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

I'm trying not to buy any more but DH has just suggested we go to a local plant show next weekend, and then the weekend after visit The National Botanic Garden of Wales where they will be having a plant sale... so I'm sure I will succumb.
I'm very tempted by cucamelons, I hadn't heard of them until I read this thread. I have some in my basket at realseeds, shall I empty it or checkout?

Hi spotted - even though I have most of everything I bought an extra tray of leeks, a mixed romenesco cauliflower tray (pointy and coloured ones) and even ( hangs head in shame ) some carrots - hope they transplant, never tried to do that with them before an I will be sowing some anyway !

GQT is here -
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qp2f

Ooh, agoodbook, you bought leeks like I want/need. And romanesco? Pretty!

Rooster a plant show? There'll be sales there. And then a plant sale too? Lovely, lucky you! My cucamelons were quite fab last year. And they are kind of having 'a moment' right now... Do you like cucumber though? They are like quite sour, mini cucumbers with slightly tough skins. And they are voracious climbers and quite prolific. Or one were last year, in our crazy hot summer. I must not use that year as standard, but it was my first year of growing! In mexico they are called sandita de ratón, or little mouse melons. So your cats will love them too.

Ooh ta for GQT link, I shall check that out.

yes the romanesco are pretty - I bought some last year when the dratted rabbits got everything , and they grew really well- didn't taste any different though :)
I don't go to plant sales very often -it gets expensive as I want to buy everything, then bring things home and have to find somewhere to plant them!

spotted, I love cucumber, and gherkins but it's something I've never been able to grow. My dad used to grow amazing, long cucumbers. I'm lucky if I get one stunted cucumber per plant.
My finger's still hoovering over the 'buy' button

Oops - just bought some more herb seeds. Bought some flower seeds at the weekend. All new varieties so that's good - and can all be saved from.

We are visiting some plant fairs this weekend, as we have new spaces in the garden to fill.

So jealous of all of these plant fairs! I want to go to Chelsea or Malvern one day. Will need to do some saving up first though!

Exciting news - I got a sungold tomato plant! 80p at a country fair. Bargain.

less good news on the cucamelon front. 3 got slugged. So I am now down to 2 . I have now gone all gung-ho on the slugs and put down organic slug repellent stuff.

Besides daily watering and slug wars not managed to get much done due to toddler / my lurgy, and then rubbish weather, but hoping to get things going again this week. I did plant on some purple sprouting and some flowers though.

I've also decided to turn over a little patch of the garden to a foraging area for my rabbit, so currently doing lots of research into nice plants for that.

Wahoo on the Sungold! Don't forget to root any side shoots you take out for more plants.

Chelsea is expensive [take a packed lunch] and they don't sell plants there before the last afternoon - it really is best watched on the TV. I've done a day as a punter during my 'I want to teach gardening' phase and the very next year, went as a professional on one of the stands. Damn nearly killed me, sat down for literally 10 mins to scoff a sarnie and could hardly walk by the time we gathered and counted the charity donations - luckily I wasn't going back to the office or I'd have had to carry that back home on the tube/train too. I was on a preview day, all twinset and pearls and 'Oh dear, that's why we have a gardener' and it was only when the kids came after school that it was much fun. Lost my voice talking to so many people as well.

I was just about to leave the house when the rain/hail/gales started so I've used the milk that I had put in a container to take to make coffees for a coffee of my own - just waiting to see if the people who were coming are going to cancel as it is rank out there today. Update - they will be there at 1. So I have an hour to prepare myself for the weather...

It's blowing a hooligan here too, Alternative. Hope you have a lovely day despite the weather.

A question re courgette and squash seeds. Do they need heat to start off, or will they be ok in a small, unheated grow house thing (like an outdoor cupboard with wooden frame and polycarbonate walls). I want to start them off, but I really have no more room. This may be due to the fact that I have quite a lot of tomatoes.

A hoolie. It's blowing a hoolie not a hooligan.

zebra, with the caveat that i'm not an expert, last year the courgettes germinated fine in an unheated plastic growhouse thingy. i'm not sure when i first sowed them, but it was probably earlier in the year than we are now

Ooh! Well it's probably worth a bash then?
I may do that today I think.

