I grew sweetcorn for the first time-and it worked really well! Refused to be beaten by brassicas- grew all my own from seed with fair success. Still can't get a decent cauliflower though..... Sweet potatoes- won't be wasting any more money on those! I'm looking for tall peas and will only do climbin...

Much the same here, Colin. Beans very poor, squashes also not great, but sweetcorn excellent. My tomatoes have been really poor too. Only harvested one bowl full so far-too wet and cloudy and cold to ripen, I fear. Suggestions for varieties of any veg that loves sunless, wet conditions please, for n...

Hello Mandylew. Your post reminded me of another sniggering incident on the plot this year. I did invest in enviromesh, to keep the rabbits out. No problem with the sweet corn-probably my only really good crop this year- but arrived at the plot one day to find a fat bunny underneath the mesh and eat...

I just served up my first( and last!) red samurai carrot. It had a hard woody core that no amount of cooking would penetrate, let alone my teeth, and absolutely no flavour! Which reminded me that I tried purple carrots too, but the packet only contained about 10 seeds, none of which germinated. I ha...

I researched this last year, and came up with lots of differing advice, the most important of which is DON"T try making this at home with fresh chillis and oil! you risk growing botulinum toxin-producing bacteria, which is all very well if you are very wrinkly and need to make your own botox, b...

Radio 4 iPM programme had a piece on all of this today http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio4/ipm/rss.xml Not much new, but interesting to hear that this is becoming a national issue. Well done, glallotments

Also known as " a round tuit" my sister kept one in her house to put all her later ons in . It got very full, so she moved to a new house and and found a whole lot of new later ons , but she never did get a round tuit again!

I harvested some late calabrese from under the mesh and they had lots of caterpillars in them. I know it is because I don't peg it down sufficiently, and butterflies are getting in. My mesh came with pegs, and I've used all sorts of extra devices, but the ground is uneven, and the height of the grow...

What alternatives to manure are forum members going to try? I don't produce enough compost of my own, and as this looks as if it will be a problem for some time( years?) Perhaps we need ideas for safer soil improvers/fertilisers. A successful harvest next year is really what we are looking for to re...

I've never shot a lawnmower, but could imagine shooting my rotovator or grass strimmer when they won't start. However, I have had murderous thoughts about the lawnmower repair man-a more patronising and chauvanistic man you could not hope to meet! He fails to recognise that It's not me that is fault...

I also took the plunge(and a mortgage!) and bought wondermesh for my brassicas, and have had a mostly bug-free crop. The cabbages have been the best, but I did manage to grow my first caulis this year too. Still got a bit of slug damage, but so far, am very pleased with my investment. It looks like ...

I forgot I had ordered some of these in the dead of winter and they have arrived , a bit wilted, and need planting ASAP. I've read a few articles, and I was just wondering if it might be worth planting a slip or two into a half bag of compost/growbag in the greenhouse, in much the same way as early ...

Last year rabbits ate most of my allotment brassicas. I'm growing everything under enviromesh this year.So far, so good. My garden ,which is 2 miles away, on an estate, has ben invaded by rabbits that have munched most of my nursery bed of winter brassicas and are brazenly sitting grazing on my lawn...

I was in the same situation last year, so I tried the no dig method.I googled" no dig potatoes" and got several bits of advice. I spread horse manure over my un-prepared area of allotment, as thickly as I could manage(not v. thick because I am too weak to dig the manure and lift the full b...

Thanks for your advice. I've kept any that looked less than perfect separate, and am using them up first. Lots of them have got what I think is slug damage, so I peel twice as many as normal to get enough for a meal! I'm checking the others often, and so far all is well. I checked the onions at the ...