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

ethelb I am unspeakably jealous. I had to put the heating on here last night. It was freezing.

My DH rang me from Cardiff to tell me how lovely and sunny it was there.

Ahem three weeks not three years!

Ethel I was wondering which secret corner of London you lived in where it NEVER rained!

I need to pop over to our plot and see what damage the slugs have managed over night. I'll have to go this evening as I'm at work today.

I really need to give some thought to over wintering crops. I have got a packet of green manure seeds and also some leeks but I ought to get a move on and plant something else.
I think we're going to lift our garlic this week as its rusted and started to die back. And maybe even a potato plant.

Cedar03 If you get a moment can I beg you to please please take pictures of the Grand Potato Lifting! I want to enjoy vicariously! I am SO excited about mine, but I have to wait as they are not nearly ready yet.

I am probably going to go up to my plot later and just check on everything. The slug-damaged courgette stories are making me nervous! But I have this urge to fiddle with things which are actually best left to get on with growing by themselves (e.g. I moved a rhubarb plant which has now collapsed on me) so I will go in my normal clothes to avoid the temptation to get stuck in.

Oh, and my asparagus is doing really poorly. I meant to ask if anyone else is growing this? I watched at least 4 Youtube videos on how to plant the crowns, I spent ages digging in bag after bag of grit and compost in the weeks before, and I went down with a terrible cold to put them in straight away when they arrived by mail because I knew they tended to dry out. But I still have only 6 plants out of 20 through. Do you think I would be justified in writing to the nursery they came from??

Heating on, Shove ? Yikes. Unless you're right nesh, that sounds jolly cold. No wonder plants aren't thriving. It's not sunny here today- actually it's very overcast, again, but it feels like we're due a big storm (again!). It's so humid! No idea re asparagus. Should they all show this year I wonder?

Not much to report from my vegetabling. Popped to the plot yesterday and filled the gap from the chomped courgette with some more tomatoes, and also bunged out another pepper and my 2 cucamelons also. But it was so windy that I've been worrying about them all night! I tied in all growth on my beans, but they are looking shocking - they just get hammered about by big gusts and I think it's all too much for them. I've planted the same variety of beans at my mum's house, she lives quite near, and her beans are all green, climbing, and flowering. And she has some teeny beans forming. Mine are thin, yellow, short and have no flowers. I think I planted them in the most exposed spot. Oops.

Re the courgette, it was only 1 of my 2 round courgettes that got chomped. I still have some yellow and green ones, and some patty pans. Still too many, probably possibly. But none of them are thriving. My next door plot neighbours have 10cm courgettes already. They planted out their plants really early and kept them under giant water bottle cloches for months.

I am totally nesh, Zebra . I really am! I don't like the cold at all.

I reckon your beans will go green soon! Mine looked weedy for a couple of weeks last year when I first put them out, but they were soon scrambling away and happily green. Someone who knows more of the science might be able to tell me if there's anything in this, but I have a feeling in my gut (so, you know, TOTALLY scientific ) that the first time you plant something in newly worked soil that hasn't had anything but weeds for a bit, it's harder to get it to flourish - even if you put loads of compost in and got it to a really nice texture. Once you've had plants in, it somehow seems to get easier. I wonder if it's something about those microbial associations that happen around roots (I am just talking out of my hat now).

I'm trying to think if there's any way you could protect them from the winds. You can get windbreak netting, so I wonder if a length of that, a staple gun, plus some simple stakes would protect that bit of your site? Probably not worth doing for this year alone, though as I'm sure they'll pick up. Your site sounds really exposed!

.

in my corner of london it has been very dry the last couple months.
there was rain but not enough.
last weekend's showers were very welcome.

good thing is that the snails don't like the dryness...

Weeded the patch this morning and worked a few bags of compost through. Will need to find a manure supplier.

At the back it's very stony. Good further down, but the first half foot out so is full of stones. Is there anything that would grow in that kind of soil or do I need to encourage the toddler to pick up stones for me?

The rest of the soil seems quite nice. Easy to dig and not full of clay. It used to be a farm so I wonder if that has made for good soil? A wee bit of rubble here and there but nothing too bad.

Here's a photo of my work! The poor little parsley plant in the front was rudely trampled by DD1 so I think that not be its death knell.

We've potted up some runner beans and added compost to the sunflowers against the house. And I've decided I'd quite like to grow a few fruit trees: apple, cherry and greengage, plus a lemon tree somewhere. Will need to research to work out the best part of our garden area to put them in. And if pear trees do grow well on the shady side of the house I might put one at the back of my vegetable plot.

