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

Morning! - lovely alternative - neither of mine quite there yet!
shove on too many potatoes - if no blight, no problem as long as you have the space! :)
If you don't want to spray - if you see blight on your leaves , cut off the leaves to stop the blight travelling down into the potato, that can save them and early croppers are better for this
Also bindweed - I inherited it on my plot and its slowly slowly, but constant digging out is starting to show dividends - but my does it grow down! We are on chalk with a shallow soil depth - its very gravelly down there in the subsoil and the roots dive down into that and its murder trying to get it dug out, but very satisfying - and yes during growing season I just take off as much growth as is possible to get to

I'm pulling nettles out from where the hives are going to be sited - the ground is just loose enough for me to be able to get long strings of root out as well, so that's fun (I am in motorcycle gloves though)

And then the nettles are going into a water butt to be soaked in water and used as liquid fertiliser.

We won't ever fancy weeding under the hives I shouldnt think! So we're planning to put down a membrane and then a thick layer of gravel/ scalpings.

I just pull bindweed out as i see it, never get rid of it totally but keep it to manageable proportions, i quite enjoy doing it. i dig out the roots as best i can, but once things are growing it's just a case of keeping pulling it out.

IAm tell me more about this nettle fertilizer! We have loads of nettles.

LetThereBe - not just nettles! I put my really naughty weeds in an onion sack and dunk it in a bin filled with water, cover and leave it to steep. I then dilute it in a watering can and use it as a foliar feed
www.greenlifesoil.com.au/sustainable-gardening-tips/liquid-fertiliser

Agoodbook that sounds excellent!

I have three water butts by the polytunnel, one is rammed with nettles and water, another with comfrey and water and one that has two pillowcases filled with wood ash suspended in the water from a pole. The first year I made wood ash tea I just dumped it all in and added water, but it made such thick sludge at the bottom the water wouldnt run through so this year I'm trying the tea bag method.

I use whichever feed I think individual plants need - as I understand it the three liquids correspond to N P K, so nettles promote strong leaf growth, the comfrey promotes fruit and flowers and wood ash supports root growth. I use the wood ash sparingly though, and as it's more diluted this year I'm hoping I've got it right.

Nettles and comfrey go in roots, leaves, mud, snails and all. Water up to the top, lid on, and wait a week or so. I dont usually dilute it, and if the level gets low then top up with more plants and water. In the winter I empty out the sludge and put it on the compost.

Iamcurious that is brilliant. I never thought of making feed teas actually in the waterbutt, and the pillow teabag is a stroke of genius.

Thank you! I was ever so puffed up with myself!

Thank you for the welcome! I'm not as far south as Wiltshire, just above you on the map Cupcakes.

I've spent most of the lovely morning tending to plants I bought yesterday, which were fine (apart from some pot bound thyme) playing with propagators and seeds (which took far longer than expected) weeding out dandilions from between paving slabs and gravel areas (I sprayed these areas last year, but now we are growing food there's to be no more spraying. We can eat the dandilions in the lawn.)

We have bindweed in our little veg patch. It was really a rubble/shrub patch when we got here and have spent 3 years digging it out, but the bindweed and slugs keep coming back. About 8" down there is an old stone path across it too, so not much room for derp roots. So today I've decided to make some small raised beds there, and do some more in another patch of weedy grass at the far end of the garden.

Oh, please can anyone recommend a good place to get creeping thyme? Preferably little plugs rather than just seeds.

We make comfrey and nettle teabags, but not in pillows. We make holes in milk cartons - the plastic ones, and then stuff it full of comfrey and nettles and then just pop it in the waterbutt. then once the season is over, we take them out, let them dry out, add the dried almost powder to the compost bin and put the plastic in the recycle bin. Ash just goes straight around fruit trees and bushes.

Creeping thyme - I have seen already in garden centres; just but a few plants and separate them out.

AlternativeTentacles I like that! I use plastic bottles as little cloches, but there's always far too many. I'm going to try that.

Does thyme stand up to some hammer? My son's little garden (he mostly waters stuff and points out nettles for me to remove) has an edge of sandstone rocks and rubble slabs, they get a bit of traffic could I replace the weeds grass with creeping thyme?

