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is the perfect time to start.It's too late to sow onion seed now, but you may find that friends still have some sets left over (my allotment neighbour gave me some surplus red onion sets - 'Red Baron' I think). I also bought white onions ('Marco' F1) from

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

on coming back. I dug out as many of the deep white roots as I could in winter, but it's a bit like digging for Australia - you'll never get there. Bindweed is very like couch grass in that respect, which is another of my allotment problems.As an organic

built me a coldframe/hot box (I know how to pick 'em!). A quick clear out revealed a couple of surprisingly perfect pak choi. It really must be toasty in there! Everything around it is shades of brown mush and white frost, and inside the hot box it

Last summer was not a great one for many of my crops but it was simply fantastic for all of our fruit bushes. Our little shrubs of black, red and white currants fruited their socks off and it was all we could do to keep up with them.We planted

. But the disasters were beyond my control. The cabbage white caterpillar invasion springs to mind, not to mention onions that simply wouldn't dry off, thanks to the horrifically wet summer we had. This time of year is also perfect for planning how to manage the plot

!I know it’s a nuisance but it’s rather lovely too. Everything looks so different in the snow. I’ve been running around with my camera taking all sorts of snowy pictures – at work, at home and up on the allotment too. I managed to get up to the plot

of parsnips for me, as one of Paul's lovely customers, Glyn, a keen allotmenteer from Colerne, popped in with a freshly harvested bag of them from his plot. He reckons they’re the best parsnips he’s ever grown – they’re so clean, white, canker

, but that's a lot of potatoes to plant if you only have a small amount of space. Some allotment shops buy in seed potatoes then break up the packs so that you can buy smaller amounts. Similarly, potato fairs like the one held at Garden Organic in Coventry