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

Alternative Tentacles Thanks. I have an amelanchier in my backgarden. I knew it was also called Juneberry but I had no idea that you could actually eat the berries. (Although mostly the pigeons eat them anyway). Do you cook them or can you eat them raw?

Karate my loganberry is full of berries but it is an old established one and we are in the southeast. I took a couple of suckers from it earlier in the year and potted them up, they grew and are now in the allotment but they haven't produced a flower and I wouldn't be surprised if they don't this year. The loganberry is helpfully putting up new shoots right in the middle of my flowerbed in the backgarden. It is a little bit of a thug. But last year it cropped so well I was forced to learn how to make jam so I forgive it

We've had a little bit of rain this morning but the sun is out now. I think we're forecast some more later otherwise I will have to go and water.

Wait, you can EAT amelanchier berries?!!

Must have! Must have!! Is there a variety that tastes better than others, or are they all good eating?

(I learn so much every single week from Alternative).

Has anyone grown sweet potatoes please? My plug plants arrived from T&M today - typical, off on holiday tomorrow and the instructions say to leave them on their side for a few days.

Not sure my teenagers can be trusted to look after them!

I would be better off asking the cat.

Cedar I have a 3-yr old loganberry that's now just getting into its stride - I may need to make jam with the berris this year (yum).
There is one very long shoot apparently coming from it that looks more like a bramble than the rather spindly little loganberry branches. Is this normal?

Bearleigh - Its probably the plant sending up a shoot for next year as they tend send up new canes in the summer for fruiting the next year. Or it is trying to expand with sending up a sucker.

Shove the Holly I have just googled and apparently, yes, you can eat them. And all those time I kept telling my then toddler not to put them in her mouth and worried about it was obviously a complete waste of breath . Pity that we had the crown of the tree severely pruned last year and as a result only have a handful of berries this year.

evening!
hello Gnome mmm, hope someone comes on who has grown sweet potatoes - I have just looked in my allotment bible, and it says for greenhouses and polytunnels. Keep a tuber in heat to sprout, and pull off young rooted shoots for planting , if that helps.......!
I would love some loganberries this year, still a youngish plant and last year if DH didn't pick them off to eat while going past ( next to shed) the birds got them . Shall have to try harder... though it does look much fuller and healthier this year, but no long branches yet - its hunkering down :)
On Amelanchiers - I have 2 - one long established tree and a newish bush. The birds go wild for the fruit, but they are quite small on my tree- so I shall leave them their treat I think. Though I could net the bush I suppose! Here is a quick pic to try and show them ...

Can you see them ? Not ripe yet obviously, they end up about the size of an elderberry , so smaller than a blackcurrant.
In other news- I have managed to plant everything I needed to this week ( cabbages today ) and sowed another row of peas so the rain can come now !

I have gooseberries last year the pheasants cleaned them out just as they were getting ripe. So it looks like I'm going to have to join the band of netters.
A couple of my cauliflowers have germinated, so if two grow I'll just be grateful . Red cabbage however look to be seeking world domination (Red Cabbage world dominators Yorkshire Branch).
Meanwhile I am rather hoping the Rabbits meet the fox and then at least some of my problems will be dealt with)

oh gooseberries.
I love them but can't convince the family.
I have about 10 black currants this year from a shrub planted last year. the red currant bush looks stunning, but hasn't flowered this year. any tricks? or should I get a new one?

ooh violet all good news -

My gooseberries are looking a bit mildewey sadly - I know I have to move one, its just too near another, and they didn't get properly pruned last year ( my fault, I'm not tough enough, - DH wasn't well enough to do them).
Red cabbage domination eh ?
I've just sown some for winter/spring, and the little darlings are up in no time - about 20 ......but in a different pot ,only about 5 for autumn darn them !
And the rabbit and the fox

mous - is it a new bush as well? - they fruit on year old wood, as do blackcurrants. We mulch with a lot of rotted manure each year as well- they are heavy feeders :)

both were new and tiny (were supermarket bargains), so will hope for next year.

I just realised we are in the middle of a Smith period here. And I haven't done anything to my potatoes. There is definitely a lot of blight in my area, too.

Not sure what to do? Go to the garden centre and buy some bordeaux mixture? Wait and hope? Help!

In b and q. All strip veg reduced to 1.50. Abd most of them are in pretty good knick.
Will fill that gap on the lot today. Much much beetroot. Some pak choi and a reduced to 10p packet of dwarf beans.

Pushed my DH out of the door with both hands whilst he had his phone glued to his ear to see if there are any goodies left at our B&Q. Ta mink.

shovetheholly, I had to Google at least two things after reading your post to understand what was even being said so let us know what you decide to do and we'll just copy you!

I've finally finished digging and marking out my first vegetable patch at the allotment. It's approx 4.5m x 3m so I've dug in 8 bags of manure and divided it up with string for now. Spent today sowing cabbages, cauliflower, fennel, beetroot, Swiss chard, spinach, swede, carrots and spring onions. Will take my sweetcorn and courgettes over tomorrow.

