Allotment: Woo Hoooo!!! :) :) :)

[GillyBee]

Every year I get some successes and some fails. Last year the tomatoes got leaf mould and failed to crop properly and the squash were planted too late to crop well. Meanwhile dwarf French beans were Ok. This year the slugs have had the French beans - twice as I replanted but the runners have survived.
I do like low maintenance crops. Tomatoes and courgettes are divas needing lots of watering, food and fuss. Fruit trees, rhubarb, herbs, raspberries all take little time for the return. I don't do carrots, lettuce spuds etc as I don't really have space for them and they are a lot of work for the result.

[Adjee]

Every year I get some successes and some fails.

Happens to all of us so do not lose heart.

[Arzosah]

I do like low maintenance crops. Tomatoes and courgettes are divas needing lots of watering, food and fuss. Fruit trees, rhubarb, herbs, raspberries all take little time for the return.

Ditto! Crops in my garden are blackcurrants, blueberries, garlic, lemon balm, mint, rhubarb and wild garlic, and I'm just experimenting with drying young hazel leaves (hoping there's a nutty flavour ) to add to HM pesto.

[GillyBee]

I have a couple of small fig trees in pots. I am told that the leaves impart a vanilla like flavour to custards and the like and can be dried for a cholesterol lowering tea. 'Speriments are being planned.
But they are slightly more work than they were before the fig leaf roller moth found them & I now have to spend time squashing the caterpillars.
Gardening would be so easy if it wan't for the pests and diseases wanting their share of the produce.

[Medusa]

I had no idea that you could grow figs in the UK! I presumed that they would be for hot climates only. I would quite like a walnut tree, Father in Law had one a few miles down the road, it seemed to have just reached maturity and produced a few nuts before he cut it down for an unknown reason. I have two eating apple trees, a Bramley and a Victoria plum all on short rootstock and would love a small orchard to include a couple of nut trees. Still aiming for the dream although time is ticking by very quickly.

[GillyBee]

Figs grow well in the UK but only give one crop a year rather than the two common in the Med. The usual problem is that if planted in the ground, they will happily reach 15 or 20 foot tall with a similar spread. The RHS recommends keeping them potted or otherwise restricting the roots. There are 2 or 3 big ones around here in people's gardens (& one on a railway embankment). My husband once came home with a bag full of figs after walking along a footpath where the tree hung over the path and ripe figs were literally falling off the tree onto the path unrecognised and untouched.

[Ara]

Mr A bought me a fig tree about 4 years ago. It usually started off with some tiny figs in spring but they fell off before ripening. That is, until this year. I finally had 2 figs from it. They were tiny but very yummy.

Medusa, there is a saying which goes: "walnuts and pears you grow for your heirs" so it would be interesting to hear whether you manage to get nuts if you do grow one.

[Medusa]

I have never heard that saying before Ara. Not sure my children would class themselves as heirs and perhaps I should plant one soon so I may actually get to see the benefit (hopefully).

[Yorkshire Andy]

Slave labour has been employed today little man was happy with the idea of 1p per potato put in the barrow.and informs me i owe him £3.56p as he counted out loud each potato as he put them in ... why do we teach them to count? big sister wasn't impressed by the idea and came along as mum made her but well she got to £2 before getting "bored"

So round about 550 potatoes ... a barrow full to the rim any more I'd have needed greedy boards on the barrow

[ForgeCorvus]

Maybe next year you could offer your serf a small patch of his own?
My Parents started me off with 3'x4' on the south side of the house...... Pity I didn't keep up the habit as I've failed to grow carrots three years running