I want to do something a little bit different from the traditional Allotment Diary format this time around. Rather than reflecting on the last month of the allotment, I thought it would be good to take you on a words-and-pictures tour of the plot.

This is how the allotment is at the start of September 2024 and I’ll explain a bit about what is growing, what has been harvested, and how things are shaping up for the rest of the year. It’ll be a warts-and-all tour, a realistic look at the allotment. Some bits are messy, there are weeds, and some corners need a spruce-up. But I am satisfied with how it’s looking, and what it’s producing. So, let’s get started….

The first of the brassica nets has broccoli and Brussels sprouts. I’ve had a lot of harvests from the calabrese broccoli, they have absolutely loved this summer. After cutting the main heads the plants have produced lots of smaller side-shoots to harvest – and they just keep coming. The sprouts are forming nicely too, but the plants are starting to outgrow the netting so a little tinkering might be in order.

Next to that is Swiss chard and the teepees contain the climbing French beans. The yellow chard plants bolted really early and have been replaced by new younger plants, but the red chard has happily grown all summer. The beans, grown from seed saved from last year’s crop, have romped up their supports and there are so many on there. I need to do regular big harvests and start to freeze them as, at the moment, it is a struggle to keep up with picking them.

Next to the beans and chard are the carrots and more brassicas. Carrots were a struggle this year, this was my third and final attempt at sowing and, thankfully, we have carrots. In the brassica nets are cabbages that are being harvested regularly and young plants of both kale and cauliflower. These were planted in August to provide crops throughout the colder months.

In the next bed are leeks. Two types of leeks ‘Elefant’ and ‘Lyon’ are slowly growing but seem to be happy and the focus is on just keeping them weeded. These had shallots next to them that were harvested last month.

This block has got its second set of crops this year. I’ll hold my hands up and say the first ones didn’t do amazing, but there was a small harvest of beetroot and radish. This is where the first carrot sowings and parsnip sowing absolutely failed – and it has really struggled with bindweed – which is a real headache. I sowed turnips, winter radish, and mooli directly in August and, as you can see, the first seedlings are appearing. This bed should provide picking in the colder months, fingers crossed.

What fool tries to grow a lot of outdoor tomatoes this summer…….this fool !!. This bed has various vining tomatoes and also a type of bush tomato apparently suited to outdoor growing in this climate. It does look messy and I have harvested two ripe tomatoes so far. There are a lot of fruits on there….so let’s wait and see how many do ripen. Otherwise, it’ll be a big batch of green tomato chutney on the go.

Not pictured to the right of the tomatoes is where the potatoes were. I am still harvesting them. The plants got blight and all the foliage got chopped down, so it wasn’t worthy of being photographed. The harvests have been small so far, as the plants really got attacked by slugs which was a big surprise to me. But few homegrown potatoes are better than none and I am still lifting them.

This next block has soft fruit bushes, some gooseberries, whitecurrants, and blackcurrants. There is also some sweetcorn, the courgettes, and a climbing cucumber. We are amid the annual courgette glut and the cucumber has also done pretty well. Alas, birds beat us the the soft fruit that did appear – but the bushes are only young and not doing bad for their second year.

Up from that is where the onions were grown this year. I harvested them last month and have then sown various cool-weather crops, such as mizuna, pak choi, rocket, spinach, komatsuna, and mixed Asian leaves. The onions were another crop unexpectedly targetted by slugs, but the harvest was decent enough. The seeds are starting to germinate on the new vegetables so hopefully, they don’t get nibbled too much and there’ll be greens to pick soon.

Towards the back of the allotment is the cut flower section. It has been dominated by some tall and statuesque sunflowers and now there are cosmos, zinnia, scabious, nigella, cornflower, and more all mixed and matched together. I am enjoying the range of colours and textures on display and these flowers really brighten up the space.

Running down along the fence line of half of the plot are the squashes and pumpkins. I am happy to let these plants sprawl away and provide ground cover – and they are also developing a good selection of fruits on there. There are also some raspberry canes, strawberries, and rhubarb along that fenceline. It is a bit of a messier part of the plot and the ideal place to simply let the pumpkins and squashes do their thing at the moment.

That is a whistle-stop tour of the allotment as things stand. As ever, I will keep posting regular updates on my Instagram.