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There are always a few jobs that I hate doing at this time of year. One of them is pulling out the overwintered plants that have flowered and set seed. It seems such a shame to remove these plants when they're only doing what nature intended.But I need the space, so I've ripped o...

I've been harvesting potatoes like a lunatic for the past few weeks. First earlies and second earlies always seem to be ready at the same time.I've been digging up some gloriously rotund first earlies, which have been brilliant for baking, roasting and general steaming and sautéi...

What an odd summer we're having. I'm behind after not daring to sow a thing in April as I knew I wouldn't be able to keep them watered enough in those scorching temperatures. Then May hit us with lots of rain and wind so all the slugs and weeds I was expecting a month before got ...

Rachael made in industrial quantities the first year she had an allotment and planted rather too many courgettes. Check out Hugh's Guardian column for lots of courgette ideas including 'Glutney'. And Sophie Grigson's courgette risotto is next on my recipe

If you ask me, there's very little that beats home-grown potatoes from the plot. They're so easy to grow, pay little heed to the vagaries of our weather and produce an abundance of lovely spuds throughout the season. In short, potatoes are one of the treasured crops of the allotm...

Along with the sap rising, the birds cavorting and my enthusiasm surging, the weeds are growing with a vengeance. This February has been a month of weeding on my allotment and - I'm delighted to say - the plot has never looked this good so early

It’s been a traumatic week. We're down to the last of the home-grown potatoes, (King Edwards, and very nice they are too), and we've also just lifted the last few parsnips from the plot. It's always a sad time, as it's so long until we'll be able to eat any more.I’m rather partia...

More seed sowing this week. The parsnips should have been in weeks ago I know, along with the beetroot, turnips, swedes and so forth. But it's not the end of the world — my first crops will either be a bit later than everybody else’s or I'll harvest a few baby vegetables. Baby be...

It's that time of year again. The season when all sorts of odd structures and contraptions appear on the plots the length and breadth of Britain. My site is no exception. As you wander about the site, set in one of Bath's quieter and more villagey corners, the array of emerging a...

I've been letting a few crops run to seed this year. I left a few parsnips and a couple of rows of leeks over winter to be harvested as and when I needed them, but there were far too many of them and many stayed in the ground.In spring, the leeks and parsnips shot into glorious g...