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 had an allotment a few years ago - I got it when DD was 1, and had it for 6 years. I really loved it, but couldn't give it the time I needed to (it was a 20 min drive and further 15 min walk, with all tools as no sheds allowed, for each trip, and as I was still working FT and then DH was away 50% of the time, the last 2 years were really hard).

I remember the first year was pretty hard getting started, but DH was around and did a lot of the initial heavy digging with me. We planted a lot of potatoes and onions (we did that every year, but 1st 2 years were our best), and I got a load of brassica plants - something like 15 each of cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli - from either Suttons or Thompsons and put them into another bed. We dug a bed, planted it up, then dug the next section....and managed to get half the plot cleared that spring!!

Covering patches with weed suppressant membrane or cardboard worked well on beds we wanted to put things like brassicas and courgettes/pumpkins/squashes. To plant the plants through holes and keep weeds down. We planted one bed completely in fruit bushes (raspberries, blackcurrants, redcurrants, gooseberries and rhubarb) - which was great!!! And we grew plenty of broad beans, peas and a few wigwams of French beans and borlotti beans too. Lettuces and spring onions were tried, and carrots, but none worked great (slugs and carrot fly). Parsnips were decent though, and Brussels sprouts when I grew those from seed (after the 1st year).

The hard parts were lugging the tools, lugging water from the tap in watering cans (about 7 mins one way across the plots! and not smooth enough to use a wheelbarrow) and trying to get rid of the scutch grass. But we got some great results from it and it's what encouraged me to get more intensive with my planting in the garden. (It was also great to disappear up there for 3-4 hours and spend time mindlessly weeding and digging, NOT worrying about work or house things, just letting them flit through my mind and solutions often flitted through as well to problems ).

Anyway, I am happy to see life getting going in the back garden again.

spotted - I only have ever composted rhubarb leaves , but I can't think why you couldn't use them as a mulch. I have a lovely recipe for rhubarb and vanilla jam, if you want it?
Plumping - is it a very new crown? mine took about 2-3 years to really establish , and one of them i thought had died the second year, but it came back. They do like the sun, but we put a humungous amount of compost on them before the leaves break - about 4-6" every year. They are greedy. Oh just seen its in a container - watering is very tricky- can I suggest a real drowning but only once a week? It may be the minimal every day isn't getting down to the roots properly, just damping the top - best way to check is stick your finger in as far as possible and see if it is dry or wet , or water until you see the damp draining through the bottom of the pot

Biddy what a shame that you had to give up your plot, but 20 mins drive and a 15 min walk is really quite a lot! I'm very lucky that mine is so close. I totally agree with you re the mindlessness. It's just totally absorbing in a very gentle way, for me. I'm not into meditation or anything like that, but I think that gardening/garden pottering is my version of meditation.

agoodbook I would LOVE your recipe please! Or any other rhubarb suggestions. So far I have done crumble, just baked it, just steamed it, just microwaved it. And given some away. I'm going for a bakewell thing today too. I have a stash of jars all ready for jam making, but I've never made rhubarb jam before...

Plumping I'm very lucky wrt to my rhubarb. I've had my allotment for about 2.5 months (SO LONG already ) and inherited a weed-filled plot and a falling down shed. BUT the rhubarb was the previous owner's pride and joy, so I also inherited a very well - tended and healthy set of plants.

spotted -rhubarb jam is my daughters absolute favourite - I made it in desperation (!) about 3 years ago, and now I have to make it !
Luckily all my family come around to eat at least once, and maybe twice a week, so I can use up rhubarb, but do please let it rest as well - it needs to build up for another year- I only pull it for about 6 weeks, and then just an occasional treat- but thats also why I have 3 varieties, so I have a continuous supply - one is only just peeking out now :)
biddy thats sounds like hard work all the travelling/walking - you have to be dedicated to keep that up. Mine is a goodish way, so I have to plan when I can go to make best use of my time.

Recipe !!

Rhubarb and Vanilla Jam

1 kg Rhubarb, weighed after trimming, cut into 3 cm chunks
1 kg Jam Sugar ( or 1kg caster sugar + 1 x 8gm sachet of pectin )
2 Vanilla Pods, halved lengthwise
Juice of 1 Lemon

3 x 1lb Jam Jars

Put rhubarb, sugar and vanilla pods into a pan.
Heat gently, stirring until the sugar has dissolved, then squeeze in the lemon juice and increase the heat.
Boil for about 10 minutes- test for setting ( 105º on a jam thermometer)

Jar up!

Ooh lovely, thanks so much for recipe! I love making jam - it's another thing that I find really restful.

A mix of varieties is a good idea - mine must all be the same, a relatively early one. I don't think I'm at he stage of needing to rest it yet (see pic) - and I only pick every few days, and only a bit from each crown.

Thanks goodbook! I am WFH today pottering in garden and have given them a thorough drenching. I think I've been erring on the side of caution and underwatering rather than overwatering, which is possibly not the best choice considering the roasting weather recently. I also stuck my finger in the tomato pots, clucked at the state of their compost and gave them a nice bath. My plants thank you!

spottedzebra that sounds amazing, I'd love a gift of a well-established rhubarb bet the previous owner was gutted to leave it! I was actually pondering what I'd do if we moved and I had to decide whether to take the grapevine with me or not.... I can picture poor new tenants moving into our house and discovering I'd decimated the nice garden. Surely that must happen occasionally?

Here isy spot in the garden to put herbs. I am wondering whether to plonk a raised bed here, as it will be teeming with wweeds soon and I won't be able to contend with that.

Here is DD's patch for growing veggies. As the soil is not very deep, I think a raised bed wall would be prudent here too.

