Have You Started Planning For 2017.

[Bigmallly]

Around this time of year, I start planning for the following season depending on successes & failures. So next year so far my plans are:

1) To have a dedicated Peach House.
2) Replace all Raspberries with Joan J...............The tastiest Rasp IMO.
3) Replace Runner Beans with Climbing French Beans & Mangetout Bijou.............Better climbers IMO.
4) Grow more Leeks & Onions..............Just love 'em.
5) Grow less Root Veg except Parsnips............Not that keen on them.
6) Try to have a proper go at growing Carrots ( My Nemesis).............Just so I can say I did it.
7) Not growing Brassicas..........Too much work involved for such a cheap veg.
8) No Spuds..............Due to Slugs & Moles.
9) Maybe pass on Broad Beans............... due to black-fly.
10) All Strawberries to be grown in pots on shelving undercover..........................Keep beasties off them.

I'm sure there is more but can't think at the mo.

Have you got any plans in mind?

[Containergardener]

I hope Joan is a nice girl to ditch your raspberries for her

Can I ask your reasons behind your decisions.., help me with my own thoughts.

Brassicas I'm finding annoying with netting as so windy here.
Never done climbing French beans so couldn't compare with runner growing .
I was so late starting , even though things have kind of caught up, some things really need to be going sooner to beat the first frosts later.
Toms ..I like doing them but my season isn't really long enough for ripening , I tend to ripen indoors .
More potatoes...not that I've any yet, done late.
First time at courgettes and not any yet, so far not sure I'd bother again.
Onions , I think il try them again, not done this yr but were a success last time.
More variety of salads.
Heat in GH for earlier on.

[veggiechicken]

I'm going to concentrate on easy fruit and veg, especially the ones that give continuous cropping or are quick growers.

OUT
All brassicas except kale, since that can be picked a leaf at a time
Onions
Potatoes - maybe a pot or two but not in the ground
Turnips - don't really like the taste
Podded peas
Hearted lettuce

IN
Kale
Leeks
Cut & come again salad
Tomatoes - GH
Cucumbers - GH
Courgettes/squash
Beans - French flat podded like Hunter
Bijou mangetout - 'cos they're so BIG

PLANS
To clear all the 30+ beds and get them up and running - each bed to contain a fruit tree or bush, a herb, something edible and flowers. Still work in progress.

Extend the growing/picking season by making better use of the GHs

Once tomatoes in GH are finished replant the pots with summat for winter consumption.

I'm sure there'll be more good intentions before 2017 !!

[craftymarie]

Planning and buying already BM

OUT
Brassicas because I've not had much luck in growing them, many take up too much space when that is at a premium in my small garden.
Butternut Squash been an absolute failure with only some germinating and then all being decimated by slugs seems over fussy to grow.
Leeks been a real pain and only got a handful left after sowing a huge amount.

IN
Runner Beans been a huge success, easy to grow and am picking more than we can eat.
Mangetout ditto.
Marrow been easy to grow so if they taste good I will grow them next year.
Tomatoes easy to grow and we eat a lot so a no brainer.
Strawberries been easy to grow undercover in hanging baskets but need more to get a decent amount.
Onions and shallots (if they work out) have been super easy to grow and we do eat a lot of these so worth the space.
Lettuce as very easy to grow and enjoy it.

UNSURE
Summer squash patty pans taste lovely but take up a lot of space for what we are getting in return.
Courgettes most have been eaten by slugs but if I get a good crop of what's left I might grow again.
Carrots as only sowed first ones a while back.

GOING TO TRY FOR FIRST TIME
Broad beans with autumn sowing to try and beat black fly issue.
Potatoes (new)
French beans

[SusieG]

Plan for 2017 (so far......!)

OUT:
Broad Beans (grew really well, but need loads to get more than one serving out of them!)
Spring onions (never really amounted to more than a hairs breadth!)
Turnip (take ages to grow and not keen on the taste!)
Radish. (again, not worth waiting for, teeny thin things!)
Carrots (Not in containers, anyway ..... take ages for little return)

IN:

Chillis (Of course, as many as I can, love challenge of growing them AND eating them )
Tomatoes (No brainier, love growing/eating them - when they ripen....!)
Lettuce (Loose leaf cut'n'come again varieties, did so well this year)
Courgette (Prolific this year, tasty)
Strawberries (In baskets again - but MORE!)
Potatoes (In grow bags - easy and tasty)
Onions (From sets again, grew so well, yet to eat one.....!)
Garlic (No brainer, use it in lots of cooking ditto onions)
DFB (Not eaten any from this years batch yet, but they were easy to grow & look pretty!)
Runner beans (Need to get frame sturdier next year, as flapping about in wind!)


