To avoid an accident with a plant stake or pole,
place an empty Activia/Benecol pot over the end. You're less likely
to poke an eye out.
Put bonfire ash on soft fruit, onions and leeks
Don't rotavate your plot if there any perennial weeds such as couch
grass and bindweed
Don't sow seeds too early; later sown seeds tend to catch up
You're less likely to get pests and diseases on the allotment if you keep
it tidy; things left lying around, such as old boxes and carpets, will act
as breeding grounds for slugs, etc
You can buy potato sacks from Boswells kitchen department (basement).
Otherwise, you can store potatoes in layers between newspaper in a large
box in a cool, dry place
For really good crops, you need to dig in lots of manure/compost
for three or four years in a row
Do not compost perennial weeds and try not to let weeds go to seed
Most old seed (but not parsnip) is viable much longer than the date shown on the packet
If compost/manure is limited - though both are
now available from Trap Trading - restrict use to
peas, beans, sweetcorn, courgettes and cucumbers
Fruit
Prune summer-fruiting raspberries when they've finished fruiting but
autumn-fruiting varieties in February
When you start picking gooseberries, take them from all over the bush
rather than from one or two branches as this encourages the remaining fruit
to grow
Although you can plant raspberry canes throughout the winter, November is
generally regarded as the best month to do so
Rhubarb plants should be divided every five years to keep them
productive
Vegetables
Pea and bean seedlings are prone to eating by rabbits, so grow them in
pots first in a cold frame and plant out when at least six inches
high
To prevent carrot fly, sow rows of spring onion and chives between carrot
rows
Pull up mature onions, shallots and garlic when it's very hot and sunny, so
they'll dry out quickly on the soil
You can plant carrots in rows only two inches apart, even if it says a foot
apart on the packet
You don't need to make a hole for each leek plant; just use a trowel and
plant them as any seedling
If short of seed potatoes, you can cut them in half as long as each piece
has one or more shoots
When planting potatoes, you don't need to dig out a trench; using a trowel,
just plant each potato six inches deep
Plant sweetcorn among other crops or in a block by
themselves
Sow sweetcorn seeds in toilet roll tubes - one per roll
Applying a mulch to the shoulders of parsnips will prevent them shrinking
and cracking, and will cut the chances of canker infecting them
Rather than pull out broad bean plants once they've cropped, cut them back
to a small shoot near the base; you may get a small second crop
Bury carrot thinnings and tops deep in the compost heap; leaving them on the ground
will attract carrot fly
You can get a second crop from a cabbage stalk; when you cut off the head,
leave the stalk in the ground and cut a shallow cross about a quarter inch
deep on the top...new buds will appear as long as there is plenty of
moisture
Sow spinach close to taller crops that shade it, thereby reducing the
amount of summer watering required
Lift runner bean roots in the autumn and store them in a cool dry place
over the winter; plant out once the soil has warmed up and you may get some
early runners
Apart from a lot in the early stages, you don't need to keep watering
vegetables once they have established themselves
You can store potatoes in hessian or brown paper bags, but also in
plastic bags with compost in a cool cellar
If your sweetcorn are getting eaten, be prepared to erect strong defences or
give up; it's probably the
small colony of roe deer and muntjak which love them.
Flowers
Before planting Dhalias, soak the tubers in water
for half a day and, when planting them, don't do so
too deep; a thin covering of soil is enough
