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

Original poster

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.

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agoodbook · 13/03/2015 12:41

I see alternative has answered :)
When I got mine, they were wrapped in damp newspaper which I left on, and I planted them 2 days later after keeping them in a bucket ( not in water!) They ended up fine, and have grown away well, but I had already got my bed ready by digging right down to the subsoil and refilled it with a lot of compost and freshly weeded soil, leaving some ready to cover them when planted. It took a couple of days , and some free scaffolding planks to make a deep bed

AlternativeTentacles · 13/03/2015 17:58

Well, we had a massive tidy up at the community gardens this week, and I am off to see Alys Fowler in Nottingham tomorrow after a couple of hours sowing seeds at the gardens.

nottinghamorganicgardeners.com/new-events/ - there are still a few tickets left I believe.

rambunctious · 14/03/2015 17:51

Is it too early to plant potatoes? I have earlies - Duke of York and I live in the south west, so i'm guessing that it's about time to do so. They've been happily chitting for about six weeks now.

AlternativeTentacles · 14/03/2015 18:06

Duke of York and I live in the south west

Does that mean we should curtsey?

Yes ma'am, you can put your potatoes in about now. Thanking you ma'am. >backs out of room

StainlessSteelCat · 14/03/2015 21:30

plot inspections today, youngest child has been poorly all week, done bugger all

agoodbook · 14/03/2015 22:16

oh stainless - nerve wracking, but you have been busy before this week with tidying and such, so they will see you have worked hard. :)

rambunctious · 15/03/2015 07:35

Thank you for your advice, tentacles

agoodbook · 15/03/2015 11:59

Had a lovely 2 hours down at the allotment - (my DD's understood my Sunday morning addiction, so am out this afternoon instead!) gorgeous morning,sunny if a bit breezy. Got compost all laden round the fruit bushes, weeded my (new to me) strawberry bed, and started digging over the new plot - (gladly all potatoes out now) ready for my potatoes - but I shall be very traditional and plant on the week of Good Friday I think :)

Original poster
TheSpottedZebra · 15/03/2015 13:33

Ooh you lucky thing, agoodbook ! I'm not making it to the plot at all this weekend Sad
I did manage to sneakily buy some more rasps yesterday though - they have joined the pile of fruit that I have still not planted out. Tomorrow, hopefully...

It's freezing here! We had frost this morning, and tomorrow as well I suspect. I've still not planted my tomatoes, has everyone else already? Perhaps I'll do that this evening. I don't have a heated sunny space to put themm, so they'd got from heated propagator, to (once germinated), a porch or conservatory that is v v chilly in this weather.

And my potatoes aren't chitting either. Well, hey are sitting there, have been for weeks, but no sprouts have appeared on the Pentland Javelin. The swift pots do have sprouts. Does that matter? Mind you, the potato bed is not yet clear either, I should get on to that...

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Original poster
TheSpottedZebra · 15/03/2015 14:12

Ooh, Stainless - how was the inspection, have you heard?

And BakedWell did you do the seed sowing day? I bet it was lots of messy fun and a lovely memory if you did. What did you sow?

Alternative how was Alys - any top tips? I read her say that sweet alyssum is a lovely companion plant to fruit bushes that I have been talking about planting for eons so I bought some seeds of that yesterday. Good old Lidl.

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agoodbook · 15/03/2015 14:14

Hi spotted
Cold here too, but too windy for frost - nithering yesterday though I was out at work :)
I have only just sown my tomatoes during the last week ,so first lot (sungold) have only just peeped out the pot, and others still hiding.
mmm - potatoes - mine are in the spare bedroom, and I bought mine and started chitting early February, and they are only just nicely sprouting - 2 more lots ( marfona and wilja) I bought about 2- 3 weeks ago, and was able to hand pick them , so eyes are just about breaking out, if you know what I mean :) there is still time . I have seen that you don"t have to chit them. I am going to plant mine 2 ways this year - earlies I am doing traditional way, the 2nd earlies I am going to attempt to plant as Delicious suggested, with a bulb planter

Cedar03 · 15/03/2015 22:01

Managed to get along to our allotment on Friday with some more manure and a couple of bags of horticultural sand which will hopefully help to break up some of the clay. Spread them over the top and will dig in when I start planting.

i'm hoping to find time to start some planting in the next week or so. I think onions can go in now. Potatoes are chitting nicely. Got a couple of busy weekend coming up so don't know how much time I'll get.

BakedWellTart · 16/03/2015 07:40

Thanks for the advice about asparagus, I'm going to put the crowns in potato bags for now and either plant them in my garden or at the allotment in autumn/next spring.

We didn't do too much seed sowing on Friday, we made paper pots though for peas and beans which I'll sow today.

We went to the plot yesterday and made a bed for potatoes and put some in. We're on the Isle of Wight so I'm hoping they'll be okay. It feels good to have something in though. I also prepared a bed for direct sowing of salad crops.
It was disheartening to see the weeds growing back though.

StainlessSteelCat · 16/03/2015 09:24

Not heard anything about the allotment, so am assuming no news is good news! Hope so, kids are being very generous and sharing the bugs between them so kindly, got another one off school today. I need to start planting in the next couple of weeks, before the weeds mount a revenge assault on the parts I have cleared.

Original poster
TheSpottedZebra · 16/03/2015 09:34

It's raining here, but I am going to be brave and go to plot for a bit anyway. That fruit...

I've got a tay berry that needs to go out, but j don't know how best to support it - or whether I need to at all really. Ok, I sort of can't be bothered. My woodwork skills are rudimentary and I have few tools, plys the thought of having to go to B&Q , buying wood, trying to fashion it into some kind of cross thing, then finding a way to whack it into the frozen clay (????). Yikes. Any ideas for a super easy support for a bramble thing, or can I just turn a blind eye to it for bit?