MAYBE:
Sweet peppers (No sign of flowering yet, let alone a fruit, so we'll see......!)
Sweetcorn (Jury still out on this one, might change mind IF I get to eat a corn cob!! )

There's bound to be other things that I've not listed here .... yet, that I've forgotten....


Also on my list are the non-edibles - but that's probably for another thread..!!

[Lumpy]

Good thread BM....well done you!

So 1st year in this teeny garden means for me.........

In

Spuds - Charlottes but not in the huge pots (100 ltr) back into the 35's as the pots are too difficult to move once full.
Carrots - not in MFB's but in the square planters we have. I have been using tape so squares are easier.
Broad beans (Robin Hood) - really plleased with them.
Parsnips
Leeks
Radish (normal & oriental)
Sugar snaps
Dwarf runners and frenchies.
Some salad stuff but not as much as this year.
Tomatoes - bush type only
Garlic - not in washing up bowls.

Out.
Beetroot and turnip - again they have bolted before a root is formed.
Chilli and sweet peppers - not too good outside and we don't have a green house.
No brassica's
Spinach and chard
Onions etc but spring one's will be allowed.

I have also told myself that next year we are only going to grow what we really like to eat and have the space for. So, I won't be buying all the weird and wonderfuls I see in the ads. It will save us a fortune and except for garlic and broad beans I won't be buying anything?

Over winter hoarding of wildlife friendly slug pellets - they are as rare as hen's teeth here.

[Guest]

I don't have any ins and outs of fruit and veg, I am still waiting for things to do stuff.

I don't think I will do hot beds next year unless I get a fantastic crop of sweet potatoes
I want to try and grow microgreens on the windowsill, pots of roots in gh to extend the season etc.
Get new root veg seeds - germination has been patchy.
New cabbage seed - I am determined to grow a decent cabbage before writing them off.
Carosello will be on its last chance next year
Melons will get a couple more years before I write them off.
Aquire a Joan J rasp. to see what all the fuss is about.
I was thinking of bulking up my all gold rasps as the birds don't eat them and I like the delicate taste.
Grow less onions and try and get more leeks going.

[vixylix]

Well I thought I had plans... but after reading all of yours I have barely planned at all!!

I will have moved house for next spring, so will be largely dependent on pots until I get beds sorted. But then I intend to grow all the things I don't currently have space for - and all BM and VC's wacky ideas too.

Nothing's out (as this year has been unpredictable to say the least so I'm giving everything a second chance) although soft fruit is on a severe warning as apart from strawberries everything has totally failed this year.

[Sheneval]

Since I built a fence round both my daughter's and my own plot I have reduced the size of one of her 4' raised beds next to the fence to 2' wide with flowers filling the 1' area between it and the fence and I intend to do this round the entire fencline on both plots. I will also change the locations of the remaining 4' raised beds to fit in with the new arrangements.

So far as crops are concerned I will continue to grow the following:
Overwinter onions - very good these last 2 years
Beetroot - ditto
Charlotte potatoes - ditto - I may dispense with maincrop
Courgettes - ditto

Swedes - Look good this year
Brussel sprouts - ditto
Sweetcorn - ditto
Peas - ditto
Leeks - ditto

Carrots - Will try an earlier crop next year and continue to sow

Rhubarb (3) - Great these last 3 years - I have added 3 of the late cropping ones and will see how these do but they look good at the moment.

Blackcurrants (3) - Great crop last year - still eating the jam
Goosberries (2) - Will see how they do this year

Strawberries - Will get more and grow in bed protected by mesh cage.

