Allotment- rainy days planning

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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 and eat both. Swiss chard I have found to be a great cut and grow again plant well into the autumn and is also freezable, so a must have on my allotment.

I will need to plan not only the amount of each veg needed, different ripening times but if it freezes well.  To do this I will make a type of spreadsheet to keep track of things and an allotment plan of when to plant it and where. Companion planting is also a great thing to keep in mind and crop rotation.

I have found a good use of my old cleaning trays, I have been putting the seeds into small growing bags and labelling the outside of the tray to remind me of what I have planted.

Comments

  1. Anonymous28 March 2018 at 07:51

    Autumn onions are ones planted in the autumn to harvest early summer before the spring sown ones a month or so later. If dried and stored properly onions generally last to around Easter time before often going soft or sprouting. Good luck with the spreadsheet. Flighty xx

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