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Gardening

Find tips and tricks to make your garden or allotment flourish on our Gardening forum.

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
AlternativeTentacles · 14/04/2015 09:29

There are so many types of alliums it would be hard to say but if they flower white like chives, with a flat leaf, they are more than likely Garlic Chives. A most fantastic herb. Whatever they are, they will be completely edible if they are an allium. To get more, when your chives flower, leave them on until you can see the seeds and pop each seed head into a plant pot or where you want a new bunch of chives, and next year you will have a new bunch of chives.

TheSpottedZebra · 14/04/2015 09:52

Ah, good-o, thanks for that Alternative. I have kept them in any case, and moved the clump a bit, and they're still ok. I'll try a bit and see if I recognise the taste. They are sort of under the apple tree so I had hoped they were chivey.

Do chives cross? If I plant a bit of normal chives there, will I still have some of each?

AlternativeTentacles · 14/04/2015 10:04

Yes I have both in my garden. I have so many alliums I have bred my own variety which looks like grass but is a small bunching onion which tastes of garlic.

TheSpottedZebra · 14/04/2015 10:06

You've bred your own?! Wowsers!

AlternativeTentacles · 14/04/2015 10:10

I didn't mean to! I just grew loads of different varieties and when I was weeding one day noticed that the grass smelt of garlic. I have wild garlic in the next bed, along with walking onions, bunching onions, chives, garlic chives, garlic, leeks and a few varieties of each. I dug some up and took it to the community gardens two years back, and they grew, set seed and made new garlic grass so it is coming true. I may plant it in the lawn there just so make it smell garlicy when I mow. I also have a rare allium that has no name, but that has been planted in my front garden as it is a woodland plant and we are north facing in the front garden; and one day I might find out what that actually is. We found that by the oniony smell when the college gardener mowed the grass...

violetwellies · 14/04/2015 13:39

Essex Alternative , I'm guessing, Coventry too far.

IAmcuriousyellow · 14/04/2015 14:20

the-gardeners-calendar.co.uk is the site I look at most days to see what's to do - I also use a book called The Maria Thun Biodynamic Calendar 2015. Maria Thun seems to be the lady who brought everything together with biodynamics, and Matthias Thun now produces a yearly almanac.

Apparently beekeepers use this method, and when my husband gets his swarm of bees, should be soon, he'll be moon phasing too as bees do it naturally.

As I said though, moon phase gardening is all well and good if you can get to your plot most days - and plants just grow on their own really, it's just a way of optimising their growth and harvest. The benefit for me is to have the jobs divided up into categories and days, otherwise I'd be trying to do everything at once and most likely failing..

Interestingly, these few days before the new moon are meant to be not great for sowing, but marvellous for grass cutting and weeding, and those plants won't be growing back so quickly so all good!

How is spring coming on where you are? We had our first pair of swallows come home on Sunday, and we now have five whirling around, many more to come, and I saw bluebells and stitchwort in the lane earlier and I think they must be a good two weeks ahead of themselves this year.

arosepetal · 14/04/2015 16:11

I wonder if anyone could shed some light on a mysterious disappearance of an Aubergine plant..I had the plant in a cold frame at the bottom of my garden and just now when I went down to water the plants, have noticed that it is no longer there!

The pot is there along with the soil, but the plant is gone! I also have strawberry plants in the same coldframe but these are fine. The lid was on the cold frame at the time.

I live in the countryside so have the usual mice etc, could they have taken the whole plant away?!

shovetheholly · 14/04/2015 16:20

Colonel mustard, in the study, with the candlestick!! Grin

On second thoughts... slugs. Little bleeders.

ChopperGordino · 14/04/2015 16:57

i saw some english bluebells just coming into flower on my way to work yesterday

violetwellies · 14/04/2015 17:29

arosepetal my guess is the slimy gits. The barstewards decimated my limited efforts last year Angry

WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes · 14/04/2015 19:17

Look, my first potato crop of the year! I've got a small deep raised bed that had potatoes in last year, been digging it over tonight and found these tiny spuds, potato salad for lunch tomorrow. Grin

The 2015 Allotment / Veg Patch Thread Part 2
agoodbook · 14/04/2015 21:18

Evening all!
WhoKnows - volunteer potatoes - they are great aren't they?
arose - also agree slugs - the blighters .
Spring here up in Yorkshire is coming along quite nicely - not that early , as I am waiting for my pear tree and amelanchier to flower as they are my early indicators it's truly here. I have bluebells in my garden ( something of a pest tbh) with no sign of flowers yet.

now spotted - you mustn't laugh, but I had half a thought for your clarty , weedy piles of mud. If they are hard blocks of clay, could you use a chisel and hammer to isolate and chop out /prise out the horrible roots, get rid of them ,and then mix grit and compost or manure to the rest in a wheelbarrow to put back on the plot? I may be a bit out there, but it's surprising what pops into my head when dropping off to sleep! It may even be therapeutic..... :)
Still busy, but I have managed to palm off more of my spare tomato plants, so getting near the number I can actually fit into the greenhouse,
I now have 12 sweetcorn germinated out of 24 , by gum I could almost believe I hadn't put seeds in some of the pots ! all the same pots, all on a tray, all watered the same, etc Pah

OP posts:
TheSpottedZebra · 14/04/2015 21:24

A lovely few hours at plot again today. The weather really hotted up, the sun was so strong!

