Plotholders generally spend less time on their plots during the winter months than in the summer. The obvious reasons are that little or no planting has to be done, Christmas and New Year activities take up a lot of time, most of the harvesting is over and the weather is poor.

The plot is looking unusually bare this year. I missed the deadline for successful germination of Crimson Clover so sections C and D are bare earth but easy to hoe. All the summer crops are finished. There is still a good supply of fresh organics for the kitchen; beetroot, parsnips, leeks, winter cabbage, sprouts and swedes.

September has been a quiet month on the plot. After all the activity of the annual FEDAGA show we usually take a break. This is a convenient time to go away; the main holiday rush is over and there is not so much needing done down on the allotment. So, after missing a few visits, on our return the plot was still in reasonable condition. As always, the weeds don't take a holiday and some of them needed urgent action to prevent them from seeding and causing even more weeds. The best way to keep on top of weeds is, simply, to keep on top of them to prevent them from seeding.

Harvesting started at the beginning of the month and is now in full swing. Apart from Mare's Tail, which keeps popping up, weed germination has been low so not much work for the hoe and plot visits shorter than usual.

In the greenhouse the sweet corn (Early Extra Sweet) is in full production with two good sized cobs taken home on each visit. Seed sowing was spread over several weeks but now there is not much difference between the first and last sowings.

All the months of digging, double digging and forking in compost, hoeing, weeding, seed sowing and planting out finally yield a harvest at the end of June. The first fruits this year were new potatoes (Dunluce), courgettes (Defender) and calabrese (Chevalier). Next month it's the "summer glut" and we become almost vegetarian as we eat our way through the abundance of vegetables, particularly courgettes, calabrese and summer cabbage (Minicole). The dry weather at the start of the month didn't do much for the germination of carrots but it also didn't do much for the germination of weeds.

It's the end of May and, I think for the first time ever, the plot is fully planted up. Just 8 weeks ago the plot was completely bare. So now it's a bit more relaxed until the "catch crop" of first early potatoes is harvested in July and the space planted out with leeks from the seedbed.

All the crops in section A are growing well except that the courgettes Defender were a bit slow during the cold weather for the first half of the month. They have now picked up some speed. The potatoes have been earthed a couple of times and will get this another two times during June.

Just a month ago, on the morning of 30 March, the plot was completely bare. By the end of April there were welcome signs of growth and greenery. Onions, shallots, garlic, potatoes, leeks and parsnips are all adding their bit of colour, particularly since the long awaited rains that came in the last week of April. Soil conditions are good and hoeing has produced a fine surface tilth.

By the end of the March the new season had really got started. The plot has been completely cleared of last year's crops and the winter digging is finished with all the compost buried under the top spit (after forking over the second spit during double digging) of section C for the potatoes. Sections A, C and D have had their usual application of Rockdust and section B has had its first application of lime. the second application will be shortly before planting out. The soil organisms don't like a sudden change of pH and separate applications of lime avoids this happening.

The Allotted Months - December 2008 to February 2009

The winter months, for various reasons including the weather, have not seen much allotment work done on the plot. But I have spent a lot of time there. My arson damaged wooden greenhouse has been fully repaired, including the rain water watering system, all ready for the new season.

The Allotted Month - November 2008

As far as crops and harvesting go, this month has been very much the same as October. So I won't repeat myself.

Allotments generally are targets for vandalism, and Edinburgh's allotments seem to be at risk as much as other places in Britain. It's a sad reflection on what has been called our "Feral" youth. I've heard that in Denmark the allotments are respected, the public have access and there is little, if any, vandalism. I think that I'll emigrate to Denmark.