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 am off to buy seed potatoes before the school run! Don't usually start this early but you have all inspired me to get on with it.

TheSpottedZebra and Stainless, all fruit and veg seeds have to be up to a certain standard, no matter how easy on the pocket. The ones for under 50p a packet, have to be up to the same standard as the £2.50 packs. The only thing to watch is 'use by dates' and the number of seeds per pack

Flower seeds aren't bound by the same standards, unfortunately!

Quick question - out of date seeds, use or bin?

Ooh, Amantes good to know, thanks!

Bowlers def bin old parsnip seeds. Or at least try to test a few on a bit of damp kitchen towl to check still viable. Fine, I've never actually grown parsnips, but I read that somewhere!

Bowlersarm, I'd bin. My growing space is too limited this year to risk failures! It might depend how far out of date though? I'd be comfy with six months but not much past that. If I had space, I might experiment!

spotted - 94 sq m is still a lot of digging and weeding! and harvesting crops - I think it all depends on your available time - I only work part time now and my children are grown and flown, so I don't have the demands on my time that a lot on here have. I have just had my 2 yr old DGS for 2 days, and am exhausted, so those who are doing this with children, I doff my hat!
Rule of thumb on seeds - the bigger they are, the longer they will keep. I have had some success with year before french and runner beans. I tend to over sow anyway , so I have spare which tends to allow for some not to germinate
If anyone has a Wilkos near- they do cheap seeds.
Delicious - I hanker after tools - I am very envious of one of my neighbour on the site who has what she calls a Japanese weed thingy ? - a big hand tool with 3 prongs, one longer than the other. I daren't look to see how much it cost! And another has one of those 'Wolf' things with interchangeable heads - lovely .....

Ok I'll bin, a few years out of date - 2013 - quite a few seed packets unfortunately, but I don't really want to risk it (if you think it is a risk).

I'd bin too, I used to run a gardening club at my DCs school and people would donate seeds, some where quite out of date and one of the other volunteers would insist they would be fine, but the germination rates were never as good as fresh seeds.

Thanks for the potato variety thoughts, I am going to go and get some this weekend. Might have to pop into Lidl at the end of next week too, there's one 5 mins walk from where I work, conveniently!

Never bin seeds, throw them down in some spare space and if they germinate, move them to where you can grow them.

Bolshybookworm, on the patios this year, (in pots, planters and growbags) we're doing-

Toms
Peppers
Peas
Sugar (snap) peas
Mini Cucumber
PS Broccoli
French beans
Potatoes (big planters)
Spinach
Radish
Lettuce
Asparagus (biiig planter!)
Strawberries
Blueberries
Raspberries
Melons
Grapes
Figs
Olives

And stuff

Some great ideas for my pots (although I don't think I'll try olives in Yorkshire ), thanks everyone. Think I'll go for tomatoes in grobags, salad leaves, dwarf French beans, strawberries and may even try a chilli plant (will need a pretty hot summer for this). If I get a big enough planter, I may do runners as well. I tried radishes last year but it was hard to get the watering right so they were nice and plump (although I might have started them a bit late - I had just had a baby!). Think I did spring onions one year, and they went ok, might also try rocket.

If any of you have sandy soil, have you tried growing Daikon? I grew a HUGE one when I had sandy loam, it was awesome! I'm not even going to try growing them on my heavy clay- it would be too disappointing

Right. I have potatoes chitting.
Charlotte, my favourite salad potato.
Pent land javelin, as I haven't tried those before.
Also king Edwards as a main crop.

Bowlersarm I have loads of old seeds. I might chuck them into spare seed trays and see what happens. I hate binning stuff as it seems so wasteful. I'm the same with out of date food which I test on DH first

Marking place.. We've just started digging over our allotment (half plot), it's absolutely full of weeds and lots of deep taproots. We've cleared enough to plant some autumn fruiting raspberry bushes, and today cleared a bed for strawberries and rhubarb. The plan is to have 4 large raised beds (courgettes, beans, squash, chard, cabbage and brassicas) and everything else (potatoes, cutting flowers, lettuce, herbs) will get slotted in when we clear space for this year.

