The 2015 Allotment / Veg Patch Thread Part 2

[agoodbook]

the previous thread is just about full, - well done spotted so welcome to everyone interested in growing their own veg!

Previous thread is here
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/gardening/2282529-The-2015-Allotment-Veg-Patch-Thread-its-here?msgid=53650520

Thanks Alternative! The miracle of the internet, eh? I think you are right that it is blackpod!

I would love to read your blog, as I am sure I would learn so much, but don't want to 'out' you if you are uncomfortable posting the address.

You can sow a pinch of seed in blocks, I tend to just sprinkle it over. For example, I put some beetroot in blocks on Saturday, and sprinkled carrot seeds over the top of the soil. The carrots will be still quite small by the time the beetroot is all used up and can sort themselves out. When the beets come out I'll probably sow something else like a pinch of coriander in spots.

For parsnips I - ahem - don't sow that, mother nature does! I always leave parsnips to flower so that I can collect the seed and the next year the seed that I missed gets blown about and I just leave it to grow. Again, you can block sow a pinch at intervals or where there is a gap and leave it to do it's stuff.

The problem with growing in rows is that the stench of veg is very strong and it attracts all the bugs that then can eat the lot. If you space things out it evens out the smell.

I sometimes DO do rows, for example I had a load of garlic chive seeds last year and they take ages to germinate so I sowed a row and now it is all up and growing well, I am digging it up in bunches to take to the community garden. Mainly so that my OH doesn't go and hoe them all out.

Welcome, TheDiet and Halsall ! It's such a lovely time of the growing year, isn't it? Anything seems possible at the moment. Re tomatoes, I've had good germination mostl probably 90% ish. But I got some free, supposedly blight-resistant seeds from that Gardener's World offer, and the germination rate on them has been really really low -maybe 20% ? It will be interesting to see how they compare through the year with the ones I'd initially chosen. Halsall, I've never heard of Costoluto Fiorentino, but I have just googled them and they sound delicious. What's the variety of the plants you bought?

Happy birthday for yesterday, Cupcakes ! It sounds like you had a lovely gardening day.

HAPPY GREENHOUSE DAY, Shove ! I'm doing arches at the allotment too. I might have said that above. I have copied an allotment neighbour. I was planning to grow a climbing squash, but am now wondering if that would be too heavy for my cheapy arch so perhaps I'll grow a bean up it too. I am shamelessly planning for success on my plot - I will have filled the ground with bounteous crops and run out of space, so as a wise woman once said, The only way is up !

Today I plan to re sow my marigolds that I sadly fried the other day. Getting in and out of the house is proving a problem. In the morning, the sun is at the front of the house, so the porch area is FILLED with seedlings. In the afternoon it moves to the back. The conservatory then turns green... We are now all used to stepping carefully as we go in or out. Even the cats are being quite understanding about it all.

alternative Your methods are amazing! Did you see gardeners world on Friday? Are you going to apply for the "unusal allotment" thing they're doing?

Oh yes shove how exciting!! What time is it due to arrive? You must be beside yourself.

I am so excited I didn't sleep at all last night except for a brief period where I dreamt that my greenhouse arrived but there was a tiger in the van and I couldn't get it out . In the end, I had to coax it out with loads of catfood.

It is ridiculous - I am 37! I can't even put it up until Friday as I'm away for work! But somehow there is just something about it being HERE at last...

Every time I hear a vehicle coming I rush to the window to see whether it is my lovely new greenhouse.

Oh, and happy belated birthday cupcakes

Zebra I love the mental picture of your porch! My cat works against me by shamelessly throwing pots that are on the windowsill onto the floor. He even gives an insolent little miaow beforehand to catch my attention so that I have a desperate and utterly futile race across the room to prevent it. He is now banned from being in the front room for this reason.

I read somewhere that squash do OK up an arch because they tend to fruit high up, putting the load on the part that is strong. I have to say, I am a bit skeptical, but have never grown them myself so this is just a prejudice with no grounding at all in any experience.

I am doing exactly the same with regards to planning for success. . It feels very hubristic, but on the other hand, it is part of the excitement for me. If I thought everything was going to die, I would get so depressed about it!

alternative Your methods are amazing! Did you see gardeners world on Friday? Are you going to apply for the "unusal allotment" thing they're doing?

Ha ha - no I won't be applying!

