OUR PLOTTERS OF THE MONTH

Our annual competition to find Britain's best plotters always attracts a great response. This month we meet a talented gardening couple from Norfolk who just love life on the allotment

MICHAEL AND MYFANWY ELLARD FROM NORFOLK

Michael tends an allotment with his wife Myfanwy and also enjoys sharing his growing experiences writing for his local garden club. We chat to him here.

How long have you been growing veg?

I was influenced from my schooldays and helped in the garden in Cornwall and had my first allotment at the age of 16, which my parents got for me.

What do you find most challenging about growing your own veg?

The weather and going away, especially soft fruit time, and we need to mulch and water plants for when we're away. We stand pots in trays, so they have a reservoir of water to tide them over.

Have you one piece of advice you could pass on to other readers?

Talk to your fellow plotters on the allotment as they might give you a better solution in what they are doing.

Can you name some of your favourite crops to grow?

Strawberries are our favourite. And we've started growing Daubenton's kale. I took some cuttings last year as they don't make seed, and these are a great standby for fresh greens all the year round and fairly pest-resistant. We even have a variegated variety now but it is not so vigorous.

We grow autumn raspberries as these don't require protection from birds and the season lasts a long time. We can eat them all the time for breakfast on our cereals and dinner as a dessert. We even started making food bars with them in. It's nice to decide what you want and collect it from the allotment. Of course, we can't grow everything, so we tend to eat seasonally and there is always something to harvest. We grow more in pots now and extend the season with a polytunnel and have started growing samphire for fish dinners.

Do you grow flowers on the plot?