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.

I think the names for the Andean crops that a lot of people use are the ones popularised in Lost Crops of the Incas. Well worth a browse if you've not run into it and like unusual crops (the link is to a free pdf copy of the book).

Indeed. Though actually I don't like tamarillos very much as I spent several months in South America and had a bug that meant I threw up about 75% of the food I ate. So the foods I encoutered a lot that time (tamarillo juice, coriander etc) make me feel very queasy by association!

That's really sad :(

X-post

Interesting thank you

Inca berries and tomatillos not quite the same I think?

No - different. Inca berries = cape gooseberries. Sweet. Tomatillos are, well, tomatillos and are savoury. I just didn't add a comma in up there.

He/Suttons changed the name for marketing [seed and book] purposes...otherwise we'd have said 'oh, cape gooseberries. Yup we know all about those'. Instead we had 'OOh, inca berries, they sound fab'.

Thanks agoodbook, just looking up different asparagus varieties now and some seem to shoot later in the season so will try a couple of different ones.

While we're talking about Latin American foods, when I was travelling there, esp in Costa Rica and ecuador, I had the most AMAZING dark berries, called moras. That translates as both blackberry and mulberry. It certainly wasn't blackberry, so must have been mulberry I guess? I've never had mulberry in the uk. Does anyone know, would they be the mulberries as we have them, from the massive tree, or would they be something else? I'd love to have them again, and it would be ace to grow them.

Is it these?

www.moraberry.com/

Cripes, you're good!

Maybe it's the rubus glaucus, aka mora de castilla or andean raspberry
A bit like a loganberry ,which I've also not had though I've bought a plant for this year (I hope).

Ooh, I am going to try to get some rubus glaucus. This is very exciting! Thank you!

Can I join this thread? I'm very excited as we've just been given an allotment (full plot). It needs digging over so I'm not sure how much we can get done in time to plant anything in the next couple of months but we'd like to plant potatoes, carrots, leeks and some peas and runner beans this year if possible.

Also I'd like to put some rhubarb in. Do you think it would be cheeky of me to ask the site manager if anyone might give me a bit of rhubarb, or is that not the done thing?

My favourite Rubus is the Japanese Wineberry. I have several.

These are absolutely gorgeous and if you leave them a few extra days, so unbelievably sweet.

www.crocus.co.uk/plants/_/rubus-phoenicolasius-japanese-wineberry/classid.2000012851/

Do you think it would be cheeky of me to ask the site manager if anyone might give me a bit of rhubarb, or is that not the done thing?

Most people will at some point dig up theirs and split it.

If you are anywhere near Nottingham, I have a load of spare plants going for free.

Oh, another link I've just read refers to that e book that Takver kindly posted. I'm in the car on my phone at the mo (not driving obvs!) so I'll look at that when I'm back home.

I'm grinning like a fool now over a berry memory

Welcome, Sylvanians I'd ask - you've nothing to lose, have you?!

Japanese wine berry, hey? I've read about that, but never actually tried that either. Now I want some.
I seriously think that I could easily fill another allotment (i only have a mini plot, tho I love it already, some 7 weeks in) with rubus. Maybe I'll try that also?

They could have been mulberries? They were pretty popular where we used to live in Spain, grew quickly and fruited very well, so they might have also been popular in s america? (There used to be a massive silk industry there relying on white mulberry trees going back to the 11th C)

If you're ever in Cardiff at the right time of year, go to the Museum of Welsh Life in St Fagans, there's a whole garden of mulberries and when we went you could just pick and eat!

It was a few years ago, before I'd ever thought I'd have been into gardening. I have no idea if it was mulberry - ish or rubus-ish. I've never had a mulberry! I showed no interest in anything other than cramming as many of the delicious berries into my gob, in whatever form I could, be it jam, milkshake, ice cream. I don't know whether they were from a tree or a bush, and I'm not even sure what their shape was other then blackberry - ish. Perhaps i need to track some down mulberries and eat them, to see if that reminds me of the taste? It was def a dark dark berry, which weren't used for silk production I think. I could be wrong on that. I'm nowhere near Cardiff, alas, but the museum sounds lovely so maybe I should schedule a visit and arrive hungry!

Ah, sorry, silk production was a diversion. White mulberry trees are for the silkworms, red for eating, but they both grow equally well in southern spain. Can't get em to do anything here for me, sadly :(

I have found wineberries growing here (used for landscaping) but they are red not dark. And not that sweet.
Made quite good jam but not as rounded a flavour as raspberry.

I'm a newbie and have a silly (I think) question.

My husband has made me 6 raised flower beds (2 1/2m x 1 1/2m each).

I've researched and chosen the vegetables that I want to grow. I've now brought the seeds and am trying to work out what to plant where.

I've looked at the free design websites like on Suttons website but what confuses me is how am I meant to design when I will be planting things out at different times and what do I do when I've picked some vegetables and therefore there's space for more things to be planted (if that makes sense).

I've read about companion planting etc but I still just don't know how to start!!!

Thanks in advance

Made quite good jam but not as rounded a flavour as raspberry

Ooh - no. The Wineberries I have are far superior to a raspberry. Such nectar. We all go wild about them.

*what do I do when I've picked some vegetables and therefore there's space for more things to be planted (if that makes sense).8

Plant fresh stuff in the gaps!

Don't overthink it. Sow some seeds, plant out and harvest. When you have gaps, plant new stuff in there. Grow some marigolds. Squish greenfly or blackfly if you see them. Don't kill ladybirds. Remove weeds regularly. Don't let things dry out.

Sylvanians - I started by digging enough land at a time to get a row of something planted/sown then when I was happy I had that done I went onto the next row- and decided what could go in there - I didn't try to dig it all before I started with the planting and sowing
Maybe start with enough for a row of potatoes ( get some chitting now) and that will give you an idea of how much work and time it takes .Then clear for a row of carrots or peas - both sown direct about 3-4 weeks from now (do short rows and succession sow so gives you more digging time) Get leeks sown into pots and they will be ready to plant later out as well. Plenty of time for runner beans - they will not need to be planted out until May or June if you sow in April into pots.
And don"t panic :)
pebbles good advice from alternative - you could use a basic calendar wall chart and write on it when things need to be planted , and when they are harvested and cleared. A friend of mine uses a speadsheet! That will give you a basic idea of 'holes' in your planting. There isn't a right and wrong way - thats the joy!
And don't panic :)

signing in after a fabulous weekend in the garden.
have sowed sweetcorn and tomatos (gardeners delight and green zebra) indoors and beetroot and leeks outdoors.
later will follow the courgette.

any idea when the rhubarb should make an apperance? and how to protect it from the slugs?

mousmous can leeks be strted of outdoors? Never grown them. Was about to sow indoors.

And tentacles, I say wineberries, I found them growing. Did some googling and assumed thats what they were. Nobody died from the jam anyway

My leek seed packet says to either sow directly into the ground or start in a cold frame