Glad your getting stuff done kiwi

Some of my salad has started to bolt so they need pulling out! I'll check my Logan berries later to see if we have any - we've had plenty of flowers and bees around so hopefully. We have lots of pea pods, but they need to fatten up. The tomatoes aren't doing much, but I might replant. The courgettes and cucumbers are getting bigger but no flowers yet!

grouchy - that looks like lovely soil!

My allotment is very, very stony in places, and fine in others. I've found that different veg seem to have different levels of tolerance for it. Brassicas will just grow around it, but roots don't seem to like it at all - and seedlings are hopeless for obvious reasons. I'm too lazy to get the stones out in one go (it would take hours) so every time I dig it, I remove another half bucketful and do a bit more sieving of the top soil. Definitely get the toddler to work!!

Sorry if you've already answered this, but what aspect is that bit of your plot? It looks quite shaded in the picture, but maybe that is just the time of day? Things like raspberries do well in shade - and rhubarb doesn't seem to mind a bit of it either. to state the obvious, if you do a pear down that side, I guess you'll need to cordon, fan or espalier it against the fence, otherwise it'll get too big and start making marks all over your render. The only thing I would say about doing that is that I put an apple against my fence at home and I've just taken it out because I realised that it doesn't cover much and I don't actually want to look at the wood. You see loads of lovely pictures of them up against gorgeous old brick walls, but against a fence the effect isn't quite as nice!! So I have replaced with climbers to give me a green backdrop and and taken the espalier to the allotment.

Might be worth thinking about access to the back of that bed, too because once you get stuff in it could become difficult! Just a few stepping stones that allow you to move between things will make life a lot easier. I have very deep beds in my garden and I'm about to put stones in to make hedgecutting a bit easier, because at the moment it's a nightmare! Wish I'd thought of this when I first did the design.

There have been a few times whete people have mentioned North facing walls and narrow gaps between houses and the suggestion seems to be fruit bushes, pears, or ferns.
I'd have thought you might get a nice espalier tree groing against the wall but probably no fruit?

Dug out a few of my new potatoes today, as well as two lettuces a beetroot and some Swiss chard. Really looking forward to the potatoes. Things have picked up a lot in the last few weeks, lots of buds on the courgettes and squashes too

mink - you could be right! It would be a definite risk. I wonder if it would be a bit dependent on the variety/aspect?

sixpence - CHARD KLAXON! You lucky thing, mine is miles off!

afternoon.
spotted its jolly cold - the sun has finally, finally come out late this afternoon, but up here it has been like March, but with less hope for spring....
shove - I grow asparagus. I bought 9 x 2 year crowns, they all came up. I have just inherited another asparagus bed on the other half I have taken over. He bought, a couple of years ago I think, 20 x 1 year old crowns/plants. A lot didn't turn up if I remember right-( him commenting on them). This year, I weeded and mulched where I thought they were and 15 are up - some are very thin single stalks, so I think these were the ones that didn't turn up at all last year. But I do think its worth letting them know, they may replace them for you , after all they are not cheap.
Kiwi stony! I am on chalk here - every time it rains, its like there is no soil , so I wouldn't worry. Now it does look a bit shaded in there, and I seem to think you said it got morning and late afternoon sunshine,. Can I make a suggestion? - It may be worth painting the fence white, to reflect the light. Or even some reflective foil ( or something like that! ) - it would help bounce the sunlight onto the plants.
mink - tend to agree on the fruit thing, really dont see them getting enough warmth/sun.
sixpence -potatoes seem a long way off here ...

Apparently there are varieties that will grow on a north facing wall. Including morello cherries. As long as the wall gets some sun at some point during the day.

Am sure BF has said it several times on gqt. Worth a try I reckon and at the least the espalier would make the wall look nice.

In fact, here you go:
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04kfk1y
Espalier pears and morello cherries (yum)

I'm always amazed at the variety of climes in the uk!

my 'runty' courgette on the verge are flowering.
my carefully tended to in the garden one doesn't yet...

We had new potatoes from the garden with our tea tonight and lettuce and radishes picked today as well.

I love this time of year when I start to harvest.

My peas are in full flower, the direct sown ones are ahead of the ones I nurtured in the greenhouse so I guess that's a lesson learnt for next year.

goodbook I bought Kale, wallflowers and more lettuce. All planted now.

