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

I'm worried my swede won't push through though as the soil will still be quite compacted? Has anyone tried it?

I'm worried my swede won't push through though as the soil will still be quite compacted? Has anyone tried it?
Yes. But when you turn the soil upside down, the roots are left on the top and you can plant into that so it isn't too compacted at all. The idea though is to plant spuds the first year, although you can in theory put anything in it; we put spuds and sweetcorn in yr 1. But as long as you plant it well, swede will be fine. Just remember there will be compated soil, plus whatever you use to mulch, so cardboard/compost/shredded paper and then the upturned turfs all on top of the compacted area.

I have the same problem in our orchard, but I am getting around it by putting about 50 sweetcorns, plus all the spare squashes in between all the trees. And then I'm just going to leave it. I'm mowing it in the morning and me and the bulb planter will be planting out tomorrow. The squashes and corn should swamp out much of the weeds, and hopefully help to break down the structure so that when we go back to it in the autumn, the grass might be kept down and we can level it properly and plant new trees.

afternoon!
just got in and read the posts
cupcakes - when mine were little, I loved June - I could spend a carefree hour (after they were put to bed) in the garden! Lovely pics ( and DS!) ooh , and gooseberry crumble for tea?
story - I am growing my peppers in the greenhouse - I am in Yorkshire, so don't think they will be warm enough outside - maybe others know better? - its my first time of growing them .Blackberries are true thugs -you can try and keep it in the pot, but don't turn your back on it, it will be off and putting down roots (off tips) before you know it. I have a big garden, but eventually got rid of mine, as it just popped up everywhere...but I love the fruit :)
Diet - I'm nosey too :). With the swede - maybe worth planting up in plugs to get them going, then plant out into the lazy bed ? I've just sown some seed, so may be worth a thought.
And totally non veg - my favourite oriental poppy is just opening out , so it is now officially summer

alternative an orchard ? - I like the idea of a solar water pump as well. Me too on the using up frozen fruit - I am making compote like mad - maybe ice cream instead - sounds like a great idea

I have a question, a stupid question, do I need to net everything I have growing? At the mo everything has been in just a fortnight at most and is growing nicely, but most things are still covered with either fleece or cloches. Will everything get chomped if I don't net it all? Can I get away with just slug gravel and covering my brassicas? I'm concerned about my courgette plants as they have been such a pain to get started, i'd hate to lose them to the pidgeons. To net or not to net, that is the question!!

I net:
peas so that they don't get pea moth; whilst they are flowering
gooseberries just as they ripen or they all get eaten overnight
leeks all the time or I'll get leek moth
carrots if not grown with onions or they will get root fly

I use organic slug pellets at the allotment whilst things are just getting going, and then I leave them. Pigeons if you have them will strip all brassicas before they get big enough to get started.

I've never netted a courgette though so once they get going they should be ok...

Hi Linski ! - pigeons go for leafy veg, so at my plot, I net brassicas and peas . Slugs go for anything juicy, so the soft growth on courgettes, young leaves and fruit - once a courgette has established, they tend to not munch so much on the tougher stems. Fruit is open season for any bird - blackbirds adore strawberries/currants/raspberries :)

x post! - interesting- I have never netted leeks!

Alternative, did you put the spuds deep into the soil or just on top and then covered them with the mulch? Also what happens to the trench either side? Did you fill it with soil or just leave it?

My bargain hunting DH brought me this offering of potatoes yesterday. So romantic . Shall I bin them or just try putting them into the lazy bed? I'm not too fussed if they fail but don't want to go to the effort if they're likely too.

agoodbook will do that with the swede. Thanks . Sometimes it's the simplest of things that a more experienced gardener says that makes me slap my forehead and say 'oh yeah, I'll do that.'

In what's feeling a bit like Groundhog Day, today I went to the plot, did some watering, looked sadly at the poor state of my yellowing beans, and planted out a couple of... courgettes. I also weeded the bed where I'll eventually move the kale to (soon, really!) and put some raab in. I had planted 2 rows of beets and 1 of turnip. And I got a load of chickweed, a couple of misformed beets and the smallest turnip in the world. Pathetic. Why do I always fail with beets? The ground there is not so great I think, it's really really stony, also shaded for half the day. But hardly any had germinated. V disappointing. A busy couple of days so I won't now get up there 'til Friday, so the kale remains caged by plastic, and the (more!) courgettes which will go in their place are still in pots. And I had a dig around of my sickly yard long beans that I never did plant out, but also hadn't quite given up on... There was some tiny grub thing in the soil, eating the roots. So they've been binned, finally, along with a goji sucker shoot that didn't take, and some chomped marigold seedlings. I still have more marigolds, but goodness me they are slow to grow.

So all in all, more failures than successes today. Hey ho.

Ooh, but I did chat to someone I've not met before at allotment who will take a rhubarb crown from me in the winter. I have too much, it is taking up too much room and it needs dividing anyway. So good to know that it will have a home. And he in turn will give me some more rasp canes, which will go where the rhubarb was...

The spuds go on top of the mulch, and then the turf gets folded over the top of the spuds. The deturfed area just gets left, and the whole bed will become a lovely crumbly bed going to the new lawn edge in a year's time.

spotted - we all have these days.
About 3 years ago the same with my beans, just sad and yellow. Basically, they were put out a bit too soon. I foliar fed them for a week, the weather improved, and they ended up fine, if just a little later on the harvest. I haven't planted my kale yet- its only just big enough now, and wont hurt for another week. What sort of misshape beets - (beetroot) - have you manure on that bed? - that isn't good for root crops normally. I have just sown another row of beetroot - is it worth trying in plugs ( just as I said to Diet) and then plant out later?

Aww, thanks, agoodbook. It won't put me off, but I'd like the weather to be a bit more consistently June - like, rather than veer from crazy hot, to chilly drizzle.

