We (myself and girlfriend) acquired our allotment after deciding to learn Spanish... our tutor had one and that led to us joining Calderdale Council's long waiting list (although it seems quite short now) and after a couple of years or so we were finally offered a choice of three in late May 2005.
We selected one about 10m by 16m, primarily because of the marvelous beaten up shed and the nice row of overgrown blackcurrants it contained. It ideally slopes gently to the south and, not so ideally, has a heavy clay soil.
As with most allotments it was unbelievably overgrown and most of the first summer was spent weeding. Fortunately a sizeable area had been covered in plastic so we were able to grow a few things in the clear space underneath and had several successful crops especially beetroots, peas and blackcurrants. Discovered by accident that by covering other areas with said sheet for a few weeks, that the annual weeds went brown and died and the perennials turned bright yellow making them very easy to spot and dig up.
2006 saw a rough plan formulated with a four bed rotation system, and we introduced raised beds on the lower half, as that tended to get a bit waterlogged. Potatoes suffered badly this year, with about 30% lost, and the main culprits turned out to be slugs and wireworms. Of the other crops what did do well were devasted by sheep whilst away on holiday in September, along with anything else lower than 4 feet, making for some interesting half runner beans!
In 2007 we recovered well from a long cold spring with white onions being the star performers and feeding us from August to July the following year, just as next crop came ready. Delicious early Jersey potatoes did very well but maincrop Maris Piper suffered a bit from another wet summer with heavy losses later on. Beetroots very dissappointing as were carrots, spring onions and red onions.
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