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It's been very dry lately, so I've had to water my crops on a daily basis. The poor plants need every drop they can get as my allotment has turned into a dustbowl.Despite the dry conditions, my strawberries have been fantastic this year. I've got

When I first started growing shallots I did so on the advice of Sam, on our allotment (aged 90 he was still tending his plot twice a day). He told me to plant shallots on the shortest day and harvest them on the longest. I'm a bit more haphazard

an allotment or know anyone who grows good quality artichokes, the best things to do is to ask them for an offset, which is the only way of ensuring an exact same copy.Dividing artichoke plants is easy - just take a sharp spade and splice down one

-fruiting raspberries do need staking: tie them to a fence or wires or they will flail about.We used to grow both kinds on our last plot, but since we now have a large strawberry bed, the first half of summer is well provided for. Half of our raspberry bed contains

of September (these are especially chilled seed potatoes for autumn planting). When growing potatoes in containers it's a good idea to add some granular organic feed at planting time, since most composts only contain enough nutrients for around a month. When

 eat any more.I’m rather partial to parsnips, especially when roasted with my Sunday lunch. I usually grow 'Avonresister' as it’s resistant to canker, which can be a real problem in this area (hence the development of this variety specifically for growers

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...

blackberries into large colanders.I say all this wistfully, because I still haven't found a good jam-making blackberry that I want to plant on the plot. An allotment friend has kindly given me a rooted cutting of 'Black Butte', but I note from the details

August can often feel like a tricky time on the allotment. Lots of things like salad potatoes and beetroot have been harvested, leaving large gaps or whole beds free. Then there's the interruption of a summer holiday - should you sow anything new

'll also add compost to the bottom of the trench before planting the potatoes, as they're such greedy, speedy growers.Onions really love growing in firm ground, so ideally, it should have been prepared in the autumn or winter, then left to go really hard