Zebra/Holly - what on earth does Nesh mean? But to having the heating on. 'tis lovely and sunny here in Wiltshire. Ddog 1 is sulking (he's black and Doesn't Do Sun). DDog 2 is sunbathing on her back with her legs in the air (blondey, sunbunny!).

Asparagus - I grew some from seed the year before last. All 10 seeds germinated and have been in a pot ever since. Yesterday I finally got them out and was surprised to find pretty robust crowns in there! They're now planted outside so hopefully next year they'll do well. I would definitely contact the company if you don't have any luck with them though - I did this with a Cherry Tree last year and they replaced it no trouble.

Interesting about the pears / cherries in shadier spots - will have to look into that as I have a few spaces that would suit!

Very jealous of all the harvesting - so far we're just eating lettuce. Lots and lots of lettuce.

But, and here's the exciting news - the veggie patch is FINISHED! As in, everything's planted. No space anywhere (we'll just ignore the 2 trays of brassicas that are homeless). I've even filled in gaps in rows where not everything germindated (swede, beetroot, lettcue, and carrots).

I potted up more tomato armpits yesterday. That's 15 plants in the ground and 8 potted. And I've got 3 "third generation" Sungold Armpits. I think I may have a problem...

mink - that's interesting, thanks for the link!!

cupcakes - hooray! hooray! It sounds absolutely perfect. You must be delighted to have it full.

I am considering setting up a armpit counselling service called Armpits Anonymous. It will be a 12-step programme towards getting people to be able to say goodbye to their armpit habit.

Oh and thanks all for the asparagus reassurance. goodbook - reassuring to know yours came up a year late. I'm going to leave it to the end of next month and then contact the nursery. It was quite a wadge of cash and I mind because I am soooooo impatient to harvest my own asparagus and the fact that they are not through means I have to wait another year sob

Nothing much has moved on my plot over the last week. Things are still tiny. It's the weather, I think - it's just not warm enough to get things growing. My courgettes are way off flowering.

I forgot to say that I managed to give myself a papercut UNDER my fingernail whilst opening a packet of seeds (kale, for what it's worth) yesterday. This gardenning malarky is DANGEROUS!

Congraulations cupcakes!

Goodbook and shove thanks for the asparagus reassurance, our 1 yr crowns were planted end of Feb and haven't made an appearance this summer.

My name is Zebra and I am an Armpitaholic.

It's been a couple of days now since I last cut off any armpits and put them in water. But I do have some that have been in water for a couple of days, maybe I'll pot them on soon. I also have armpits that now have flowers on. There's a couple of MASSIVE armpits on my Black Krim plants- meant to be a cordon but not really looking like it.

I might count tomato plants today

I've still not really got to grips with this whole overwintering thing. Maybe I'll sow some stuff today. I've got 2 trays of brocolli raab which once again are really congested and overgrown, I should have pricked them out weeks ago. Will I attempt to grow them on, or will they all be stressed and just bolt? Maybe I'll just sow more? I am so ill-disciplined with pricking stuff out, I really should only sow in tiny pots, not trays.

And another congrats to Cupcakes ! All planted out! Would you post a pic? I think I'll just continue to squeeze armpits varied vegetables out in the space I have. Also basil and marigolds too.

Nesh I think is feeling the cold excessively, or someone who does.

I do so love this thread, you know! It's lovely to check in and see what everyone is up to, and to ask my stupid questions and get help and encouragement back. So thanks again, all!

Not at work today so I'll do some garden stuff then some plot stuff later on. I have 2 cucumbers that I think I'll plant out today, and maybe more basil and marigolds. My spuds - 1st earlies - haven't flowered or anything. Are people picking them before flowers? I might have a furtle, I want the space that my spuds are on, for my last few courgette plants...

Shove I think you're right re my beans and wind. Ahem. I seem to have planted them in the windiest spot on my plot, just down from the rhubarb, which got thrashed about - and ripped up - before. Not sure quite why it's so windy, it must be something odd like a wind tunnel formed by sheds. I think I might just lump it this year, but am tempted to change that section in autumn/winter, as a) I have too much rhubarb, b)not enough rasps, and c) it's all full of bindweed. So I might sort it all out, and erect some kind of windbreak fence thing. Maybe.

Spotted my second earlies have flowered and there are no tatties under them. Dug up one to have a look and there was one potato the size of a 10p piece!

The wind here is bloody awful and has killed my pear tree.