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!
quick zip in to see what is happening :)
Diet - enjoy your holiday. Partners won't be told , but it may be he enjoys the challenge ( or does he have lots of strimmers/chainsaws etc? ) :)
Went down this morning and a pigeon had got into my fruit cage it had sat on the upper strut, and the net frayed and made a big hole - at least I know before the currants are ready.
I have one sad yellow leaved potato as well - not blight, I'm pretty sure, but I dug it up , and loads of lovely potatoes, but fairly small, and a very squelchy seed - mmm some sort of bacterial thing unfortunately by looks , but I only put in 3 rows to fill the space. It just solidifies my wish to not grow potatoes !
Picked beetroot and broad beans for tea. Watered squashes/courgettes/beans as it did not have heavy rain showers as forecast - what a surprise
My french beans are getting flowers. and nearly finished digging over for my next sowing of peas . Didn't sow them , as the forecast is for very hot, and I suspect next visit is next Sunday. Bought Kelvedon Wonder for a change - good for autumn harvest is the tag line...

I have flowers on my courgette plants!!! They have arrived!! I am so ridiculously excited! I have also taken my weed carpet and dumped it into my crap pile with help from dh. I have taken all the scrap wood down to the plot as well as two massive bags of compost. Dh was off work so I persuaded him to help. The sun has ripened loads of strawberries so they have been picked ready for sprinkling on porridge in the morning. Still got loads of work to do but I can finally see the woods for the trees woo hoo!

agoodbook your French Beans are racing ahead, mine are tiny. They obviously need a good talking to

I have peas on my pea plants - can't decided whether to mangetout them or let them develop.

I have tiny yellow courgettes - when I got excited DH recalled the courgette glut of last year. I didn't have the heart to tell him last year I had three plants, this year i appear to have seven ...

Ooh, forgot to ask.
Do you grow your cucamelons inside or out?

Plant centre didn't have any courgettes so we just bought a strawberry plant and some violas. Will be a good way to find out if the soil needs more work, I suppose.

DH is open to the idea of extending the garden plot all along the fence line so I think I'm going to research the plants I want, etc, and make a concrete plan
I'll lurk here for inspiration.

Evenin' All!

I had a flower on one courgette, and I now have 1 very mini courgette. Which is excellent. But all my other cucurbits still look illing (actually apart from BenSquash - is the theory working?!!) And I don't have a single other flower formed. Other people art picking courgettes already.

An asparagus pea plant died, my tomatoes look poorly and my cucamelons haven't grown a jot. Also my potatoes still haven't flowered, and 2 plants have had all their leaves chomped - slugs?? But my borlotti beans have a flower, and 3 other buds. So on balance -erm, a bit rubbish.

But I picked lots of rhubarb, maybe the last pick. And a lone raspberry was ripe, so I ate that. And I have a ton of strawbs from the garden today. All good things. That will hopefully make me forget just how poorly my tomatoes looked. So poorly in fact, that I will now go and Google tomato blight.

Oh, and the shitting bindweed is everywhere. That is the only thing growing. I might resort to weedkiller.

Rooster grow them outside, or maybe in a greenhouse if you have one? Mine were outside last year. The bees loved them. OOoh, that reminds me, the other thing that's doing well at the plot.... tomatillos! Of course! Why wouldn't a Mexican tomato love this grotty weather?!

Exciting stuff, Kiwi - what do you think you might grow?

Have a fab holiday, Diet

Cheer up spotted my peas and courgettes were doing rubbish for weeks then suddenly they seem to have woken up. I must also share my first amateur error, I have built a beautiful wigwam for my French beans only to discover ten minutes ago that they are dwarf beans! That explains why they are so small. How embarrassing. Never mind!

Rooster - but you have peas and courgettes :)
My squashes and courgettes are just starting to look a bit happier - still a bit small, but healthy looking instead of really sad - I have put a watering can of water on each plant twice this week, so maybe now with the warmth due, we may get somewhere.
spotted - fingers crossed it isn't blight . Its really odd about potatoes - my next door plot people are digging up and eating their earlies ( bard I think) and loads of flowers on later ones. My 1st earlies barely a flower, or 2nd earlies. And plot next door but one - dug some 1st earlies and no potatoes .
Kiwi - best plan I always share - grow what you like to eat :)
Linski I did that with my first ever borlotti beans !

I can report first flower on the courgette!
and first teeny tiny toms on 'moneymaker' all that catshit seems to be good fertiliser

Evening all, sorry I haven't posted much for a while, I have had a couple of weeks of mot doing much apart from weeding and watering, however my new potting shed / greenhouse arrived this week (photo coming up) and I am feeling inspired to get cracking again.

So cucamelons and tomatoes have stayed in pots and gone into the greenhouse. No flowers yet on either, I think the pots they were in were a bit small, but they are in new larger ones now.

