Features
Summer 2025
It's been a pretty miserable year for veg but the fruit has been magnificent!
Elephant Garlic Experiment
Eddie grows elephant garlic round areas to deter unfriendly insects. They're not heat treated so tend to bolt. Advice varies on whether or not it makes any difference to snap off the flowers so Eddie tried an experiment. He snapped off half the flowers and left the...
July in the Allotment 2024
So far, 2024 has been a very difficult year except for potatoes which seemed to love the excessive rain!
April in the Allotment 2024
It must have been a mild winter as the broad beans sown directly into the ground last November are flowering well.
AGM March 2024
This year’s AGM was held in the communal area under an angry sky on a cold Saturday morning. On the plus side, it meant that business was brisk, and left just enough time to fix the leak in the toilet and mend the lawnmower before the heavens opened.
Bees in the Allotment
Swarms of bees are not uncommon in the allotment but this one is in a rather unusual place!
September Recipe – Raspberry and Sloe Jam
Ann used Barbara’s excess raspberries with foraged sloes to make jam, which not only got first prize in the Banstead Horticultural Society Autumn show but also a blue ribbon awarded for an outstanding exhibit.
Here is the recipe.
Early summer in the Allotment
Early summer in the allotment. This is the time when we start to harvest: broad beans, cherries and first early potatoes. And we have the first dahlia as a foretaste of what is to come.
Spring in the Allotment
Early spring in the allotment means daffodils and blossom, forced rhubarb and digging potato trenches.