The 2015 Allotment / Veg Patch Thread - it's here!

[TheSpottedZebra]

Yes, it's the thread you've all been waiting for, a place to chit chat about your allotment or fruit and veg patch - however big it may be. Even if it currently only imaginary or no bigger than a pot of growing basil from the supermarket.

Come discuss your plans, your seeds, your learnings from previous years and your goals for this year. All levels of knowledge welcome, from absolute beginner, to enthusiastic 2nd year-er (me!), to anyone else.

Most crop rotation methods use a four year cycle. With your long bed I would divide into four, and have a flower section between each veg section. Certain flowers ans herbs are beneficial to certain veg plants so you could have the flowers mixed up year on year. I don't tend to grow too many brassicas so sometimes use green manure as an infill or extra lettuce.

This Winter I've put in 2 apple trees,some raspberry canes,a couple of gooseberries, a blackcurrant,and a fig.
I have another apple and a plum tree on order,and have plans for a blueberry,a cherry tree and a couple of pear trees.
The soft fruits are in a fruit cage,and the "orchard" area is a biggish size where the chooks free range.I'm looking into bee keeping at the moment too for this area -which also contains the flowerbed.

The to-be-vegetable area is a separate area and still under construction -I have no dig raised beds underway,and will also be sorting out a main bed for potatoes this year (which are chitting) and perennial stuff such as herbs and jerusalem artichokes.This area has the water barrel,and will also have an incinerator,fire pit (for chillin' ),and composts.We're hoping to get a lean to greenhouse in the Spring,which we hope will also increas solar gain to the house.

Its very exciting -but I still have a lot to learn about the real ins and outs of organic vegetable gardening!

Got my second seed warmer on the job this morning.

thatbloodywoman you've just provided me with a solution to a thorny problem. I want to get chickens next year but couldn't think where the cage would go (we have foxes and thieves ) but I also have 6 medium size apple trees on the allotment which I could build a cage around

Petula I'm in awe or our clearing - I had about three brambles to clear, and they nearly killed me (and broke my fork).

WhoKnows you know your cats think the warmers are expressly for them?!

'Of your' not or our!

we had a mattock rundougal - it made things much easier! (though we did both have rotator cuff strain afterwards!)

Sootballs- thanks, I have ordered the book.

Please can i join in? Keen allotmenteer for approx 10 years (council owned and had to drive to it), now just moved to a house with a garden big enough for a patch. Oh joy i can water the veg in my dressing gown!! ;) I've dug it over now and planted asparagus and the rest will be first earlies with salad stuff and flowers as the year warms up. So excited to find this site. Thank you DeliciousM for your advice. Picking up lots already from this thread!

I'd love to try a mattock, I do use a hoe in a chopping motion for nettle clumps and it's amazingly effective.

Was wheelbarrowing muck around today in the rain - very peaceful and contemplative, no other bugger was out there today in that weather.

Do tomatoes have to be rotated? We grew runner beans and tomatoes on a raised bed last year. From the recommended book it says to move to root veg after legumes but can see no mention of tomatoes.

I think that tomatoes come under the potato family. My book says legumes, then brassicas, then aliums/root veg then potatoes??

Tomatoes usually suffer blight so there are two schools of thought. Either keep them with the potato rotation, or keep them far away from the potatoes in order that if they get blight the tomatoes might survive.

Personally, because of blight, I only grow tomatoes indoors or in a courtyard away from anything else. But then again I have a polytunnel, greenhouses and a courtyard. Without those, I'd grow them as far from potatoes and in as much sun/shelter from wind as possible.

Wow, some of you sound very organised
I am always late getting round to planting all my seeds, but this year i plan to pull my green fingers out.

Luckily our little plot was left in quite a good state, so we've spent half term digging it over, getting rid of a few random weeds and hopefully it should be ready very soon. The boys are really enthusiastic at the moment - they managed to find a few tiny onions and a couple of potatoes the previous occupier had left behind, they were so excited you would have thought they'd found gold!