Has anyone decided to miss out the seed sowing step and buy a ready to plant garden eg Rocket gardens? I am tempted but have bought too many seeds already so need to use them.

Hi there.
try to plan my patch for this summer.
have a bed of strawberries and a rhubarb plant (if bloody neighbours cats don't keep digging the manure).
veg patch is about double bed size and last year we had sweeycorn tomatos and courgettes. and carrots in a balcony box.

can I grow leeks and beetroot in a box? or should they better go in the ground?

silversixpence we were going to skip seeds and go straight for plants, because we're container gardening this year. As our list has grown and we've decided to devote the majority of both patios to growing, we've decided to go ahead with seeds. Plants would have become expensive, quite quickly!

Amentes Thanks for the info about seed standards. I have always bought cheap and cheerful seeds (B&Q, supermarkets) and never had any germination problems, know I now why!

I have a large tin full of seeds now. Most are at least one year past their sow by date, many more than that. I'll just sow abundantly and hope - here's a few people I know who might take excess seedlings, let alone any seed or plant swapping that happens on the allotments. When I have a better idea of what I want to grow next year, I'll buy as needed. I'm a bit concerned I'll run out of steam and not manage to maintain my plot, if I can keep it going or a year then I'll be a lot more confident.

I might have found donors for 2 of the more expensive plants on my wish list though - horse radish and raspberries. I've been promised at least one plant for my birthday as well.Does anyone know if you can split/propagate Rhubarb easily?

And I bought seed potatoes today! Garden centre near me was £3 a bag of pick and mix, so I have a selection of first/second early and main crop - 20 or so in total I think. DP got another selection of 30 onion sets for £1. Was feeling so proud we'd managed to rein ourselves in (even after the browse of the seed packets) that my will power went and hid when I saw the gardening gloves ... I'll have to find out what chitting is now!

Chitting? There's some good potato growing info here. It's what my dds have used for their info sheets

how-to-grow-potatoes.co.uk/how-to-grow-potatoes/how-to-chit-potatoes/

good evening!
Stainless - do you particularly want horseradish ? Its a bit of a thug and a bully, thats all - keep it well clear of anywhere you want to grow other things, or plant it in a bucket with a hole in the bottom, hear what I'm saying ? :) Rhubarb is easy to split- if you dig it up, you can usually break side shoots off carefully - if its a big clump, a sharp spade through the middle will work just as well
Gloves are an absolute must for me- so not a wish, but an essential !

Gloves are definitely an essential! It's not the bramble scratches and thorn splinters which I mind. It's getting soil under my nails! I can't stand the feeling and nothing can quite get it all out again!

Hi, can I join you?
I got my half plot last summer, it was an overgrown mess, but I have dug and dug and dug...... Then I planted plug plants, strawberries, raspberries.
I have not been for 2 months as sadly my elderly mother was ill and then she died last week, I am looking forward to getting back there, after I have finished all the sorting and we have had the funeral.
I find my allotment is very good for my soul :)
Looking forward to getting stuck in again.

lala - I find digging and weeding to be wonderful at allowing your mind to 'rest' . If you did a lot last year, this year the digging may be hard, but not as bad,, winter is the best time to neglect it, and you have time before spring to get it tidy again :)

lala, so sorry for your loss. I hope the digging helps you find solace.

Amentes - thank you for the link, more research!

agood - I have a particularly fetching bright orange bucket from B&Q that I have mentally assigned to horseradish containment. I might plant nasturtiums in it as well for a subtle all year round display ....

ah stainless you knew :) I don't grow horseradish now- I had some in the garden at my previous house -
You could bury the bucket- though the colour would be lost :) thats what I do with my mint - another bully!

Has anyone decided to miss out the seed sowing step and buy a ready to plant garden eg Rocket gardens? I am tempted but have bought too many seeds already so need to use them.

No - rocket gardens are ridiculously expensive! I sell packs of seeds, 40 odd varieties, enough to fill one full sized allotment and all for the princely sum of £10. Add to that 40 tubers at 18p each - around £17.20. The same from Rocket Gardens [I've just checked] Is around £300 - although I send the seeds and they send the plants...so grab a bag of compost and some seed trays and you will have saved yourself around £250.