In Conversation with...Catching up with Alex, Kevin and Ian

During the year we published viewpoints from two of our newer plot holders, Kevin Baskill and Alex Horne , together with a more established plot holder Ian Moore in relation to how they had tackled their plots, and all three agreed to allow us to check in and enquire about their progress.

It doesn’t seem possible, but the winter months are upon us, which gave us an opportunity to catch up with all three in terms of their growing season.

Ian Moore: This year was a little mixed, much of which a direct consequence of other commitments including seven trips away to various haunts. This affected watering early up to August, and also the ability to pick regularly the runner and French climbing beans. Despite this, I can’t figure out what happened to the Apples – I managed just 13 fruit from two trees!

Alex Horne: Similar to Ian, quite a mixed year, full of learning, of which the biggest lesson is life sometimes gets in the way of the best laid plans. After a really solid start, I missed the heart of the summer and the potatoes, sweet corn and lettuce all suffered, and whilst the sweet peas cropped well, they finished early and due to other commitments couldn’t keep up with them.

Kevin Baskill: I had a bumper season, with runner beans, tomatoes an courgettes all performing really well.

Ian: I believe my potatoes suffered as I didn’t rotate them. They definitely suffered with skin issues. My tomatoes were non - existent.

Alex: I lost a lot of tomatoes, probably because they need constant attention and pricking out and picking out the side shoots, later in the season the leaves need cutting back so the focus is on the fruit. Despite this, I had 8 different varieties of tomato, and still produced quite a significant crop.



Kevin: one of the biggest lessons from the year is to try and succession plant the crops. The tendency was to plant everything up, only to be overwhelmed at the point of harvest with a surfeit of the same crop, and the good lady then suggesting I grow a little less!

Ian: Unfortunately my non - existent tomatoes were replaced with copious volumes of weeds which seemed to thrive on limited watering, and then heavy rain later in the season. How does that work?

Kevin: Yes, the other important point this year was to space crops out a little to assist with the weeding and hoeing. Have tried and intend to continue scatter planting, where the various plants are not all grown in the same area.

Alex: It’s weird – the garlic bulbs which I planted seem to be mixed – one half of the area seems to have taken really well, and the other nothing.

Ray: I have the same at the moment. Am a little concerned as planted 16-20 elephant garlic and almost 3 dozen other garlic, and at the moment have what seems to be only 2 which seem to have made it…..It’s a little early, so we’ll see.

Kevin: my neighbour had beetroot which were virtually across the footway from my own, and the results were a complete contrast.

Ian: Fruit produced a bumper harvest. Gooseberries, blackberry an blackcurrant bushes all cropped heavily and I believe the results were definitely improved as I caged and netted them for the first time this year. I also gave the bushes a harsh prune the year before last, and view this may also have had an impact.

Alex: I had little or no fruit, but this is principally as this year was my first real growing season and the bushes were immature. I am hoping for much better next year

Ray: we were really disappointed with the raspberries on project 63. We inherited a reasonable area of early and late raspberries, and promised to give ourselves one more year this year to see how they cropped. Despite a huge verdant swathe of canes, very little produced, so we have taken the rather radical step of digging them all up and starting again.



Kevin: Blue berries were the best cropper – I placed the bushes in the skeleton of a former poly tunnel, and then netted the area to protect from the birds which worked really well.

Ian: am planning to extend my planting next year to include brassicas and more root crops, also a little tidy up over the coming months as looking across at my two new neighbours, they seem to be very well organised and quite precise!

Kevin: succession sowing as mentioned before is the key for me next year so I can spread out the harvest, and to continue to spread the planting so I have for example potatoes or other in multiple areas across the plot not all in the same area.


Alex: I also grew flowers on the plot, and enjoyed picking the dahlias and tulips which were the best of the bunch (pun intended), and have also built and introduced 6 chickens to the plot which is providing more than enough small eggs for our household. It’s a great feeling to be able to provide the freshest eggs to friends and family.



Kevin: The eggs you gave me were great. There is a real difference and I compared them with my usual Tesco eggs (other brands are available).

Alex: I feel the plot is now back under control and am overwintering garlic, beans and onions together with some hardy lettuce, and looking forward to planning for next year.

Kevin: The other thing is to garner the views of your experienced neighbours. Very often they have little gems or jewels of information which is all positive and there are plenty of experienced growers on the site to tap into.

Thanks for the feedback, and if it’s AOK with everyone can we check in early next year to see how the planning and initial activity has progressed?

A mixed set of outcomes from our intrepid contributors and a big thank you to all three for taking time out to offer up their thoughts. Don’t forget you can follow Alex on you tube and Instagram, and as it turns out Kevin too, so may be worth tuning in and following their activities.