What a lovely summer did for my small allotment

The small front garden of my terraced house on a very boring housing estate was just grass, which meant that a lawn mower had to be hauled through the house from the garage at the back to the garden to the front at least once a week, leaving grass clippings, mud and any other kind of garden debris you can think of, on a trail from the kitchen at the back of the house, along the hall way, to the front door. This was not just once through the mowing process, but twice, as the journey had to be repeated once the task was finished and the mower's job done, closely followed by bags of grass clippings...ugh! A thankless job!
After four seasons of living in my terraced house, and assessing how the garden (front and back) changed and worked with the passing of a whole year, I decided that container gardening would work for the back of the house and an allotment arrangement would work for the front.
The back yard area is mostly in shade, so container gardening meant that I could place and move the pots around, according to what was being grown in them and the time of year, thus catching any sunshine or rain that might be needed.
The front garden, although small, is in full sun most of the time and generally exposed to all the elements of good and bad weather, so learning to sow, plant and grow this plot has been an adventure on a smallish scale. I am however, pleased that this year I seem to have got it right and enjoyed a bumper harvest of all the tasty fruit and vegetables grown, tended and eaten.

The four small beds created in my very ordinary front garden. Since creating my allotment, I have noticed at least two other households who have copied my idea this year and started their own fledgling allotments at the front of their houses. So far I have resisted the temptation to knock on their doors and explain what they should do for best results. Part of the joy of gardening is to work it out for your self.

Over wintered beetroot were the first crop to be harvested early in the season, and those we couldn't eat right away were cooked and preserved as pickled beetroot. But my favorite way by far of eating these jewels is simply roasted, served with a salad or Sunday roast or any other meal, they really are delicious.

So, from my tiny plot this year we have enjoyed the following fruit and vegetables:

• Cherries - the tree stands in the very center of the allotment. This year we had a bumper crop of a whole bowl full!!! It is a tiny tree after all.
• Beetroot
• Strawberries - for about four weeks we collected a large bowl of strawberries every day from the borders of the two beds where the strawberries grow.
• Broccoli and Cauliflower - again, much more than we could eat, so the freezer is stocked with a winters supply.
• Broad beans - I confess, not my best crop ever. Ants and black fly were a real pest to these vegetables, but we did manage to harvest enough for a few meals from the two small rows that were planted.
• Carrots - fantastic flavour, small, orange globes that packed a carroty of punch.
• Lettuce - a variety of varieties, the last few bolted before we had a chance to enjoy eating them.
• Onions - only a few because I left it a bit late for planting out the sets.
• Cabbage - red and green. It's a battle between us, the caterpillars, slugs and snails as to who will get to eat them first.
• Red currants and black currants - eaten in home made fruit jelly and later in mixed berry jam.

The picture on the right shows self seeded currant plants. They could be red or the could be black. I will just have to wait and see.

• Purple sprouting broccoli - a disappointing yield, but very delicious.
• Courgettes - at first I thought the tiny plant I put out wouldn't make it. I came very close to pulling it out and planting something else. But as with all gardening, patience is a virtue and the scrawny little thing turned into a monster, giving us courgettes every day for the past month. We would have had more except for the slugs and snails who have also been feasting on my little beauties.

• Tomatoes - this year I grew a yellow variety, which, like the courgette, looked like they wouldn't perform, but Oh My Goodness, did they prove me wrong. Like the strawberries, I am collecting a bowl full of tomatoes every day.

• Rhubarb - grown from seed and reliable cropper.
• Sage, Rosemary and thyme - my favorite herbs grown in beds at the front of the house and in pots at the back. Mint in a pot by the back door.

• Raspberries - I made the mistake of pruning at the wrong time of year and in the wrong way...oops. But the variety I grow crop twice a year, so instead of getting an early and late crop, I just got the late crop, but for canes grown in bags, they have done well.

• Peppers - good flavour and quality, but mean on yield. 

• Blueberries - my bushes are at the end of their life now, so unlike last year, they didn't do so well, but lack of rain water and age are the culprits here. So growing along side them are some youngsters. They should give up their fruit in a couple of years.

• Potatoes - grown in bags. Phwarr, the taste of just dug potatoes, steamed and served just as they are...delicious.

• Sweet potato - not yet harvested, but planning to very soon.

• Basil - sown and grown in a pot on the kitchen windowsill, and doing very nicely, so, I've sown some more.

• Parsley - last but not least, grown in a pot by the back door, very sheltered, grows all year through.

In an attempt to be thrifty, as money is so tight, I have taken cuttings of the geraniums (pelargoniums). I followed Monty Don's tip, dipping the cuttings into a glass of vitamin C (tablet dissolved in water) before potting. It seems to have worked.

Sadly, my patio fruit trees didn't flower at all this year, so no fruit from them. I think I messed up with the feeding and started too early. However, where I live, fruit trees were planted along the grass verges for the benefit of the community, and a local put has fruit trees in their beer garden that they do not use, so with my trusty fruit picker I didn't let all that free fruit go to waste.

Two Sunday afternoon walks and 15lbs of blackberries, eating and cooking apples and Victoria plums all for free.

Oh, and just because I can, I grow cress on the kitchen windowsill for salads and sandwiches.

I should point out, that recycling is very important to me. Sitting in science lessons with the students I support has made me very aware of the fragile state of out planet. I'm not a hoarder, but I don't throw anything away until I have considered how I can reuse it or recycle it. The cress is grown in a plastic food tray, meat I think, that has been washed and used as a seed tray.

So, apart from the blackberry jam, which by the way is really scrumptious, that's my summer of growing, harvesting, cooking, eating and preserving. I still have potatoes, sweet potato, cabbage, courgette, tomatoes and raspberries growing strong, and a pear tree to plunder (with the owner's permission).

Now I am looking forward to selecting seeds for next year, but not looking forward to digging in manure and preparing the beds for winter. It's a bit too much like hard work, but it pays off in the long run.