I dug over my last bed. Clearly, that soil had been well-loved so it was ok going, unlike all the rest of my clay pit. We had a frost this morning, perhaps well have another tonightand itll break it down a bit more? I might rake it about a bit soon, but I didn't sow anything in that bed. I did sow some (more?) chives under the tree, but I had forgotten my dill.

In home seed news, on the positive, the marigolds are def on the or way. on the negative, it was so hot that my emerging kale and broccoli raab got frazzled in the grow house. Oops. Blush Plenty more seed, so not too much of a big deal. I am the best mother today as my DS (6) came by the plot with me briefly after school, and I let him wee on the compost heap.

Lovely spuds, WhoKnows ! Are you growing them again this year?

arosepetal · 14/04/2015 21:51

Thanks for your replies, spoke with my Dad earlier who was working in my garden a couple of days ago, and he thinks he spotted a vole scurrying around!

Think I'm going to have to protect everything now!

IAmcuriousyellow · 14/04/2015 22:22

TheSpottedZebra, I think people often plant potatoes first in compacted clay ground as they break it up a bit for you.. might save you some digging?

AlternativeTentacles · 15/04/2015 07:22

I am derbyshire and all three Amelanchiers are flowering, so it wont be long. Yippee!

Put a load of plants out to take to the gardens today to pot on, and got loads of seedlings to plant out. Gonna be a good day today if all pans out well.

PeaceOfWildThings · 15/04/2015 07:41

Signing up! Not sure if I'm leaving it too late though.

Returned from a trip to B&Q with propagators, various veggie seed packets, a few plants (I left them outside on the patio last night and now am worried a frost might have killed them.) These are mainly for DD but I've also got some herbs for me and I'm going to start putting creeping thyme around the edges of the patchy areas of grass in the more neglected bits of the garden. I might dig one area up and put some veg in, if I have time.
Wondering about making a raised bed.

LetThereBeCupcakes · 15/04/2015 08:01

Welcome WildThings! Where in the country are you? I'm in Wiltshire and have only got potatoes in the ground so far so you've definitely got loads of time to catch up. We're quite spread around here - as you can see those of us oop north are still getting frosts!

Zebra I forgot to open my greenhouse doors before I left for work yesterday - by the time I got home at lunch time it was like an oven in there! My poor plants had all wilted, but once it cooled down and I gave them a good drink they perked up considerably.

I am tempted to buy an Amelanchier, purely so I can compare flowering times with everybody else....

WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes · 15/04/2015 08:10

Zebra - i've no idea what variety they were, it's several years since i planted them initially, but normally get a few in that bed every year. i neglected in last year in favour of the allotment (it's in the garden), I'm planning to fill it with strawberry plants this year, I was going to put black membrane down and plant through that but I think I might get potato plants pushing it up! Might just put strawberries and get straw to keep them off the soil.

AlternativeTentacles · 15/04/2015 08:44

Here's a shot of mine in my tiny front garden this morning.

The 2015 Allotment / Veg Patch Thread Part 2
IAmcuriousyellow · 15/04/2015 08:55

Thats a lovely thing, I dont think I've seen/noticed one before. Reminds me f hazel flowers?

shovetheholly · 15/04/2015 09:05

Wow, that's beautiful AlternativeTentacles. I do love a good amelanchier. One of those plants that just dances, if you know what I mean.

I got a couple of rows of spuds in last night - hooray! I'm digging over my plot for the first time, and it is slow work. The site was infested with bindweed, which the council then rotavated so it has been chopped into a million billion tiny pieces ready to resprout. I am trying to be so careful - I dig every bed twice to go over it thoroughly, but I know I will be missing some so anticipate a big battle over summer.

I rather fear I have overdone it on the spud ordering. I planted 20 last night - first earlies (Winston and Foremost). I still have some left, plus my salad (pink fir) and maincrop to go in. I have at least another 30 tubers to go. There are only two of us. Confused. I am slightly concerned about blight (tis wet here), so wondering if I should spray?? I don't like doing this - the whole of the rest of the plot is organic. If anyone has suggestions, they'd be really welcome.

violetwellies · 15/04/2015 09:15

I beat bindweed in a previous garden, once I du out what roots I could see, I just pulled out the tops as they grew, they go a considerable distance in a very short time so morning and night (sometimes more often) I just pulled what I could see.
It took ages but wasn't hard work.
Cats however were a sight more tenacious, significantly deterred but not eliminated by a mulch of holly leaves Grin

shovetheholly · 15/04/2015 09:23

That's reassuring, violet!

I have heard that you can plant Mexican marigold (tagetes minuta) to kill off bindweed, but I'm worried about such awesome thuggish power in terms of whether it will also kill my veg seedlings.

Also, the plant's nickname, 'Stinking Roger', does not fill me with confidence. I do not want to pong out my allotment neighbours.

I wonder whether tamer varieties of marigold might work?