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Gardening

Find tips and tricks to make your garden or allotment flourish on our Gardening forum.

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

999 replies

TheSpottedZebra · 14/01/2015 21:43

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.

OP posts:
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TheSpottedZebra · 22/02/2015 20:00

WhoKnows it sounds like you can't take anything else on at the mo, so don't try to be too nice and helpful and stretch yourself too far.

I have no idea if we have a committee! I guess not, I've not heard anything, but then I have only met a couple of people. Ours is still administered by the parish council. It sounds as if there is not too much beauracracy on the site, and I hope that that is the case, as I am a simple sort who just wants to grow some veg!

OP posts:
agoodbook · 22/02/2015 20:00

WhoKnows - best to concentrate on what you need to do. I'm the same - you can spread yourself too thin, and then nothing gets done properly! I did consider joining when I retire in September , but I will still have lots on my plate, including looking after my DGS .

sootballs · 22/02/2015 22:45

Evening all - still resisting the temptation to sow seeds - have set aside some provisional time next weekend but I am wary as last year I lost a load of seeds to a cold spell and this year the later the better for me due to work.

Allotment is going great guns, now we have met both out neighbours - both very elderly. One asked us not to get a greenhouse the other said she laid poison and sprayed with 'the good old stuff ' so I was a tad Confused and I'll have to ensure everything is well washed!

Thanks for the cloche tip, I'm intending on saving my pennies ans buying a mini polytunnel for £80 which will be perfect for my squash bed. Next year will be the next round of major house improvements and garden structures etc so I'm keeping it low key for now!

I'll be off to Aldi for some propagators and extra greenhouse staging , and the pot trays, but caution on their compost, it's shockingly shite! Have created myself an Amazon wishlist with ideas for my birthday including a potting table and some UPVC sheeting. Who know life could get so exciting!!!

pregnantpause · 23/02/2015 20:01

Can I join in here? I'm a keen, if entirely amateur, gardener.

I'm on my second year growing, slowly making my garden into an allotmentWink I have one 12ft by 4ft bed, a 3ft by 3ft area that's very shallow so not easy to grow in, and hundreds of pots. I have a few pear trees, cherry trees and apple trees- mostly in huge pots, but one damson tree at the bottom of the garden, and one espaliered apple tree against a fence( which has Bourne me no fruit yet, but is looking very fine stretching across the fence) all planted last year. I also have soft fruit in pots- strawberries, black, white and red currants, which the birds had all of last yearShock, one red / one yellow gooseberry , again I only has three gooseberries between them last year, a raspberry cane, and all the herbs.

Last year I succeeded with second earlies, courgettes, runner beans, peas, beet root, carrots, tomatoes, sweetcorn l, kale, chard and aubergine. I failed on broad beans, cauliflower, broccoli, mini sweetcorn, pumpkins, squash, chicory, red endive, cabbage, brussel sprouts, mintConfusedShock and leeks.

This weekend I've, probably prematurely, sown broad beans, aubergine, and two types of tomatoes. Got potatoes chitting. I've cleared the garden and checked the two beds, planned another three 3ft by 3 ft beds to be built in the next few weeks and counted my spare pots to make sure I don't sow too much again. I've learnt more about soil too- I think a lot of last years failures were down to inadequate knowledge of soil/ rotation/ feeding. I just planted and hoped for the best really. The spring bulbs coming up in the garden have ignited my obsession with growing and now I feel I'll have to wait forever til spring properSmile

agoodbook · 23/02/2015 21:30

Hello pregnant - I lost all my redcurrants for 2 years on the trot before I got a fruit cage, so commiserations!
I don't know if others would agree , but on the apple trees ( and probably the others, but I know apples! ) - if they are young maiden trees, it's best if you don't allow them to fruit for at least 1 year - let them establish as it will make them stronger in later years. I planted a 2 year maiden apple 2 years ago. First year I allowed 1 apple to ripen , (just so I could check it :) ) and last year allowed one apple on each branch. This year I will just thin.
Its interesting that you succeeded with some things and not others - I know pumpkins and squash are heavy feeders - I grow mine on about 6-8" of well rotted manure and with plenty of water.
I am sure others will be on to give advice :)

pregnantpause · 23/02/2015 21:56

Thanks agoodbook- they were year old maidens when I got them last winter so despite the promising looking fruit spurs perhaps I'll be best to thin and just allow myself one apple/ pear. I don't actually need apples- they grow locally and I've been scrumping them since I was a child- but I love them, and red apples on a tree look achingly beautiful IMO.

Piratespoo · 23/02/2015 22:09

Has anyone got any tips about best places to put seeds once sown? I have a couple of Propagaters on my window will and then one in my airing cupboard as I have seen people do that too...is it too warm? My heating is on all day and off at night.
I have sown some tomatoes, aubergines and peas, some have come up and some haven't and I keep moving things around scared it is too hot or too cold for them! I have four aubergines seeds but nothing coming up yet.
I also have a packet of cucumber seeds which contained the princely amount of 4 seeds so I have two planted now in pots on window sill in plastic bags...
Any tips? I'll be so disappointed if they don't grow!
The tomatoes I have already come up look a bit leggy...but I don't actually know if that is correct as I have never grown them before and so wouldn't actually know what a normal one looks like!!

agoodbook · 23/02/2015 22:22

I've not starting my seeds just yet,( apart from celeriac) as I am in Yorkshire, so it is still too early.
I have always had my seeds on the kitchen windowsill so I can keep a close eye on them until they germinate :)
I do have a green house now to move them into, but before that they littered everywhere I had space, but tried to always have them in front of a window, and covered with plastic bags to keep the moisture in

DeliciousMonster · 23/02/2015 22:23

Peas, need to go outside. They dont need to be indoors. As soon as yours have germinated, harden them straight off and put them outside.

