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, producing lovely straight, soft beans in copious quantities. (I know I said back in the spring that I wasn’t growing them this year but I collected my own seeds last year and I just had to try them out.) Collecting the beans at the end of the season was so

[brightcove exp=1463233149&vref=1600262047]I'm here at BBC Gardeners' World Live in Birmingham...I'm on Joe's allotment...I thought I'd check out what the competition was like.These are the veg I would recommend for beginner growers. They're really

keen vegetable gardener and he grows tomatoes and cucumbers in his greenhouse. These and runner beans are his particular passions. Over tea we've compared seed companies and their service, our favourite varieties and tips on when to harvest runner beans

next year. So here are my allotment New Year resolutions for 2009:I must grow crops that don't require regular picking as I don't live close enough to the plot to get there more than a couple of times a week. That's just not enough to harvest runner

the crop rotation plan I formulated earlier in the season.I'm already flouting my New Year resolution to abstain from growing crops that require regular picking. That would mean no beans, French or otherwise, no courgettes and no fresh peas. I really can

I'm not a great one for growing flowers on my plot. Maybe I shy away from raising flowering plants on the allotment because I grow so many in my main job (as head gardener at The Bath Priory Hotel). I've grown marigolds as companion plants

plenty of young leaves, the courgettes are doubling in size and the potatoes are coming into flower. When potatoes are in flower they need a lot of water, as this is when they're growing tubers. All newly planted crops need regular watering in dry spells

I'm gradually filling up the beds on the allotment. Last week I planted main crop potatoes – a variety called Picasso, which doesn't seem too prone to slugs, and one called Cara, which is cited in catalogues as 'the allotment favourite'. I

hat and socks were de rigueur for the appropriately attired allotmenteer. And, admittedly a week later than scheduled, the great tidy up began.As I predicted, everything had been turned to mush by the previous frosts; courgette plants, squashes, beans