The 2015 Allotment / Veg Patch Thread Part 3 already!

[agoodbook]

Just seen the other is full , so here goes - we are heading for summer now! Welcome to everyone old and new :)

here is a link to the previous thread

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/gardening/2350947-The-2015-Allotment-Veg-Patch-Thread-Part-2?msgid=54546739

OMG zebra so many courgettes, and so healthy looking. I'm just off to water mine and speak words of comfort to them good job my nearest neighbour is half a mile away

hi,, but am going for a green one this year -( Genovese which is supposed to have a nice flavour ) I grew the yellow atena polka last year- it may just have been the year, but they seemed to rot at the end more than others I've grown.
spotted - are you watering from above ?- they can get white spots on them when watered and then sat in the sun. They are looking big enough, but maybe in slightly small pots - they do need to be in the ground to get going. I personally will be putting mine out when they have been outside at home for about 7 days, as they have a bit more protection , and I can move them around out of the wind if need be. Saturday here has another wind warning !

Poor courgettes one was completely beyond words of comfort, oh well, room for something else

spotted - I have just re-read your post . I don't believe you know what a glut is until courgettes start to take over your life as mentioned earlier, DH pleaded with me to only grow 2 this year!

oh violet -:(

Thanks agoodbook and violet !. They are needing potting on or planting out, aren't they? I am watering them from below, but having to do it such a lot (er, as the pots are too small...) that it's probably very likely that I am not as careful as I could and should be. So maybe tomorrow, or Sun after the next wind? Ooh, decisions!

Shame that you have a casualty, violet How many have you left?

agoodbook I do like courgettes, but yes, I suspect that I have gone a bit OTT with them. If I'd just trim it back to one plant of each it'd not be that bad, but I have a few. And my DS has informed me that he doesn't like courgette anymore. Yes son, you will. I could palm a plant or 2 on my sister, but that then means that I can't palm actual courgettes onto her. Hmmm..

you'll be palming a lot of courgettes!

I have 4 1/2 courgettes left, One is a bit ragged at the bottom and will probably break off if it carries on blowing, but the others are probably (slugs allowing) okay. Just not really getting away and a slightly windburned.
I grew beetroot last year as salad leaves, and am thinking of mixing seed in with the mixed salad for successive sowing. Probably after the Wind drops

I'm struggling to keep up with this thread! Very inspiring.

Anyway, cucamelons. My first time with them, like a PP I bought them because I have a cucumber devouring DC, but also because said DC wanted to try them after seeing them on the Great Allotment Challenge. They are growing well, but very spindly and look far too small to go out. I might put them under cloches I think. My courgettes and tomatoes are still looking too vulnerable for planting out too, healthy, but still very small.

Had a good planting session today though, actually two sessions. Got celery and sweetcorn in, also runner beans. Also a bit of weeding. I need to get up there with the strimmer and tidy my edges tomorrow, plus dig out the section the tomatoes and courgettes are destined for. The tomatoes will be close to the potatoes, which I hope isn't too risky for blight, I didn't plan that very well.

I have my salad leaves in the greenhouse violet to get germinating - grandson helped me, and they are going beserk, but rather over to one side of the pot- he was an enthusiastic waterer , and the seeds all flooded to one side- nearly the whole packet

DS was very interested in the cucurbits until he realised we weren't growing actual cucumbers, if we get as far as fruiting will they taste anything like cucumbers?

He likes salad (and raw mushrooms) but not keen on peppers and I've just read that cooked fat baby taste like green pepper - he will be so disappointed

my planning is very scientific in January, on paper. Reality is somewhat different WhoKnows ! But yes, my courgettes got planted out on Sunday, with the first of my squashes, but the other variety are still at home - nothing is really growing away

this year I restricted myself to one courgette plant.
my spare seedlings went to a friend and the runty ones are growing nicely on a verge.
last year I had 3 plants and we had courgette every day for few good months and the freezer full (still have some frozen left) and gave them away left right and centre.

I still have to plant a squash on squash mountain. Only i have two understudy plants. One squash, one courgette and the labels have blown off. There's no way to tell them apart is there
Already got 2 courgettes in.

I do expect the Atena courgettes to be lower yielding and to have more problems than Defender. I'm hoping they are tasty to make up for it, and that the fact that I will get fewer of them will mean I'm not so overwhelmed with courgettes as I was last year with three high yielding plants!

A true glut is a strange thing from an emotional perspective. On the one hand, you feel so proud. On the other, you also feel that you absolutely must use every last veggie, which actually becomes stressful. I think I became a bit of a vegetable pusher, wheedling my friends and family into accepting bags of them. Also, my house smelt strongly of vinegar from all the chutney making.

BiL had 13 (yes 13) plants last year and swears he wasn't overwhelmed. I say he did something wrong in that case!

Oh and I need some advice.

I'm growing loads of stuff in my new greenhouse and most of it is doing well. I've got stuff to germinate that is supposed to be quite challenging, like Meconopsis.

But guess what I cannot get to grow FOR THE LIFE OF ME?

RUNNER BEANS!

What the bloody hell is going on? Three lots of white lady, planted from late April to last week, have failed. No sign of three identical lots of lingua di fuoco either. I've also planted both outdoors, straight into the soil, two weeks ago. Not a bleedin' sausage.

I do, however, have a healthy number of climbing bean 'Cobra'.

Harumph. Any advice on what I might be doing wrong appreciated.