Strawberries and cherries are doing very well in the garden. At the allotment I have planted out cabbages and white sprouting broccoli today. Peas, runner beans and broad beans are coming along slowly, broad beans are covered in blackly though. No flowers on potatoes yet (but they went in late). 3 out of 5 courgettes are doing really well, 4th is dead I think and 5th got munched but os recovering. Had my first baby carrot today and sowed some more seeds into the gaps in the rows. Rhubarb still cropping (mine's a late one). Onions doing very well too. I have got half the plot planted up now, the other half is not really useable due to grass, but I am planning what to do with it bit by bit, a large strawberry patch is high on the list.

New shed

Wow I have shed envy - that looks amazing!! I think I'd like one just to sit in and read!!
mY rocket and pak choi has bolted and I'm still waiting for the next
Lot to come up! I accidently pulled my leeks up while weeding, I assumed they hadn't gemerminated and the grass was starting but I think a few had, oh well. My parsnips and carrots haven't come up.

We ate our one and only strawberry today, it was yummy!! I am hoping for plenty of runners for next year!!

Kimmi I found it hard to identify myleeks - they do look like tiny strands of grass. I can see why people plant them in seed trays first - at least that way you know where they are!

I quickly planted some more salad crops on Saturday. That was before I saw the weather forecast. I have a feeling that it will be too hot for the lettuces. We have had a small crop off our peas - must plant more next year. Yesterday we picked three pods - my daughter ate 2 on the way home!
Apparently some varieties of potatoes don't flower - this is according to my gardening book. But then the weather has been cold so they might be behind anyway.

WhoKnows that shed / greenhouse is gorgeous! You must be thrilled.

Kiwi Glad to see you're hooked and extending already! Before you know it you'll have your name down for an allotment or two.

Diet hope you have a lovely holiday. Where are you going? I would probably go for a really hopeless looking plot because I would feel sorry for it and think nobody else would want it. And I would enjoy the challenge. My DH would enjoy the opportunity to get out a chainsaw / strimmer as book suggested!

We were away this weekend and in the couple of days we were away my tomatoes have turned the greenhouse into a jungle! They've all shot up. Lots of green toms on them now so I'm hopeful for a good crop. Lots of armpits doing well, too. Potted up a couple more last night.

Fourth lot of french beans (definitely climbing!) are in and have been munched already. There are still a few leaves though. I might have to go all Tough Cupcakes if I want any chance of beans this year. Does anybody know if I can use bits of copper pipe to surround the beans or does it have to be that strip? We've got loads of offcuts of pipes lying around. I'd like to put a beer trap down, too, but suspect the dogs would drink it.

Whoknows - lovely, lovely shed! I see the cat found it immediately!!

Zebra - It's horrible when you feel it's all going wrong. I have days like that, and it makes me feel really low. But you ARE having successes! A flowering courgette is a thing to celebrate! I'm with you on the bindweed - I have loads of it in my plot too and I know I just have to root it out every week for the next 5 years, which is a bit of a depressing prospect.

I saw my father's allotment this weekend. It is like the photographic negative of mine - everything that's behind in mine (tomatoes, courgettes, roots of all kinds) is doing really well in his, but his legumes and brassicas are small by comparison. His greenhouse tomatoes are huge - they're over four feet and they have really strong, thick stems and loads of flowers. I had tomato envy!!

Oh and slugs - I tolerate a bit of damage but when it reaches the point where they are threatening to destroy everything, I put down just a very small number of the organic pellets which only kill slugs and snails and don't get into the food chain (they are called something like Growing Success Slug Killer). NOT metaldehyde, which is horrendous and will kill birds, hedgehogs, and even pets. It seems to work to keep them off for just long enough to let the plant establish.

WhoKnows - that is the shed you talked about upthread?- worth the wait ,its beautiful. Shame to put anything in it really!
yy to leeks - I seed my in plantpots, and then plant out.
peas - they suggest 20 plants per person, but basically you need loads - I used to do the 'sow every 2" ' , now I sow them very thickly, so there is a chance you get enough to pick, without eating them all before you get home
Cupcakes - i think the pipe would work, its the copper that matters, just most people don't have loads of copper pipe. Can y0u back that up with grit/sand around them or broken eggshells, anything to deter the little blighters? They munched through the sunflowers and runner beans that I had planted at home for DGS, but haven't touched the ones at the plot.

Right, I think Operation Slug is going to kick off this afternoon.

We have lots lying around as DH is a tradesmen - he's got loads that's been taken out of houses that he saves up and takes to the scrappy. I could purloin a bit of that. The dogs would eat eggshells so I will have to get some grit. And I've just thought - If I sink a bowl of beer into the ground and put one of those wavy roof tiles over it, the slugs could get in but the dogs couldn't. Will try that too.

Zebra I have some slug pellets like that (have to be pet friendly with the dogs!) but they're 2 years old, I'm wondering if they've gone off?

Somebody should invent some sort of spray that makes plants taste nice to slugs, so we can spray it on our weeds.

Agoodbook - yes, the same shed, well remembered!

