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Liz’s Allotment Life: Taking stock of the year so far

As summer gets underway, RHS Wisley Edibles Horticulturalist Liz Mooney shares the planting, harvesting and seasonal jobs keeping her allotment busy

With summer in full swing, work in the Edibles Garden at RHS Garden Wisley is busier than ever. Alongside helping to keep the vegetable displays at their best, I'm also studying for my Master of Horticulture qualification, so I know I won't be able to give the allotment the attention I'd like over the next few weeks. So, rather than worrying about all the jobs I won’t get done, I thought I’d use the moment to take stock of the plot so far this year – the successes, the setbacks and everything in between.

Struggles

The weather has been all over the place: weeks of soaking rain followed by dry spells, heat, the odd hailstorm and now another heatwave. Keeping up with watering during the hottest spells has been difficult, and I have lost a few new transplants along the way. Overall, though, most things have survived, which feels like a small victory in itself.

The animals and insects I share the allotment with have also been having a very good year. I don’t mind too much – in fact, I actively encourage wildlife onto the plot wherever I can – but it is still a little frustrating when mice eat all my sweetcorn seedlings and ripening strawberries, or a rabbit decides to dig up my carrots. I try to take the rough with the smooth and have accepted that I am simply not going to get any sweetcorn this year. A few simple measures, such as fleecing the carrots, do at least keep most of the trouble at bay.

Not every crop makes it to the kitchen – hungry rabbits can quickly make a meal of unprotected carrots
Time, as ever, is another challenge. There is always more to do than there are hours in the day, which has meant potatoes going in later than planned or broad beans being harvested a little past their peak. In general, though, I find it doesn’t matter too much. The plants haven’t read the textbooks, and they usually manage perfectly well with whatever time I can give them.

Successes

One of the real highlights this year has been how well my

perennial vegetables are performing. I am gradually introducing more of them, and my new Caucasian spinach, American groundnut and Egyptian walking onion are all doing brilliantly. Alongside lovage, asparagus, chives and salad burnet, they kept me in fresh greens right through the hungry gap, and many are now beginning to flower, drawing even more insects onto the plot. In time, I would love to be able to rely on perennial plants for most‚ if not all‚ of my leafy greens for much of the year.

Homegrown onions are ready to harvest once the bulbs have swollen and the foliage begins to die back
Broad beans have been another great success, and this has been one of my best crops yet. They were all spring-sown, and despite my doing nothing at all to control blackfly, they have cropped heavily and with very little trouble. I am still harvesting them now, with the surplus going straight into the freezer as the beginnings of my winter stores.

More generally, most crops are doing really well this year. I have some giant onions on the go, the parsnips germinated beautifully, and the first cucumber is not far away. There is enormous pleasure in being able to head down to the allotment and gather such a variety of food for dinner that same evening.

I have also been much more disciplined this year about successive sowing. At the moment, I have carrots at three different stages of growth and am gradually working through the first batch. I plan to do one more sowing of winter-hardy carrots in July, which should keep me going for much of the year. I also have the next flush of lettuce coming on nicely, sown between the tomatoes because I had simply run out of room elsewhere.

Crop of the Week: New potatoes

This past weekend brought my first harvest of new potatoes of the year‚ always a special moment. Freshly dug tubers have such a lovely flavour, especially served simply alongside summer salads. I’m afraid I can’t remember the variety I grew this time, but if you are looking for reliable early potatoes, I would happily recommend ‘Charlotte’, ‘Sharpe’s Express’ and ‘Lady Cristl’.

Freshly dug new potatoes are prized for their delicate flavour and thin skins
Coming up on the plot

Over the next few weeks, I’ll mostly be snatching little pockets of time for watering, harvesting and weeding, rather than taking on anything too ambitious. The plot is full and, for now at least, I’m hoping it will largely look after itself while I’m needed elsewhere.

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Read every edition of Liz Mooney's allotment life

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