I don't think of us as unusual...just space conscious!

have been doing a lot of lounging in the garden this weekend.
my tomato seedlings have a died. I suspect I handled them too early.
have sown some more but will have to see if they will make it in time.

rhubarb question, can I still force it even though it's already out (though still very small)
what are the benefits apart from the taste?

well, good morning - busy thread today!
Just sat down for a coffee and 10 minutes x
happy birthday cupcakes for the other day and joyous greenhouse day shove
I haven't grown my squashes up arches - the crown prince weighs in heavy, so I put a tile underneath it so it doesn't sit on the soil. A friend of mine scrambles hers over upturned wicker basket things , which she says works well.
Tomatoes do seem to be a problem this year- I wonder if its the hot/cold/hot/cold weather? Mine all germinated well , and have found a new person to give the last of mine away ( sungold as upthread! I have 18 and only need 6 ) .
mousmous Rhubarb- I love rhubarb , but I don't force it - it always seems to be a bit lacking in taste, but then again I do have an early variety that starts to come into leaf through the snow, so I have no need of forcing...and you can only force them about once every 3-4 years to let them build strength back up.
As re row and block planting - I do a bit of both. When planting out I do blocks,( it was advice in my allotment book to maximise sunlight on leaves) and also sowing peas. But - apart from beetroot and carrot which are really easy to identify, I will admit i grow in short rows as then I have a chance of knowing they are veggies and not weeds :) But I tend to do most sowing at home and then prick out - I seem to have better success as I cannot get down every day to water and check.

ooh and mousmous - I think the forcing is to get stem, not leaf- so it may be possible to still do it

Oh my GOD! IT IS HERE!

I need my inhaler.

thanks good will not force it then. one of the pleasure of eating rhubarb js the fuzzy acidity

Ooh Shove have you got it uncapped

Unwrapped, I'm about to declare war on autocorrect

I forgot yesterday - but I think pirates and spotted are worried no sign of potatoes yet- well they take a while to come up , after all they are planted well down . Mine were planted 3 weeks ago, and I'm not expecting them to show for another 1-2 weeks at earliest. Lucky as its down to 0º -1º for us tonight.
I managed to get quite a bit dug today- I'm about halfway to getting the bed ready for the sweetcorn and squashes next month.
The beetroot I sowed in plugs have just started to germinate - outside they have taken 2 weeks
I also need to get ready to plant out my sweetpeas- bamboo wigwam due up this week :)

It's been lovely to hear about all your gardening,

My butternut squash went outside and then got eaten but I have three more still inside, now they are bigger, hopefully they'll be fine. I have a few tomato plants- I need some grow bags for the greenhouse soon. Not a single sweetpea has germinated but my radishes, spring onions and beetroot have started to come through outside

We need to fill the pallets with soil and plant them up - still hoping for a strawberry one!! The rest will probably be salad leaves.

My Cucamelons have germinated! I am ridiculously excited. Just went to update my spreadsheet and realised I forgot to note down when I sowed them. Grr.

My potatoes went in on Easter Sunday and my mum reckons minimum of 4 weeks until we'll see any sign of them, so still got a while to go.

Oh no Karate was it slugs? I use an organic, pet friendly slug pellet which seems to do the trick. Well, my hostas seem fine anyway!

Thanks cupcakes! It's in a million billion stranged-shaped aluminium pieces right now. DH has banned me from putting it up without him. I think he sees it as a giant meccano set. I am also really, really clumsy so there is a genuine fear that I will manage to break it before it's even together. So I have to wait for the weekend .

I have been consoling myself by planting out some new things in the garden - I got an American mandrake and a brunnera 'jack frost' at the weekend, so those are in. I also divided a phormium, which was not a ladylike business at all. It kept trying to get away. Eventually, I had to attack it with a kitchen knife.

(namechanger here - was chopper)

i'm trying nematodes this year, plus i have some wool-based pellet things which creates a sort of barrier mat thing that slugs don't like that i'm trying out. so far it has protected the delphinium shoots, so i'll see how it goes. plus of course my trusty torch, skewer and bucket

your excitement is infectious shovetheholly!

Isn't mandrake, a bit scary?

Interested in all these safe-for-pets slug deterrents. (Torch skewer and bucket? Shudder.) There's something to do with grapefruit that can help too, or is that useless?

Greenhouse assembly is such a big job. All that glass is scary, even in small pieces. It will be so worth it when it's done though.

There are two kinds of mandrake. Podophyllum peltatum is the one I've got. It's used as a purgative (i.e. it makes you vom). (Slightly alarmingly, the label that went with it said it had 'edible fruits' - no mention of the fact that you have to wait til they are reaaaaaally ripe unless you want the worst case of nausea ever). I have no intention of eating any part of it - I just want it to look pretty. I would not have it in the garden if I had DCs around.

The other plant is Mandragora officinarum, which is a hallucinogenic!

Hapshawl I used the wool based stuff last year and it did work up to a point but this was in a raised bed so once the leaves were up over the edges the slugs just got onto the plants that way rather than up the stems.

A trip to the allotment on Sunday saw that onions and shallots were growing nicely. Too soon to tell for carrots, beetroot and leeks. I also forgot to remind myself which row was which before I went so wasn't sure what I was looking for!

There are some old strawberry plants which we've ignored since we took over the plot but I noticed some wereflowering so I spent some time weeding that.
This week hoping to get some salad leaves in and will plant up some more stuff in pots. I think that will help the plants get established before I shove them into clay soil!