yellow tomatoes I got from a seed swap with EJ. THey were delicious - so sweet and fruity. Gave mum a few plants and dad loved them too. I hope I've managed to buy the same variety for this year.
I only grew a few things in pots on the balcony, but the best were the toms - 'Santa' variety (mini-plum type). They took my beginner abuse (grown too hot, put out too cold) and gave me a great crop. The fruit stayed firm and lasted for up to a couple of months when picked, although this might be normal for home-grown toms.
They were F1, so no point saving seed and haven't bought any this year, trying some other ones instead. :)
Thank you all...
I need reliable toms for growing in pots and I'm going to try squash for the first time this season, so v. helpful posts.
Derekthefox 129 cobs now that's the kind of yield I need for my family's sweetcorn requirements: how much space did the plants take up & any cultivation tips?
Jesseveve: I had a similar lettuce success with Amorina which did well very early season, and as a cut and come again all through winter in the greenhouse.
My vegetable revelation in 2004 was chicory: not so much the witloof sort which I found a bit of a faff, but all the other (many) leaf varieties. They have a taste which needs acquiring, but now I love it. And some varieties grew all winter.
Well last year was my first year of sowing anything and I've had and am still getting the most fantastic spinach - I sowed it originally on the 22nd May 2004. In the last few days I've stripped out all the 'grotty looking' dead/damp looking leaves and just can't believe the lovely new young bright shiny crop that's still coming. It must surely be 'almost worn out'.
Can't remember what exactly it was but suppose it was a perpetual spinach to still be producing now.
I've already bought another packet (of spinach beet - perpetual spinach) amongst a batch of seed packets I got in Wilkos last week in Chelmsford. They were selling them - buy 3 - pay for 2 and some were as cheap as 39p. a packet!! the only one I paid more for was beetroot at 49p.
Derekthefox
I am impressed... I too tried sweetcorn for the first time in 2004 ..thirty plants in a block.
Everything was going fine and the cobs were almost ready...it was at this point that I and a few more plotholders discovered that Badgers like sweetcorn too.
I ended up with six cobs...they tasted lovely
In 2005 I intend to take on Mr Badger and he ain't going to get any sweetcorn from me this year >:(
Derek
Thanks Terrace Max and Derek for sounding impressed . . .
I planted 100 plants (10x10 grid) starting with 150 seed (growers pack from Kings - there must be a few hundred seed in the pack). The plants were 18" apart, rows 24" apart. I also grew 4 winter squash plants within the grid, given to me by a neighbour.
I was sure there were tigers hiding in the plantation come cropping time!
I'm with The Fox on this one - sweetcorn for me too! Old allotmenteer but first time growing sweetcorn. Very successful and certainly to be repeated every year.
I have limited space on the lottie so planted mine closer than recommended barely 12" apart either way. 30 plants which all flourished producing an average of 3 usable cobs each - I could hardly believe it as I had thought Scotland would be too cold. Going to do double that this year - hope I get a repeat and it wasn't just a fluke ::)
Yay! Me to me to!! Sweetcorn all the way! Never ever grown it successfully until you lot bombarded me with sound advice last year, and what do you know, picking it and picking it and munching it raw straight from the plants or rushing home and plunging it into boiling water then serving with at least a pound of good butter per cob! ;) Only problem is, now the kids won't eat supermarket corn!! ::)
my best crops were supersteak tomatoes, soo big, sweet and juicy!
and tenderstem broccoli - fab quick growing, very tasty!
Jemma x
Globe artichoke, first time ever & so easy :P