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

Good evening !

Duelling - lovely pictures and its looking like you have got on well with help :) - and if you put things in a bit late - you will be just harvesting a bit later, and the courgettes and squashes have been slow to germinate this year - it has been too cold in my greenhouse, and had to bring them indoors

spotted - hot bath tonight?

btw - cabbage whites starting to head for plants little blighters

I did indeed have and need a hot bath last night! I had an excellent day at the plot yesterday, hope to get a couple more hours there today to get more done. I didn't actually plant out any beans yesterday, and I really need to do that, as they are getting too big and unwieldy now. Will I plant put those yard long beans that have been half dead a few times, or should I just chuck them...? Hmmm. I also need to pick out the rest of my courgettes and squash, which are growing thick and fast now. Duelling I too think that yours will quickly catch up.

But on the bad side, I found a marestail on my plot. Boo. Only little, but near a patch of long grass, which I guess I need to check/weed now. It was also near my nascent dill, and they look very very similar!

Boo to the marestail. Its a right old pain in our plot.

Popped over there briefly yesterday and one of my runner beans has died. No idea what happened but I have got some more at home so its not too much of a problem. I am going to re sow beetroot I think and probably some more carrots. Am going to try again with french beans as well as none of my seeds have germinated (from the seeds planted in the house). I want to direct sow some peas as well.

Then need to dig some more so that I can fit in the squash and pumpkin plants. They are taking up half the dining room table at night. It needs to warm up enough so that I can plant them out!

Yep, my dining room table is covered at night too, by inside plants which are not ready to go in either the conservatory, the plastic blowaway or the grow house at night. Or even the sheltered area up the side, or the - gulp - actual garden/plot. Hardening off is a big old faff, isn't it? I was going to invite friends over to stay for the bank holiday, but changed my mind as I don't have the table room!

ToughZebra may have been too tough yesterday as I am now fretting about my planted out corn. I may put plastic bottle cloches over them, just for a bit... My borlotti to go out today are not looking too good. The leaves are yellowing a bit. I guess it's do or die, as they really need to out now, they're way too big. Finger crossed they make it.

Good Evening !
same as others - squashes/cucumbers and courgettes are inside on dining room table - but I will be starting to leave them in the greenhouse overnight from tomorrow , the borlotti beans are now hardened off just about, and the runner beans and french beans are doing the in/out dance from the greenhouse.
Totally hardened are sprouts/broccoli/calabrese/cabbages/cauliflowers/leeks.
As soon as they are a nice size, they will be planted over the next two weeks .
No plot today as I had my grandson , so the watering of plants has been overly assiduous- almost drowned in all honesty! We did sow a pot of salad leaves , so if they are not drowned, and they all germinate, I shall be over whelmed :)

my seedlngs are all out.
only dc's grasshead (sock stuffed with compost and grass seeds) is on the dinng table.

Wow, you've all been really productive.
I've had a hectic week at work so apart from watering in the greenhouse I haven't done anything (other then give away a few of my courgettes and peas)

Still, next week I'm on holiday so I'm looking forward to getting stuck in.

ha! I got the cat offender with the watering can today. soaking wet.
hope it finally learned that this is my veg patch and not it's litter tray.

mousmous :) - I have a super soaker for the cats in my garden!

I planted put my borlotti today, on the wonkiest ever wigwams. I am clearly a fool as i did 2 lots of 6, and could not figure out how I had some left over. I had assumed I'd done 12, but it seems I had 15? So some wigwam legs had an extra bean. It's lovely to see green on my plot, it feels like it's coming together finally...

And I had more broccoli raab for my tea and it was lovely.

I've put a few tomatoes out last and tonight. Well, 1 hanging basket one is out, and 4 are in the blowaway. And all the eat are in the house or the conservatory, still. It feels a bit like a jungle and I like it.

All the rest, not all the eat. Tho I will eat them.

My courgettes are on the windowsill, they seem very leggy. How many leaves should they have before putting out?
Peas and beans seem okay but nothing else moving and something has eaten my lettuce

Evening!
crawled in from a very busy/tiring day at work.
Yay ! spotted -plants outside :) I invariably have extra beans up poles - you can't not plant them now, can you?
violet - its not really how many leaves they have, but start hardening them off - have they been out during the day? If not, start putting them in the sunniest place you have, take them back indoors overnight, and do that for about a week, then plant out. You could plant them out now if you could put a little cloche over them - one of my neighbours does that with big, empty water bottles ( or are they too big?) they do start to straggle along as they grow. :)
Looking at the weather forecast ( not that you can trust it!) I shall be planting in the rain tomorrow morning - pah , but has to be done, there is loads to plant out...