Shove - the cats love it. Warm, high shelves with a good view, what more could a cat want? DD says we should put some cat beds in there for them. Re slugs - yes, I have resisted pellets so far this year, I use the Growing Success ones too, but I am going to take some up to thte plot later as I planted some lettuces out this morning and the last lot got completely munched. Mind you, I've put these ones in a much drier corner, the last lot were in a raised bed which is next to the compost bin and long grass round the raspberries, so a lot more places to hide, so they might not be so bad for this lot

Kimmi - I did put a folding chair in there and take a cup of tea up so just sit there yesterday. We had been thinking of getting some sort of summerhouse in that corner for ages, the DCs had a little playhouse there before but it was too small and falling down. We desperately needed more storage as we have no garage and the existing shed was overflowing with garden stuff, camping gear, the tumble dryer, DH's telescope and accessories, tools etc. I've always wanted a greenhouse, so this was a really good compromise, storage plus growing space. Re the leeks, I have the same problem with spring onions, very tricky to tell them apart from grasss shoots. Same with chives.

Zebra - I have been co-existing with bindweed in the garden for years, and it is rampant on the allotment too. However I quite enjoy just pulling big armfuls of it out from the established plants in the garden, and am vigilant about pulling out new shoots in the freshly cultivated bits, I find it quite user-friendly as weeds go, at least there are no scratches and prickles .

I think my fed-up-ness is due to the fact that nothing looks healthy and grpwing -apart from the bindweed. That of course looks very very strong. It's literally the only thing that seems to be thriving! I can't believe that until a coup,e of weeks ago there was none, and I had to post a pic for ID. And now, it is everywhere. I long for the days when I moaned about dandelions and buttercups.

So you're not all spraying it to oblivion then? Interesting. Everything I read said l kill it with fire, but you all seem just to be pulling it out. Hmm, maybe I can continue to be all eco.

On which note, something I have a lot of that I like at the allotment, that I didn't mention yesterday I think -frogs. Loads. And I love them. Still a lot of slugs though, so the frogs need to crack on. I attempted to turn the compost a bit and load of frogs jumped out so I thought it was mean to disturb them and left them in peace.

Re slugs, Asda have ferric phosphate based slug pellets cheaper, much cheaper than the growing success ones. I've stocked up, but am not really using them at the plot, just at home. The potato shredding is most odd, it almost looks like a pigeon has pecked it all out and just left the ribs. Maybe that's what has happened? It's just 2 plants though. Actually I should dig them up then, shouldn't I, as they won't grow now there's no leaf left. Plus I want that space.

I never knew that not all potatoes flowered! So I've just googled and of the 2 spuds I planted, 1 does (Pentland Javelin), 1 doesn't (swift). Of course I mixed them up, like an ill prepared fool!

WhoKnows your shed - and cats - are gorgeous. But is only 1 cat allowed in? The other one looks thoroughly pissed off

Zebra - How bad is the bindweed? How many do you have sprouting per meter?

When I first got my plot, I sprayed all of the bindweed with the very strong version of Roundup (there is a pro variety that is a bit stronger than the usual stuff). I did this twice. I don't like using sprays, and I didn't at that time know that it's a carcinogen . But I also knew I was facing a losing battle if I didn't do something - the council had rotavated the plot months before and chopped every weed into tiny pieces. For most of them, this had destroyed them, but bindweed has the ability to regenerate from even small pieces of white, spaghetti-like root, so the entire bed was very thickly covered with it, to the point that it was the only thing that was growing there. This capacity to survive makes me sceptical about burning the leaves as an eradication method. I can see it just growing back again. I think you need to get the roots out if you can.

It still comes through on my allotment even after the weedkiller (it is bombproof), but in nothing like the strength it would have done otherwise. Every time I dig the beds, I find little pieces I've missed and have to pull them out.

I'm sorry about your taters. I have not heard of damage to that extent by slugs, but the little blighters can be soooo voracious, so I guess it could be???

Zebra she does indeed look pissed off. Probably because the lovely warm slab of concrete she's been sunbathing on for the last month has just had a huge wooden box dumped on it and know she's only got a little strip of it left. She has been going inside, but not as much as her sister.

whoknows gorgeous shed.
My cats have two beds in the greenhouse, and two in the potting shed and they love it.

well, after a very busy day, I did pop up to the plot to pick strawberries - the warmth has made given them a massive boost - I thought I would get a pot full - I actually nearly filled 4 ice cream cartons . A happy plotter tonight, even though my potatoes are all wilted - and I was awful, and didn't water them .
spotted bindweed is with you now, just keep on pulling it out - its everywhere on my plot, I just keep on plugging on with it

I've just got back from the plot too, it's turning into a nice evening routine, dinner, run around after DCs, fill up thermal mug with coffee, retire to allotment for half to an hour spend most of it chatting with fellow gardeners.

I have planted some more peas tonight in all the gaps between the existing ones (which aren't doing too well), watered everything and did some weeding. I am overrun with thistles, with their horrible tap roots. Also put down some black sheeting on a bit of waste ground which is going to become next years strawberry patch.