Win a great new allotment book and seeds
Win Matthew Appleby’s new book plus 50 packets of randomly picked seeds from our shop. Competition ends 11/10/2013. Enter by commenting below, just let us know what is your favourite vegetable to grow on your plot or in your garden.Winner will be randomly picked and will be notified by email and announced here on the blog.
THE
ALLOTMENT
PLANNER
MORE THAN 200 WAYS TO
TRANSFORM YOUR PLOT
MATTHEW APPLEBY
Introduction by Alys Fowler
9780711234703
Hardback
£14.99
November 2013
Published by Frances Lincoln
Help your allotment to thrive all year round with more than 200 timely projects.
• The Allotment Planner shows you how to focus your gardening
energies to transform your plot in impressive and creative ways.
• Find out how to grow the tastiest crops, keep the busiest bees,
produce the largest pumpkins and make your own jam and wine.
• This unique journal lets you plan and record your successes, failures and
lessons learned, whether it’s keeping hens, blogging or barbecuing under the stars.
• Start planning now to get the most from your plot every month of the year.
With fun and challenging projects, The Allotment Planner will help gardeners everywhere truly
make the most of their allotments. Helping retain interest in your plot, this book will keep you
on the right side of the allotment committee, as well as getting the whole family involved. From
blogging to beekeeping, barbecuing to keeping chickens, Matthew suggests a once-a-week project
to sustain Britain’s 330,000 strong allotment community.
Arranged into months from January to December, Matthew offers four or five projects per month –
with a further ten or so timely ways to make a difference to an allotment. As well as containing
all the monthly reminders you need to grow your own crops, the journal focuses specifically on
new ideas that will bring enjoyment, push the boundaries and inject a sense of originality into
the proceedings.
With quotes from the likes of Sir Walter Scott, Eric Morecombe, Mahatma Ghandi and Germaine
Greer, this journal will keep you entertained and informed in all aspects of your allotment.
Author Matthew Appleby is a blogging garden journalist on Horticulture Week who writes for
The Guardian, Amateur Gardening and other national newspapers. He cultivates an allotment in
Wimbledon, southwest London.
And if you don’t win you can still get the book at a discounted price:
65 Responses to “Win a great new allotment book and seeds”
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Potato and courgette soup
Serves 8: 500grams of crumbly potatoes, chopped 2 (vegetable) stock cubes water 4-6 spring onions, 3 chopped, 2 reserved for decoration 1 kilo of courgettes, chopped 100grams cheddar or...
<3 Good Luck Everyone <3
It has got to be the potato, there is nothing like the taste of the first new spuds.
Tut – I pressed the submit button too soon!
Our favourite veg to grow is definitely sweetcorn! We love peeling back the husk to see what is inside, the children find it fascinating every single time.
Mixed salad leaves, you’ll never get the variety of leaves from a shop and they make a great snack whilst tending the other veg!
Courgettes….because they never fail!
Our favourite veg to grow is definitely the pea, there are lots of different types & can be eaten raw or cooked, can be frozen for a fresh taste in winter, and finally the look of happiness on my granddaughters face when she spots the first pods to eat x
Carrots there are so many diverse things you can make – smoothies, juice, cakes and you can store them, also who doesn’t just like to nibble a carrot while gardening
I love growing leeks. From sowing the black seeds in a small pot, watching them sprout up like tall, thin blades of grass, dibbing holes in rows and dropping in the long green and while seedings…and the best part, watering each one in by filling the hole with water – what could be more fun?! And when they’ve grown you have a long-lasting crop of delicious leeks on hand from autumn all the way through the winter.
Its got to be tomatoes for me, so many differant ones and so much to do with them this year(2014) I am going to grow tomatoe trees exciting!!
My favourite has to be peas. Takes me back to childhood in our back garden and my grandparents. Picking them and eating straight from the pod. The sweet taste and many happy childhood memories.
sweetcorn raw or cooked freshly picked yum
i love cabbage wether it is curley or pointed, spring or winter nothing like fresh cabbage with your dinner
Strawberries and raspberries – ensuring I have no trouble getting even my most frilly, high-heeled friends down for a summer barbecue, because they know afterwards they can gorge themselves silly on Pimms and berries ’til the sun goes down and we all crawl off home!
I love growing purple sprouting broccoli. I just cannot wait till spring when the broccoli is ready to harvest. Sunday morning trip to the allotment pick fresh broccoli and then home to cook Sunday roast lovely
Cauliflower, nothing better than to see the snow white head grow
It has to be the best tasting veg around… the GemSquash..
Beeeeeeetrooooot beetroot beetroot….all I have to say! Nommmmmmm <3
Chard, chard, beautiful chard!!!!
