I have an allotment in south London. It is about 50 feet by 30 feet, and is a half plot. Whereas most people grow cabbages, carrots, onions and potatoes, I grow few of these things. This year (2006) I have grown a few brassicas (sprouts, broccoli and kale) and squash. I was very pleased with the squash (Marina di Chioggia), the flesh inside the dark pumpkin-like fruit was starchy and when roasted tasted like potato or sweet potato.

My main interest is fruit. I have 3 apple trees, a number of grape vines and a thornless blackberry. The varieties of apple I grow are Discovery, Sunset and Ashmead's Kernel. They ripen at different times (so as to minimize a glut) but flower at about the same time (so they can pollinate each other). They are small trees on a dwarfing rootstock. The varieties of grape vine that I grow are Muscat Bleu, Siegerrebe and Fragola. I recently planted Boskoop Glory. Muscat Bleu and Fragola are hybrid vines (a cross between 2 species) and as such are disease resistant. I grow Siegerrebe because of its lovely muscat flavour (a bit like lychees or elderflower cordial). Muscat Bleu also has some muscat flavour and Fragola has the so-called strawberry flavour (like American grape soda).

I want to grow more fruit and fewer vegetables because I have a taste for the exotic and fruit is easier. Global warming, hotter and drier summers, and hosepipe bans most summers make grape vines in particular better and better options; they do not need watering. I am planting more and more of them; they are easy to propagate.

Vine leaves are not attacked by insects, slugs or birds. Non-hybrid vines may get fungal diseases like Powdery Mildew, but can be sprayed. This year I picked all my grapes before the birds got many but next year I will protect at least a few bunches by stapling rectangles of horticultural fleece folded in half around them. I grow the vines on a ridge for better drainage: they do not appreciate waterlogged clay. I mainly use the cordon system of training: a main stem grows up and remains each year getting thicker; side shoots grow sideways from it and are cut back each winter to about an inch of the main stem.

Vines do not need much in the way of fertilizer, especially on a clay soil. I give mine a small amount of rose fertilizer. Nitrogen is not important, but they can benefit from potash and a bit of phosphate. Rose fertilizer also has magnesium and iron that vines sometimes lack. Wood ash spread around the vine gives potash and reflects light upwards. I would not use ash near to Siegerrebe because it does not like alkaline conditions.

I have a small shed. I loved it when I first got it. It smelled of pine. When the weather was hot, fragrant resin ran down the insides. The wood is beautifully patterned. I have a mattress on top of some crates in there. When it rains I can listen to the rain and look up at the pattern of light and dark lines caused by growth rings in the trees.

Growing my own fruit is important to me because bought fruit just does not have the flavour. Fruit sold in shops is picked unripe so that it can be transported and have a shelf life. It has not had a chance to develop flavour. There is no variety of grape that is green when ripe.

I have been learning about the Ring-necked Parakeet. I have learned that they eat grapes. I don't think I have seen any on the allotment site and I hope they don't come. They are intelligent birds and could thwart any measures that I use in the future to protect my grapes. There is a colony of them at nearby Norbury Grove. This winter (February 2008) I planted several new vines that I bought from Sunnybank Vine Nursery, including a couple of seedless varieties.

This year (2008) I am not growing brassicas or squash. I did not have good results with the brassicas, they seem to have so many aphid problems (unlike the vines that never have aphids). I have had good results with the squash, but it needs a lot of water. I am growing new potatoes again. Last year I grew two potatoes, Red Duke of York and one I hadn't tried before, Lady Christl. The Red Duke of York cropped well with a heavy yield and little slug damage, but it doesn't have much flavour. The Lady Christl has lots of flavour but was low-yielding with slug damage. Because flavour is important to me I am growing Lady Christl this year.