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Gardening

Find tips and tricks to make your garden or allotment flourish on our Gardening forum.

The 2015 Allotment / Veg Patch Thread Part 3 already!

994 replies

agoodbook · 24/05/2015 15:42

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

OP posts:
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TheSpottedZebra · 29/06/2015 22:04

WhoKnows - poor cat. She looks like she knows that her sister is the Queen of the Castle, and she has to be the Dirty Rascal on a meagre old strip of concrete Grin Rooster you posted a pic of yours a while back - it was beautiful and I loved the beds!

Shove you are very kind. I don't actually know how much bindweed I have per m, as I've been pulling it up like a mad thing. Possibly 15 bits in a sq m ? It's grown 5, 8 cm in a day, since yesterday - new shoots that def weren't there, as I weeded it all. I agree re glyphospate - I have avoided the stuff so far, and id rather not. So maybe I just accept it, and pull it out where I can? It must have been there all along, but just put a spurt on in the warmer weather. Does it take many nutrients from the soil, or is it more the smothering aspect that I need to heed? Is it just the beansprouts thickness (and the woodier bit) that it can re grow from? There are also hair-thickness roots too, please tell me that it can't regrow from them!

agoodbook - do you see it lessen, or are you just keeping it at a level?
The strawbs sound fabulous. How much space is given over to them, for you to get such bounty?

agoodbook · 29/06/2015 22:07

WhoKnows - thistles are horrid aren't they? I do get them , presumably from the cow manure I buy, and just try to get the young ones pulled out before they get too big. They always seem to appear right next to a stem of a vegetable.
Just got in from an hour in the greenhouse.Thank goodness for light nights! I have repotted up my 2 aubergines- (they seem to be growing behind my back now they have got going) , pricked out cauliflower seedlings into little pots, pricked out basil seedlings, and tied up all the tomatoes again - and pinched out the growing tips , though I am bound to have missed some. Its a bit of a jungle in my greenhouse now.
This is what I love , the pottering ...and de- stressing :)

OP posts:
WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes · 29/06/2015 22:18

DH brought home an aubergine plant from work today, kindly donated by a colleague. Can you plant them out, or are they greenhouse residents?

Re the cats. Superficially it would seem that the black and white one is the Queen of the Castle, she takes on next doors cats and is generally more assertive, a big personality. But don't be fooled, tortie sister is clever, agile and quietly goes about her life without bothering about such matters as fighting and messing about, she definitely holds her own.

Linskibinski · 29/06/2015 22:22

I've been working long days so have missed lovely sunny days out on my plot. I'm so close now to finishing all my clearing. I have one end that is a dumping ground right at the entrance. The other end is right down at the bottom and is all brambley and waist high weeds. I know I just need a few more long days to get to where I want to be. The year is flying by! Tomorrow I'm planting more peas, more beans and beetroot. I'm also trying a late squash I also realised today, that since I started on my plot, I have felt the happiest I have felt in years. I didn't even know I was feeling down until suddenly I'm not. My plot is my hideaway, my gym, my hobby and my sanctuary. A bit of a derail there Did anyone else feel like that when they started? Grin

agoodbook · 29/06/2015 22:24

x post spotted - the bindweed is going down, I dig thoroughly every autumn when the crops come out - its still there to see, and when I dig in spring before putting in plants, I always find more - this time now is when its most rampant, and you can see it easily . I just try and get down as far as I can with it and pull it out gently. Any bit of root will grow back. But I think I have it under control- doubt I will ever get rid completely.
At the moment, I have 2 strawberry beds - mine which is about 2x2.5 m, and on the new half plot, he has 4 raised beds, each about 1x1.5 m. This is the first proper picking, loads more to come, so will soon be giving them away. They produced about the same . Here they are ( I took the photo to show my DD who adores strawberries!)
WhoKnows - mine is in the greenhouse, I think to have any chance of produce, they need a lot of heat

The 2015 Allotment / Veg Patch Thread Part 3 already!
OP posts:
agoodbook · 29/06/2015 22:26

Linski - nail on head Grin - still time for squashes as well - I still have my 2 runts to plant out

OP posts:
Linskibinski · 29/06/2015 22:33

agoodbook those strawbs look amazing! I'm not getting a good crop at the mo, I think I'm going to need to spend time feeding up my strawbs and watering them well. As they were all rescued from the weeds they were really sad looking. So I'm plucking tiny strawbs off in the hope the next lot will be better. Fingers crossed for the squashes! Grin

agoodbook · 29/06/2015 22:42

are they first year strawberry plants Linski ? In which case, you may not get many- they do the best cropping in year 2 and 3, and you need to plant out runners every year , so you can get rid of the poorer cropping ones from year to year

OP posts:
Linskibinski · 29/06/2015 22:59

No idea really, I know the man who had my plot before me only kept it a year so he may have planted them which would make this the second year, but they may be older and past their best. I'm just going to have to wait and see I think. I'm going to give them a good feed on Wednesday and see how they get on. Fingers crossed Grin

Piratespoo · 30/06/2015 07:41

Linskibinski....your plot is sounding like mine! I was digging away on Sunday and found some weed control fabric under 3 inches of soil and weeds...I pulled and pulled as much as I could, but could only pull up about 2 foot of it. Had to call my dh who came up to the lottie and he pulled up the rest, a lovely patch of weed free soil about 1 metre by 4 metres! Saves me about 10 hours of digging and removing weeds! Love it!