We did try a polytunnel in the garden a few years ago and grew aubergines, tomatoes and peppers, they did ok but would've done alot better if i'd attended to them a bit better and watered them more often, and then the high winds in the autumn nearly lifted the whole thing over the fence and into next doors garden, so we haven't used it since!

I think it'll stick to having the tomatoes in the garden again, just need to plan the veggie plot now.

We started off some garlic in pots and took them down to the allotment yesterday to put into the cold frame. Bumped into one of the committee members who told us the allotment association were successful with its grant application to remove all asbestos from the site. Fantastic news for us as our shed and composting bins are asbestos, so we haven't been able to use them since we took the plot in Nov. She also said if there is money left over we may get a replacement shed too . All happening in the next 6 weeks or so.

Planted some onion sets, cauliflowers and some herbs (coriander, basil, sage, thyme) for the garden, a few flowers (sunflowers and nasturtiums) and potatoes are chitting now.

Hello there - can I join? I have a veg patch in my garden divided into four beds (with vague ideas of crop rotation) and a bed with fruit in, plus a couple of established apple trees and some very new pear trees. I have globe artichokes and rhubarb permanently in the veg bed. This year I plan to divide the veg patch off from the main flower bed with a raspberry hedge...love this time of year when we can all dream.

i've done some marigold seeds today. i've been doing quite a bit of natural dyeing so hopefully these will yield plenty of flowers for dyeing with

just back from our holidays early this morning, so after all the boring stuff, ran down to the allotment to dig some fresh leeks and a savoy. Thankfully, not much has happened in 2 weeks ( what a surprise!).I am pleased as I set off celeriac seeds before I went - I didn't have much success last year with germination, so doubled up this year to make sure I had enough. Left them covered in a plastic bag on my dining room table. You've guessed it- loads!!! can't win, but I guess someone will want some :)
Now going to look and see if I can find banana shallot sets for sale - now I have more space, I want to plant some- the over wintering shallots I planted in October are looking really well, but I only had a dozen, and I heard they store better than onions.

Welcome back, agoodbook and welcome Nearly !

Nearly your patch sounds very lovely. And so organised! I agree wrt to the dreaming. Although I'm over that a bit, and now I'd like the rain to stop so that my new plot dries up a bit. I'm in danger of turning it into a swamp if I go up there any more while the ground is so wet. Day dreaming is all well and good, but I am ready for action now!

Lovely to hear about your seeds, agoodbook. I only sowed a few seeds of 2 hot chillis, a pepper, aubergine and inca berries, about a week ago. Most are up, and it is such a lovely feeling. I'll start some salady bits soon I think, but the bulk of the seeds will wait for a good few weeks still.

Petula you're growing your own dye from seed? I bow down!!!

A weed question - I've been digging out a weed with really long (over 1m) woody vertical root. The root is bright yellow. Not much leaf growth oor id chopped it off just smooth green, rounded bits. It's really really yellow; turmeric colour to be exact. Any ideas?

we have allotment drama in our town. The allotment society shop is still waiting for the seed potatoes to be delivered. They've never been so late apparently. it's like something out of the Archers .

I've bought some other seeds, not planted anything yet. going to try watermelon, the seeds were dead cheap in lidl, worth a shot I think.

Oh meglet, that sounds like the beginning of a Midsummer Murders episode, never mind the Archers!

Watermelon hey, that sounds tricky. Are they? I have no idea. Do they grow outside, or under cover?

I have finally met some other plot people at the allotment. Tje bad news isnthat there is mares tail on the siye, tho not yet as far as me. The good news is that a) everyone j have met has been nice and welcoming and helpful, offering borrows of tools and things, and b) there is an allotment shop at a different site but in he same parish, that I am entitled to use. Hurrah!!

I am obviously so jolly excited by that shop that it has made me type like a drunken jellyfish.

thespotted apparently there's a couple of allotment neighbours who have grown watermelon outside. we're Hampshire not deepest sunny Cornwall. This will be my first full year so I've got enough space to play around a bit.

How do you plan to do the watermelons meglet?