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.

good evening!
I too have bought a replacement cover for my little greenhouse :) spotted
Mink - can you complain to anyone about the stalker? Someone who can tell him its not acceptable to harass you? Its very uncomfortable for you.
Bought some more potatoes to chit - my favourite Marfona, but saw some Wilja , which is another favourite, so some of those as well.
Set off more broad beans in fibre pots. All due to mice grr- for the last 4 years I have been very successful sowing them in October under a fleece tunnel.( More due to saving time in spring) This year, popped it open to find carnage - every single one ( lovely little shoots) dug up by mice and the seeds gone.... So, I did replant, but as a back up done some more in pots.
It hasn't really rained here, but due to be wild and windy, so hoping tomorrow I can go and shift some manure from the load that has just arrived. Earlier in the week, I was stood in the manure heap on the other plot ,as it was next to the asparagus bed, and I was mulching/top dressing it. It was like quicksand - I was a bit worried about leaving the wellies behind ( or staying there stuck...!)- truly up to my knees in s**t :).
Fnoz - I have been thinking about a polytunnel, but have been a bit worried about watering- I tend to leave all but squashes and courgettes to nature unless its really dry. Do you have any watering system?

We farm sheep and suckler\beef cattle Spotty so along with 2 ponies,plenty of poo.Our first lambs arrived this weekend so I won't have much time for leisure gardening for the next 6 to 8 weeks,as we have about 300 odd sheep to lamb.I've worked out that I have worked 7 days a week for the past two months and dream of a whole day to spend in the polytunnel or my potting shed without having to feed something or muck it out.

agoodbook,no,I don't have a watering system and sometimes crops have suffered because of lack of water. It gets incredibly hot in mine and needs watering twice a day sometimes,which I can't always do. Because it is undercover, the beds are really dry even this time of year,and I should start watering now to get them ready for planting in future. Saying that though, I love my tunnel,it has been up 12 years now and I'd be lost without it,it is my (hot) little refuge.

As I thought Fnoz ! - I am nowhere near as busy as you, I manage to get to my allotment about 3 times a week, with quick watering ( and harvesting) trips in between in summer.
That idea may go on the back burner!

i don't think getting someone else to say something would have any more effect on the 'pest'
i am just going to hold the line and keep repeating myself

today i am wondering what to do about the front glass it has just turned into a cat toilet and if anyone walks on it it brings poop into the house. Cannot even mow it anymore. so i am going to get rid of the grass. Th borders are perrenials, a few shrubs, a lot of weeds and my spring bulbs.

the plan is to put carpet around a little tree in the middle to suppress weeds.
put down cardboard over the top of the grass (hoping this will save orally removing it?) mulching over the top of a cardboard then i compost.

put down some paving slabs in a diamond pattern and plant in between them. that way at least we'll be able to walk on the paving slabs without getting cat poop on our feet but still have some green bits in the garden.
i'm going to mulch around all the borders now that my bulbs it up so i can see where they are.

i'm also going to use a combination combination of these fluid and olbas oil and tea bags to try to deter cats

has anyone tried growing any of the other lawn alternative such as chamomile or thyme? that's what i'm thinking of putting between some of the slabs.

also does anyone know where is a good place to get mulches? GQT keep talking about all kinds of different mulches. today it was deciduous mulch for around trees. What is that?

Orally removing it!?! No idea whete that came from. Definitely not doing it orally.

Hi mink - I was :) at orally moving!
Mulches can be anything- bark chippings which you can buy anywhere, your own compost, pebbles/gravel. Depends if you want it to bio degrade, or be permanent. You made want something hard and sharp to deter the cats! Once they have a place to go, they tend to want to keep using it :(
Can your wear earphones and listen to music while at the plot? at least you wont have to listen to him.
A big relief for me- man on next door plot was there, and asked if he could have half my manure! I said yes before he could back out, and that has saved me so much time and effort , I managed to top dress my asparagus and raspberries instead, so another job ticked off. But by gum it was windy this morning, with delightful hail showers thrown in for good luck in amongst sun :)

Oh- forgot to add- my Dad tried a chamomile lawn , it never really worked for him, the plants never seemed to really bind together and always had patches here and there which were bare. That was after about 4 years- he gave up, so maybe didn't leave it long enough, or didn't have enough plants to start with

I have heard that it can be hard to establish. Will try it around my autumn crocus (which are up just now ). Someone on gqt said the just spread a chamomile tea bag arpund the bed to old it.

Think I will try different things in the squares: thyme, lobelia, sedum, and the odd larger plant in a fairly casual cottage garden way and see what takes. Main thing is to keep the ground covered and make islands to walk on.

I have a medlar and a fig that are patio size. Will consider planting one of those in too.

If you have ever removed carpet from an allotment you would never use it again. The weeds grow straight through, it rots down and leaves you with lovely stringy crap all over the place, and an array of plastic bits all over the plot. When trying to remove it it comes apart and you can never get a grip on it.

Please don't use it!

Chamomile works fine on bits between slabs, can get a bit expensive if you are trying to have a lawn of it.

i'm v fond of next door's cat, but it does love to shit in freshly dug beds (not surprising). i use prunings from holly and rose bushes laid over the soil to deter the cat. it's only a few small beds though so it's a manageable deterrent. i realise this doesn't help with front garden situation!