My misshapen beets were like a paltry comma, no root swelling really and actually very very very poor germination. I had dug in a bit of manure though, a while before, was that a rookie error?! It is lumpy stony clay there, so maybe it was also just not fine enough for them? Also it's right by a tree which is maybe stealing the water. Perhaps I ought to have watered more? Good old chard is doing fine there, as is perpetual spinach. And the asparagus pea is finally coming on also.

I think probably a combination 'perfect storm' there spotted - root crops don't like stony ground, can mis-shape or fork with fresh manure , and the shade as well !!! mmmm :) just learn with your plot, and try them elsewhere maybe - its obviously a good spot for leafy stuff, but maybe you have to get them germinated in plugs first to have any chance - mine did take longer this year to germinate from sowing direct, and its a little bit patchy as well, but I am rubbish at sowing direct - (too slapdash I think) so tend to do most via sowing at home in pots then transplanting

Seeing all these pictures of your wonderful plots and produce is really inspiring.

I've got one bed dug out, now I'm having a wobble with what to put in it!

I should have all ten beds dug out by the end of July at this rate. Two are going to be fruit bushes, one for herb beds....I did have a very clear concise plan of what I was going to do but I'm afraid it's all gone out of the window!

Should I just dig out all the beds first, or plant as I go? It would be nice to get something started but I don't know if I'll be flogging a dead horse, so to speak.

Might chuck some cut and grow lettuce leaves in and see what happens...

personally Clash I would start planting - otherwise it will be full of weeds!. Fruit bushes can wait until autumn to plant, especially if you haven't got them yet. Loads of time to get stuff in to harvest this season. - I think you started off plugs ready to go? and I think you are in York - there is a place called Vertigrow which usually has a range of germinated veg plants for sale - it has a website and they can tell you if they are still available :) if you still need some.

Clash - prepare a metre square then plant it up before prepping the next one. Otherwise it gets like the Forth bridge.

Clash I always start with a clear plan and end up just planting out and ignoring the plan!
You've done loads so it would be really lovely for you to start seeing the benefits.

My fat baby is looking good, I'm growing him up an arch. He looked quite tender when I put him out and I was worried about him getting slugged but so far so good.

I had a plan, too - complete with a drawing I did in Excel. But the area that should be home to my brassicas is now home to the Giant Pile Of Soil. The carrots didn't germiate so I think I might shove some leeks in there, and the dogs keep burying potatoes in random places which keep growing.

I have visions of the forth bridge being used as a MASSIVE runner bean support. That would be amazing.

Definitely plant as you go along.
And 50 sweetcorn plants alternative tentacles! That is a lot of sweetcorn! Very jealous of the orchard. I'd love to have one of those.

Fed my onions and garlic with tomato feed as I read this can help stop the rust. No idea if this will work but as I have a whole container of tomorite and no tomatoes I might as wrll use it on something else! We popped over to do some watering last night. The sweetcorn and squashes we anted at the weekend were looking a little shellshocked butnot nearly as shocked as the runt of a cucumber which was an extra in the pot with a healthy one my neighbour gave me. That was looking truly sorry so no idea if it will survive.Other one was looking OK.
I had my peas netted to stop the pigeons but took the netting off so the bees could reach the flowers. Now maybe that was a mistake. But how do the bees reach the flowers if they're netted to stop pea moth (which I've not really heard about before)?

Alternative 10 LITRES OF ICE CREAM!!! Wow! The mere thought of it is heavenly. 50 SWEETCORN!! You don't do things by halves, do you?

Zebra - I had a day like that a couple of weeks ago. I went to my plot and it just felt like nothing was growing because of the cold. My broad beans had been hammered and weren't doing well. My carrots hadn't germinated (I also struggle with roots on stony clay - I am having more luck with larger root plants like celeriac). I felt truly miserable. Then the next time I went stuff had sprouted and I was full of joy again. I think it's a very emotional thing. Hugs for you!

On the subject of the weather... we got very close to it being frosty here the night before last . It is ALL WRONG.

Oh, and cupcakes - your DS's garden, and your DS are both adorable! of those gooseberries!

50 SWEETCORN!! You don't do things by halves, do you?

The 50 sweetcorn are the spares. I had a student come to the end of his work and there was 10 mins between that and the next session and I was busy helping another student so I just talked him through sowing seeds of corn and beans - I used the beans at the session yesterday and then decided to bung the sweetcorn in the orchard for the summer. I also have 18 sweetcorn at my lottie, and another 12 at the community gardens in the proper growing patch. Any spare food we have will go to a community cafe that we know if we can't eat or preserve it. This year we might make our own
cornflour by drying and grinding it.

I sowed about 150 new squashes last week for two upcoming sessions...that reminds me I must put that in the heated prop to get them cracked and up. Any spares not used in the sessions will be added to the orchard. It might be chaos in there come October!

My spare fruit - it was all the rasps, strawbs, wineberries, juneberries etc that weren't eaten on the day. It builds up so fast esp the straws and rasps and the first strawbs are ripening so it was time to use up last year's.

Alternative - I am in awe! That's industrial-scale agriculture! And of your fruit glut.

I would love to see pictures of your community garden. It sounds wonderful.

It is a work in progress. Will post some pics later. I've just had a group clear and level the mound of doom. And barrow it to fill the holes left when we had to dig out some diseased trees and I can now plant out around 100 plants that are desperate to go in...will try and get the corn and squashes in tomorrow or Friday. It is never ending and when all the plants finally get planted then it will be mayhem with the fruit harvests.

Ooh just had an email to say that my plant of Daubner perennial kale is ready for me. Has anyone any experience of this beast? I saw a recommendation of it from Alys Fowler in the Guardian so ordered it without doing much research.