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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 Part 2

997 replies

agoodbook · 08/04/2015 22:49

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

OP posts:
Thread gallery
79
LetThereBeCupcakes · 19/05/2015 07:19

Morning all!

Thanks for the reminder pucky although we have an early warning system in place for hedgehogs - DDog 1 is terrified of them (ever since he tried to pick one up a couple of years back) so he always notifies us if there's one in the area!

Loving the show and tell! I'll try and get some pics today and upload. My Gooseberries are looking really good - it's the first year they've cropped so I'm quite chuffed. DS' little veggie tub is doing really well (although I noticed he's planted a few pebbles along with his carrots and lettuce!).

My veggie patch is about 2/3 cultivated and planted now - I just need to dig over the final section which is for my beans, pumpkins and brassicas. Can probably fit one more row of salad or something in too.

Coal in the bath? That sounds mucky!

TheSpottedZebra · 19/05/2015 09:03

Another day of heavy heavy rains,so no outside gardening today -boo. But of course the rain is very nice. My spuds will appreciate the watering, I've not got much else planted (at plot) so that is about my only brightside.

Good to hear about the original Squash Mountain! Ben Squash is really just a pile at the the mo, with more soil in other piles, waiting a chance to be added. I don't know what squash will sit on it. Maybe a warty marina di chioggia? My squashlets are only about 2 cm high so far, so i am probably counting my chickens before they've hatched...

Today I think I'll do some pricking out and potting on. I sowed some more corn yesterday (hope not too late?), not sure I've got room to sow much else. I'd like to do some salads and some more broccoli raab but I have no trays or pots for them.

LetThereBeCupcakes · 19/05/2015 09:57

I have just realised a fundamental error in my plans to build Mt St Squash. I haven't grown any squash plants!!! Shock

Will a courgette do? I might be able to scrounge one from my mum.

LetThereBeCupcakes · 19/05/2015 09:59

Oh and Zebra no idea about corn except that my mum always says "knee high by fourth of July" in a dodgy southern USA accent. She often finishes off with a "Yee-haw!" for effect. HTH Grin

shovetheholly · 19/05/2015 11:08

cupcakes - you still have time to plant! (What an excellent excuse for a visit to the garden centre to pick up some seed) Wink

I don't think most courgettes grow upwards like squash do, though I may be wrong about that. Plateau courgette could sit next to Mount Squash, though.

ethelb · 19/05/2015 11:09

Courgette is squash! As are pumpkin really.

LetThereBeCupcakes · 19/05/2015 11:15

Wait, Squash grows UP? Really?

Who was asking about courgettes / marrows? I used to help run a village flower show and the Friuit & Veg judge always said if it was 6" or under, it's a courgette. Over 6" is a marrow. No idea if he just made that up or if that's just some show rule, but there it is.

TheSpottedZebra · 19/05/2015 11:39

Looky Looky! I have a tomato forming! This is jolly exciting. The plants have not even been moved outside yet save some very tentative hardening off.

The 2015 Allotment / Veg Patch Thread Part 2
TheSpottedZebra · 19/05/2015 11:43

Do all squash go up? As well as Ben Squash, I will also have L'Arc du Squash. Yes I have an arch. For a squash. My squash are Marina di Chioggia (biggish, warty), delicata (biggish I think, and blob shaped not round, and Little Gem. It is the latter I think for the arch, I think they climb.

TheSpottedZebra · 19/05/2015 11:45

Does anyone grow squash in their compost heap? Mine has spuds growing in it, from previous tenant. And dandelions, Yay. The heap is still not getting up to temperature. It's quite shady, so probably a squash would be no good there, but if I have a homeless plant, I might as well try it.

minkGrundy · 19/05/2015 11:52

Squash mountain is effectively a compost heap (with black weed sheeting over it). It is heating up but that is mostly because it is deliberately sloped into the sun.

LetThereBeCupcakes · 19/05/2015 11:52

L'arc du Squash? Envy

I had a leaning tower of tomato yesterday, but I've staked it now. Does that count?

minkGrundy · 19/05/2015 11:53

And yes a courgette would grow fine trailing down Ben Squash.

TheSpottedZebra · 19/05/2015 11:57

It's a £6.50 ebay arch. I have one for beans too!
Seems strong enough

Cedar03 · 19/05/2015 16:24

We visited Great Dixter last year and they had squashes growong on top of enormous compost heaps. The heaps were probably as big as my entire back garden.
Breezy today. Might pop over the plot tonight just to check (if its not raining and I can persuade my daughter).