I also didn't know that some potatoes don't flower? I had some black spots of some of my leaves of my Charlotte 1st earlier that I have had in a potato grow bag. I was a bit worried it was blight but I don't think it was, having googled it. Then I had a little furtle, and thought, right, let's just see what I've got and emptied the whole lot handful by handful. And see the pics! These potatoes hadn't flowered at all! They had been in since not sure, March, maybe. As soon as they were chatted and ready. I was quite pleased with the results but don't know when to empty the others as I have three seed potatoes in each bag and two had grown very well and the others still had baby potatoes still not grown enough which I obviously didn't know until I started taking them out!

I am so please I started gardening and getting the allotment. I have had a couple of courgettes already, with several on the go, my cucumber plants are growing really well and each have about 6 cucumbers growing on them and my lettuce is doing well. I have 9 tomato plants that now have green tomatoes on them. All grown from seed, plus other stuff too.

I am not good at much, but I seem to be doing alright so far at this!

The 2015 Allotment / Veg Patch Thread Part 3 already!
The 2015 Allotment / Veg Patch Thread Part 3 already!
The 2015 Allotment / Veg Patch Thread Part 3 already!
shovetheholly · 30/06/2015 08:37

Zebra - bindweed goes completely mental this time of year. It just suddenly grows like a triffid. The good thing about that, I guess, is that if you hit it hard now, you will really be doing it some damage. I think you can steam and eat the roots (though obviously not if you've used glyphosphate) - never tried it myself, but you could try swapping it for bean sprouts in a stir fry!!

Unfortunately, even the tiny hair-thin bits can sprout. However, they produce smaller, weaker plants that are easy to get rid of.

goodbook - those strawberries are just mouthwatering. I can almost smell them through the screen! There's nothing like the taste!

linski - your enthusiasm is so infectious! I think the start is, in some ways, the most exciting time. It's just so lovely to see things come together.

I'm going to my plot tonight for the first time in a week. DH enforced a temporary allotment ban, as I was starting to fiddle with things that should just be left to grow (I have a habit of this). I My back garden is looking much tidier and nicer as a result, though! Smile Fingers crossed that all my little green babies are still fine....

LetThereBeCupcakes · 30/06/2015 09:28

Oh wow! Lovely looking strawberries and potatoes book and pink!

Bindweed is going crazy here, too - I'm hoping to be able to hit it tonight once DS is in bed and DH is out at dog training. However we've just heard that MIL has been taken ill and in hospital having tests so all will depend on how that turns out. She's 4 hours away from us so we might need to go up for a few days.

I have cucumbers on my cucumber plants and tomatoes starting to turn red. My strawberries are looking a bit ropey - but they are 3rd year plants so perhaps time to retire them. I've got them in a trough mounted on the fence which I hoped would deter pests but it doesn't seem to have! What varieties are people growing? I've got Cambridge Favourite (lovely) and Symphony (not so lovely) at the moment.

Linsk it's funny you say that - I'm on ADs for PND at the moment but forgot to take them over the weekend, and I've been fine! Perhaps the increased gardenning has had the same effect on me.

Does anybody else have a Jostaberry? I've stupidly put one in my fruit bed and it's a complete thug. It attacks me every time I walk past and is bullying my blackcurrants in to submission...

shovetheholly · 30/06/2015 09:42

Cupcakes - I honest to God think that the light plays a huge role. Maybe it's vitamin D. Maybe it's the exercise. Maybe it's something else to do with being outdoors in the sunshine. Maybe it's a combination of all those things. But it makes a huge difference.

In the winter, I have to sit in front of a light box which bathes me in a weird, blueish glow because I get sad otherwise. It does make a difference. I also have an alarm clock which wakes me with a really bright light in the winter, and that helps also.

TheSpottedZebra · 30/06/2015 10:44

Linski et al - I also agree with everything that's been written about how happy, good gardening makes you feel. Whether I am just mindlessly, slowly pottering, or being really active and getting loads done, it's such a total distraction. Any harvest I get from it will be a bonus! Apart from my courgettes, which I end a glut of, as I have been roundly mocked for planting too many. If they all fail, I'll look a proper numpty!

As well as the light and the exercise and the distraction, it think there's something about being in nature, observing, nurturing, and also being just a teeny cog in a giant universal wheel...

Shove - I've wondered about that light alarm clock thing. Do you think it works? I really struggle to get up in the morning (even now with the bright days!), and thought that that might help.

