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

Bindweed , sadly spotted

oh no! But thanks for the ID.

i have lots of it, but baby stuff, not the heart shaped leaf stage. Do i just keep on digging it out or do i need to go nuclear?

Digging should do for them zebra, eventually, but I've found that they're persistent beggars and like to travel. If you see one leaf pull it up.

Zebra it's one of the banes of my life - it just slithers its way across the garden.
Unfortunately in my garden the field hedge is full of it so it is an ongoing problem. If you just have a bit you can probably get it all just by digging and getting every but of root up.

My rosemary has survived it's stupendous squashing and looks OK!

I sneaked home early tonight and planted out my french beans and transplanted some poppies that had popped up in the vegetable bed. My peas are flowering and my sweetcorn, which looked a but sickly has perked up and looks as if it will be alright

diet, your post about not getting too invested in the seedlings rang such a bell with me - I need to toughen up as I spend too much energy worrying about them.

spotted if it, or any other weed is growing through the flags and it is your garden rather than the allotment, boiling water. So every time you drain pasta or potatoes or finish the kettle. Tip it on the gaos in the flags. No more weeds.

spotted I agree with violet and Rooster - just keep at it. I have it almost under control on my half plot, just digging and pulling it up as soon as I see it. I am digging on the other half plot at the moment - he zapped with chemicals, and its everywhere, so its persistant ! I had a quick go up there today hoeing, the spinach looked lovely, though some is trying to bolt already ( note to self- sow some more ! ) so pulled some, and I couldn't resist a few baby broad beans - thats the vegetable side for tea sorted :)

Yum,look at that lovely harvest, agoodbook ! It looks delicious.

Thanks all for the bindweed top tips. I guess I am lucky that I don't recognise it, as that sort of shows that it's not a problem for me at home. It's at the plot. It's all under the paving slabs between my rhubarb/raspberry patch, and my neighbour's fruit cage. I might check with them, then lift the slabs and try to dig it all out before it gets too established. I really don't want it to get a hold in the fruit bed, the one thing that I'll not be turning over regularly!

So, the pepper and tomatoes were planted out today. I still have more of both, many more toms. And I re homed 4 more courgettes too . I've still not planted out my squash into BenSquash. I just opened up the he plastic today in prep, and the whole thing is an ants nest. Will that matter? I left it open a bit, and the ants were busy moving their egg case things out of sight. I was hoping that a hungry bird would pop down and snarf the lot. I didn't get a chance to pull my garlic though, or plabt out inca berries. They might go where the garlic at home now is, actually, as I don't know what else to put there.

The rain has made my spinach germinate, the rain has made my spinach germinate, tra la la
Unbelievably exciting, I'd nearly planted something else... Ooooo

Zebra - I have it everywhere on my site too, so we are comrades against a common foe. CONSTANT VIGILANCE seems to work against its dark arts. That, and rooting up every last bit of white root where it sprouts. Even a tiny part has remarkable regenerative powers.

goodbook - wow, lovely harvest. I feel hungry now!

I am about to go to my plot to put up a fruit cage. It is cobbled together out of some metal poles I pulled out of a skip, some wire, and some netting that was cheap on ebay. Frankly, if it works I will be amazed.

Look! Look! I made COMPOST! I am so stupidly excited about this (and note to self - don't put egg shells in!). I want to make MORE compost. I need more bins. I want a wormery. I WANT A BOKASHI BIN!!!

Lovely harvest book!

Got my leeks in today. Hooray for progress!

Sorry about the bindweed zebra. I've never gardened without the stuff. We have a sort of love-hate relationship. I hate it. But I do get a strange satisfaction when I pull it up and get that gentle "pop" when the full root comes up!

shove good luck with the fruit cage - I have put up more dubious netted cages than I care to think of, and look with envy at others. Mine are sturdy mostly now , without any intrinsic beauty, other than the fact they work, I don't worry anymore .
Cupcakes :) wonderful stuff! And yy to egg shells - its one of the few things that goes in the council food waste bin . Also the satisfaction of getting all the bindweed root out , and the annoyance when it snaps!

So Cupcakes will henceforth be known as LetThereBeCompost
It looks beautiful, did it take long to make?
emoticon needed.
Also incredibly jealous of a meals worth of veg agoodbook, but the bindweed people are welcome to it.

you'll have some spinach soon too violet !

