I took on an abandoned allotment at the end of March 2023 after spending a long time on the local waiting list. I haven’t done much in the way of independent gardening before other than the occasional sets of potatoes, tomatoes, and carrots (I’ll dig out the photos at some point), so I figured now would be a good time to give it a try (about 3 years ago actually, but we’ll forget about the wait!).
The allotment’s in Exeter, between the Exeter Canal and the River Exe flood plain, just off the cycle path towards the Double Locks and Turf Hotel (excellent destinations for refreshments), from Exeter Quay.
When I arrived at the allotment, I was obviously excited and raring to get my planning head on, deciding what to grow and how best to go about it. From what I gather, the plot was previously tended for by a person with a love for berries and fruit, and as such had left an apple tree, pear tree, blackberries (I’m told they produce amazing fruit), redcurrant, blackcurrant, raspberries and a globe artichoke – so already in my first year, I was assured of some success – great!
Since then, there’s been just one other tenant on the plot who unfortunately didn’t have the time to tend to it, so it’s become overgrown and I’m told that the local wildlife feasted on most of whatever grew in there for the past couple of years.
I had a quick look around, took a couple of photos and then resolved to get back and put together a plan of action.
Initial Year 1 Allotment Plan
The first step I took was to get an aerial shot of the plot from Google maps – it provided me with a rough template of the layout of the plot and a good starting point for planning.
It’s not a massive plot, but more than enough for me to pick up the basics and start to grow my own food. I decided from the outset that it would be best for me to try to grow the things that I usually buy from the supermarket, since I like and will definitely use them (fortunately I don’t tend to go for anything outlandish).
So, with all that in mind, I decided to prepare four plots for my first season to setup a four year rotation system.
For this, I was pointed to gardenfocused – it’s really useful and helped me to set up a location-based garden calendar telling me what I should be doing and when, and the all-important crop-rotation system.
So, at this point, the plan is to grow the following (while leaving the existing growers to do their thing):
- Potatoes
- Tomatoes
- Beans
- Cucumber
- Squash
- Cauliflower
- Sprouts
- Onions
- Leeks
- Carrots
- Beetroot
- Celery
- Parsnip
And with that, off we go – let’s see how we progress…I’ve got a pretty busy life so I’m not sure how it’ll turn out…
Gallery
I’m no photographer, but I’ll try to take photos of the plot through the weeks to show how things progress…
