2024 And The Difficult Third Album
14 min read - Too Long?
After clearing our second plot and taking on a third within the space of just a few months, we were about to take what we could grow to another level. We’d learn even more this year and would experiment with cover crops.
We really did feel like we had more of a small holding, and I began to look at growing differently, more like an organic farmer. In my mind at least, I felt like I had an answer to the war on food. For how long I don’t really know.
It would also be the year where I would start to realise the parts of growing that I don’t like, and those that I do. We’d also be on more familiar terms with a few people which would lead to some interesting conversations…
Anyway…
A Space For Seedlings
We live in a flat so have very limited space for germinating seeds. We don’t really want a greenhouse, and would prefer some kind of potting shed, so we decided to use these cheap plastic greenhouses for now.
I know they’re useless, and barely last a year but they seem the only option, and give us somewhere to hide from the rain. If you know any potting sheds being given away or sold cheap put them up on the marketplace forum.
Start As You Mean To Go On
With a different mindset, and still being pretty inexperienced, we knew we had to be on top of our seedlings early in the year. So we got things like courgettes, squashes, and multisown beetroot into seed trays.
In hindsight we were a bit too early on some of these, and waited a bit longer the following year. But it’s better to learn by making mistakes—no one is laughing or even looking.
It was nice to be able to stay on the allotment if it was raining and get on with your work. If I was on my own I’d stick on an old Alan Watt podcast, or sometimes just enjoy the peace. You have to limit your agenda intake.
Our shelves were soon filled up with seedlings. We’d planted out our garlic and had put in eleven rows of potatoes! We started growing potatoes as they use up lots of space, and we could give plenty to friends and family.
We grew a few different varieties, early, second early and main crop, so that we had a steady stream, and also to see which ones did well or not. Charlottes, Bambinos, King Edwards, Sarpo Mira.
In the end we planted too many first early potatoes as we couldn’t eat them quick enough to keep that fresh creamy taste. The following year we only did one row of first earlies.
Our King Edwards were hopeless. We found out later no one has any luck on the allotment with King Edward potatoes. Most people grow Desiree. We’re glad we stuck with the Sarpo Mira. They did well and were delicious!
Broad Beans
This was the first year we tried these as we now had the extra soil. Most people on the plot sow them direct but we thought we’d sow them in small pots in the greenhouse and then plant them out about March time.
As they’re big seeds they did seem to break above the surface of the potting mix but they ended up alright in the end. We found putting them out a bit bigger seemed to stop the slugs eating most of them.
Looking around the allotment at other people’s beans, we noticed ours did a bit better. Many of theirs were eaten before they could get big enough. We just kept dotting the end plants in as they were eaten. It worked well.
We grew them in two beds in the end, and ended up making some really nice broad bean fritters with most of them, and froze them for later. We ate them raw early on just thrown on top of salads.
Strange Survey This Year
We still hadn’t had any “conspiratorial” conversations on the plot at this point, well, one, sort of, that’s not worth mentioning. In my view we’re being pushed into having them anyway, it’s not organic…
See, 2024 was very damp. Chemtrails were bad and a plot neighbour mentioned that she’d seen a gorvernment survey being passed around targeted at allotment owners/gardeners asking about slugs and damp.
I didn’t see the survey myself but we picked up literally thousands of slugs and snails over the course of a couple of months, if we hadn’t we’d have lost countless plants. Plenty of others did.
Older heads on the plot were saying slugs were eating plants they usually don’t touch, and were saying that they hadn’t known a year like it. At this point I hadn’t even bought up the lines in the sky.
I believe when they dim the sun, it obviously makes things more damp than usual. They’re gauging the limits of whatever they are doing in either direction (hot and cold) to see what they can get away with.
The survey was a genuine one to gauge what real people had noticed that are likely oblivious to why they might be being asked to fill in a survey. The nerve of these people is beyond belief.
"I believe when they dim the sun, it obviously makes things more damp than usual. They're gauging the limits of whatever they are doing in either direction (hot and cold) to see what they can get away with."
Apple & Pear Trees
It’s a real shame as we were lucky to inherit four really nice fruit trees (two apple, two pear) but they’ve been planted too close together. As the years go by they’re getting bigger, and we’re not confident pruning them.
It’s obvious what the previous owner was trying to do, it seems he wanted a little “orchard” in the top corner of the plot, it’s a nice idea but even I know you can’t put four trees in such a confined area.
The first year the apples we really good, they’re actually quite big! We’d pruned them since but weren’t confident. The close confines make it quite difficult to get in amongst them to see what we were doing.
The pear trees always seem to “fizzle out” as they approach ripeness, and one tree seems to have some kind of fungus on it which comes and goes. We decided not to prune this year, and see what happened in 2025.
We always do well with the main apple tree in the end but none of the trees have been the same since we pruned them after our first year. It will be interesting to see how they do when we don’t prune them for a year.
