My allotment

Well, after being on a waiting list for just under a year, I finally have a key to a local allotment site where I have taken on a half-plot

My half-plot, in colour!

It's got a bit of grass and things growing at the moment but I think it all the soil was turned over last year so it shouldn't be too much of a job to get it in some kind of growing order!

I have not seen any of the other allotment holders so I don't know what the neighbours are like. I'm sure I'll get plenty advice on how to progress as the days start getting warmer and growing season starts proper.

I can't wait to get started ...

This year's potatoes

The other day I got my seed potatoes from Coventry market. All in all, I got just over 3kg for £4. When I counted them up, there were 75 tubers - I think I may have gone a bit over the top, oh well!

They're now sitting under the window in the garage, waiting for the weather to warm up a tad to get them chitting.

This season's potatoes chitting in the garage

This year I've gone for a few different varieties:

• Red Duke of York - 1st early. 10 tubers, 0.4kg
• Pentland Javelin - 1st early. 15 tubers, 0.5kg
• Kestrel - 2nd early. 23 tubers, 0.8kg
• Pink Fir Apple - salad. 11 tubers, 0.5kg
• Charlotte - salad, 16 tubers, 1kg

I think most interesting of all are the Pink Fir Apple ones which are long and knobbly - needless to say, you don't peel these! Despite their strange appearance they are supposed to taste great. Can't wait to find out.

Pink Fir Apple potato tubers

4-Bed Rotation System

In anticipation of preparing my allotment I've been looking into how the 4-Bed rotation system works. The idea is to have four beds and rotate the veg grown in them every year. The aim is to avoid a build-up of pests and diseases specific to certain vegetables.
Now the key is in the word rotation, rather than just swapping vegetable beds around, as this video from Gardener's World explains.

In a nutshell the order of rotation is:

1. Potatoes. Plant in well dug soil with lots of manure.
2. Legumes (peas, beans, etc). These will deposit nitrogen into the soil by storing it in their roots so make sure you leave the roots there at the end of the season.
3. Brassicas (broccoli, calabrese, cabbage, cauliflower, etc). These love the nitrogen that's been left by the legumes.
4. Root vegetables (carrots, parsnips, etc). These don't need huge amounts nutrients. Any excess will just go into the foliage and not increase the size of the root.

Onions and other alliums like leeks and garlic can go in with the legumes as they like the same kinds of conditions.

Each season you move the vegetables round in order, with the potatoes following the root vegetables after the ground has had a good dig and more manure.

Well that's the theory and it makes sense on paper. I wonder how it'll work in practice!

Some more information on 4-bed rotation is here.