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

afternoon, a quick log in
ethel -my shallots have 5/6 on each (from 1 set) . I haven't watered/feed them at all- my bible says they only want a feed early spring, and not to have them in really rich soil, and to not water for at least a month before harvesting. With onion seed, you set them off in summer for the following year- they are basically 'sets' the following spring , if that makes sense.
shove - my tomatoes are in the greenhouse, -( have had this for 3 years now.) Its in a north facing part of the garden, gets sunlight mid afternoon. I shut windows and door on a night, and open them during the day at the moment- its been quite chilly. I have found through trial and error, that the bigger the pot/bag the better. And not to use terracotta - look pretty, but draw the water from the plant! I have 2 plants per 40L size compost bag, planted into them as soon as they got too big for the 4" pots they were in, and I also go against the grain - I feed with every water, but very dilute ( thats my Dads advice for all pot/bag grown stuff :) ) and have done as soon as they went into the bags. I do have tomatoes growing on my Sungold and Marmande - haven't yet seen any on the Roma

Right. I am putting a sign on my shallots. Do not water me!!!

Oh, I've got toms on all my original plants. Is that early? I have no idea, as you all know, I know nothing! I'm north Bucks for info, and after starting off in conservatory, the toms have been outside for some weeks now. Someone at allotment commented on the earliness the other day but I'm sure it's not that early.

In pics are Black Krim (not many fruits yet), Golden Nugget hanging basket ones, and Black Cherry. I also have Gardener's Delight, Roma and Tigerella.

Shove love - tomatoes in a greenhouse do not need anything to stop them getting blight as blight is carried on the wind and very very rarely will get indoor toms. And there should be enough heat in a greenhouse during the day to keep it warm enough at night at the moment.

I've got toms on some of mine, which were put in a polytunnel a bit late.

My earliest tomatoes ever were from an early variety from Real Seeds years back; 2nd June. Grown indoors and planted into a walled garden in the midlands at the start of May. A particularly warm May IIRC.

Chuckbusters were they Stupice? I only planted them end of March but they are the ones that have loads of flowers on now. Might try planting them super early next year for tomatoes in May which they say is possible!

Thanks for the clarification over shallots, I have already ordered my overwintering onion seeds and will grow them from seed, and get some shallot sets this autumn! I already have LOADS of leeks. They grew well last year in my clay soil.

Chuckbusters?

No they were Latah. Now I have the poly I need to get some more I think.

evening!
home at last
I am going to wait and see how the shallots go this year - I will know before I need to order. I think the argument for seeds against sets is that you have a much bigger range of varieties. I really wanted banana shallots - I use them a lot, but there were not many different one available.
by the way shove - I am just outside York, so a bit north of you, and a bit south of mink - a lot drier I think than you, but not as high up :)
spotted - is that sunshine? - its just been cloudy, breezy and cool here for days -14º today
ethel - I love leeks, prefer them to onions in truth , and also grow a lot!

Yes, agoodbook it's sunshine
Actually we've had a lovely sunny week, really hot at times. Things have shot up, and the bees have all come out of their hidey holes. Of course, that's set to end now - the wind is up again and we have rain forecast for the weekend. 14 doesn't sound much at all. And if it's that in the day, what is it at night?

I've read my last (tomato) post back and I sound like a boasty eejit. It wasn't meant to to come across like that at all. Sorry. I'm just a bit over excited by my tomatoes

I only have a few leeks. Some were donated, and I only managed to get about 12 from my seed. Is it too late to sow more?

shove if you think your tomatoes are small, you should see mine. They're relatively tiny in comparison. Will post pics in the morning.

Spotted your toms look lovely. And the plants themselves look really big and healthy. We'll done, you!
And if I were you, I wouldn't worry about sounding boasty here. We'll all be at it sooner or later. I know I can't wait to show my produce off even if they are just a handful of peas.

Thanks for all the advice on watering. Based on what everyone wrote I think I was over stresssing about watering. I thought I would need to do it every other day and was worried about how they'd all cope when I was on holiday. I've only just planted them last week so watered them once only so far yesterday but, by jove, it was a mission. I will need to find an easier way to do it.
At the moment there are too many thorny bushes, brambles and hedges that get in the way and the kinks in the hosepipe are enough to bring the hulk out in me.
It started with something as benign as hosepipe kink. I tried to flick it rawhide fashion, hoping the whiplash effect would free the kink but it didn't really work. Even after I shouted "Yeeha", cowboy style. So I had to resort to walking along, pressing out the kinks by hand by which time it had caught on another thorny hedge with long stray thorny branches that clung to my trousers whilst I tried to free myself from its clutches. I had to do this with two hands which meant letting go of the pipe and this inevitably gave it a life of its own and it squirmed around on the soil, soaking me to the skin as I tried to get in under control again. By the time I'd wrestled it back to submission the pipe had separated from its connecting bit so I had to go back and sort that out. Calming?Therapeutic Relaxing? I assure you I was far being a relaxed gardener by the time I'd finished.

