A new year

Happy new year! I can't believe it is actually 2010. Where has all the time gone? Luckily today was a beautifully sunny day if maybe a little cold, so I continued my tradition of spending new year's day at the allotment. After a couple of good visits I am making progress with the seemingly never ending digging and even found time to cut the asparagus back. The pics above show the allotment in December 2008 on the left and today on the right, it is certainly looking less grassy!

2009 was another cold and wet year looking back I am amazed to see how much more time I spent at the allotment in 2008 compared to 2009 but on the plus side I am finally getting on top of the persistent weeds so I had a good harvest despite my absences. 2009 brought my first plums although sadly I am still to get an apple off my tree but it did prove to be another great raspberry year. I have added a Pear tree and 5 more raspberry canes to my collection so hopefully they are all spending the winter months putting down some sturdy roots.

On the veg side the losers were clearly the parsnips which failed to germinate and the Celeriac which hung up its boots in September but there were some impressive successes; the garlic is still going strong and who would have imagined that this would be the year of a tomato glut? 2010 should be the first harvest of the asparagus crowns which were planted in 2007 right at the beginning of the allotment story.

So how did you find 2009? Any lessons learnt? I am going to be trying much harder with my winter roots and hopefully I'll remember to sow some winter crops this time around. The garlic might have been overly successful so I have toned down the number of cloves somewhat and I might not plant quite some many cabbages next time around. Still a pretty good year, heres to the next one!