What do you want to grow
Our needs are modest, they have to be because we haven’t got the room. So we sat down and decided what we wanted to grow next year, on the basis of what we actually eat. The point of this is not anything to do with saving money, though it will. It’s about having great food, organic food, food that is good for you.
Of our 6 beds (soon to be finished off) we have one dedicated to mushrooms because it is too dark and another full of strawberries. Over by the greenhouse, which I suppose we should call another bed, we have a brilliant rhubarb plant and a huge blackcurrant which never fruits. I pulled it out and it regrew from a root, but still hasn’t fruited. So that’s coming out altogether and will be replaced with raspberries, though there are lots of berries in the hedgerows for us to collect.
Having worked out what we need, we can then try to meet that need. There are some great omissions in this because you just can't do everything, but please remember this is simply our list.
The omissions include peas, which we never seem to do well with because we are inundated with every field mouse in the valley and the voles come and take the rest. It doesn't matter how often we cover them, the blighters get under the ground and they're gone. They also include potatoes. Yes! We will grow a few in containers, but to be honest we don't really eat that many and they take up a lot of room. It's not as though we have a house full of kids all needing chips and roasters all the time. I think a few Pink Fir Apple for early summertime salads will be fine for us. If I had the land I would grow a lot more, but I just don't.
I would like to grow sweetcorn, but don't have the room for it partly because of the space over yield, and also because it casts a shadow, and I have enough trouble with the trees around our woodland cottage as it is!