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 would so enjoy seeing someone hoovering dandelions! what an excellent idea

I invented it after thinking about how leaf suckers work, and the leaf sucker I have is bound by an electric cord, but my cordless of course isn't!

People do look at me kinda strange sometimes.

I don't even hoover enough at home!
pirates - is the couch like a blanket? Would it be worth trying to take it up like turves with a sharp spade so you can get to the roots?
spotted - have you seen these? My DD1's FIL (does that even make sense?) swears by his - not sure if its quite this one - but I am tempted :)

www.amazon.co.uk/Gardman-Carbon-Steel-Weeder-91035/dp/B004QLRRPK/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1426006594&sr=8-10&keywords=dandelion+tool

OK please forgive the question from a complete novice. What's the first seed crop you plant outside ? I've started a few things off in the greenhouse but I don't want to do too much as they always get leggy. But it feels way too cold to start properly planting outside. So do you have a first vegetable you plant from seed and when it emerges you know it's OK for everything else ? I've got radishes in my head but maybe I made that up ?

yes people do say radishes, though mine weren't great last year. parsnips seem a pretty early one according to the books. broad beans.

hello didireally I'm first here to answer! Depending a little on where you are of course. I am in Yorkshire, and first out is broad beans anytime from now . I have also planted out shallot sets. You could get away with early carrots, and peas - (here I am just covering a row with a cloche to warm up the soil for my peas in about 2 weeks), I have sown leeks into pots as well. Thats a start! I am sure there will be other suggestions :)

Ooh, didireally that's very interesting. I like that approach better than the one of sitting on the soil with a bare behind, to see if it's still cold... Mind you, I have totally failed at radishes thus far, so if I waited for them to come up, I'd be waiting a long time!

agoodbook I've got one of those weeder things! They're quite good if the dandelion is youngish (or weakened, I guess), and the soil loose - so great for my garden. But they are mo match for my monster dandelions in my stupid cold heavy clay . I'm starting to regret trying to get the dandelions out at all - maybe I should have grown them, and made drinks and salads from them? I'm surrounded by hem on the verges and the fields around, so i don't feel that I need to leave any on my plot for the bees. Much as I love bees! They will have plenty of other things to choose from on my plot and in my garden.

I spent another good few hours on the plot today. Yup, more weeding -dandelions, couch, dock and creeping buttercup. But I did see lots of lively lovely bees, some frogs emerging from the soil, some butterflies, woodpeckers and jays. And the plum trees are in blossom now and look gorgeous, so spring is clearly sort of here. But there's a frost again tonight, Grrr.

oh its been a long day at work ! - Didn't see the significance of a sacrificial sowing :)

Thank you - I'm in cambs (you think the south is warm until you factor in tbr Arctic winds). I think I may have planted all the peas in the greenhouse (they are a good size to do with kids) but I think I have carrot seed from last year (that said carrots didn't do well last year). I'm not a big radish fan... But I will get the cloche out for a pretty Easter planting session.

Thank you

Good luck didireally it may be worth doing successional sowing as well .
spotted - who needs gyms and weights eh? :) both my DD's had hamsters, who loved dandelion leaves and flowers- my grass lawn was virtually weed free then

Spent some time on the allotment yesterday, got rid of a big clump of bastard nettles. Our plot secretary said he can rotavate the plot once it's clear so the aim is to get it all dig over by the end of the month before we go on holiday and hopefully it will be ready when we get back. It means delaying sowing onions, spring onions, leeks and carrots for a few weeks - should I start these off in pots or just wait and hope they catch up?

we didn't clear our plot until mid-april last year, so no direct sowing happened until end of april/beginning of may, and it was all fine. we weren't aiming for particular timings though and are very much beginners.

i think the masonry bees by the back door were out yesterday!

mind you i don't do carrots

silver I start my leeks in pots anyway!.
As with a lot of things, most plants soon catch up when its sunnier/warmer -they will germinate more quickly !

Think I will concentrate on clearing the weeds for now then, there are masses of them! I would like to get the strawberries in now though as I have 20 plants waiting to go in.

Silver, Leeks are fine in pots to start, and you could start some things like broad beans too or brassicas (calabrese - summer broccoli which is what we know from shops as opposed to "broccoli" which is winter sprouting shoots!, cabbage, cauliflowers, even Brussels sprouts for Christmas dinner!!). Or lettuces in modules (small pots). Or tomatoes under cover, or maybe a couple of early attempts at courgettes or summer squash under cover (kitchen windowsill). They'd all transplant nicely when you get back then.

I wouldn't do spring onions or carrots, and probably not regular onions either, in pots to transplant.

If you have a chance, you should try and get some compost or well rotted horse manure on top of plot before rotavating - so that it will be dug in easily for you. Just throw it over the top.

Most things will catch up anyway, and especially if ground has plenty of good growing stuff (ie compost etc) in it.

(I tended not to do carrots either as they always got fly eaten. But I did often do parsnips and generally sowed those in April). Oh, and you'd still get some garlic in at that stage too.

Spring is here! (well nearly)

mink

well, I read something interesting last night in a book .
According to research, warming up soil before sowing seeds is a bit pointless using the usualy black plastic/fleece etc. It only warms the top 3 cm - by the time you get to 6 cm down it hasn't had any effect , so roots are going to be checked by going into colder soil. Only works if you cover from at least January.
Ah well, so much for me covering the soil where my peas are going.....

My raspberry canes are starting to bud the tiniest bit!!!

very excited as the last fruit bush I attempted to plant just keeled over and died ignominously.

Ha! I have covered my raspberries with mulch, so all hidden away :)
Today I have managed to get another row of potatoes dug up from new bit, dug up blown sprout plants, . I covered the kale and savoys a couple of weeks ago against pigeons, and they have recovered nicely. Such a waste of all the hard work .
Walked around the plot with DH so we can sort out where gates are going to go as we are putting up new wire against rabbits , along with next door neighbour.
All this today as my normal Sunday may well be hijacked by daughters :)
And frost tonight, so had to rescue celeriac seedlings from the greenhouse- back on the kitchen windowsill

I dug out a MASSIVE TRENCH. Out of solid shitting clay. The trench is easily big enough to take 2 coffins. Handy.

I've broken up the soul quite a bit but tomrrow will need to do it a bit more, mix in dome manure, and... plant out my fruit. Honest. I'm really honestly gking to plant that fruit. If I can walk tomorrow.

Soul? Dome? See, I am so exhausted that I cannot type.

Hi there,
I've been watching this thread and enjoying it very much, it's nice to see like-minded people.
I took on a small plot in November, we dug it over during winter and are starting to slowly put in raised beds using whatever materials we can get our hands on.
I subscribe to Kitchen Garden Magazine and get loads of seeds with that, which means I have so many seeds as I'm also addicted to the Thompson & Morgan website. I'm planning a day of seed sowing today with my 2yr old but I anticipate that ending in chaos....

I have a query though. My asparagus crowns turned up yesterday which I ordered when I naively thought my plot would be all ready and good to go by now (wishful thinking), I don't have a bed ready for them. Should I put them in pots for this year until they are dormant again?

Any help would be much appreciated.

hi Yes you can pop Asparagus crowns into pots - they need around 3 years to get good root growth before harvesting anyway so as long as the pots are wide enough to take the roots spread out they should be fine.