My courgettes and squash are surviving my harsh slinging them outside treatment. I think I will move them to the allotment soon.
However, my leeks were less happy at being uprooted and flung about. the kids decided the pot in which I had planted the leeks to grow on a bit before planting out- the kids decided ti was just full of earth for playing with

I put as much of the earth and tiny straggles of leek as i could find back in the pot and i am hoping that the leeks will sort themselves out and reorient themselves but i am thinking I may be going for plug plant leeks. damn it.

My sungolds are doing well. I order plugs of these every year now having grown them outdoors from a B and Q reject in the past.

Seedlings came through four days of neglect with flying colours. Unfortunately so did the horsetail which was staging an enthusiastic attempt to take over the first few beds I dug (the ones where the ground was hardest and I had least idea what I was doing. Encouragingly, there's only the occasional shoot on the other beds, even those I dug only a day or so later).

So today I have mostly been cutting off the top of each individual horsetail shoot and painting the cut surface with deep root weedkiller. For about two and a half hours. I reckon there's a similar amount to do tomorrow (if it's not raining -- haven't checked the forecast yet) but then with any luck that will be the worst of the horsetail dealt with and it'll be a more straightforward maintenance programme of catching the stragglers as they poke through from there on.

No carrot seedlings showing up yet .

spotted I've germinated courgettes in a greenhouse with no problem, in fact I had some inside the house and some in the greenhouse and by the time they were ready to plant out I couldn't tell the difference.

The weather is wild here, windy and rainy and hailing. I'm feeling sorry for all the plants I planted out yesterday. I've been out to have a look in-between showers and they all look OK.

afternoon !
I am home early from work - some small advantage to being your own boss - wind and someone chucking buckets of water at the same time is not conducive to business.
so... after a coffee, I went and checked on all my little seedlings that are hardening off, they are cowering against a wall, ( I hid the shelves they normally stand on in the shed for safety ) so I took pity on the brassicas and have spent the last 2 hours pricking them out. I have a surfeit of sprouts and savoy cabbage,surprise! but someone will beable to use them. My tomatoes are doing well, but in the greenhouse when the sun came out my goodness it was hot - weird with gales rattling the panes at the same time !
Horrible wind forecast for the next couple of days as well

The sheet that was protecting the seedlings I planted out has blown off, so I've abandoned that idea and will follow minkgrundy's tough love approach and stop cosseting them . Insects won't like the wind anyway

I'm almost too scared to visit allotment after last night and that wind...

Link hope all is OK - when are you heading up there?

I go in for the "tough love" technique too - primarily because I don't have time for anything else! Most things seem to do OK. As long as they're not totally neglected.

Went up to water in the greenhouse last night and the slugs have been in again. I'm down to just 1 cucamelon and all of my French Marigold seedlings have been eaten. I clearly need better defences.

Tragically how long have you carrots been in? I'm still waiting for mine and starting to get twitchy. I sowed them on the 19th, so just over 2 weeks ago.

Yes, the stuff that I finally planted -a nd their flimsy cut-down plastic bottle cloches - will have taken a bit of a battering! Will any of it still be there? Will this be the beginning of ToughZebra?

Shame about your cucamelon and marigolds, Cupcakes . Will you re sow.
I tried that sheep wool stuff the other day, Cripes it stinks! Surely that alone would put the slugs off? Too soon to tell if it made a difference, but somehow I doubt it. You'd need to use loads to make any difference I think. My next plan is to establish an army of highly trained ducks. Ok, this is more of a day dream. They'll be runner ducks.

Zebra that's actually not such a crazy idea! When I was a child we had ducks and we never had a problem with slugs (or caterpillars). Never bothered netting brassicas as they would sit there and pick off all the little blighters before they did any damage. Hmm.

Let us know when you decide to go "ToughZebra". Will it be some sort of super-hero-in-phonebox-pants-on-the-outside-thing?

Also, you said blowing a hoolie! My mum says that and I've never heard anybody else say it!

I'd love to have some ducks. Completely impractical though. Its raining here and still windy. Hoping that everything is OK at the allotment.

Carrots can take a while to come through. I spotted some on Saturday for seeds sown on about 10th April. I think because it was cold again it slowed things up.

French marigolds certainly seem to be a great delicacy - I lost quite a few but fortunately they are easy to sow again. It is infuriating though! And such q shame about the cucamelons - they aren't so easily replaced