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

WhoKnows - I listened to that too- very interesting . I lifted up stuff off the floor of my greenhouse having heard that!
mink - we are all different aren't we - I totally agree about faffing - we haven't done that even with the asparagus. Interestingly, I have inherited globe artichokes on my new bit of plot - 6 of them and they have been left totally alone,no babying, and they are looking exceedingly healthy even after all the frosts and wind!( I did mulch them though)
My day tomorrow at the plot looks doomed - forecast all morning is heavy rain and high winds ( 25-40 mile an hour )

I've been quite industrious at home today...in my little cheap plastic grow house that I have weighed down with compost bags in case it blows away! I have also had my plants out for 4 hours today, following hardening off advice still.
I have also sowed my first cucamelons! Can't wait for them to come up, plus beetroot, Swiss chard, sweet peppers after my first lot completely failed to come up, and two more cucumbers...my first cucumber plant sowed a few weeks ago has got baby cucumbers about 1cm long on already!!!

Can anyone give me some good tips on successful sugar snap pea growing please?? With photos if poss...

We are away for the weekend and I've been fretting about my poor fragile little seedlings, but apparently it's 100% definitely going to rain at home tomorrow so I feel reassured. Unfortunately its also going to rain here, but you can't win them all.

LinkDat, I grew sugarsnap peas a couple of years ago - direct sowed into the ground in a circle and trained them up a teepee of bamboo. I think I might have wrapped some twine around the bamboo to give them more to cling to.
You have to be quite vigilant and pick them before they go too stringy.

LinkDat Haven't grown sugar snaps, but I'm supposing they need the same as ordinary peas. One tip is to soak them overnight before sowing.
Tragically - I fret too , and I'm not away...

Rooster thank you. So circle not row? Or is that personal preference?? Goodbook-I'll get soaking today then. Thank you.

Rows versus blocks.

If you have dedicated permanent paths, instead of growing in rows that will need digging each year, you get 3 times as many plants into the same area. See pic.

Peas need support, so decide on what that will be and sow the seeds at the bottom of the supports. I do them in blocks, around 2ft wide, and put canes at the corners and along the sides and wind twine around the canes to make sides for them to cling onto. The ones in the blocks then cling to each other with the sides for support. Have the canes angled gently out like \ / and the twine gently taut and it holds the whole structure together.

www.raintoday.co.uk/

It will rain everywhere for some time today - I use this to check the rain coming my way to plan outdoor activities etc.

Alternative - thats a website bookmarked! Thanks - I usually use the BBC local weather and also www.netweather.tv/ (I check regularly as I have an outdoor job) So today may be sowing some more things - I sowed all my beans last Sunday and I got home from work yesterday to both of the french Beans and Borlotti beans all coming through - no sign at all on Runner beans This is when I start to think I didn't put them in - I know I did , patience....:)

link here is better!
www.netweather.tv/index.cgi?action=uk-weather-forecasts;sess=

I'm in trouble with my DH after winding him up about watch rubbish on YouTube I've accidentally spent a lot of time researching wormeries. He has said I can have one though, so I'm going to make one to start with and see how it goes!! Does anyone have one?

The weather can't make its mind up today, although I've managed to do a couple of little bits in between the showers!

My fave treat at the minute is the shallow tray of pea shoots that mini kimmi "helpfully" spilt everywhere, but taste just like peas in a pea shoot salad.

Karate - this thread --> www.mumsnet.com/Talk/gardening/2354914-Boring-you-about-bokashi-composting might be worth a read, where our very own Shove and Alternative discuss bokashi and wormy composting.

I have a bokashi composter on my birthday list (not until the autumn sadly...)

Kids love wormeries. Fact.

I once gave a talk about them as part of a garden tour, to a group of teenagers. One girl was at the back of the group on her phone. I thought 'here we go, going to have to work hard to get this one involved'. What she was actually doing was texting her mum to ask if she could have one, going onto ebay, buying one on a BIN on her mum's account, and telling her mum she had sorted it. In literally 5 minutes!

What a gal.

Thanks alternative

Got quite a lot done this afternoon,

Potted on cucamelons and French marigolds (from cells in a windowsill propagator to pots in a patio greenhouse).

Cleared a raised bed (mainly of cat shit ). Then planted out some pea seedlings and lettuces under cloches (will remove after a few days and put stakes in for the peas, it's only 4 plants in a little corner of raised bed in the garden. Also sowed calendula and rocket in the same bed.

Up to the allotment and cleared a raised bed there which was very full of couch grass and dandelions, emptied in three sacks of topsoil (it was less than half full before, left by previous owner) and sowed calendula, California poppies, carrots and spring onions. Tomorrow, hoping to get back up there and get peas and broad beans sown straight into the ground, appreciating the tips above for Peas, I've usually done them in a wigwam but they get quite dense and hard to find all the pods.

Things I learnt at the allotment today from my neighbour who knows what he's doing. I'm sure the poor bloke must spend half the time holding his tongue when he watches me fannying around .

