Here I am, happily planting up my allotment last year, and I do thank my lucky stars that I have one just a short walk away. I use it my column for Grow It, called The Organic Allotmenteer, and I manage to grow lots of potatoes, sweetcorn, globe artichokes and winter squash up there on a three rotational system.

If this seems a strangely limited combination it’s partly my organic ways and partly the fault of the voracious rabbits who frolic all over the plots. The resulting wire netting can make our site look a bit like Colditz. Thankfully, rabbits ignore sweetcorn and squashes and both store for winter use. The squashes get picked in late autumn and are used throughout winter as a roast vegetable. The best for flavour is Thompson & Morgan’s ‘Sunshine’ – a Japanese orange variety resembling a small pumpkin. It will happily do a couple of family meals. The Chinese variety ‘Potimarron’ (given a fancy French name) is also pretty good for flavour and equally modestly sized with a gourd shape.

Last year we also grew two blue American squash varieties – ‘Crown Prince’ and ‘Blue Hubbard’. The flesh is not as orange or as flavourful, but they store for longer and crop heavily. Remove the skin before cooking. We have come unstuck with ‘Blue Hubbard’, which is the size of a small planet. Even the voracious Bourne family can’t eat a whole one of these and we won’t be growing it again. ‘Crown Prince’ is a better size.

Sweetcorn freezes brilliantly and normally we grow ‘Lark’ which is sweet, a clear yellow and less fibrous than many. This first-rate, early F1 variety has proved the best for us and we plant ready grown modules out in early June. The cardoons are a gap plant: they produce something edible by June when flowers begin to appear. Delicious picked and eaten fresh, they are awful once they lose their bloom.

Potatoes are really worth growing for those with organic tendencies because the commercial crop is sprayed on average 16 times against potato blight. The allotment staple is the pink-eyed, round maincrop ‘Cara’. It shrugs off blight really well and, even if the tops are affected, the tubers stay sound. No wonder it sells out quickly at potato days. ‘Belle de Fontenay’ is another. It can be eaten as an early or a maincrop and it stores well. The flavour of this doglegged variety is good whether baked or boiled.

If you live close to Waddesdon they have made five plots available to local families with children. Each family will be given weekly support sessions, a starter pack of information plus seeds and vouchers for the Waddesdon Plant Centre. They will also have an intensive weekend with the gardening team who will help set up the allotment. If you think you qualify, go along to the Waddesdon Plant Centre on Sunday at 2pm. If it’s highly oversubscribed let’s hope more plots may become available there. The National Trust have provided a thousand allotments so far. Google ‘landshare’ to find out more.

n For further information please contact Alex Jolly on 01296-653225 or email alexandra.jolly@nationaltrust.org.uk