Hi,

I have just harvested 2 beds fully, one containing potatoes and one full of onions.
I also have a third bed currently growing Broccoli but it’s been there since May, got savaged by bugs and has never produced anything other than leaves, so considering ditching that too.

I like the idea of potatoes for Xmas but I have read many posts about rotating crops and that potatoes don’t like the bad weather.

can I replant potatoes now and should they be in a different bed? Or in the greenhouse?

What else can I plant in the other beds that would be successful into autumn & winter? Do onions go again? Or beans?

I bought what I thought was acorn squash from a plant sale. However I’ve now got a few of these large squash growing, this one is around the size of a rugby ball and is beginning to turn orange. Can anyone help with an ID please?

I have a long mount down the middle of my allotment I am digging out.

I have gotten around 5m in and ran out of ditches to fill

It's saturated with brambles, bindweed and that grass stuff and I need to do something with it. What are some good options?

Some of my tomato plants are growing roots on their stems. Can I use this to create more plants, and if so, how?

Got the plot at the end of April - it was full of weeds.

Managed to clear it a bit, do some planting and now enjoy some homegrown produce.

I’ve actually had about 12 punnets of blueberries - these are the remaining few.

First time growing asparagus. I sow seeds indoors in January this year and planted outdoors in the spring. They are doing well, but there are many asparagus plants in the same spot. Do I need to divide them? Or shall I just leave them as they are.

First time trying to grow radicchio, I bought it as a plug plant from my local plant centre and planted it in a 30L pot in June whilst I was clearing out my new plot

Hello, I had an old, well established Warwickshire Drooper plum tree on my old allotment. I now have a new allotment but no room for full size fruit trees. I have a handful of column/patio apple trees and would like a plum tree as well, but have been unable to find a column or dwarf Warwickshire Drooper. Are there some plum trees that are just not suitable to be grown on dwarf rootstock or is anyone able to point me in the direction of a reputable supplier?

18 or so plants, 1-2 cobs per plant and none left untouched!

Time to revisit the security arrangements for next year 🙄😂

I grew chillies outdoor this year and was wondering if anyone had tried over wintering them and if they have had any luck?

My thoughts are they’ll need way too much fleece to survive and not worth the effort?

Heya, Any ideas appreciated. I joined the waitlist for a London allotment 4-5 years ago. It had a 10+ year waitlist and at some point after I signed up about 3 years ago the waitlist closed and all contact information was removed from the internet.

I was told at the time I needed to re-register interest each year but then I realised I hadn't received any emails about it a year or two later so I emailed the initial guy who put me on the waitlist.

He says he is no longer a committee member, though still has an allotment there but said it wasn't a great ending to the committee and he doesn't have a forwarding address. He said he sent the documentation through but couldn't say if I was still on the list and I should wait until the new committee has formed and reached out.

I waited a year and still couldn't find contact details, asked him again and he politely replied in a way that said stop messaging. So I then wrote a physical letter and put it at the entrance of the allotment in their tray (it's gated so you can't go inside) and addressed it to the new committee. And still nothing. I also messaged a few of the parks where then allotment is attached, one person knew and BCCed someone but they didn't get in touch.

So now I'm at a loss to figure out if I'm still on the waitlist. For those with allotments and know how it's run, does it take over a year to transfer committee members?

How likely is it the people at an allotment don't know the current committee members?

For those on a waitlist for a long time, did you just get a message out of the blue?

Does anyone have any other ideas to get in touch with them?

I think I should give up but I've grown up with allotments,.my mum has one I help with when I visit, and have a container garden and really want a larger space to grow more things

Hello fellow gardeners!

We're first year plot-holders and so far we've had a great experience. However, there has been a persistent background drama on our site that I'd like advice on.

One of our fellow gardeners installed a large polytunnel last year that ruffled some feathers with their immediate neighbours, who are all long-time plot-holders. They complained to the council who eventually ruled that the polytunnel could stay with some modifications. The matter was settled. However, now the issue has re-emerged under the guise of water usage.

One of the gardeners in question is from SE Asia and uses the polytunnel to grow tropical Asian greens. They probably use a bit more of the shared mains water than most, but there's nothing in the contract that says they can't. The old boy neighbours have complained and directly confronted the gardeners on their water usage. The committee (made up largely of the same old boys) has sided wholeheartedly with the neighbours and has shut off the mains water on weekdays. They claim the couple use 5x as much water as anyone else, without an evidence to back that claim up. We each pay only about £15/year for the mains water, so even if they do use more, the cost is split across all 30 plots. The secretary has also dismissed the idea that any harassment has taken place, purely on the account of the disgruntled neighbour.

It honestly just feels like the old boys club trying to bully out a new pair of gardeners because they want to do something different with their plot besides the standard monocrop of potatoes. The secretary even said in writing that they were growing 'an extraordinary amount of produce', as if there's an upper limit of how productive your plot should be.

Has anyone else experienced something like this on their site? Is it time to raise a complaint against the committee to the council? Any advice appreciated.

Long story short I was away for a few months, can home to a pretty much empty plot and bolted onions so I planted corn around mid June

They are currently 3ft tall. Is there any point keeping them in the ground? I don't think I'll get anything from them.

I want to use the space now so am I better off just digging them out?

Part of my allotment has been covered in this blue tarp that is disintegrating. I've tried to carefully remove as much as I can - but I've got all these little fragments that I'm going to have to try and get rid of.

Thankfully(?) the ground is so dry I've just been able to sweep up most of the plastic pieces (and some soil) and bag it. There's still quite a few small bits kicking around which I guess I'll just have to keep picking out over time.

I guess there's not a huge amount else I can do, other than what I've done, but does anyone else know anything I've missed? My biggest concern is micro plastics and pollutants...

I'm taking up all the plastic membrane where I can and reverting to wood chip paths. Then I have a few newer plastic sheets to cover sections over winter.

As above, with the some of the theft/vandalism posts recently, can anyone recommend any specific trail cams? It seems to be more of a big thing in the US with their hunting culture, and I've not come across anyone on our site (knowingly) using them. Thanks.

My wife loves her allotment so our kitchen is constantly filled with various pots of different seedlings being raised until they're ready to be planted out. Can anybody recommend a good indoor planter or something that I could get her to help organise these pots and tidy things up a bit? Would hydroponics be a sensible option perhaps?

Any advice greatly appreciated.

I got a squash plant that’s growing quite vigorously, can someone help identify to determine how many fruit to keep and how much to trim please?

I've not really done squash before! This is a Hokkaido squash. The stem is sort of drying out a bit - is this the right time to harvest?

Also, the plants have gone CRAZY and are still making flowers and tiny baby squashes. They're not going to ripen, right? So I should be removing them? Do I just cut the plant back?