For me it has to be peas. My children love picking peas and eating them straight away. Its such a treat.
Raspberries for me………..My grandchildren love picking them…
so difficult to choose just one it would have to be beans, to eat young or let dry for storing
Love swede,easy to grow and goes with anything,especialy stomp-potatoes,swede and carrots boiled together then mashed with butter.Lush with heart or venison.
Has to be our jersey royals – nothing like the taste of a freshly dug spud
Courgettes – lovely as a vegetable and also in cake!
Mine has to be Courgettes
I love to grow courgettes all differnt types ,pattie pan being my fav always grow lots to share with friends and neighbours and work colleges
Chili peppers always..
Jerusalem Artichokes – not only are they delicious with garlic, but they produce the most amazing, tall sunflower-like plants. Easy to grow, come back year after year and always taste good.
Got to be ruby chard. Not only delicious but pretty to look at too.
Has to Brussels sprouts. Just walk into the garden in the middle of winter and they’re there ready to pick
Flower Sprouts Discovered them a couple of years ago and we love them
COURGETTES -GENERALLY TROUBLE FREE
My brother is the one with the allotment and he grows all manner of things. He grew 3 great pumpkins this year and used them last night for Halloween and made soup with the flesh….
I grow cabbages best in my garden ,I grow all different ones some keep growing all through the year and I have some that grow like palm trees ,they are so easy as well,if I am considered for a win seedparade please just award me the book and let someone else have the seeds because you have already given me the seeds to witch I am very gratefull thank you
For me it has to be the parsnip… Waiting most of the year and then pulling them up Christmas morning and roasting them for dinner, perfect!
Not got one favourite vegetable just happy that I can grow fresh veg on the plot,from seed to plate and it’s all done by me and nature.
I like to grow onion in the garden and make large amounts of french onion soup for winter. Now I have an allotment hoping to expand upon what I can grow with much more room!
Cucumbers!!they grow so fast… We measure them in the morning, then last thing at night just for fun!
its got to be carrots the kids alway laugh at the funny shape ones we get
We grow some crops in our garden but want to expand and do more and my future mother in law has an allotment so would love to win this. But I do love the freshly grown carrots, fingers crossed. Good luck to all.
My prized seed is Dwarf Bean ‘Purple Teepee’. It crops early with masses of pretty purple fine beans, so lots of lovely beans before your Runner Beans are ready. Purple Teepee are so tender they need barely any cooking, infact they are gorgeously crunchy and sweet raw too. A real star performer.
This is difficult as there are so many. Carrots because of their taste and you can eat them raw as well
Garlic – Love being able to plant something at this time of year. Planning what chutneys I can make next year when they are ready for picking
oh lovely new potatoes – from soil to plate in a trice (or three)!!
Tomatoes for me! How many varieties are there, over 7000!!!
Mine is sweetcorn – so long as they are planted in squares for pollination, when ripe the are handsome and delicious.
i love kale i grew 2 types this year on my alotment,there still growing now,i pick new leaves every week or two..there delicious,add them to any meal.
Has to be Squash because there simple to grow and there are so many unusual and magnificent varieties and they taste so good.
However Romanesco is a very good one to grow as it tastes fantastic and looks so attractive but I find it quite hard to grow so it will have to be Squash Best variety being Table Queen Acorn.
I have loved growing my butternut squash this year – this book looks like the answer to my haphazard veggie growing!
Carrots are always successful so I think they are my favourite to grow.
Parsnips, shouldn’t be long now…yum
This year got to be my squash and pumpkins so sweet and a joy to see on the plot.
Mines got to be courgettes. They are easy to grow and make lots if tbi gs with them. Good luck everyone x
Ment make lots of thingsx stupid phone lol
Potatoes and runner beans
You simply cannot beat a ripe, homegrown tomato.
Had varying success this year, but next year will be better 😉
Sweet sunny sweetcorn
Parsnips, nothing to beat that crunchy sweetness in the middle of winter.
The vegetable I would never be without on my allotment is broad beans because you just can’t buy them small enough in the shops to get that first picked sweetness they have when they are small. I love them:))
I love growing squash especially Crown Prince – there’s nothing better for roast veg or soup on a cold winter’s day….and the world domination gene in the plant keeps me busy making sure it stays within its allotted area!
Got to be Sungold Tomatoes. Nothing tastes better in the summer.
Parsnips, especially once the frost has been on them. It seems to improve the flavour. Delicious roasted and in soup.
Lindsay derbyshire is the winner, congratulations!!!
Peas are the greatest. I remember sneaking the delicious pods from my grandparents’ garden as a child. Now my child sneaks them from my garden!
Runner beans. Nothing compares to home grown beans