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agoodbook · 16/03/2015 11:02

Just dropped in while I grab a coffee .
mm - Tayberry I seem to think support itlike raspberries eg wire between 2 posts . Don't know if that helps ......

ooh - googled and found this -Tayberries grow best when supported on wires or against a sunny wall, and each plant needs a space of around 4 sq m. The plants are heavy when fruiting and upright supports need to be firm enough to take this weight and avoid collapse.

sunny wall? - chance would be a fine thing! :)

Original poster
TheSpottedZebra · 16/03/2015 21:24

Is anyone else watching Kew on a Plate? Their soil is device! I'd expect nothing less from Kew, but hem just popping the spuds into the ground - their 5 mins of work would have taken me over an hour with my claggy clarty clay.

Re tayberry, I think Ive decided that i can't be faffed with a support! I looked at what other ed have done today and asked around... It seems that for brambles and hybrids, due tk the clay,people have failed with anything other than a 3 cm fence post hammered in - and most have used metal fence post holders to hold that. So I'm already looking at min £30 for a support.... So the new plan is to put the tayberry in my front garden! I have a shrub that I hate against a tiny bit of fence. I could stick some wires on that, et voila - pudding.

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agoodbook · 16/03/2015 22:05

Just finished watching it spotted - I will be making that pea risotto !
Their 5 minutes for potatoes is a bit like Gardeners World - someone else is doing all the digging behind the scenes :), but the soil does looks good ! I'm pleased to say that my soil is starting to get that way after 4 years of loads of manure and compost
I shall preen now - I have chosen International Kidney potatoes as my earlies!

Good idea on the tayberry - it does sound like you have some work on your hands there.

silversixpence · 16/03/2015 22:52

I have started some tomato seedlings - tigerella and sweet million which I started about 10 days ago, also chillies and cucumber coming slog nicely. I have also sowed artichokes, alpine strawberries, aubergines and lettuce but those aren't up yet.

Early potatoes are Chitting but probably should have started the others now. Also received onion sets and raspberry canes (free with Grow your own magazine) so have a lot to do in the next few weeks! Rhubarb has still not been planted either I'm not sure how well it's going to do.

AlternativeTentacles · 17/03/2015 08:37

It is Kew - if their soil isn't good then we all have no hope.

I'd love to see them try and grow on rock solid clay with minimal budget...

echt · 17/03/2015 10:14

Though I'm gardening down under in Melbourne on virtual sand, I must report the perils of not companion planting. The only year we forgot to plant marigolds we've been infested with whitefly.

Although autumn is underway, we still have time to put some to protect the newbies.

BakedWellTart · 17/03/2015 11:24

I'll have to watch Kew on a plate, it sounds good. I always wonder how many people are helping out behind the scenes on Gardeners world. I enjoyed Gardeners World a few years ago when they started on a new garden, it had Toby Buckland, Joe swift and Alys Fowler. It was nice to see them struggling with trying to establish a new garden more realistic to us ordinary folk.

Anyway, nice day here today, me and DD have just filled pots up with compost for more seed sowing later and I've put together the little greenhouse I bought from Aldi the other week. All going well we might go to the allotment after lunch and do a bit more weeding in preparation for the next bed.

All those with new allotments, have you got a plan for where plants are going or just going with the 'see a space, shove a plant in' technique?

StainlessSteelCat · 17/03/2015 13:13

I've tried to make a plan for my new plot, but I think I'm going to go more for the "shove it in where there's a clear space" approach. When I know what was there last year I'll avoid repeat planting. I'll try to avoid casting shade from one thing onto another when they are cropping, but it's getting so complicated (and I have no idea what I'm doing!) that I'll leave the fine tuning for another year.

And appropriately for the tayberry discussion, I've got 2 solid looking posts with wire between then, I think the raspberries had better go there. I think blackcurrants can be more free standing? I've got a loganberry in my back garden that's tied to fence panels with string, I have wondered about fixing some trellis to the fence posts, but they are concrete and I don't think our battery powered drill is up to the job. How strong is no more nails?

And after reading echt's post, I might invest in a few packets of seeds for companion plants. I've always thought that sounded like a good idea, because even if they fail to do their intended job, you get some colour!

silversixpence · 17/03/2015 15:53

I have made a plan but the plot is so overgrown I'm not sure I'll get to do it the way I'd like this year. I wanted to have six raised beds and then the rest in ordinary beds, and have a rough idea what will go into each bed.

I have scaffold boards for the raised beds but nothing to put in them to raise the height of the soil. Any recommendations? I might leave some of them without raising the height of the soil - is this a bad idea for any reason?

agoodbook · 17/03/2015 18:55

stainless - blackcurrants are free standing- no support needed
and to siversixpence as well - planning is hard, and even when you feel you have it right, it doesn't always work.For example, I made a plan to put all my fixed things/perennials sort of together- fruit cage/ raspberries with posts and wires, and asparagus bed. Worked fine until we needed to net for rabbits. I have the asparagus bed almost butt up to the fruit cage, so with the rabbit netting in place around the perimeter, to get from one side to the other on the asparagus bed I either have to
a) walk all the way round the fruit cage to get to the other side ,
or
b) do that gymnast thing wobbling on the edges of the scaffolding boards which make up the deep bed
neither ideal ! :)
on planting from year to year, my advise is just try to plant together the things that need to do the rotation thing - so keep brassicas/roots/legumes in the same area, and it will be easier to work out where they go next year :)

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