Cedar03 · 30/06/2015 10:48

Cupcakes sorry to hear about your MIL - hope she's on the mend soon.
My cucumber plant hasn't got any flowers year. Well actually, there are two plants given to me by my neighbour. One was the runt of two squashed in the same little pot. It looked OK, got slugged, but is still trying to produce a few leaves. It's tiny and probably won't amount to anything but I still feed I have to water it Smile

Piratespoo that is a good crop of potatoes. I think ours are nearly ready to come out.

Impressive strawberries agoodbook. We have some in our plot but having weeded them I've realised that most are actually wild strawberries so I'm going to dig them out and put some proper ones in for next year.

Last night we had salad with lettuce leaves, a few peas, two radishes and our first beetroot. I was ridiculously pleased!

Piratespoo · 30/06/2015 10:53

It's ridiculous how exciting it is to eat your own home grown food. I ended up eating one roasted beetroot on its own the other night as I had pulled it and didn't want to waste it and loose flavour!

shovetheholly · 30/06/2015 10:54

Zebra - it definitely works for me, a very noticeable difference. It's on a dimmer switch, so it comes on very gradually over about 20 minutes. At the end, the radio comes on very quietly and gradually increases in volume so you get roused very gently. I used to wake up to a loud beeping alarm clock and feel like I'd been dragged out of a black pit - disorientated and really quick sick at times. This is a much more lovely, gradual experience. It has a sleep setting as well, where the same thing happens in reverse, which is also useful.

Love the "teeny cog in a gigantic universal wheel" idea. Smile It's true!

Cupcakes - best wishes for your MIL. It sounds very stressful for you and your DH.

TheSpottedZebra · 30/06/2015 11:07

Pirates - your potato crop is fab. I might have a furtle in mine - I have 2 containers of different varieties (but forgot which is which), and some more in the ground (all mixed up). And what luck to find an unexpected weed-free bit too! What will go there, do you know?

My cucumbers are outside - along with my aubergines and everything else - and a hint of a flower but not really that near yet. Cupcakes you're nice and ahead then with flowers and RED TOMATOES. I thought that perhaps one of my Roma tomatoes was changing colour, but I think it was perhaps just the light.

Right. I am almost definitely resolved to not glyphospate-ing. But I will speak to my allotment neighbour and let them know that I am going to lift the paving slabs between plots and dig the Fecker out.

Is jostaberry the blackcurrant hybrid? My other allotment neighbour has something that looks amazing, lililike a giant blackcurrant, and it's laden with fruit. I want some, and I also want a cutting! Actually I want his whole plot - I daydream that he will give up, and I can move in...

TheSpottedZebra · 30/06/2015 11:11

Ha, I keep half-posting and wandering off, then a load of other people have posted in the interim!

Shove - I'm an atheist, but I suspect that I have found my 'higher power'. I've noticed so much more since I've been growing too - and I've always been quite into nature. Yet I never really noticed all the different greens, the frogs and the bees, the moments of stunning, fleeting blossom on trees right in front of my house, the 3 massive cherry trees that I must have walked under hundreds of times... Ta for review of clock. I think I'm sold. Grin

mousmous · 30/06/2015 11:16

I have an aubergine and pepper plant (tiny seedlings still)
I guess I should plant in a pot so I can take them inside when it gets too cold?

shovetheholly · 30/06/2015 12:12

Zebra - I'm the same. I wouldn't say it's as fully-formed as a religious feeling in me (I don't know whether I'm capable of such complexity, I'm pretty simple!!) but gardening and just watching nature has given me an increasingly intense awareness of living interconnectedness, and a kind of awe at the generative power in the world. I guess I see the world (and maybe the wider universe) as possessing some kind of drive towards life, and maybe somewhere in that principle at the tiniest, microbiological level (and not in a grand personification or any kind of system) I see something very special that goes beyond the normal human social world we inhabit.

mousmous - I wonder if they will shoot up in a pot? Maybe they just need more space and nutrients?

Cedar03 · 30/06/2015 12:54

Jostaberry is a blackcurrant and gooseberry cross. No experience of growing it.

We spent quite a lot of time this weekend watching a leaf cutter bee helping itself to the leaves on the amelanchier. I've never seen the bee actually doing it before. The pieces of leaves were as big as the bee and it was quite picky about which leaves it chose. It kept landing on one, having a bit of go, then going onto another one. Fascinating. Gardening definitely makes you stop and look a big more often (even if that is just at the enormous amount of horsetail coming up everywhere in the allotment) Smile/.

GrouchyKiwi · 30/06/2015 13:00

Hope your MIL is OK, Cupcakes.

Such lovely photos of shed, potatoes and strawberries. It's definitely inspiring!

My herbs are now growing beautifully, which makes me very happy.

Two questions: what is bindweed (need to learn UK names for things!) and can I plant spinach now?

shovetheholly · 30/06/2015 13:08

Bindweed = Calystegia sepium.

There is also Convolvulus arvensis (field bindweed) which is smaller and can have white or pink flowers.

GrouchyKiwi · 30/06/2015 13:10

Ah. We call that Granny Pop Out Of Bed!

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