Yes, it's pretty good for that sort of thing once established. Heather is tougher though if you want something to take a lot of footfall). I'm going to use it to replace the dandilions I've taken out from the cracks between paving, so not an area that gets mown.

I've found that the robustness of thyme depends on the soil a bit! My Dad grows it in a bit of East Anglia where they have the same annual rainfall as Israel (yes, really), and it is tough as old boots. It tends to sulk and moan a lot more on my heavy clay, so I need to have it in a pot where I can give it more grit.

Alternative that's a great way of using up bottles. I have been searching the house for some old pillowcases that I know I have somewhere, but cannot find, so I might try to do it in a bottle instead!

No plotting for me yesterday, but I did get a good few hours in the garden. There was a lot of pottering, but I did also get some jobs done too! I cut back a giant cotoneaster, did 2nd mow of lawns of the year, repotted/refreshed various containers and potted-on some bits and bobs. That seems a short list, but I was busy, honest! Oh, I erected a new (cheapy from ebay) arch, moved the grow house to a sunnier spot, weeded the drive and patio.

I will get to plot today - it was scorching yesterday, too much for me really, but is a lot cooler today though still lovely. More tidying up on the plot I think, and maybe I'll sow something in my new bed. I think I'll also get another arch for the plot, and try to train a squash up it. I am going vertical to get more room! I have a few squash seeds but I don't seem to have one that explicity says climbing, so may be ed to buy MORE SEEDS! Gem squash, does that climb? Maybe. I have seeds for that.

It's so interesting to read about the various teas. I must get on to that, albeit on a much smaller scale. I've never actually seen comfrey I don't think - I've read lots about it, and know about Bocking 14 but not seen it. Maybe I'll ask my fellow 'hippies ' (as the few who don't weedkiller everything are known at the site), if they have some? But I can get on to the nettle tea asap. I also have a secret stash of nettles in a bit behind my garden where no one goes and dogs can't reach, so the nettles are lovely for eating.

Oooh, excited. We get a few days every year when our garden looks at it's absolute best, and it has all just kicked in. Flowering cherry, flowering currant, a big drift of snowy spiraea flowers, rosemary all in full flower, a few jolly dandelions, first bluebells, a sea of blue muscari and a drift of blue speedwell in the lawn. it will only last a few days, but it's fabulous.

I have just planted creeping thyme plugs that I got from an ebay seller in my newly revamped garden.

Did the nemaslugs yesterday and planted my runner beans.

Also.planted a really beautiful primula innesfree in the revamped garden. I am hoping it naturalises as I want more of it!

Come on you lot share some pics! Your gardens are sounding wonderful.

Wanted to do some bits in the greenhouse yesterday but it was just too hot! I did manage to repot all of my houseplants though, and sow a few more seeds that didn't germinate first time 'round (I killed my marigolds and I suspect the "strawberry sticks" I thought had germinated are actually just weeds).

Love the idea of making liquid fertilizers in water butts! Genius. My garden is looking better this year then ever mostly due to fantastic tips (and motivation) I'm getting here. Thanks everybody!

Mink - I have always been a bit envious of my neighbour's primroses, they finally self seeded themselves in our garden 2 or 3 years ago. Adding those and aubretia to the list of things that are all looking great out there at the moment.

Just logged in for 5 minutes free headspace ( darling grandson 2 years old had tonsils out about an hour ago, and off to help this afternoon ) and read all the posts , so dashed out to take a couple of pictures. Yes your primroses will self seed- photo is just a little area at the front - its the same fence from both sides- they are all over my lawn round the side, in fact everywhere! and they are lovely - and- they have self seeded in what was originally weed membrane with pots on top!
Hoping to get to allotment tomorrow- been neglected this week.

Some pictures of my garden, which is around 3 weeks behind . The oldest beds are only 3 years old, and some are only 2 years old, and I had to buy really small plants to keep costs down so it's not looking very full yet, but fingers crossed for this year....

And here is a photo to show what it looked like 3 years ago. That's not me but my friend (who is an excellent gardener) giving me a supportive pair of hands.

goodbook I love your primroses. How prettily they've sown themselves! And your ?acer looks magnificent.

Wow holly what a difference! You must be so proud of it. Did you design it all yourself?

I love your hellebore. I'm a bit of a hellebore nut. I've only got one at the moment - I'm desperate to build up my collection.