I have sown some chilli peppers, my seed savimones, thats all indoors at the moment. Everything else (mainly for my workshops) is in trays in the greenhouse.

Problem is, if you have nowhere to put them, they get huge well before they can go outside. I wouldnt sow cucumbers until mid march at the earliest, or tomatoes. If they dont have enough light or heat, they can get checked in their growth and the later sowings catch up and overtake them. What they want is steady heat, until they are up and then steady even temperature with no fluctuations, until they are hardened off.

agoodbook · 23/02/2015 22:43

Delicious - I haven't heard of savimones ?
And its true about catching up - I overwinter broad beans under a fleece tunnel.. Last year after they had all got going well, and hardened off ,I stupidly left them un- netted and lots were pulled out (by rooks we think) I had to re- sow about half of them, and they ended up only about a week behind :)

DeliciousMonster · 23/02/2015 22:50

Seed saving ones.

Not savimones. Whatever the heck that changed to.

Piratespoo · 23/02/2015 22:53

i do have a plastic grow house, which is quite large, but I am worried about putting things in there yet as some mornings it is frosty. I am in the South East. Should I out my tomatoes outside now? Will they die or will it make them stronger???

agoodbook · 23/02/2015 22:53

:) - I thought it was some exotic vegetable!

minkGrundy · 23/02/2015 23:08

Tomatoes i would pot on indoors unless you have a heated greenhouse.
Some seeds take several weeks to come up, so give them time. Parsley takes an age!!

It is very early for anything still.

pregnantpause · 24/02/2015 07:31

I keep everything on sills in bags. Last year my aubergines took three weeks to germinate, they stayed inside until May and then lived in the cold frame till July, and finally out the second week of July. They're apparently hard to grow so perhaps I over protected them, but it resulted in four aubergines per plant which I was very proud of.

DeliciousMonster · 24/02/2015 07:35

Tomatoes cant go out until at least mid may. They will be three months old by then. The problem wth sowing too early is you have to pot them on and keep them inside until at least then. And usually, the lack of light makes them very leggy.

TwoLeftSocks · 25/02/2015 11:23

Right, now that the snow's completely gone, the children are better, my back's better and there's nothing left for the thieving bastards to steal off my plot, I'm going to try and regain a bit of enthusiasm for getting on with more weeding and maybe a bit of planting.

Has anyone else had any theft / vandalism issues? Any top tips on how to have theft-proof allotment stuff, or how to be a little less disheartened? About a dozen pallets and other assorted wood gone over the last couple of months, even the nailed together pallet compost heap, i.e. all there is on my plot other than some onions.

PetulaGordino · 25/02/2015 11:40

oh no TLS! is it just you or are others around you having the same problems?

TwoLeftSocks · 25/02/2015 11:56

I've not bumped into anyone up there lately to ask but other's wood piles and pallets all seem to still be in place. I don't know if I'm just unlucky, being conveniently by a fence to lob stuff over. Daft thing is, some of it was rotten (was going to use it to board along the back against bramble roots) and no use for selling on or firewood so I don't know why anyone even bothered.

agoodbook · 25/02/2015 13:26

oh Two - thats awful. We had a horrible time about 6 months after I got my plot- a gang came and stole from everyone- rotavators, lawnmowers/any stainless steel tools etc. We have a big site,police came - it seems a travelling gang went around all the sites in the area. Before this, it was open, but after a second go, the committee decided to put in security gates with keys. They did have another go but were not successful. I was heartbroken, as I had left my trusty stainless steel digging fork there,and that was pinched. ( My Dad bought me it when I got my 1st garden 38 years ago :( ) Nothing was ever recovered- police said they would have been sold at the next car boot sale......

BreakingDad77 · 25/02/2015 14:07

Bought a Kordelia cherry from ALDI - aiming to attemtp to train on fence assuming a sunny side rather than shaded?

agoodbook · 25/02/2015 16:18

Breaking - sunny definitely! I assume its a Kordia?

there are fruit trees in Wikinsons as well from £7 if anyone is still looking for some

BreakingDad77 · 25/02/2015 16:43

Yes agoodbook sorry Kordia its was quite cheap, so wary of how it will turn out, they also had apple and pear trees and morello.

pregnantpause · 25/02/2015 16:52

My morello from Aldi last year is thriving- my dad bought two apple trees there as well which bloomed and fruited beautifully, and look to be coming strong again this year Smile

TwoLeftSocks · 25/02/2015 17:40

That's really bad agoodbook, I've only ended up at things I got for free, that really sucks that they took so much!

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