Gosh, I'm getting Courgette Doubt now. Shove, you're (of course) totally right about the emotional effects of a glut. It's like the veg suddenly represent your hard work, and hopes, and dreams. And you can't waste a single one. So if people decline said veg.... I have no worries about having too many tomatoes as they've so versatile, as long as I have the time to do stuff wit them, but maybe I've been a bit toppy with my courgettes. I still expect a large percentage of my plants to die, that's why I over sow I think. But so far, they're all seeming relatively healthy. I only threw 1 tomato plant away as well - not sure what happened to it, it grew well at first but then went a bit floppy. On chucking, its root system turned out to be a bit rubbish - much much less formed than its brethren. Well, still time to do a bit of guerilla courgetting, a la mousmous !

Odd about your runners, Shove. I've grown both those beans happily this year, and I didn't do anything fancy ie no chitting. I just put them in some MPC and watered a bit, and kept them inside in a plastic bag until there were signs of life, then took the bag off and ensured they got lots of light. Did you start them off inside? Maybe the outside ones will pop up now it's getting warmer? My mum's beans ,shoved I the ground a few weeks ago have only just shown their heads.

Oh, bad news on the cucurbit conundrum mink. Could you grow them on a bit more til they ID themselves, before planting? Would anyone on here know a way to tell them apart? BenSquash not yet planted either, but plot people are starting to ask just what is that plastic-covered lump? Can't say that anyone has been that delighted by the reply, though.

hi, quick jump in while DGS has lunchtime nap.
The only thing I have noticed differently between courgettes and squashes is when they get going, the squash has long runners going everywhere, like triffids , with longer tendril between the leaves, while the courgettes tend to be more 'clump' forming, though still on short runners - don't know if that makes sense or helps at all!
shove - its been a strange year for beans - cobra popped up as normal, but first lot of white lady rotted , and the climbing lingua , about 5-6 germinated in the first lot, and nearly all the second lot. I put them in individual pots in compost, water, pop a plastic bag over them and keep inside on my trusty kitchen windowsill until germinated, just like spotted But they were slow this year, no doubt about it, its infuriating .
I am having almost as much trouble with basil for goodness sake - I had it coming out of my ears last year.
Courgettes - 1 courgette per plant per 1-3 days. Lovely to start with ... a pain later. But I do have a very good courgette brownie recipe if anyone needs it for later :) and I put them in virtually everything else - particularly soup/ pasta sauce and roasted veg medley.
I will be honest and say I didn't notice much difference in flavour beyween the yellow and green courgettes last year - but that may just be my tastebuds failing!

Spotted - Thanks, its more getting the time between the kiddies to start it all, they'll more enjoy the picking of everything and ds loves watering them. My ds (2) will happily play in mud with bugs for the entire day but my dd (1) is scared of grass and needs more supervision won't tolerate the hit in her usual level of attention so I'm mostly doing everything for an hour after they've settled in bed.

My raspberries are looking a bit sad and droopy today and the soil is just as wet as I left it yesterday so dug them up to spread the roots along the ground a bit more, removed the mulch and popped some bamboom covering to give them time to establish some new root hairs. Will leave them a couple of days sheltered I think. I tweeted the garden centre this morning as two of the canes are still bare so they've said to cut them down and if nothing in a month to bring the pot back and they'll exchange. I'm wondering if I should cut them all down to get them to concentrate on their roots? On the plus it looks like the strawberries are starting to fruit and my pepper, cucumber and tomato plants are looking good

I have two more 40l bags of compost to use up so have ordered some more border roll for our main raised bed, it'll be ok in the bag for a week or so? Also back to the garden centre today for kids gardeners sets for my ds, neice and nephew. luckily will have the kids in tow for damage limitation so I don't end up prematurely buying a trolley full of plants before we've finished the garden!

Shove Runner beans have germinated well for me this year. I did nothing special, just put them in the pot and every one came up within a week. So I can't offer any advice on germination as I did nothing special. However my french beans are stubbornly refusing to do anything in pots in the house. Not a single one has bothered to germinate. I'm starting to wonder whether the seed is any good.
We've direct sown some in the allotment so maybe they'll grow instead.
Since planting out the first lot of beans 1 has died and a couple of others look decidedly ropey. Then I planted out the second lot last week which perhaps wasn't such a great move considering all the wind.

Haven't got over there this week and we had a big hail storm this morning so no idea how the plants are getting on. We will be planting out our squashes, pumpkins and sweetcorn this weekend. The pumpkins have some flowers forming so they definitely need to get in the ground.

Zebra - at some point, you're going to wake up and realise that you are an AWESOME gardener, for whom everything thrives

good book - I think you've hit it spot on. I just went to have a look in the greenhouse and there are signs of life in a couple of the final lot of beans I planted! HOORAY! I wonder if they have been slow because of the cold weather? So interesting that we've both had no problems with cobra.

Cedar - I'm keeping my fingers crossed for your beans. They are tough once they are through, so I am hopeful for you!

Oh and maybe we should have a glut recipes thread! Would be nice to be able to find them all in one place, as I get confused with these big threads and I can't remember whether it was in part one or two that I read about something! (I am terrible at copying things down properly, somewhere I won't throw them away!)

I find that shove I spend more time scrolling through the threads looking for a half remembered must have bit of gardening wisdom than I do actual gardening.

I've just made the pet lambs their milk then I'm heading out with a sickle, I'm going to behead nettles and thistles before they flower

Oh violet how lovely! I am thinking of you while stuck at my desk, and vicariously enjoying your afternoon!

Ooh pet lambs!

Well, had my first day on the plot and what a beautiful day it was for it.

I'll sleep tonight though. The recent rain followed by the warm weather has certainly done wonders for the weeds and I spent the first half hour just looking at it thinking 'where do I start?!'.

I walked over the plot, removed various bricks, rocks and large branches. Have dug out about half of the worst weedy bits. Plan of action is to cut down everything else and cover with weed suppressant membrane for paths, then dig out my beds. Have made a start on this but need to get something to peg down the membrane.

It sounds like your garden is coming on lovely story