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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

in their gardens or on their allotments. The results will help them in their assessment for the prestigious Award of Garden Merit (AGM). The first 200 people to register will receive one packet each of 'Oregon Sugar Pod' mangetout seeds and 'Sugar Ann' sugar snap

at this time of year. In previous years, prompted by balmy weather in early spring, I’ve started furiously sowing and planting, only to find that temperatures plummeted shortly after — along with my hopes for the seed I planted.Carrots, in particular, are a

out for onions to be planted in it this spring. So that's where they are.In this lovely firm bed that was originally intended for beans, I've planted 50 odd sets of an F1 onion variety called Hercules. It's supposed to store well, which is just what I

What a lovely spring to be growing things. The weather has been pretty near perfect — lots of sunshine and some lovely soft, steady rain to get it all germinating and growing well. Perhaps we've had a bit too much wind, and the temperatures at night

Cavolo Nero, 'Nero di Toscana' a go, instead of the plain old 'Dwarf Green Curled'. 'Nero di Toscana' has a lovely flavour but I wonder if it will flower as profusely next spring?

It's so hot I'm having to water my vegetable crops up to twice a day at the moment. Everyone on the allotment is desperately trying to keep the plants productive and, more to the point, alive.We're lucky to have taps dotted around the site, which

, 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

in general. I know too that I can really get the plot and shed shipshape now before spring strikes with a surge in a month or so's time.But, the thing is, I'm having my bathroom 'done'. Not only is the suite being replaced, but we've knocked a couple of walls

The temperatures might have dropped a bit this week, but that doesn't seem to have slowed down the onset of spring. We have a pair of blue tits setting up home in one of our bird boxes in the garden and the frogs are having a high old time