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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

to do on the plot it's tricky to know where to start. At the moment I've got a bit of a routine: I do a quick whizz round, snapping the flower buds off my onions, harvesting courgettes and checking the brassicas for signs of cabbage white butterfly eggs

The sun is shining, I can't believe it, and I'm pretty sure my plants can't believe it either! The warmer soil and increased light intensity have made a massive difference to my garden. Only now, towards the end of September has my vegetable plot suddenly sprung into life. The mi...

Blackbirds ate my cherries, the plum crop was non-existent, but now it's apple time! And what a wonderful year it's been. The relentless August rain ruined so much this year, including holiday plans for many I'm sure, but my apples seem to have enjoyed it. They're juicier than ev...

I really should practice what I preach. What with one thing or another, I haven't harvested my broad beans as regularly as I should have. I blame Paul. It was his job to pick the beans on our last visit to the plot; he obviously harvested

I've grown an absolutely cracking crop of lettuces this year. The sad thing is that Paul and I haven't much felt like eating them due to the somewhat autumnal weather. It's been more the weather for toad-in-the-hole and shepherd's pie than salads and barbecues. It's supposed to ...

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

garden (in my pyjamas) and pick off the fattest, ripest berries to put on my bowl of breakfast cereal. What a great start to the day.To avoid a painful harvest I only grow thornless blackberries, and have trained two of my favourites, Loch Ness

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