Deep down we know we need to take a couple of trees out but it just feels wrong. Really we should only keep the bigger apple tree because I know it will flourish and be much easier to look after. We’ll see…
The Big Plant Out
This really did feel like a big plant out after only having the one plot but we were really pleased with how well I think we managed it all. I like to be organised and my missus is good once you give her a set of tasks to do!
For some reason we didn’t take lots of photos of our vegetables during the summer but took loads in the early Spring. Multisown beetroot went out with our cabbages. Courgettes, squashes and tomatoes went out in May.
Courgettes & Squashes
We took a chance on our courgettes and put them out in early May hoping there wouldn’t be a late frost, which there wasn’t. We were swamped with courgettes for a couple of months during the summer.
The same with our butternut squashes. Some were massive when we harvested them, and after curing them they’ve lasted over a year – we’re still eating them in 2025. Our luck ran out the following year…
Tomatoes
2024 was a disaster for our tomatoes, and if it wasn’t for some left over plants and an unused bed with loads of manure on, we’d literally have had none. Inexperience and a drop in temperature seemed to cost us dearly.
My missus had really done a good job on the tomato plants this year but soon after putting them out the temperature dropped and there was also quite a chilly wind the plants were quite exposed to.
We felt they never fully recovered until it was too late in the season. It was a frustrating sight and we were saved by putting out more plants in a different spot later on. This would be the last year we’d side shoot too.
Sweetcorn
Without sounding too much like Bill Gates, sweetcorn is one of my favourite foods to eat and grow. I love the taste and how it looks when it’s growing, there’s just something about it.
Any similarities with that specimen end there though, as I don’t own the land he owns, nor do I want to inject anyone with poisonous “vaccines”. Come near me with one of those, and it’s you or me I’m afraid.
Like I say, this site isn’t going to be for everyone… Feel free to be offended.
Digressing, it’s funny, as Gates’ name came up during a chat about “climate change”. I felt confident enough to drop chemtrails into the conversation as the people I was talking to didn’t believe in the climate hoax.
It had taken almost three years for something to be mentioned regarding anything “conspiratorial”. They were only aware they’d been “cloud seeding” in Dubai, I just told them to look up…
One went on to say “they’re just contrails” and then came out with the usual stuff that the lines were the same as they ever were. I’m past going round in circles now - moved on, don’t argue.
The other chap however bought up Bill Gates and was concerned he’s the largest land owner in the USA, which about a year later went on to become another interesting conversation…
He was assured by the other bloke though that Bill gives away most of his money and there was nothing to be concerned about… This conversation would also continue later on too…
Anyway, we put in about a hundred sweetcorn this year. Germinating them was a chore but we got there in the end. When you hit the sweet spot of ripeness they are unbelievable, and you won’t taste corn like it anywhere.
Cover crops
This was the first year we started experimenting with cover crops but it’s beyond the scope of this article (there’ll be a separate article soon) but the benefits of using them were obvious to see already…
And The Rest…
There are lots of vegetables we didn’t take photos of in 2024 but we put out pretty much everything you can think of: kale, chard, celery, runner beans, parsnips, swede, cucumbers, rocket, lettuce, peppers, aubergines, carrots, leeks, fennel, french beans and kohlrabi.
For the most part we did really well and ate mainly from the allotment during summer and later months. We’re still a way off being able to eat our own food for longer but this year made us feel like we were getting there.
I did start to notice that the summer wasn’t my favourite time of the year. The constant watering (we changed our routine in 2025) with three plots can become a real chore and an issue regarding other parts of your life.
"Harvesting in the summer is also another lengthy process that can soon take up hours of your day."
Harvesting in the summer is a lengthy process that can take up hours of your day. Three plots is definitely a two man job and there’s no way either of us could manage on our own, from digging to cooking…
There’s no doubt about it late winter and spring are my favourite times of the year, the planning, soil preparation and planting out is what I enjoy the most. Summer can get a bit overwhelming at times.
There a certain times of the year I can spend six to seven hours on the allotment at a time but summer definitely isn’t one of them. It’s a little bit like watching paint dry, amazing as all the growth is.
What We Learned
- Wait until June to plant our certain plants
- We’d soon realise watering three plots is A LOT of work in summer.
- Growing cover crops is fun and builds your soil in a different way to manure.
Finally we had somewhere to germinate our seeds and to hide in the bad weather. The three plots really did make us feel like we had the chance to grow quite a large amount of food, and we approached growing with a different mindset.
Slugs were a huge problem this year and we’d heard there was a government survey doing the rounds asking amateur growers their experiences with them. I believe the damp was due to the sheer amount of blocking of the sun going on that year and they were fishing for more information.
We started experimenting with cover crops this year, found it very interesting, and looked forward to trying more.
I also began to realise summer wasn’t my favourite time of the year on the plot, and had to start limiting my time there.
”Too much of a good thing…”
This would also be the first year that any kind of “conspiratorial” conversation would come up which would be interesting and frustrating in equal measure.
Overall we had a first proper kind of harvest due to going from one to three plots.
Suggested Listening/Reading
cover cropsagenda 2030sarpo mirachemtrailsbill gates