The Plot 9 Notebook Buy the book

By Harry Wainwright, plot 9, Mill Lane Allotments

Fifty years on one allotment, written down month by month.

A plain-English guide to what to sow, grow, store and do on a British allotment or veg patch, every month of the year. No jargon, no gadgets, no garden-centre shopping lists.

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Front cover of The Plot 9 Notebook: an illustrated allotment with a green shed, bean canes and raised beds at sunset.

A word from Harry

I took on plot 9 in the spring of 1974. Dad had grown veg through the war, and from 1962 until the year before he died he kept a pencil notebook of every sowing: what went in, when, the weather, and what came up.

When June found those notebooks in the shed, I sat down over two winters and wrote it all out properly, his notes and my fifty years on top. Every mistake I've made is in there, so you don't have to make them yourself.

It isn't clever. It's what works on a British plot, in British weather, without spending a fortune.

Harry

Harry Wainwright is a fictional character created to present this guide. The growing advice is real and has been checked against UK sources such as the RHS.

What's in the book

Nine chapters, from the soil up, then the whole allotment year as a calendar you can pin to the shed door.

  1. Soil, compost and feeding

    Clay and sand, starting a no-dig bed from grass, compost, leaf mould, manure, green manures, and free comfrey and nettle feed.

  2. Sowing and raising plants

    When soil is warm enough, depths and thinning, modules, hardening off, and why seeds fail.

  3. Garlic, onions and leeks

    Proper seed garlic, autumn and spring sets, leeks dibbed and puddled in, and keeping white rot and leaf miner away.

  4. Potatoes and root crops

    Earlies to maincrop, chitting, earthing up, beating blight, and straight carrots and parsnips without carrot fly.

  5. Beans, peas, squash and courgettes

    Autumn-sown broad beans, runner beans that set, peas, sweetcorn, and squash that keeps till spring.

  6. The brassica bed

    Cabbages, sprouts, kale and sprouting broccoli all year, firm planting, clubroot, pigeons and caterpillars.

  7. Pests and problems without the poisons

    Slugs, carrot fly, blackfly, blight and more, dealt with the legal, cheap, old-fashioned way. Plus a four-bed rotation.

  8. Storing the harvest without a freezer

    Curing onions and squash, potatoes in sacks, roots in sand, clamps, and checking the store every week.

  9. The allotment year, month by month

    January to December: what to sow and plant, what to harvest, and the jobs to do, with timings for the South, Midlands and North.

Also inside: a glossary of allotment words, a list of good UK seed suppliers and advice, and a page for your own frost dates and plot notes.

Have a look inside

Large, clear print. Tables you can follow at a glance. Harry's tips, warnings and Dad's old notebook entries in every chapter.

The contents page, listing all nine chapters with page numbers.
The contents
The opening page of Chapter 3, Garlic, Onions and Leeks.
Chapter 3 opens
Part of the calendar chapter, showing what to sow, harvest and do in March.
The calendar, month by month

It's for you if

  • You've got an allotment, a veg patch or a few raised beds in the UK
  • You're starting out, or coming back to it after years away
  • You keep losing crops to slugs, blight or a wet spring and want to know why
  • You'd rather spend less at the garden centre, not more

It's not for you if

  • You garden outside the UK. The timings are for British seasons
  • You want a glossy coffee-table book with big photographs
  • You're after chemical sprays. This book doesn't use them

How you get your copy

  1. Press the yellow Buy button

    Pay securely by card or PayPal through Gumroad. It takes about a minute.

  2. Check your email

    Gumroad emails your download link straight away. If you can't see it, have a look in your junk or spam folder.

  3. Open it or print it

    Tap the link to read the book on your phone or tablet, or print it at home and keep it in the shed.

Questions people ask

Is it a paper book?

It's a PDF you download straight away. Most people read it on a tablet or print it at home. It's set in large, clear print and prints well on ordinary A4 paper.

I'm not good with computers. Will I manage?

Yes. After you pay, you get an email with a link. Tap the link and the book opens. If you get stuck, reply to the email Gumroad sends you and we'll sort it out.

Is it right for my part of the country?

It's written for British allotments. The calendar is set for the Midlands, with notes on how much earlier the South can go and how much later the North and Scotland should wait.

I've been growing for years. Is it too basic?

The early chapters cover the basics, but most of the book is the detail people get wrong for decades: timings, spacings, storage, rotation and pest control without chemicals.

What if I don't like it?

Reply to your Gumroad receipt within 30 days and we'll refund you in full. No forms, no fuss.

Is Harry a real person?

No. Harry Wainwright is a fictional character who presents this guide and our videos. The advice in the book is real and has been checked against UK sources such as the RHS. Every plot, soil and season is different, so always check your own frost dates and your site rules.

Get the whole allotment year in one book.

Seventy-one pages of what works on a British plot, from the soil up.

Buy the book for £29.99

Instant PDF download. 30-day money-back guarantee.