Actually anyone who wants to trade bindweed for foxes and rabbits I might just be interested

Apart from admiring the spinach is there anything vital I should be doing?

violet - are you in the happy state of being up to date? I am just weeding, hoeing, weeding , they are growing behind my back.
I have sown cauliflowers as mentioned, have planted out all my leeks, will be sowing more peas and spinach. Still have 2 squashes to plant out, and then, when I have finished digging( what a never ending task that has been this year) I can plant out all the bee friendly flowers I have lined up.
check what you want to succession grow, time for loads more before autumn/winter . I will be checking on garlic and shallots soon for overwintering , mmm - sure there is more :)

violet it's hard to say - I set up the compost bin when I first moved in to the house about 5 years ago, and I was all excited about having a proper garden. Then I got married / had a baby and forgot all about it! So I've not looked at it since then.

I'm fairly certain it doesn't take 5 years to make good compost usually.

I just need to decide the best place to put it now. What would appreciate it most?

Re: foxes and rabbits - I was browsing Pinterest last night and somebody had a pin about sticking plastic forks in the ground around veggies (prongs up) to deter pests. Might be worth a try. Alternatively - get your own rabbit! My little fiend is very territorial and I'm happy to keep him in greens for as long as he continues!

I accidentally sat on a bamboo cane row marker last night and have a bruise on my bottom.

cupcakecompost BOKAAAAASSSSSSHHHHHIIIIII BIN! Get one! Get one!

Seriously, though, that compost is like black gold. Wow!

My fruit cage plan did not come to fruition. The trouble is, I have quite thick galvanised wire, which I'm trying to tension through the poles (they have had holes drilled in them for this purpose). But it doesn't want to come straight. The force needed to make it do so is making the poles lean inwards, in spite of my postcreting (I guess I didn't put enough crete in for the posts). So 0/10 for achievement so far.

I am going to try again with some of that plastic marking out line. The netting is ever so light, and I think it may be enough just to hold it reasonably straight around the plants. I actually went to B&Q last night at 8.30 to try to buy some, only to find all the roads around the store were closed due to resurfacing .

I am a bit at how rough and ready it looks. The rest of my allotment is a lot prettier.

violet - I am just thinking about getting my overwintering veg seeds on. I'm a bit late, but then everything feels late this year so I'm hoping it doesn't matter. Going to do Cabbage 'Tundra' which has an impressive picture of cabbages looking solid and sturdy in severe snow on the front. And Cauliflower 'Winter Aalsmeer'. And cape broccoli too, I think, as that was definitely worth it last winter. Seeds for broad beans and peas will go in later in the year but it looks like the plants have to go on now, which surprises me a bit.

Anything else I should think about overwintering?

at the bruised bottom. Im usually covered in bruises, mostly sheep induced.

Beggering phone, instead of posting long tale of weeding to be done (rain not only good for spinach) it took me to Gransnet...

afternoon.
Cor, its been humid today!
shove -I have sown my winter "Aalsmeer' cauliflowers- about 20 came up in about 4 days, last week. I have some earlier autumn cauliflowers - 'Raleigh'- 5 germinated I have planted out my winter hardy savoy cabbages, and the rest is sprouting broccoli, already planted out bar half a dozen tiddly plants. I will be overwintering shallots again. They have done well, and for no other reason, it saves time planting out in spring, when it gets busy
and rough and ready fruit cage ! My plot is really not pretty, just functional . My DD once dropped me off, and when I spoke to her later , her comment? - "Its like a shanty town"
cupcake compost - good name change , poor bottom ! If I can fall/stand on anything I will, plus nettling/scratches/splinters - you name it, its like a war zone !

ooh and Cupcakecompost - anything heavy feeding for that black gold - squashes/beans particularly or even fruit bushes. Everything really ....:)

The Eagle has landed
The duck has flown
The hedgehog has scaled the mountain

OK, I have finally planted BenSquash. Hurrah! I hope those ants won't do too much harm?
I've also dug out more bindweed. Boo.

I have planted more toms and courgettes, and I now only have a few of each to home.

Gosh, all this talk of overwintering stuff. Hmm. Cavolo nero and chard stays in, doesn't it? And leeks. I have a few more leeks I could pop out. Cape broccoli sounds novel, what is it? Off to Google... Do you sow PSB now? Yikes!

Shove I bet your fruit cage is very impressive. Rough and ready is fine isn't it?

Ooh, I have flowers just starting on my asparagus pea. Even though the plant is only about 5 cm tall. It looked taller in the picture! And there was something else exciting and progress-like, but I've forgotten it now

spotted - hurrah to Ben Squash!
Cavalo Nero, leeks and chard all overwinter. I have been planting all my PSB out- ( lots of different varieties for harvesting from July onwards ) - just the late one to plant out now. Lucky you with the asparagus pea -mine looked more like an overgrown weed, though the flowers are pretty
And I have managed to get all my spare squashes and courgettes adopted as well.