2026 Allotmenteers - have we lost the plot?!

[Seaitoverthere]

A thread for those of us with new allotments to discuss progress and swap ideas. All welcome , established plot holders and wannabe plot holders too!

@blackheartsgirl
@hockityponktas

That all looks brilliant @tizwozliz !

I chucked in the entire pack of swede seeds @hockityponktas and had to thin them out to my surprise. But are in a bed that last person had added lots of compost too.

Sorry to hear that @Troubledwords Could you rethink what you plant?

Oh no @Troubledwordswhat didn’t do well?

Ive had a lot of chard, spinach, kale, aubergine and tomatoes (although only a couple aubergine from each plant so far, I just had a lot of plants). My peas and mangetout I put in in Jan under fleece, and we had some every night u til they died. I’ve replanted some more for winter hopefully.

My raspberries and strawberries were rubbish since the heatwaves. And my plums on one tree got moths so I haven’t eaten too many of those. The other tree was younger but got about 30 delicious yellow plums. My brassicas have been woeful, and my perennial kales aren’t looking great also. Think I need to have a look at those again for next year.

But overall, first growing year, and I’m so happy with all we got to eat. Just looking at all the stuff I can pls t for autumn and winter now

I don't think I'm going to bother with onions next year, I tried autumn sets, and spring ones and still they didn't do well, so I think I'll give it a miss next year.

I quite like the idea of growing peanuts, I like to try something new each year, so may research and plant those in a potato sack.

Has anyone grown edamame beans?

I always like to do something new each year. I did asparagus peas this year. I'll probably grow them again as they were nice enough to eat if picked young and the flowers are quite pretty.

I had never heard of growing any of those but they sound lovely, so might give it a go.

My tomatoes have been prolific in output, but yesterday after all of the heavy rain, I saw some first signs of blight I think - shrivelled blacking leaves. I cut them all off, but not sure how blight progresses after this

We have had a good sweetcorn harvest but not much else this year apart from onions. We need to put some manure down over the winter and improve the soil quality.

What weird year it has been!
Lots of- raspberries, blackberries, beetroot, garlic, onions, sweetcorn, tomatoes, chillis , peppers, figs, cucumbers, peas, plums, damsons, currants, rhubarb - but so much watering
very poor- strawberries, spinach, courgettes, cavolo nero, celery
After the recent rain it has been a scramble to pick the stone fruit before it burst and fell off the tree
Some stuff seems to be having a second go after the rain like borlotti beans, Was really only enough to be seeds for next year
Who knows what next season will bring
Just planted brussel sprouts, cauliflower and beetroot

I think I have had my best year yet, despite losing most of my brassicas to flea beetle and the runner beans being as tough as old books, I have had huge success with companion (or should I say chaotic) planting. Whilst most plots around me struggled mine seemed to thrive. It’s been a lot of hard work though, with watering and the heat. Cucumbers and tomatoes have done really well, I managed to grow pepper outside too. I still have a lot left to harvest including beetroot (which I sewed every couple of weeks in random places), butternut squash, pumpkin, leeks and purple bush beans.

I put manure in my Asparagus bed today but worried it’s a bit early (and the manure wasn’t as rotted as I would like). I have taken runners off the strawberries for my plot neighbour and today started clearing some space ready for the garlic.

I am looking forward to a couple months off before the madness starts again next year. This years almost killed me but I shall keep going, it’s so worth it.

Good year here too despite the need for watering: tomatoes, cucumbers, climbing peas and beans (the latter still loads left), beetroot, asparagus and raspberries all good. Sweetcorn rubbish but that's on me- sat in pots too long, and I agree it was an unusually crap year for courgettes but that meant I got enough rather than too many! Leeks and 'blue banana' squash still to go and looking good.

Oh I meant to say also, aubergine have been really good! Peas and mangetout brilliant, but squash have been slow for me and loads of my seeds planted over the summer didn’t germinate

I had similar @january1244 . My aubergines have been a dream. Tomatoes as well. Onions and garlic ok. But any salad sown after may just didn’t germinate. Parsley has struggled. Cabbages are heat stressed and have not made nice compact heads. Beans went to seed v quickly, I grubbed up my green beans as they weren’t worth eating. So a mixed bag, but the abundant aubergines make up a lot for some of the disappointments.

We've been away for a couple of weeks but everything looks to have enjoyed the rain in our absence. Beans have had a late surge and tomatoes ripened.