TheSpottedZebra · 19/05/2015 16:48

I've never visited a garden, gardening being a new passion for me. Maybe I should start this year?

So, I put some plants out in the garden for more hardening off...we've had loads of rain - ok. But MASSIVE HAILSTONES too. Not so great. Good thing that I have so many tomato plants, as some I suspect will have been shredded Sad.

violetwellies · 19/05/2015 17:41

I bought a tray of 'living salad' (lettuce) from Lidl, put it to harden off forgot about it for a week, and have just planted it out.
I don't expect anything exciting, but I thought for £1 it was worth a try Grin
DS chucked some elderly lettuce seed on it so if it all dies we might get a second chance Wink

Original poster
agoodbook · 19/05/2015 17:52

Afternoon!
well, it was supposed to rain all day... we got 1 half hearted hail shower.....
So when I came home from work to check everything on the shelves on the west wall - everything was a bit dry, as its also very windy again.
I thought squashes scrambled rather than deliberately grew up, but I may be wrong - I leave mine to fill up whatever space I have, and it stops the weeds :)
I have put all my beans back into the greenhouse as we are forecast a light ground frost tonight.
But here's the really tough stuff, as its show and tell!
My 3 successional sowings of leeks - 1st lot nearly ready to plant out ,2nd lot - too few and still a bit sad, and 3rd lot doing fine. In the picture is the panic buy plug ones I bought as well :)

The 2015 Allotment / Veg Patch Thread Part 2
OP posts:
Bearleigh · 19/05/2015 18:33

Zebra my Chioggia squash climbed up the fence last year.

mousmous · 19/05/2015 18:38

bloody cats!
have destroyed dd's sunflowers and giant beans. even though the pots looked like hedgehogs with loads of spikes.

my cougette is in a cage until it's big enough to withstand a cat jumping on it.

have done a bit of guerilla gardening, have put a corgette and some tomato plants in a verge.

shovetheholly · 19/05/2015 19:38

Zebra Ooooh, visiting gardens is so much fun! You get so much inspiration from it. My impression was that it would all be a bit, you know, posh and stately homey, but actually there are so many different kinds and styles, from small suburban plots in the National Garden Scheme right up to Chatsworthian formality.

And you even get political gardening, with radical gardens (Little Sparta is one I've been meaning to visit for a loooong time).

Boo to naughty cats, mousmous. Next door's has destroyed my parsley seedlings, but is so cute I can't even be angry at him for any time.

TheSpottedZebra · 19/05/2015 19:55

I think I could get right into kitchen gardens, Shove. Esp Victorian stylee ones or walled kitchen gardens. And I'd end up with even more ideas above my station!

Shame re cat/plant damage. I'm lucky that my cats are lazy well trained, and the bruisers at the plot obvs have better things to do. I did suspect a cat from knackering my rhubarb, but it was just the wind.

Bearleigh Chioggia is a climber too? Ooh! Did you want it to climb? What did it taste like, please tell me it was delicious.

mousmous I love the idea of guerilla gardening. Maybe I should try a spot. Do you like it if other people pick the veg, or does it annoy you?

agoodbook I am loving this show and tell. And your leeks are lovely. We too are forecast some low temp tonight with possible frost, so I have put as many plants as poss in the grow house. Fingers crossed that the weather cheers up soon. I do need to get something, anything planted out, and BenSquash is begging to be finished.

So, in latest ZebraGarden news, I have noticed that my garlic, in a raised bed bed at home, has rust. That's not good, is it? I've not had any allium in there before, and I've moved the chives and the teeny leeks out of the way. But I don't know what to do next, I'll have to get Googling. It's just appeared in the last couple of days

mousmous · 19/05/2015 20:10

I find it ok if other people harvest, it's a good way to get rid of 'runty' seedlings. I hate throwing them out

TheSpottedZebra · 19/05/2015 20:14

Plant the runts, that's genius! I took some armpit bits from tomatoes today, and I have plenty of tomatoes already. I could justify trying to grow more armpit bits as gardening discipline, then setting the plants free and seeing what happens! I don't have a verge near me but I could sneak them out in the park maybe?

WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes · 19/05/2015 21:04

We have "official" guerilla gardening here, there's an organised group owho have beds and planters all over town, you can be walking along looking at a lovely planter full of summer annuals and realise there are a few tomato plants in the middle.

Only 10 mins at the plot tonight, popped in another row of radish seeds and checked things over. Yesterday I popped nasturtium seeds in around the sides of several sections of bed, they're one of my favourite flowers.