Planting in the rain? That really is showing commitment!
Managed to get over to the plot this afternoon. It did rain a little at lunchtime but eased off. Actually I'd probably go over in the rain but can't really expect an 8 year old to do it without whingeing the whole time!

We had quite a good time there. Our neighbours were there too so my daughter mostly bothered them and I was able to get on with some weeding. Have discovered we have some beetroot and more carrots coming. Some carrots seem to be in the same row as the beetroot but I'm blaming the 8 year old for that!

We also planted a random row of peas and French beans in her little plot area.

I'm still taking trays of plants in and out mainly because of the cold but also because of the snail population in the back garden. I don't want to lose the plants before they get to the allotment!

I had a very lovely, busy sunny day on the plot after a quick trip to home base where I picked up some reduced celery, carrot and tomato plants. I have never tried to grow celery before so not sure what I need to do with them if anything?

Mostly did weeding, watering and trying to create an area to make a living den for my son. I've tried this once before with runner beans but they all got eaten so I am going to try a clematis and some other climbing plants like nasturtiums.

Almost every other plot holder next to me was there too and my immediate neighbours complimented me on how nice it's looking which was good to hear given that I was threatened with having it take off me last year.

No plotting for me today, and it's been oddly cold here. What is it with the weather at the mo? I had to content myself with the ritual moving about of the plants, and porting on some marigolds.

Dueling - they threatened to take your plot off you? Why? That living den sounds lovely. Please post pics of it when you've done it.

agoodbook - what are you planting out tomorrow? I keep on asking people what they're doing, in case it's something that I ought to have done, or would have wanted to have done, if only I'd thought of it...

Cedar -hurrah for the beetroot and carrots. I've never tried carrots, maybe I will still. My plot neighbours said that they grow the short round ones as they find them much easier to grow in our claggy sluggy soil, and they do well at the shady end.

well Cedar , not if its pouring, but I don't trust the Met office , so as long as its just showers, I have no problem ,and it certainly won't hurt the plants :)
Duelling - I haven't grown celery ( nobody else eats it but me sadly..) - doing celeriac instead. I do know they are either self blanching or trench and thats it on my experience!

The weather has been glorious here today so I've done loads.

I've given up on the carrots so there are now beetroot seedlings planted out in the row formerly earmarked for carrots.

Sadly my cucumbers (of which I was soon proud as I can't usually grow them) all got munched by a slug last night in the greenhouse apart from one lonely little specimen. He's back in the house now getting some TLC.

I potted on my tomato plants today, I love the smell of the leaves. Some are quite leggy but I'm hoping the stems will thicken up.

Not strictly veg, but I planted out a row of 15 sunflowers - I'm hoping they'll look fabulous when they are all in flower.

Good plan on the beetroot/carrot change - beetroot is one of those things that really do taste better if you grow your own
One of my lovely customers brought me in two net bags of sad, wrinkly aliens of chitted potatoes with the plastic net wrapped around all the shoots - " you have an allotment agoodbook - I bought these on flog off, they were only 20p a bag each , planted what I wanted in bags and thought you could use the rest" - so what have I done this lovely worn out evening? - got out the scissors- released the poor things, put them in egg boxes, and will plant them tomorrow - I have 6 Maris Peer and 11 unknown. If I get a better crop from these......

How sweet re the customer with the spuds!

I think I'll try beetroot, again. I've sown some in pots, some of which I'll leave, and some of which I'll try to transplant to the plot. And I'll sow some more direct too. All of mine - well the few that ever appeared -got chomped. Actually, I don't think I've ever grown a root veg myself. I've failed with beetroot and radish last year, and I've never grown a carrot, parsnip or spud either. Should have spuds in a month or so -well, I see leaves at least...

I have never really had problems with things chomping beetroot ( fingers crossed! there's a first for everything)- and I direct sow, and do some in plugs for transplanting.

My gherkin/cucumber got chompied last night. Not a sign of it. I planted it out too early so I have time to sow some more and will protect well this time.

strong plants don't get chomped as much.
I find coffe grounds work well to deter enough to give the plant to grow enough not to be bothered.

I've only done cucumber at home, the last 2 years in the greenhouse in a big pot on the floor, on a drip tray, and never had one eaten yet - I must be really lucky I think!

One of my courgettes was consumed by a snail. How frustrating. What works to stop them? (Apart from special poison) I can't get to a garden centre tomorrow but want to protect them.