Cabbages - Not great last year - will see how they do this year
Broccoli - ditto ditto
Cauliflower - ditto ditto

Kale - This year my first try with them - they look good so far.
Put up a polytunnel on my daughter's plot this year and have tried tomatoes and peppers - will try and improve on them next year but apart from starting off the peas in guttering which worked extremely well I use this mainly as a shelter and for entertaining friends and neighbours - will try and maintain the drinks cooler boxes to a high level. :-)

[Thelma Sanders]

Out
Apart from a few to taste, no rows of peas. Not worth it when frozen taste the same cooked lightly.
Spring cabbage, often so late, that it just gets in the way.
Calabrese, it's bolting for the third year running
Fewer peppers!
Celebration pink flowered runners, very slow growing & few flowers/beans.
Green French beans, too fussy about the weather.
Ordinary courgettes (replace with self-pollinating varieties)
Spring onions, just don't grow for me, even following Cadalot's method. (Might be the White Rot although leeks grow ok.)
Giving up on carrots, they only worked for 1 year out of the last 7 pftt.
Garlic, too much rust again.
In,
More white runners and more purple French beans, not so fussy as the green'uns.
More sugar snap peas, I'm saving seed this year from the best plants.
Early potatoes, but only in tubs in the garden, more squash in the potato bed
Leeks.
Cabbages for summer autumn & winter (I love my coleslaw)
More Tromba d'Albenga squash and use them when small like courgettes.
Swede.
Curly and Russian kale, I've also got colewort to try over this winter. See how they go.
Chard, just cos it's so reliable.
Salad that I've remembered to sow at intervals to avoid a glut/famine situation
Sweetcorn, sweet peas and sunflowers.
I'm rooting more thornless loganberry and boysenberry plants (why does spell check think thornless is wrong? )

[Nannysally99]

Not so many potatoes next year, in fact cut by at least half
Carrots are definately in, with runners
Still on the fence for onions
Tomatoes were cut back to five plants this year, will do the same next year
Salad stuff has been hit and miss, so it might get a miss next year.
Stick to one strawberry bed (two if we don't do onions)
Definately doing watercress again

[Small pumpkin]

I'm bouncing a few ideas around.
Sprouts and parsnips depends how they do this year. They are on there last chance.
I might be evicting all tomatoes into the smaller cooler tunnel ( the ones in there this year are looking a lot healthier, but need to see if they ripen in there)
More chilli's
Possibly trying a bit of hydroponics (with chilli's)
Nothing is decided yet.

[Cadalot]

My plans for next year are

To have at least 2/3 of the beds and infrastructure in on plot 23B including the two fruit cages.
To manure as many beds as possible or at least fill 5 Daleks with manure if the beds are not ready.
To have levelled the paving slabs by using all the concrete and stones from the allotment to bring the levels up
To have the greenhouse on Plot 1A clear of all debris and to have erected the greenhouse on Plot 23B ready for next years growing season.

Re Vegetables my eldest daughter and her boyfriend are getting a ground floor maisonette so quantities of veg to increase so I can at least supply her with good stuff so I know she is eating healthy good veg.

So more
Sweetcorn
Sprouts
Potatoes
Fruit
More everything I guess

Another good reason to keep on both allotment plots me thinks.

[Snoop Puss]

Brilliant thread, BM. Was just thinking about this earlier this morning.

The main difference will be cutting down on the day job (mortgage gets paid off next April) so I have more free time for the veg patches. Mr Snoop is being very good - they're more his patches than mine this year.

Out:
All summer brassicas except broccoli. I can grow this easy-peasy but summer caulis are always disappointing and even my Hispi seem to take forever.
Fewer potatoes. The last few years, I've started off with fewer but then people keep giving me presents of seed potatoes. Going to have to knock this on the head, politely but firmly (somehow).
Fewer melons: I've gone a bit mad this year...

More:
Dwarf French beans
Carrots
Sweetcorn
Lettuce (need to get to grips with successional sowing)

Sow on time:
Squash
Kale
Beetroot

Plant out on time:
Sprouts

[cilla]

Well I was thinking about this the other day. Only got things in my head so I will have to sit down and think. Will look at what seeds I have and use up.

In
Birthday next month so what a cold frame with shelves, saw one at Hampton Court Show.
Tomatoes - easy for me to grow
Potatoes - in pots
Strawberries
Carrots
Lettuces
Spinach
Spring Onions
Sweet Peas
Peas
Herbs - Basil, Coriander, hope to still have Rosemary, thyme and chives
Courgettes

Out
Broccoli
Beetroots 2 years failed

Try
Look at winter planting, what do not know
Beans
Celery but don't know what to do
Celeriac again do not know what to do
Herbs Lavage
Anything else that takes my fancy but don't know what that is at the moment but the list above is a start!