allotment plans

well, there's really shag all useful that I can do on the allotment at the moment - the snow brought all the netting down and let the dratted pigeons eat everything in sight  finish off all the brassicas. Until a couple of days ago the ground was frozen solid too; the place is deserted. Next move will be to pull up all the old brassica stems, lift the remaining beets, and excavate any parsnips. After that, digging and manuring.

But the main question is (assuming that when I ring Fingal Co Co they don't say that I can have a well situated 10x10 plot...) what we should grow this year, given last year's successes and failures. I think I can make better use of the space, too.

Definites

• carrots (grow well, incomparably nicer than supermarket ones)
• beets
• chard/spinach
• potatoes
• french beans/borlotti beans (grew some of these in the garden last year but need more volume)
• broad beans
• peas (which can climb up the fence at the back)
• cabbage (spring cabbage survived the snow)
• leeks (utter failure last year - need netting)

Definite no-nos

• curly kale
• big white turnips

Still ruminating

• onions (did well, but cheap to buy and take up lots of room)
• cabbages (likewise, easy to buy local, take up lots of space, all arrive at the same time)