OUR TOP PLOTTER!

Back in the summer we launched a competition to find our Top Plotters, with the top three winning some great prizes and all being featured in Kitchen Garden magazine this year. Here we meet our 2026 winner!

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LISA IS OUR WINNER

Lisa Cousins, from Tyne and Wear, has recently added a new allotment to her already productive garden-growing.

Do you tend your plot by yourself, with help? or

I tend to the plot alone. However, I get help from my partner building raised beds, my dad adds his own creative talent, and I get gardening advice from my mam.

How big is your plot, and how long have you been growing?

I have vegetables dotted around the garden in raised beds, potato bags, in borders and a mini poly-greenhouse. I have just been allocated my first allotment and was invited to a welcome meeting in August to get me started. It’s a 12m x 3m no-dig plot. I've been growing for more than 17 years, and used to care for four pet ex-battery hens and grow vegetable seeds with children I cared for when I was a childminder.

Do you grow in containers?

I grow veg in anything I can get my hands on! I've used potato bags, an old barbecue, and a vintage fire bucket (it's dedicated to my late grandad, who was a firefighter with an award for bravery, and I plant hot chillis in it!) I find the bigger the pot, the better, as smaller pots dry out faster in the heat.

I try to use my own homemade compost to mulch beds and borders, and use multipurpose compost and John Innes No. 2. For acers, azaleas and hydrangeas, I use ericaceous compost. For vegetables, I use manure, multipurpose compost, chicken manure and tomato grow bags. I also cover the beds and borders with Strulch at the end of the year, as I find this a fantastic mulch - I've used it a couple of times now and it's brilliant.