Allotments 4 All

thought i'd try being good and actually PLAN the coming year's planting. ;D
then forcasted ahead to the best bit, harvesting. ;D ;D ;D
notice that jan, feb and march are all empty in harvesting column  :'(
what can i plant this year to pick in those months 2007?
any ideas?
Tara xx

Welcome to the hungry gap Tara!

Whereas late winter and early spring can be the start of big things in the flower garden, things take a lot longer to get going veggie-wise.

Good starting points are purple sprouting brocolli, brussell sprouts, spring greens, winter lettuce plus other tough saladings and a lot of the orientals - you should be able to get a lot of roots from store too...

I suffered the hungry gap last year, this time I've got purple sprouting and spring cabbage at the ready. And will be growing some salad leaves in my heated conservatory to pick as leaves. :)

I harvest leeks and parsnips. Celeriac are also good, although this year my crop is pitiful. Oh and some early forced rhubarb ...

i've got dobies brassica collection growing, but i thought they'd not be ready till april at least ???
am i better off than i thought then?
the broccoli is about 8 inches high, the other stuff is all smaller than that! surely they won't be scoffable anytime soon?
Tara xxx

How could I forget leeks?  :-[

Tara - broc has early varieties which you can sow in March and it crops the following Jan/Feb.  I use Early Purple Sprouting and Red Arrow. Mine's about 2 and a half foot high and almost as wide...

The broc you have sounds like a later one...

I have just today made 2 batches of soup from a pumpkin and have squashes still, so they help at the moment and have lots of parsnips to harvest, but want to do better next year so will follow this thread with interest!

As well as rhubarb mentioned by DTF, there's other the forcing crops too: seakale, witloof chicory and...errrm... dandelions! :)

...and nettles...

Found it. Knew I'd done a list once:

Fresh

•   Lamb’s Lettuce

•   Chicory Grumole Verde

•   Mustard (Green in Snow)

•   Forcers: Sea Kale, Dandelion, Chicory Witloof

•   Oriental seedlings from seed trays in Greenhouse: Misome, Komatsuna etc

•   Winter crop/Winter Density/Aruba/Amorina lettuce from greenhouse

•   Winter hardy white lisbon spring onions

•   Parsley and Parcel outside/ in greenhouse

•   Mint and winter savory in greenhouse

•   Leeks

•   Welsh Onions

•   broccoli

•   Kale

•   Brussel sprouts

•   Tatsoi


From store

•   Parsnips

•   Swede

•   Carrots

•   Apples

•   Squash

•   Turnips

I'll shut up now. :)

And don't forget .... couch grass is edible too  ;D

..and bittercress...

(whoops)

Things I'll be harvesting this winter.

• Spinach
  
• Sprouts
  
• Borecole
  
• Winter Cabbage
  
• Leeks
  
• Broccoli
  

That's just what I have in the gap, but as seen above there is a lot that can fill it.

Again showing my lack of acquiring a decent education, terracemax, what is 'parcel' you have alongside parsley ...

It's leaf celery Derek - looks like parsley tastes like a strong celery (hence par-cel). Good in stock and soups. Grows in light shade and hard as nails. Recommended!

how about chard? Mine is still going strong. Some of the leaves are a little floppy, but they cook up just fine. I suppose a little bit of fleece might help stop that.

Mine are kind of black stumps... :(

I am not keen on the flavour of celery, so I think I will give that a miss ...

Parcel sounds good TM.  Where do you get the seeds ?  Garden centre or catalogue?

HDRA sell them online:

Quotehttp://www.organiccatalog.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=1527