Allotment Garden Planning for 2013 (Old Allotment)

These are the plans for the old allotment for 2013.  If you look at the plans for 2010, 1011 and 2012 you will see that everything moves on one bed each year.  This give a really good rotation and allows me to remember where to put everything.

The top bed of allotment 25 will be filled with early potatoes.  I have ordered Sherine, Rocket, Red Duke of York, Premere and Arron Pilot.  I have only grown Red Duke of York and Arron Pilot.  Arron Pilot seems to have been around since Pontius was a pilot. It was certainly a while ago that I grew it.    The Kestrel second early potatoes will go on the new allotment.

I will have to put some additional fertiliser onto this top third of the allotment because it has only had green manure, which will be dug in

The roots and leaves bed will have carrots, beetroot, parsnips, Hamburg parsley and salsify for the roots and  Dill, sage, chamomile, lettuce, coriander, tarragon, fennel,spinach, Swiss chard, celeriac and celery.
This is a lot to fit in and if it can't be done some of these will be sown on the new allotment.

The blackcurrants have been pruned and mulched with copious amounts of horse manure.  On the bottom third of this half allotment, I have already planted the strawberries.  I will be relying on these strawberries because I am still transplanting the ones on the new allotment which means that they will not fruit well this year.

Six lines of peas and two lines of climbing french beans should be enough this year.  There are still Brussel sprouts and winter cauliflowers in this bottom bed but they should be out long before I want the ground for the peas and beans.  I am a little worried that I will have a lot of slug and snail damage on the beans because they will be right next to my neighbour's shed and compost heaps.  We will still give it a go though.

Allotment number 26(a) will have the brassica bed and the sweet peas.  I have already got the summer cauliflowers and cabbage sown and germinated.  It is just keeping them alive over the cold weather now. They are tucked away in the cold greenhouse and they should survive, if there is no prolonged cold weather.   I sowed some of my saved broad bean seeds in the autumn and they have made some good plants now.  Again, I just need to keep them alive over the winter in the cold greenhouse.  I planted some new raspberry canes last month replacing the soil to avoid raspberry soil sickness.  I am hoping that most of them come but they will not fruit this year.  The old canes I have taken to the new allotment where I will put them in as part of my permaculture area.

The alliums and the curbits will go on the bottom bed of the allotment.  I have already sown some leeks and onions.  The rest of the onions will be sown before the end of January.  I doubt if I will have four rows of garlic and I will be planting more rows of onions.

A long time ago, when I first started to grow seriously, my next door neighbour put scaffold planks alongside his leeks and filled the inside with soil to blanch the stems.  I have earthed leeks up but I have never put planks alongside to hold the soil in.  I might give it a go this year.

This is the planning for this allotment for 2013, however I have not even though about planning for the new allotment.  I have been putting in permanent things like fruit trees and rhubarb but even these may well be moved if they do not fit in with the planning.  When I have a clearer idea about the size and shape of the beds on the new allotment then I will put the planning on this blog.