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I was pleased with this year's Christmas harvest – much of our Christmas dinner was allotment produce. King Edward potatoes from the garage were roasted, Charlotte new potatoes from store were steamed. Greens took the form of braised leeks and

Allotmenteers fall into two camps, I've decided, after closely observing patterns of behaviour on our site. There are the Harvesters, those who pick a crop in batches, a row of carrots at a time, a few lettuces or a basketful of strawberries

I love the first harvest of the new season - it's so welcome after the long dark winter. For a while now, I've been harvesting winter veg, such as leeks, kale and cabbage. These stalwarts of the plot have meant we've had fresh veg for soups

There’s something wonderfully irrational about clearing snow in order to dig up vegetables. One of our Christmas rituals is to leave the wrapping paper behind and take a walk to the allotment on Christmas day to harvest some parsnips. I don’t know

the Christmas decorations to the shed this morning - always a tinge of sadness - I stopped off at the greenhouse to harvest the last of our Christmas potatoes.We planted a variety of spuds in pots and compost sacks when we got back from holiday at the beginning

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

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

of the treasured crops of the allotmenteer and vegetable gardener.Potatoes are generally grown from seed potatoes, which are small versions of the potatoes you'll harvest. I grow a few varieties each of first early, second early and maincrop potatoes. First early

After my shame-faced confession of last week, I thought I'd better get up to the plot and see how everything was doing.The leeks were just lovely so I harvested a few for tea. I used a couple of leeks as well as the tops from the others for a leek

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