I want to try my hand at gardening and was thinking of getting an allotment
and need a little advice.

As I work out of town I'll only really be able to tend to the allotment at
weekends - what kind of vegetables can I grow whilst only being a weekend
gardener? If there any good gardening books on weekend gardening I'd be
grateful.

Thanks

I too can only go at weekends, but I still manage to do lots with it.

I started from one corner and cleared, dug etc a strip 2-3m wide 5-6m
long. I used wood from pallets to build a raised bed, 4'x8', so I could
start growing something immediately whilst I worked on the rest of the
plot. I carried on like this leaving a path 2' wide in between beds. In
total I put 4 long beds and 4x 4'square beds
I covered the paths with woodchips that tree surgeons dump at our allotment
(I'm told it saves them money as they would have to pay to dispose of it
otherwise).

Even though it was a bit late (I got mine last year at the end of May) I
think it was quite productive.

I saw an article in the Garden Magazine about the quare foot gardening, so
I tried that in the raised beds. I planted carrots, tomatoes, peppers,
chillies,leeks, spring onions, spinach, cauliflower, sprouting broccoli,
radish, beetroot, lettuce, french beans, peas, mangetout, runner beans,
sweetcorn, celery, herbs - basil,parsley. Potatoes, pumpkins, melons,
courgettes and strawberries in the open ground - not on beds.

I was trying everything, some things are really quick and high yealding,
some are not, like cauli, pest ridden, but when I finally got fresh cauli
this january, I thought it was almost worth it :-)

French beans were excellent, plant a few 4' long strips in succession and
you'll eat them all summer and fill your freezer too. Ok some will grow
too big if you miss one weekend, but it doesn't matter.

Runner beans - 4 plants, yealded lots, still have some in the freezer. Peas
yealded less, so I must plant more

Carrots are ace. Some grew big, some were tiny, twisted, most definitely
not up to supermarket standard, but all totally delicious. Spring onions
are good too. I'm planting a lot more of them this year.

I definitely planted too much of certain things in one go. Cos lettuce and
other mixed salads: I did on quare foot, then transplanted the seedlings
into rows, I was giving away bagfuls - you cannot eat 50 cos lettuces at
once and they cannot be frozen, so I learned a lesson, sow a tiny bit every
two weeks or so.

Same thing about radishes and beetroot, although i pickled the beetroot, so
it wasn't wasted.

I'm still lifting leeks planted last year - highly recommended.

Peppers and chillies - got the seeds from shop bought vegetables, got a few
chillies, no peppers. I've got proper seeds this year.

Tomatoes - bought one plant and kept taking cuttings from side shoots,
ended up with 5-6 plants and got lots of tomatoes. Again I got proper
seeds now.

Melons, I managed to get 4-5 grapefruit size sweet melons, the rest were
like cucumber.

Friendly allotmenteers gave me excess seedlings of sprouting broccoli,
celery and sweetcorn, even chitted potatoes. The best potatoes I got were
from Asda's Romano red potatoes, one was over 500gr. A lot of potatoe
plants sprouted all over place, from volonteer potatoes (left in the ground
from previous years) - I got quite a crop.

This year the whole affair is a lot more organised, I loved sitting down
with all the seed catalogues and deciding what to get, planning, dreaming.
Not much to do at the allotment in the winter. I've started going back
more regularly again. I've received the seeds and started planting in the
beds and at home for transplant. I've overdone it with potatoes and
tomatoes I think, but I love them... It's great the cycle starts again,
more things to learn...

A few weeks ago I arrived a the plot, the sun was shining, the birds
singing, all quiet, and I thought if I could just capture this perfect
moment .....