planning help please.

[hypnophil]

Hi, i got an allotment in august and have learnt a lot since then, and now most of the things i grew hastily are out of the ground i have been trying to plan for next year! i still have some cabbage broccoli garlic cauli and onions in for the winter but want to plan for when they come out.
i have about 16 beds about 6 foot long by 4 foot wide, and i have looked in loads of books about planting and harvesting times but cant really make much of it, it makes my head hurt!!!!!
what i would like to know is rough sowing times and harvest times,or even just a list of general times in the ground, i live in devon, by the sea, and have a list off stuff i wish to grow, but one book says parsnips sown in mar-apr wont be ready to pull til oct onwards...
this seems a long time for the ground to be used up and i am wondering if it's worth growing things like this. i would appreciate any help such as sow carrots about "this time" harvest "this time" and fill the space with "this".
i have a small polytunnel which i will use for toms, Q's, etc.. so mainly thinking about carrot, spuds, chard, cabbage, onion, beans, beetroot etc..
sorry this is a bit long winded..
any help gratefully received or if anyone would help me out if i sent them my list of things and measurements of plot.
thank you.
happy gardening
phil

[Hazel at the Hill]

Tricky this planning stuff, ain't it! There's quite a few threads on rotation if you do a search - tho' that may not make it any clearer!

For my money, given that you have 16 beds, that splits nicely into a 4 year rotation. I swear by John Seymour's plan (even though it has taken me the best part of a year to 'get me head round it'!).

It helps that the book has plenty of pictures of each season ('Self Sufficiency' - you can get it in the library, or a compact version has just been re-printed, it's in Waterstones)

At the end of the day, nothing is set in stone, and you're going to find that you grow far too much/little of your veg in the first year or so, and learning is all part of the fun!

Of course your preference will sway you as to whether you want certain crops or not - I love parsnips and am happy for them to take up a portion of the 'roots bed' for 6 months, at the expense of beetroot which I am less keen on, however, this year I planted too many potatoes, and consequently did not have the room to plant enough leeks to follow on (which I also love, and would have really come in useful in winter...)

The important thing is to have fun, and remember to jot down notes for next year...

[Dobby]

parsnips sown in mar-apr wont be ready to pull til oct onwards...
yes there worth it we was eating parsips in august but they say oct so that they have had a frost, dont think it made much diferance realy

[mandyballantyne]

Hi,

I have this planner which came from another grape (sorry can't remember who!) but it is nice, simple and on one page!

Sorry to large to up load, I will pm you.

Good luck and have fun, Mandy

[Snadger]

Hi Hypnophil

Here's a thread I started a while ago which may be of interest.

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...=dual+cropping

In the end I grew everything listed, but chopped and changed a bit with which crop followed which!

[hypnophil]

thanks all!
you've been a great help.
thanks to Mandy, that is a good sheet, should help a lot, and i liked snadger's thread.
thanks again, and yes it should be fun so i will try and relax a bit now LOL