Advice required by a newbie allotment holder, regarding early finishing crops

[wbmkk]

Hi

This will be my first allotment year, having been allocated a plot late last year.

I am obviously keen to do as well as I can, even as a novice and hope to use the plot to its full potential.

What crops can I put in now (GH or direct) that will finish and will then give me more space, for later crops.

I already have some broad beans in, from November, which are about 10" high. These are in a double row.

In my GH I have 3m of guttering (in 3 sections) filled with Meteor peas, which are about 3" high. I'll put them out in a couple of weeks.

I have onions (from seeds), leeks and onion sets in small pots, which will go out, also in a few weeks.

What late crops should I consider ?

thanks for any advice

[rustylady]

A lot depends on how much room you have. You could put some first early potatoes in in a week or two - these will be ready to harvest in early June and when you've lifted them you could plant courgette, French beans, squash where they grew.

You can also sow now Purple Sprouting Broccoli and kale to harvest later in the year - PSB takes almost a year from sowing to harvest, but kale is quicker.

[chilli_grower]

Parsnips can go in beginning of May???

[batman]

You can do a late sowing (around August) of perpetual spinach and swiss chard, which will overwinter, and give some nice greens.

[Thelma Sanders]

I find a March sowing of peas can be harvested in June and followed with spinach, chard from seed or start Kale, courgettes or squash in pots and plant them out after the peas.

[Two_Sheds]

This will be my first allotment ...What crops can I put in now (GH or direct) that will finish and will then give me more space, for later crops.

You aren't short of space if you have a standard 10 rod allotment, so I wouldn't worry too much about cramming everything in. Don't make it more complicated than it needs to be in your first year.

I would just go with the flow this year, plant those things you like to eat, maybe in a rough rotational plan (or not). Make a note of what does well and what you didn't have enough of, for your 2nd year.

[Linzy]

i like sowing cabbage, chard and spinach as you can just pick a few leaves at a time so once they couple months old i was picking leaves from may till november.