But then I thought of shove trudging up and down with water bottles and realised things could have been worse. Sorry shove. Hope you get some water sorted out soon.

My tomato plant has flowers. It is growing outside. My courgette plant is doing well and the beans are struggling. The raspberries have flowers.

spottedzebra I dont think a description of what is growing well in your garden is being a 'boasty eejit'. I think the whole point of gardening threads is to share what grows as well as what doesn't grow. Otherwise threads would just be about problems and failures.

I grew latah too..as they do well outdoors in the north. Or as much as anything does.
But then I accidentally discovered sungold due to b n q rescue straggler. It went from a tiny woebegone (sp?) thing to a huge sorawlibg monster on the allotment absolutely coveted in delicious toms. That was of course the really good summer. Not quite as impressive last year but still good. They seem to tolerate the climate here.

But I think if I had planted them on allotment this year the wind would have killed them. So much stuff has just bn blow dried to death.

But in hope I planted squash of squash mountain. Or at least I hope it was the squash!!

Lol at typos. Coveted in tomatoes and as for sorawlibg monsters....(sprawling)

The wind is murderous here too, (as if there aren't enough murderous things about) I'm down to one courgette, due to what I think is wind damage and the survivor's looking a bit dishevelled. We're N. Yorkshire but close to the coast and the wind gets us from all directions.

My courgettes are thoroughly miserable. Normally they are triffid like by now. I cannot even put up any protection because it just blows away.
I tried mulching round them with a lot of grass clippings but it doesn't seem to have helped much.

it has been very dry this year, my garden is scorched, I even had to water the strawberries (which I usually ignore bar fruit picking)

my tomatos have lots of flowers, but no fruit yet. the courgette has just started.

do I need to thin out leeks?
the carrot were victims of slugs/snails so I could transfer some leeks into the empty bed. or should I try more carrots (that would the dc like better)?

Been lurking rather than posting this week.

Water - thereis a tap right by my plot, which is good. However there are 10 other plots for which this is the closest tap too, and as I often pop by just to water it can be really annoying if someone else has just started, it happened to me several times last summer. My hose doesn't reach the next tap. Whereas those who are between taps have more effort to get their hose in place, but do have an alternative if one's in use.

Tomatoes - I started hardening them off about a month ago and the wind/cold really got to them, so they are back in the mini greenhouse. Our new proper greenhouse arrives this week, so I need to decide whether to put them in there or outside, they are outgrowing their 4" pots now.

Courgettes are out and surrounded by straw but struggling a bit to get going.

Onions - did someone ask about earthing up? You mustn't, the necks will rot.

My courgettes are also taking a battering after I planted them out last week. They're shrivelling up and the wind is proving too much for them. I will have to give them more protection today but it may be too late.

It has rained, remaining courgette if not happier, definitely no more miserable.

Do cucamelons scramble up as well as along? Should I plant them so they can climb up the Jerusalem artichokes or will they just bugger off over the 'wall' to where the Wild Things Grow

been out at work all day - rain/cold followed by warmer and humid - glorious now!
Diet please tell me someone was videoing that :) I gave up on a donated hose pipe a few years ago, as it had been left in kinks for years. I was told to leave it empty, in the sun and the warmth would help, but I gave up!
spotted its not boasting to be really chuffed at something you have grown - we are probably the ones who appreciate it most, as we know all the problems we face!
mousmous - I sow my leeks in pots to transplant outside, are you digging them out of a seed bed? I dib holes about 6" deep, and drop one seedling in each, then fill with water. so the seedlings need to be big enough to poke out of the top of the hole :) I think you can plant them in small clumps as well, but haven't tried that
Will be down to the plot in the morning - not been since Thursday, the squashes and courgettes were just starting to look as if they could get going, so we shall see :)

have given the plants some comfrey juice today.

the smell is amazing ly horrendous and the dc are fascinated that 'such a pretty flower' can smell like that.

hopefully the tomatos convert it into taste.

Courgettes and squashes okay ,
A bit too breezy so I cracked and helped some of the beans by tying up with twine - never had to do that before!
And a small benefit from going to weed the strawberries - first picking :)

agoodbook They look delicious.
I've just finished writing reports for my lovely class so I'm going to treat myself to a couple of hours in the garden before proof reading them.

Earlier, in a fit of prevarication I potted on a few tomatoes that had been put into temporary-too-small-pots weeks ago and I did a bit of weeding.

DH has kindly offered to do some of the weedy backbreaking work if I point him in the right direction.

They look lovely goodbook.

For those of you anxious about the size of your tomatoes I'm posting my picks to console you that things could be worse. You can see from the ones next to them just how teeny tiny two of them are. I've lost hope in them but will purse with them just to see what happens.
The 3 in pots were outside for a couple of weeks but I took them back in last week.

I also picked about a third of my spinach beet yesterday for a dinner party I had. These are pictures of things I planted in my garden before I got the allotment so as you can, I've crammed things in quite tight. I collected about 5 bags of spinach and there's still loads left so happy with that yield.

Forgot to add picture!