• sweetcorn needs to be planted in pairs so it pollinates properly. (Cue me hurriedly moving the seedlings I'd put in and then adding a few extra corns).

• you shouldn't plant tomato seedlings until the first flowers appear. (Decided to wing this one).

Just eaten home grown, home made rhubarb crumble

Wow whoknows I was pleased I managed to sow a couple of rows of seeds and feed my containers! I sat down with a cop of tea, but now I feel slightly inadequate!!

good evening !
meglet - we were discussing sweetcorn up thread - sweetcorn really needs to be planted in blocks to pollinate properly -( an old time market gardener said to plant them in 3's, and then close together with other sets of 3 ) so I am planting mine in a block 4 x 4 plants,

No plot yesterday, so set off this morning to find the wind had peeled the felt off the shed at the bottom of the plot which we have just taken on - so texted DH who came in the afternoon so new felt, and not quite enough clout nails to repair it. In the meantime I mowed all the grass paths, hoed between my shallots and garlic , cut off all the frosted asparagus spears ( lots of new growth on my other varieties ) dug up all the old kale plants which had seeded themselves.
took the fleece totally off my 1st row of peas and the broad beans - its looking warm enough now and I take it off whenever I am there to harden them off - fingers crossed as its a bit windy tomorrow...
My 2nd row of peas has popped up
Also started to dig up some grass that was a path (a somewhat mid- longterm job )- interesting that after all the rain yesterday, the soil was quite dry about 6" down.
I cracked and bought a few plug plants on Saturday - 12 plugs in a tray, each with 2-3 seedlings in for £2 or 3 trays for a £5 - it will fill some of the new ground I have now. At Wilkos I also bought 2 little pepper plants reduced to 40p each - I potted them up and they are looking good

Karate - thank you, but I failed to point out that the raised bed at home is only 90cm square and the one at the allotment about 60 by 120cm, so not as impressive as it could have been!

Been back tonight and cleared an area that will house peas, broad beans and sweetcorn, I had already cleared it once this spring but a few massive dandelions and buttercups had reappeared. Also put some radish seeds into the raised bed which I forgot to do yesterday and had a wander round looking at other people's plots. I always take a thermal cup of coffee with me and sit on my bench MNing on my phone for breaks, I ought to use my breaks for mooching around the site thinking about it, you can learn a lot from looking at other plots. Also listened to GQT on my phone today, love a bit of technology!

Home grown rhubarb crumble sounds lovely kimmi

DH very kindly emptied two of the composers onto one of my raised beds today, he's going to fork it all in tomorrow.
My first direct sewn sweet peas are up, I was a bit worried because the peas I planted at the same time are huge so I thought the sweet peas might have rotted away.
I've planted out some more lettuce seedlings, broad beans, kale and cabbage.
I planted a few more radish seeds and spinach.

I've also planted out my sweetcorn, I put mine in blocks of 4, last year was the first time I grew them and I have to say that fresh corn on the cob is amazing. We used to put a pan of water on to boil then when it was boiling run outside, grab the corn, strip it and run in to put it in the pan.

I then spent some time weeding, mainly the lawn which is disgraceful. Two huge trug tubs full of weeds, mainly dandelion and buttercup - not that you'd think it if you looked at the main garden, I've decided to look upon it as aiding wildlife rather than being too weedy.

The cats are in disgrace because despite me turning my greenhouse and potting shed into a cat hotel I have found mouse droppings in a seed tray.

Rooster - you have made them far too comfortable to catch mice!
and yep- dandelions are in full bloom down at out allotments - the grass paths are a blaze of yellow. The only small mercy is you can see them really easily in the actual plot, so today I was going round digging them up- there will be more for next time .
I ran out of time this afternoon , and needed to get some other work done , so never got around to sowing my squashes / courgettes and cucumbers- I don't like sowing seeds in the late afternoon/evening - I like them to get all the light and warm they can at the start ( is that silly ? )

Ha, agoodbook - I'd not sow after about 3pm either, as I'd want the seeds to get more warmth and light. Which is a bit nonsensical really, as they go in soil... Nope, I've not yet sown my courgettes, squash and cucumber either. Or my cucamelons! I think that the roots are going to rot rather than regenerate, alas.

A nice couple of hours gardening today. My turnips have continued to germinate, and there are signs of beetroot too. And my chives and dill, hurrah! I planted some seedlings that I had sown ages ago, that were really crowded and all mixed up. And I couldn't separate the roots so I just ripped them apart into (teeny) chunks in the end. They probably won't grow, but they definitely would not have done in their tiny mushroom tray pots. I put my broccoli raab at home in a raised bed, and my cavolo nero at the plot.

I must get into GQT, I've never heard it. I don't even know where and when to find it.

Oh, I also found a potato. Well, 2, but one was holey. And someone tested my soil ph. It's 6 apparently.

Oooh agoodbook what plug plants did you buy? I just want to keep buying or growing more and more and more plants. My past obsessions (magazines, nail varnish, baking, stationery...) are all gone. Now is plants. My leeks are rubbish, I might buy some I think.