So, i went up to my new allotment for 3 and a half hours today, beautiful weather and actually remembered my camera. If you remember my little diagram earlier, it is in the shape of a trapezium. Narrower at one end than the other. I cleared a load of wood and stuff of it, tidied it up a bit, and then started trying to dig a section to see what the soil was like. the ground is almost sodden around the plot, quite muddy of you walk over the same patch of grass a few times, so i knew the ground would be wet, i just wanted to see how much clay was in there. The good news is not that much, and there were just tonnes of worms!

The bad news is the soil is so wet it was bloody hard work just digging a two foot square section, putting in a wheelbarrow, pulling all the weeds and roots out, adding compost and turning it over and putting the soil back in again!

But how do i get the ground ready to put plants in when it would be so much easier to wait until it has dried out!
And the couch grass is all over, as you can see!

That looks like a lot of digging ahead Pirate - ( I can see your wheelbarrow in the corner I think?) -
has it been cultivated before, and just been neglected, or is it a new patch? have you had a lot of rain, or is it a high water table where you are?
sounds like you are going to have to add stuff for better drainage, and get it aerated , but turning and digging will help that too - good news about the worms! -, I would normally suggest sharp sand and compost but Delicious may have better ideas on that :)

It will be a lot of digging! I have started today...just to see what it's like, but I don't know if I should wait until it is less wet. It has rained again this evening, so it will be wet again tomorrow. Half of me thinks wait til it's dryer, but the other half thinks, just crack on and if it's slow, then at least it is slowly getting done. The wheelbarrow was on the site and has a completely flat and split tyre, so I think I will buy my own, it prove useful I think.
I don't know whether to buy black membrane weed suppressant stuff to out down on the stuff I haven't started yet. I have read it takes a long time to actually kill the weeds, months if not years, and I really want to get it dug so am not sure whether it is worth buying some or not?
I also don't know what to do with the couch grass I am digging up. It is ok for the actual grass to go back don into the ground, or do I need to get rid of grass and roots? And what do I do with it all?

Which seeds should I be starting indoors now? I was thinking of doing tomatoes, chillies, salad leaves, peas, cucumber. Is it too early for courgettes?

I need to get DH to build the growhouse but it will be full in no time as I need to put the dahlias somewhere. There are only a few sunny windowsills in my house (mid terrace) so I will probably run out of space very soon!

I will abandon the carpet plan and try to get another weed barrier before putting gravel round the tree.

I really should start potting up soon too.

Pirates I feel for you- only you know how patient you are! Personally, I would be digging, as it has to be done eventually . Just don't stand /walk on the freshly dug bit of course! :) Can you get the couch grass into bags and take to a tip ? can you do a bonfire once its dried out ( though you may need to ask if you can them )

Pirates (with my novice flag flying) I'd caution against digging heavy clay soil when it's wet. It wrecks it, makes it turn into slurry on top and rock hard stuff below. Also, I was given he advice upthread to never bury frosty soil, as it would stay frozen. And the forecast is for a snap of colder weather I think (maybe not right down south).

Have you got your beds marked put, could you focus on the path bits instead while it's too wet to dig? Ie stay on the path, and work the path weeding and putting down whether flooring? This of course, may be a stupid idea!

It was way way too wet for me to go to allotment today. Well, the ground was too wet yesterday afternoon when I came back, and we've had rain all night and all morning, so i can't see that it would have dried out at all! I'm sort of digging put the dandelion and docks, then staying on my 'paths' and hand weeding the beds, but a) that might be nonsensical, and b) swamp.

Oh, and it's raining again now.

silver - have you somewhere to put them once they have sprouted? , tomatoes and cucumbers need warmth, and no frosty nights before they go outside ( even in a greenhouse)
I sow peas directly outside , but for me in Yorkshire not yet - I will be covering my first area with a fleece tunnel to warm up the ground next week, and sowing a short row ( about 3 metres) in about 2 weeks time , then another in about 4 weeks, straight into the ground, then- short rows every 2 weeks, so I harvest over a longer period. Does that make sense?
Definitely too soon for courgettes - April is better.

spotted - more rain :( not been too bad at all here , but did notice its turning colder this week - it will kill a few more bugs hopefully!

you know - I'm really glad I'm working on chalk!

silver re seeds,iI was told (on this thread I think!) that you'd need to think about where the seeds would go next. Have you a greenhouse? If not, poss too early for toms, and cucumber. Too early for courgette also I think. Pea I think you can grow from feb ish through to may maybe? So maybe sow successionally? Certainly I've just planted some of my exciting asparagus pea that everyone says are foul. Chillies you can start now -particularly the hotter ones which will probably take longer to germinate.

I am such a slow and easily distracted typist that I have cross posted.

Cripes, how can leafy bucks have more rain than Yorkshire!

at 'orally removing it* mink.

I was a bit fed up today. We had a tidy up at the allotment then to cheer myself up I started on the seeds. planted peas, toms and watermelons, which I will report back on.

spotted - we are surprisingly in a dryish area here- Barely had any rain for about 3 weeks .Though we did get a bit of hail this morning and wind- I covered my little greenhouse with the new cover on Friday - today I rescued it from the bottom of the garden. And I had broad beans in there - had to repot them - I wonder if I will get any broad beans this year!