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One of the greatest pleasures of allotment life is getting to know my neighbours. Ron, Beryl, Vic and Tony are a lovely bunch, although we disagree on quite a few things. Vic doesn't like my raised beds, which he regards as a waste of space and a

it looks like. (We've had it where I work - very nasty - have to avoid growing onions and all alliums for years!I know that onion beds need to be kept weeded in summer or the onions become stressed and bolt, producing a flower spike that saps all

reason than they looked nice and I hadn't grown any before. I planted the cabbages in the brassica bed along with a few pak choi, some summer cabbages and the purple sprouting broccoli and covered the lot with netting to protect them from the hungry

from slugs and snails) and planted them out when they had a good clump of leaves. I always grow lettuces in a well-drained (and less slug-prone) bed close to my shed, so I can keep an eye on them.I tend to try a few new lettuce varieties each year

sized bed of 'Charlotte', my favourite second early, which is a fabulous new potato that's perfect for summer barbecues and salad suppers. I'm also planting two main crop varieties, 'Cara' and 'Picasso', which should both store well.All the seed spuds

and parsnips shot into glorious growth, triumphant at having survived the frosts and the cold. I left them to it, I was busy sowing seeds, getting the potatoes chitted and planted, and preparing the beds. Before I knew it, the leeks and a solitary parsnip were

rotten apple spoils the barrel and all that... I'm planning to lift the maincrops this weekend - I know it's early but I just can't face losing them all. It's going to leave me with a few beds empty earlier in the season than I thought so I'm toying