I'm at the stage now where I'm looking at lovely bare, weed free, manured land and will spend the next few weeks just willing something green to pop it's head up from the soil. I am always surprised when I manage to grow anything at all so am sceptical that even 10 of the hundreds of seeds I've planted will show, especially as it's so late sowing them.

I've also made a start on a small 1.5m x1.5m lazy bed and will throw in some old potato tubers just for the sake of it tomorrow. Will also make a start on a new, smaller plot for my peas and beans and see if I can clear anything near the fruit trees to put my strawberries in the ground.

That's it before I go on holiday in 2 weeks time. Will be back at the end of July so will start tackling patches for next year then.

My DC are keen to have a pond with tadpoles and frogs in a corner of the allotment. Still wondering if it's a good idea.

Diet - hahahaha! Sorry! There is back story here: last September, I very optimistically planted out some 'Christmas' potatoes. They all got blight and died within 3 weeks. As did every other potato in the allotment.

So I am now panicky about potato blight! A Smith period is when you get an alert for the disease - it is basically any 2-day period when the temperature is over 10 degrees C and the relative humidity is more than 90% for more than 11 hours. Which sadly happens in Sheffield quite regularly over the summer. It's those damn hills.

So, action plan! I have bought some Bayer fungicide. It's a sachet that gets diluted in a litre of water and sprayed on. However, the foliage needs to be dry to do it. The weather forecast says it'll not rain overnight, so I'm going down first thing and I will spray the lot. Fingers crossed, because I have lots and lots of rows of potatoes and I will be heartbroken and curse the Gods if they die.

In other news, I have seen a house on Rightmove I really like. It is kind of my dream house, though I never thought of myself as the kind of person who had a dream house before. And it is affordable for us, unlike most of the other houses I like which cost squillions. But it would mean leaving my current house and my garden, which I love so much though not the horrible kitchen which is too small to swing a cat or even a kitten. I feel like I am completely torn in two. Add to that the fact that I have never made a good decision about housing (DH bought our current place before I came along) and I am also highly mistrustful of my reactions... Fortunately, the estate agent is closed for the weekend so I have time to cool down emotionally.

And Diet you've done so much work! Wow! And I love the idea of an allotment pond! If you have frogs, don't they eat all your slugs for you? We are very fortunate in that there are two wild ponds at our site, and it is lovely to go down and just watch the wildlife in one of them (the other one is full of weed, alas). Definite thumbs up for the idea from me.

Oh diet please post house link, If I never move again it will be too soon. That doesnt mean I dont want to drool over other peoples property

Evening.
Had a long , wet day at work, so obviously no plotting, but I did buy some flowering plants to put out on the plot :)
shove fingers crossed on the blight , i'm not sure how its going to go - we had it on our site 4 years ago. Bordeaux mixture was used by some. The only other thing is to cut all the foliage down if it gets bad, to stop it going down into the tuber, and just leave them in the ground until you need to lift them. My friend has got it on her tomatoes in her plastic greenhouse, but not on ones outside under fleece so far....
Diet - you need a badge for all that hard work! - Hopefully the seeds will be up before you go away. No harm to put potatoes in- I put some very sad specimens in that were gifted to me , and blow me, I noticed every single one has popped through !
And on a daft note - I did a second sowing of butternut squash a while ago - 1st lot only 3 germinated. They are outside hardening off, waiting to be a decent size to plant out. Came home today, popped out to check on everything , and another one has germinated. True slow coach :)

shove - its tough leaving a garden behind. I have lived in my house for 32 years, and I love it, but only tinker around the edges now , its established and I wouldn't want to change it, but sometimes I hanker for another go at designing one. I have done two virtually from scratch, the previous one I left after 6 years, when it was just beginning to grow into what I imagined...

I carefully netted my broccoli plants but didn't bother with my Cavolo Nero, only to notice today that some creature has eaten all the green bit leaving only ribs. I have netted the remains and will water them well - is it likely to be cabbage whites or... Something else? I couldn't see any caterpillars.

If the ribs are left - pigeons are most likely- true pests, once they have found a source of food, they don't give up, either. The plants will grow back though, brassicas are good at that .

Thanks goodbook I have now netted them.

When you net the brassicas, can you just drape netting over them or does it have to be on a frame? I have some calabrese growing very well in a plastic tunnel, but I can't leave it in the all the time, can I?

Ah, I love this thread.
I've had a bit of a manic week, work wise and have not made it up to plot apart from a very quick visit to water newly-planted stuff on Thurs night, which was super hot here. And before that, the last time that I was there was my rubbish day, when everything looked wilty and illing. The weather has changed again now, it poured all yesterday, and it's quite damp still today but I am going to get my wellies on, and my jacket, and hopefully spend a good few hours plottering today. So thanks for the continued inspiration, and thanks too for the nice comments when I had PlotSadness

I really really need to move those kale today. I really do. Honest.