Well, to date this year on my allotment I haven't planted a thing! The temperatures in March were to0 low here in Brum or it was too wet to work the soil. Tomorrow I was going to plant my onion and shallot sets but they are forecasting a cold spell for several days possibly down to -3 C in places! A...

Thanks for the offer but I just bought a pack of Darkmar 21 at Ryton on Potato Day

My allotment is plagued by pigeons but they don't touch the leaves of Caveolo Nero. They do however love the tender shoots produced in the early spring!

Thanks all of you. I have a Kings Seed catalogue that came with a copy of Allotment Gardener.

Please can you tell me where you got the seed from. I couldn't find a retail source on searching the web

Over the last few years I have been disappointed with my Brussel Sprouts. I have chopped and changed varieties but to no avail. Can anyone recommend a variety that:-
1 Tastes nice
2 Doesn't blow
3 Grows tall and has lots of big sprouts on it.

We had a mass of snowdrops in our front garden three years ago but since then nothing has come up for the last two tears. Any idea what might have bumped them off?

This year after 10 years of nothing our quince bush produced a reasonable number of quinces.
Does anybody have any recipes for them?

Yes,
I know someone who had an unfortunate experience when preparing a vindaloo!

One great thing we found out about Nero di Toscana is that wood pigeons don't like the leaves so it doesn't need netting. However unfortunately they do like the shoots it produces in the spring!

This year I didn't have one single aubergine on several plants in my greenhouse! There were very few insects around to pollinate them. I only read too late that if this is a problem you have to hand pollinate them with a paintbrush!

I live in suburban Birmingham and we have plenty of them in our back garden. The allotment is only haf a mile away so I think in this instance its unlikely they have gone feeding elsewhere.

For many years our allotment has been plagued with wood pigeons. They will strip nearly any brassica to the ribs and will even eat peas. We have to net all brassicas all the year round. However this year they have all but disappeared. The only thing new is a number of crows have nested near the allo...

I have heard it said that it is better to put well rotted manure on in Early spring/Late winter as the Winter rains leach a lot of the nutrients from the manure.
Anyone heard of this or has an opinion

I have heavy clay soil and usually plant mine about the time I plant the broad beans ie early November. I have tried several varieties (some quite expensive)but at the end of the day I find Sainsbury's or Tesco's best to do just as well as any of them. Be sure to pick ones with nice fat cloves though!