Lots of helpful comments, I shall re-read them carefully. Like Geoff and Monika I print off plans, which get filled in, in pencil up on the plot. It's in two parts (parftly because we started on one half, then extended, partly because half is in beds and the other is open field and because we need i...

JohnN, what suits you is up to you, I am not going to try and persude you to do otherwise.
I agree about the dogs, so many are badly treated.

PJ indeed. Alan, I know the two year rule (It doesn't apply to my accounts) but there are an awful lot of bits which suddenly do become useful! Primrose: At work I have said, frequently, "If you can't find/get to it, you shouldn't be keeping it" but I fail to clear the decks at home in the...

We all do it. It's perfectly simple in theory and the books offer about a page on it (maybe two if they are well illustrated). However, I find the books are limited in their approach. It is usually very simple stuff like this http://www.allotmentgardening.org.uk/wp-content/gallery/featured/crop-rota...

Like Beryl, I disapprove of feeding foxes. Firstly, they are perfectly capable of feeding themselves and secondly, I think that they are too wild by nature to become habituated to human company. I wouldn't want a toddler to wander up to a fox in the way it would to a domestic dog. We have a fox (may...

I am trying to clear space in the garage so that I can fit in another freezer for produce. OK, it's good news that there is enough produce to need extra storage but it is bad news that I have accumulated so much stuff that I need to clear out. I think that gardeners are hoarders par excellence , eve...

NB, I think you are more adventurous than I. However, you are right about always learning.

Asking around, several people on the same set of plots have suffered, although some took a bit of convincing that that is what the problem was. I'm glad I got mine up early and processed. The unaffected ones appear to be storing well.

That is bad news Peter.
This summer I was out in the Alps and a friend who was travelling with us had a carbon fibre wheel fail as he was cycling down a mountain. He was descending slowly (they had just set out) so just stopped but as it was a front wheel the consequences could have been nasty.

As it says really. After I cleared the onion bed (which had several volunteers) I cleared the ground yet I am still getting some sprouts. When I lift these there appear to be no tubers underneath. Also relevant as I have gone over this year's row of earlies twice I was wondering if I should dig over...

It hit in July in Berkhamsted (on the spuds). Fortunately, you can just hack the foliage off the spuds.

I'm not convinced that I know enough to recomend one book over another but those that I reach for most often are the RHS & Hessayon ones. I have both vegetable and fruit versions in both cases.
I use Caroline Foley's Allotment Handbook and Andy Clevely's book too.

Domesticated varieties have changed a lot from my youth. We had the variety Himalayan Giant in the garden and it had not just the tough, substantial canes described but Himalayan size thorns too!

Very informative pictures. That is as bad as the worst of mine. The sad side of the news is that it was the first time I have tried garlic and in general they did well. My onions were the best ever, helped, I am sure, by the hot, dry spring. Question: Am I right in thinking that in dry summers the r...

Colin
If I have suffered from sense of humour failure - I'm sorry.