Ever since I was little, I’ve wanted to have a vegetable patch of my very own.
Growing up I spent my summer holidays with my grandparents, who all lived in the countryside and had enviable gardens. My Grandma had a vegetable garden the whole width of her house, with neat rows of plants in height order. My Grampy was meticulous with his growing methods, doing things like growing carrots in tubes to make sure they were straight. He was a local gardening champion, winning every year at the village gardening show. They didn’t need allotments, they created perfect versions on their doorsteps.
It’s always been a given that I won’t have a huge vegetable plot in my garden. So my next go-to was an allotment. Allotments are really popular, so there’s almost always a waiting list on the go. For my local allotment, it was a two- to three-year wait. But being eight months pregnant, this felt perfect. Joaquin would be a toddler, and I’d hopefully be back to full fitness.
But just two months after I’d enquired, they had a plot for us. We’d timed it right with a big clear out of people who either no longer wanted their plots or weren’t looking after them. Exciting, but not ideal. So, because I was very aware that I might not have the time to manage a whole plot myself, I went in halves with my mum. We would both help clear the whole, overgrown plot, then split it in half and manage our own sections. Perfect.
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The timing in the year also felt perfect. We took on the plot in autumn, which is not a great time for planting a lot anyway. We’ve had time for preparations, getting it ready for spring. The previous owner was obviously a fan of raspberries. The whole plot was completely overrun with raspberry plants. The ground that didn’t have raspberry plants had grass or weeds. There was a very small patch of sprouts growing, and one marrow. So really we just needed to clear it out and start from scratch. It was a long process, not helped by having a baby, named storms, and Christmas all getting in the way. But by January we’ve been pretty much there.
So, the next few months are going to be exciting! I’ve got big plans, and to-do lists as long as my arm to think about. I’m going to share monthly allotment diaries with you, sharing what I’ve been doing or planting, and what’s working or isn’t as I go. If you’re a gardener, I’d love to hear what you’ve been up to as well.
January Tools
Planning
Any gardener will probably tell you that January is the perfect time for planning. Planning your garden layout, what you’re going to plant, and where it’s going to go. Monty Don once said any good gardener is a control freak. And I wouldn’t say I have the ‘good gardener’ side to me yet. But the control freak started to come out during the planning stage.
I got myself a sheet on Canva, marked out where the shed was on our plot, and divided it into our halves. During a nap time for Joaquin, I led on the living room floor with my Canva up, the Gardeners World website, my Almanac Garden book, and all my seed packets. I got a new notebook, and I started planning out my whole year. A little excessive maybe, but as a first-time vegetable gardener I wanted to give everything the best chance possible. Also, with little to no knowledge, but having watched enough episodes of Gardeners World to know you can’t just plonk everything in the ground at once, I needed some basic help.
By the end, I had a complete birdseye view of where my plants would live, with an adjoining board of photo inspiration. Even though it wouldn’t look like this for at least quite some time, it means I have a basic idea of where things need to go, and any space that needs to be left for later in the year. You can do a lot of research before finalising your planning. It’s a good idea to look into things like companion planting, and double checking anything that can’t or shouldn’t be grown together. You should also check what zone your garden is in, because that’ll make a difference to what you should grow.
Planting
In the UK the ground is still quite prone to frosts this early in the year – we even had some snow. So it’s only tough plants that are ready to give growing a try. Luckily for me, I was given a walk-in plastic greenhouse for Christmas, just in time for starting my seeds.
If you followed my Instagram last year, you would probably have seen my successful Sweet Peas, which I grew up canes in my garden from small, cheap plants from B&M. I managed to harvest two packs of seeds from them, and it’s what I’m going to try and grow my new plants from this year. Because I have so many, I’m starting them now, but planting in waves. I’m doing this for two reasons; first, in case it is too cold for them just yet, then the later ones will have a better chance. And secondly, so I can save up more toilet roll tubes for them.
GROWING SWEET PEAS IN TOILET ROLLS
Sweet peas hate their roots being disrupted, and they can refuse to grow if they are disturbed. A popular way to prevent this is by giving them a little bit of protection from the start. Sowing your seeds in toilet roll tubes is perfect.
Simply line up the tubes in a tray in your greenhouse, and fill with seed compost. Plant one sweet pea seed in each tube, and water. Over time, as you keep watering, the seeds will grow inside the tubes, and you’ll start to see the roots sprouting through the edges of the cardboard. You can then just plant the sweet peas in their tubes in the ground when it’s time, and the roots should stay happily undisrupted.
I also sowed my onion seeds in trays, and put in the greenhouse, and chilli pepper seeds. However, with the chilli peppers I kept them in the house, in our sunniest window. Even the greenhouse is still a little too chilly for chillis in January. I’ve set up some garlic to grow, which you just grow from the cloves. You can grow them from supermarket garlic, although it’s not recommended.
Another ‘planting’ job I did was hitting my potatoes. I learned a lot about potato growing in the early days of allotment planning. When it comes to planting, there’s three types – first earlier, second earlier, and main crop. I got myself a pack of first earlier to begin with, and set them up to ‘chit’, or sprout. I got myself some egg boxes (a large tray very kindly donated by a local cafe), and positioned the potatoes in a case each, with the side with the most sprouts facing upwards. These then went in my conservatory window. When the sprouts are longer, I’ll pop them in the ground to keep growing.
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Other Jobs
While it’s a quiet month for planting in the ground, it’s ideal for structuring your allotment or garden. This means things like building grow boxes if that’s what you’re planning on doing, or even just laying out your plot. For our first year I’ve decided to keep it a little more simple. Rather than building boxes to grow in, I’m just planning to use wood or bricks as borders for my planting patches. I’ve marked out the individual patches and mixed healthy compost into those sections. If you’re organised, you can cover the compost with sheeting to keep the ground warmer.
It’s also a good time to prepare pathways if you have them. The land is probably quite bare, so it’s best to do it now before you have things growing. My plan for the allotment is, again, to keep it simple. I’m going for bark pathways, rather than anything too fancy. This means all I need to do is de-weed the pathways, line the ground with sheeting to stop them coming back, then divide out the bark. I just poured on as much as I needed, then spread evenly using a rake.
Our other jobs included generally preparing the allotment. Digging up all those raspberry plants – we dod move a few of the young and strong ones into pots to see if they keep going – and weeds to have a completely clear plot. Then dividing it into the two plots for each of us and putting up a little fence to keep separate.
I’m also planning a little DIY project ready for next month, using some of the pallets that were abandoned on our plot. Hopefully it’ll go well and I can share it with you in February.
Planning for February
February can be a bit more of the same, before it starts to get a little more exciting in March. In the greenhouse I’ll be continuing with my regular sweet pea planting in toilet roll tubes, but also adding in the planting of salad bowl seeds, radish seeds, sweet peppers, artichoke, broccoli and tomato seeds. In the allotment ground itself, it might also be possible to start growing spinach, which I’ll then plant more of every two weeks to make sure I have a regular harvest, rather than all at once.
