Allotments 4 All

My onion bed will be finished shortly as the onions are going over. I usually leave it empty but wondered what you lotties did with your onion plots when it is vacant at this time of year.

Maybe Peas and Beans.

I sow a green manure into the beds when my onions and garlic are lifted which is left overwinter and dug in in the spring  :)

another green manurer here, phacelia, left to grow to a good height, chopped, covered with thick card and weed control 'til spring

I have managed to transform my onion bed into a useful space this year! I sowed some late French beans, and some autumn crops, salads, some coriander, late beetroot and the seed bed for the spring cabbage. I even put a couple of spare tomatoes in the garlic spot and actually they are thriving.

I've put in a mix of spring greens and pak choi. However, as a newbie, I've no idea whether that is a good idea based on 'crop rotation' etc. I did dig in rotted horse manure and fertiliser first, and the soil seems good. The seedlings are certainly growing like mad.

A quick green manure like buckwheat, as soon as that's dug in in go me board beans to over winter.

Sweet corn. It requires some fore-planning, so maybe not this year:

Sow a fast maturing sweet corn in pots or root trainers four or five weeks before onions are due to mature. Transplant out between the onions, then harvest the onions when they are ready. The corn may benefit from some nitrogen such as diluted urine, and should have time to crop unless you get early frosts.

As an extra option, once the onions are lifted, hand weed, then it's possible to sow the bed with white clover to give overwinter cover once the corn is finished.

In my slap dash rotivation it goes manure- peas/beans or sweetcorn-next season cabbage or onions garlic- next season carrots/parsnips winter manure.

good luck
x sunloving

I keep trying to convince people that Slapdash is a genuine gardening methodology! But they never believe me..  ::)

My rotation goes onions followed by potatoes followed by beans/peas/squash followed by tomatoes/peppers/aubergines. They get manured a lot. I keep roots in other beds where they don't get manured. But logts of little crops actually get in the beds inbetween seasons!

I also practice slapdash cooking and slapdash cleaning

:)