Couldn't think of a title for this one............

[Snadger]

But here goes!

I am at present finding out what WILL and what WON'T grow in certain areas of my allotment.
Last year I grew onions and garlic in a couple of beds only to find out that I have onion white rot in the soil giving long term problems!
I then planted cabbage and calabrese in the same two beds and it has been attacked by clubroot, also giving long term problems! Both major fungal diseases and both in the same area.

I don't like to use monoculture but my options are limited in this area as I can't rotate crops.
Now.............here comes the cunning plan. While the cabbage and calabrese are still in there (clubroot doesn't usually kill it just severely retards!) I am going to dig a large hole at both ends of each bed (beds are about 4 foot wide by 12 foot long each) and concrete in a tall heavy post at each. These two beds will then become my runner/french bean and pea beds. I will rotate these two beds each year between tall peas and beans.

Necessity is the mother of invention and it just so happens that these two beds are in a position that casts the least shade on my other veg beds!

Come to think of it I had chocolate spot on the broad beans I grew on these two plots last year (which I can live with) and if I grew tatties there they'd probably get blighted. Grrrrrr
I suppose this could be likened to the Bermuda Triangle of my allotment as everything seems to vanish without a trace!

[sewer rat]

Hey Snadge - how about using them as a salad bed ? - Lettuce, salald leaves, raddichio, endive etc
As for the Chocolate Spot - nothing to worry about.

[BrideXIII]

Snadge is frightening me now, I bet when I get an allotment it has all these diseasels

[snakeshack]

how long does this stuff hang around,to my knowledge nothings been grown on my lottie for 15 years + (counted tree rings wnile clearing) do these soil diseases fade away if the ground is left and for how long,cananything be done except for rotation?

[Snadger]

how long does this stuff hang around,to my knowledge nothings been grown on my lottie for 15 years + (counted tree rings wnile clearing) do these soil diseases fade away if the ground is left and for how long,cananything be done except for rotation?

At 15 years you should be safe although some weeds act as long term host crops
Bad practices i.e not rotating and accepting brassica plants from any Tom, Dick or Harry are what usually cause problems.

Luckily only two out of my thirty beds are affected so I can work around these.

With allotments 'You pays your money and takes your chance' but if you can try and find out about any problems in the past and you have a choice of allotments it might pay to be choosey!

btw my allotments were derelict when I got them so I had no idea of what lurked below! .............Still very happy with them though!

[MaureenHall]

I'm still learning what I can and what I can't grow. Haven't grown potatoes yet so next year will be the all round tester

[Snadger]

Hey Snadge - how about using them as a salad bed ? - Lettuce, salald leaves, raddichio, endive etc
As for the Chocolate Spot - nothing to worry about.

Thought about using area for salad stuff rat but to be embarrasssingly honest, we don't eat much salady stuff.

Other options were soft fruit, in fact I still may use one bed as an extra strawberry bed...........we luuuurve strawbs!

[Snadger]

I'm still learning what I can and what I can't grow. Haven't grown potatoes yet so next year will be the all round tester

Thats part of the fun of gardening though Maureen, innit?

[Hazel at the Hill]

Can't you move the chook house/run to that area, Snadge?

[Snadger]

Can't you move the chook house/run to that area, Snadge?

Bit too much work Hazel as it's at the other end of the plot! My chook house and run are held together with a wing and a prayer anyway and to try to move them would be fatal methinks!

Good idea though if it had been a bit easier to move.

It would also upset the symmetry of the plot as the area in question is 1/3rd way up and I have greenhouses at the bottom (roadside) and chook house and hut at the other end............away from prying eyes and itchy fingers!

[Hazel at the Hill]

Hmm. Well besides fruit as you suggest, what about growing some luverly chrysanths/dahlias to take home for Mrs Snadge.....?

[Snadger]

Hmm. Well besides fruit as you suggest, what about growing some luverly chrysanths/dahlias to take home for Mrs Snadge.....?

You can't eat chrysanths/dahlias!

But truly.........another good idea and another possibility! I have 10 different species/colour chrysanths in flower in the greenhouse just now that I bought with the sole intention of propagating cuttings from them for next year!

*thinks* (where's the lightbulb smilie?) Better lay off digging the holes for the runner bean posts until Hazel has exhasuted the uses for these plots!

[Hazel at the Hill]

*thinks* (where's the lightbulb smilie?) Better lay off digging the holes for the runner bean posts until Hazel has exhasuted the uses for these plots!

You just sit there and put the kettle on!

What about...an asparagus bed, or wildlife meadow, or a pond?

[Flummery]

You can't eat chrysanths/dahlias!

You can , you know. A friend of my Dad's used to eat the table decorations for a dare whenever the group from work went out for a meal! Chrysanths were his favourite starter!

[Birdie Wife]

Have you tried any of the club root resistant varieties? Not sure if any onions are disease resistant but you might get away with growing garlic in pots (but you wouldn't get tonnes of the stuff - depends how much you really like the stuff). Onions, at a push, can be bought pretty cheaply if that's a last option. Although they wouldn't taste as nice, and you dont really know how they've been grown.