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immediate allotment neighbours were there and a small impromptu conference took place on my plot to discuss the weighty topic of potatoes.I'm going to plant lots of potatoes — a handful of first earlies called 'Riviera' (one I've not tried before) and a good

I've been harvesting potatoes like a lunatic for the past few weeks. First earlies and second earlies always seem to be ready at the same time.I've been digging up some gloriously rotund first earlies, which have been brilliant for baking, roasting

If you ask me, there's very little that beats home-grown potatoes from the plot. They're so easy to grow, pay little heed to the vagaries of our weather and produce an abundance of lovely spuds throughout the season. In short, potatoes are one

.Then I focus my attention on potatoes. Yes, it's potato time again; over the past week or so I've been lifting the last of the earlies and second earlies to store in the garage at home. The earlies are getting beyond 'new' potato stage - in fact

It's always good to aim high, isn't it? I had lofty ambitions of getting all my potatoes in last weekend, along with my shallot and onion sets. But it wasn't to be. I literally ran out of steam with an aching back and tired feet.So round two

Once spring is sprung it really does get going! My plot is a mass of potato leaves creeping out over the mounds of ridged earth, seedlings sprouting sturdily out of the ground almost as I watch. But of course, there's a hearty selection of common

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 rather proud of the plot at the moment. It's weeded, fed, mulched and manured, the potatoes are chitted and in, and the beds are ready. Best of all, I've just top dressed my paths with lovely wood chips, which set the whole thing off to a 'T

Making good compost has become something of an obsession for me lately. At idle moments, I've found myself contemplating the two heaps on my allotment. Affectionately called 'hedge heap' and 'new heap', I've been considering what else I could add to them to improve the compost.I'...

to come.I do an awful lot of shopping by mail order, not because I don't like my local garden centre (on the contrary - it's fab) but because it's fun flicking through all the catalogues, working out just how many varieties of salad potato we can