My allotment challenge

https://permaculturenews.org/2011/12/02/companion-planting-information-and-chart/ I found this chart very useful

How much veg do I need to feed my family of 6  So the only way to work this out is to go though what we eat summer, winter and every week, this year I won’t be taking into consideration potatoes. Then calculate how many Lbs or individual items I need to grow. This will take a bit of time but I think its the only way to work it out. Winter is made up of stew, bolognese, roast dinners, pies dinners and pizzas. Summer is obviously salad, pizza and salad, pasta salad with roast on Sundays. Tomatoes are used a lot in my house as mentioned we have bolognese salads also in sandwiches, lasagne, on toast and the list goes on. We use a jar of passata a week, 2 tins of chopped tomatoes and about 6 fresh ones a week in Autumn/Winter and about 6 large and 12 cherry tomatoes  a week  Spring/Summer.  Estimated  Tomatoes                 100 Lbs a year Onions                 ...

When rain stops play So after a couple of days in bed unable to get up, I finally rise to find rain has stopped play. Must be time to continue planning and planting my seeds. Obviously if I am going to feed my family from my allotment it will be a good idea not having everything starting to ripen and need picking and preserving all at he same time. In order for this to happen I am going to need to plan my planting well.  For example I have planned to plant 175 onions to hopefully have 150 to pick store and freeze for the year. I have already planted 75 and plan to plant the other 75 which are Autumn onions in a couple of weeks. I will plant a variety of 7 courgette, squash, zucchini and butternut plants each week for the next 4 weeks. Most of the squashes and all the butternut squash will be frozen, and I will give the first Zucchini a freeze and see what the outcome is. Depending upon the outcome I will either eat the zucchini and freeze all the squash, or freeze an...

Frogs- a gardeners delight Frogs are a gardeners delight, they eat your slugs etc without eating your plants. On my allotment I have made two areas which I will allow to become overgrown. One area is a fenced off 2m squared area with blackberry brambles in, the other area has an old bath and a few logs in.I have a filled bath with water and grass is growing in one end and a couple of small floating pieces of wood for ease to get out. Around the bath is an area of grass, brambles, a few logs and other areas fo them to hide in. This area is fenced off and about 4m squared and roughly a meter away from the other area that is for the wildlife the live in. Both areas have been fenced so that they won't be mown or strimmed, this will be a total sanctuary for them. Just before the return of the beast from the east, we had a warm spell and the frogs got busy. I wasn't sure I had any frogs until a ball of frogs spawn appeared, the next day a second ball appeared. Unfortunately on t...

259 lb fruit on my allotment Is it possible to grow 259 lbs of fruit from my allotment and still have space for veg, lets explore the possibilities. 1 dwarf plum tree           30 lbs 1 cherry tree                   20 lbs 1 apple tree                    60 lbs 1 pear bush                    25 lbs 3 gooseberry bushes     12 lbs 40 strawberry plants      30 lbs 4 rhubarb plants            10 lbs 10 raspberry canes        10 lbs Blackberries                     7 lbs    mostly foraged from the wild ones around the site Blackcurrant                    7 lbs   2 Grape vines        ...

How much fruit do I need for family of 6 So having made myself a little chart with the yield of the fruit on it, I now need to work out how much fruit I will need. Sat down with notepad and pen i started to calculate our fruit intake. That sound a very simple task but, one child eats only bananas, strawberries and any fruit jam and jelly possible, one doesn't touch jam or jelly and another eats any fruit going.The easiest way I discovered to work it out is to go through my shopping lists and online purchases. Jam- we use on average 1 jar a week  Fruit Crumble- 1 a week Fruit Pie- 1 a week Fruit bowl Jam- 52 jars would be needed in total or maybe a few more if I have left over fruit to preserve. Some jams use 1/2 lb and some use 1 lb of fruit, so for arguments sake I took an average of 3/4 lb for each jar. So I would need to produce 39 lb of fruit for a years supply of fruit. Pies and Crumbles- I estimate to produce 2 pies/crumbles a week I will need about 100...

When I originally took my allotment on I had great plans, unfortunately nothing was really achieved due to an operation and the onset of my worsening arthritis. Arthritis is something that most people will get in their lives but at the age of 44 I thought it wouldn't be this soon, this bad. My allotment is going to be my escape from the constant sitting indoors feeling sorry for myself. With the help of my son and husband I plan on providing all the fruit and veg that my  family of 6 need. Raised bed, footpaths and easy access to different areas will need to be created, while on a tight budget. Already on the allotment is a stockpile of odd bits and long planks wood left over from previous jobs my husband has done at work. It has a greenhouse, shed and summer house which cost me a grand total of £5. Two runs measuring 3m x 6m are also on the allotment which cost me £25 for both, one is set up for my 3 ducks and the other has netting on.  My daughter dug a large hole and an...

Yield per fruit tree, bush and plant So.... while the snow was here and I cant get out in it because of the arthritis I thought it would be a great idea to start planning. start While trying to decide how many different fruit plants I needed to feed a family of 6,  I realised that it would be helpful to know how much eat plant would yield. I spent hours searching different internet pages, different suppliers, different growers etc. I have combined all my findings and found an average per item and compiled a table so its all in one place to see when planning. Below is a table of the fruit that will be planted on my allotment with yields so I can work out how many plants I require. Next I'm going to decide how many of each will be needed.  Plant, tree, bush average yield lbs when mature Apple tree 60 up to 90 Apple miniature 12 up to 24 Apple patio 5 up to 10 ...

Last year I swapped some Burkina Yellow Chilli seeds for some Naga Chilli seeds. I have planted 4 about 10 days ago and 2 have pepped through. They have been put in the window by the radiator as the ideal soil temperature for chilli seeds is between 23-30 degrees. I have also lightly put some cling film over them in the evenings so counteract the chilly nights. Kept the soil moist but not wet and will now keep them in the window for maximum light. Hopefully they will grow into healthy strong plants. When big enough to handle I will repot into 20cm pots for this year, then depending on how large they are in the winter I will prune back and possibly repot into larger pots and place some organic plant fertiliser on top of the soil.

As its so cold I have been concentrating on what is growing indoors. Here my Burkina Yellow Chilli is starting to bud and all these will hopefully flower and turn into chillis, at the moment there is about 40 of these. I keep this plant on a table infant of a window that gets light all day, and the warmth from the sun and radiator. This beauty is about 40cm tall at the moment and bushes out to about 30/40cm. Last year I saved some seeds which I dried out and have planted out, but some chillis can take up to a month to germinate.

This is the start of my journey, I have an allotment that is about 1/7 Acre. Recently diagnosed with bad neck and back problems will make this difficult, but this is where the no dig method will help along with some help with the manual task I can do this. I plan on feeding a family of 6 all our fruit and veg all from my allotment..... Here goes