Here is the patch I want to make into a raised bed garden. Not a gad size, at 3m+ × 8 m. That burned stump can be chopped down and we can have a seat over it. I was all ready to dig up the turf yesterday but then I realised that it would become very uneven, and perhaps leaving the turf underneath plastic, with paving and gravel on top, would make for better pathways between the raised beds. Any thoughts?

plumping - some of my rhubarb is the same. It's barely through so far (I don't have forcing pots). I have three different varieties, and there is about 2 months difference between the earliest and the latest, but it is all really late compared to last year. So do not despair! It may just need a bit longer. However (prepare yourself) - if plants are new and a bit on the weedy side, sometimes it's best not to pick in the first year. Sorry. I know it's really disappointing. But if the plants gets a chance to ready itself, you should have a bumper crop next year. Apparently they like lots and lots of manure.

Zebra - I seriously recommend ringing around stables for manure because I'm sure one of them in your area will be dying to get rid of the stuff for free. It's not the nicest job digging it out (especially not last year, when I slipped on a really wet day and landed full length in the bloody stuff), but it's pretty expensive to buy, so worth it.

The first thing that's going in my greenhouse are all the seeds that are currently on every surface in the house, which is driving both my cat and husband mad!

Oh, and zebra I meant to add - one strange thing I found with really, really heavy clay was that if I timed the digging right it got a lot easier. But there was a kind of a knife-edge to it. Too early, and it was wet and tended to produce lumps like iron (as well as being back-breaking); too late and it had set and you needed a mattock to get through it! Frustrating!

Sorry for the bitty posts - rhubarb - I cook it up with sugar in a massive cauldron (while perfecting my witch impression, hubble bubble etc etc) then bag it up in the freezer. It doesn't take long and it gives me a great standby when unwittingly poisoning cooking for guests

Agree with shove about working with clay soil. It is fundamentally clay here, and in the garden I grew up with. Ime it is worth working in fibrous compost and sand and year on year, it is possible to recondition it.
We kept chickens for a bit and threw the egg shells and chicken poo on the place we are now looking to grow our veg. That's helped somehow.Emptying the composter onto it has done no harm.

Dad had to take a rotavator to their big veg plot every year. They composted everything possible and that helped there.

Good evening everyone!
I managed a couple of hours at the allotment today.
My peas have germinated! ( under the fleece,) so I have sowed a row next to them,( not under fleece) to hopefully crop about 2-3 weeks later. I also direct sowed a small row of parsnips ( maybe a week or two early ) a row of beetroot, and a row of spinach.
It is just so dry -could do with some rain now!
At home, I sowed into pots the next 2 varieties of broccoli, some calabrese and first lot of savoy cabbage.
peace thats looking a lovely sunny spot for herbs . Couldn't see the picture for the veg plot though - that could be a plan for the paths .
I was pleased that the shallot sets i planted only a few weeks ago have done well - I was worried it was too cold. It will be interesting to compare yields to the the ones I planted to overwinter in October - heres a pic from today to show them - sorry about all the nets and bricks :)

Thanks shove. I was already braced to have to leave them alone for the first year. I just want to see them get going and prove that they have the will to live!

Now that I've picked your brains over rhubarb, can I ask about broccoli? Again, it's in full sun and has been out for ages. It's recently been planted in a bed so I was hoping it would skyrocket, but no. Any tips please?

I'm looking forward to it being warm enough to put my tomatoes out, truthfully. I KNOW tomatoes and it gives me a pleasant ego boost to see the little buggers thrive. It's just everything else I can't do

you have planted out your broccoli? I am only just sowing mine !
Is it sprouting or headed (calabrese)?
They are slow growing, so don't panic. They grow behind your back :) It shouldn't matter being in full sun, but again, water while they are babies :)

Plumping - when did you put your broccoli in? And is it ordinary broccoli, or purple sprouting? The latter is notorious for taking aaaaaages to come - a year! So it may just be too early still!

There are varieties that can overwinter. I put these plants in during October/November. This photo was taken about 4 weeks ago - the heads are now enormous. The heads are purple, but (rather confusingly) this is an ordinary broccoli, not a purple sprouting one! It retains its colour when cooked.

Oops, I posted the same questions as good book - sorry

Ok so talked to DH about the potential raised bed veggie garden here...where paths would go around etc...

...and this is what DH did (Side view of same plot, later today)...he dug a fire pit!

Peace a fire pit? doesn't he like veggies?
shove that broccoli looks great - which variety please :)

Agoodbook he thinks my ideas sounded expensive and harder work overall, and the fire pit is something he's wanted for ages. I might be able to use it for raku pottery firing if it's big enough, who knows. I'm going to get a couple of small raised beds at one end, and try to use found materials/what we've got to make and decorate them. Also try to figure out what to do about seating & that mound, around the fire pit.

goodbook I'm away this weekend, but will check for you as soon as I get back. I want to say 'jazz' but I think I just made that up!!

peace - haha! Maybe there's a way of doing circular raised beds around it??!

Plans are afoot for 2 square raised beds at the furthest point away from the 'fire pit' (although DH is now saying it isn't a firepit any more, it's a 'seating area'). I might be able to use some of the earth that came out of it in them, too. I just want to get the grass covered up before it gets too long, and sort out the ground cover. We have old paving slabs left about and bricks, so can use those.

We (due to popular demand) have focused on DS's little plot he's a fan of instant gardening so stuck some reduced primroses in and finally planted two rosemary, that have been, ahem hardening off since last year.
The celery I sowed has done nothing, nor have the courgette, but as DS drowned
watered them, they were outside draining off so will probably do better when moved to the Rayburn mantelpiece.
Other than that we're having lots of new arrivals so a bit busy