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

Evening
hope everyone is well :)
its has been another busy day, and only finally got to the plot this evening , just a quick dash to pick strawberries ( another 4 ice cream cartons ) . I have left the net off the strawberries in the new bit - the blackbirds can finish the few left. Still loads still on mine though . DH was able to come and help, so only took half the time thank goodness. The gooseberries on the new plot need a few more days. but I am going to have them. Joint tenant has not come and harvested the globe artichokes -I am cross, as I would have, if I had known. I think they are now too far gone. I hate waste.
I have to get there tomorrow for a decent weed and harvest. Not really had much time since Sunday, and we have visitors coming on Friday for the weekend, so tomorrow it has to be. I have calabrese to pick as well as new potatoes, beetroot and 2 courgettes!
cupcakes I use graph paper for my planning - very old school - maybe I need to find an app - shall set my DD on the search :)

evening all.
how tall do you let your tomatos grow?
4 or 5 flowers up?
or do you leave them?

hi mous - mine are in the greenhouse, and though I theoretically meant to stop them at 5 trusses, they are very full and bushy, so I didn't count and took the tips out when they reached the eaves ( miles too tall really! )

Still no rain to speak of here, we had a bit of drizzle yesterday and this morning but it didn't last long and didn't really wet the ground, the soil is turning to dust. The cherries are just about over thank goodness, those that are left on the tree are starting to rot now. I haven't had much time for gardening this week, just weeding and watering, but I planted some nasturtium and carrot seeds in gaps at the allotment this afternoon and I think my first courgette will be ready by the weekend.

My runner beans are woefully slow, they have started to coil and climb but are still only about 18' high, all my neighbours have full wigwam heights covered in flowers now .

And in non-gardening news, I had to spend Saturday night in A&E with DS, who has broken his collarbone and is needing quite a lot of extra help with day to day life as a result. He is being very positive though, aI am pleased with him.

It's rained non stop all week which is good as I have been working 14 hr days so no time to do anything. I have no car due to it bring in a million pieces but might get it back on Friday. I've picked my usual ton of raspberries but a few have rotted due to my absence. The courgettes are doing ok with a couple growing nicely. My little sunflowers are looking lovely and my nasturtiums are appearing. whoknows my runner beans are truly rubbish too. With only a couple showing any signs of growth. I think we should just hold our nerve! Peas are looking good with flowers everywhere, no peas yet though. Brassicas are recovering well but the weeds are taking over. Friday come what may, is weeding day. Might also do my best to clean up the rubbish and tidy it into a corner. My herbs are looking nice too in their temporary bed; but I will have to move them into a proper home soon. Maybe this weekend?

Ooh and poor ds whoknows hope he isn't in too much pain. It always makes me cringe hearing about injuries like that. Get well soon ds

My peas are even worse than my runner beans Linski. My star performers at the moment are sweetcorn and courgettes, which I'm pleased about as it's th first time I've grown both from seed. DS is in quite a bit of pain, but is managing school ok and still out and about, just can't do any sport, dress himself, wash his hair, do his chores. At least it's the last full week of school.

WhoKnows sorry to hear about your son. My daughter broke her wrist two weeks ago so we are also being challenged by every day tasks (although I think a collarbone must be worse). I gave her calpol each evening for the first 3 or 4 nights and that seemed to help her.

Cupcakes the yellow bean is called Valdor. Its a dwarf french bean. I think it will keep its colour when cooked but we haven't got that far yet. I grew them because my daughter has claimed that she doesn't like green beans but a friend had some yellow ones last year and she liked those. I only got one seed to germinate out of the 6 I planted (should have planted more but ran out of room!).

I fed my runner beans a few weeks ago with a general plant feed and they have perked up. It is a bit of an ongoing battle with the aphids this year though.

morning
WhoKnows - hope DS carries on mending quickly.
Cedar likewise a good recovery for your DD
All in time for summer holidays :)
I wonder with runner beans that too much water/too little is almost the same problem - they do like rich soil -( greedy feeders) and both are stopping them really getting fed enough to get going . So maybe a foliar feed along with watering? I watered mine quite well when it was hot and dry, now they have got going, I will still water if it gets dry.
We have been lucky, as it rained/drizzled all Monday, and it is forecast to rain overnight tonight ( note to self- move/cover all my drying shallots and garlic!) and warm inbetween - great growing weather for weeds even more than vegetables....

I'm baaaaack!!

Flew back yesterday, got home, and went straight to the allotment . Everything is fine. My runners have done that thing of shooting up feet and feet in a week - they seem to gather themselves in the soil looking outwardly depressed for a few weeks, but when they go for it, it really is dramatic! linski and whoknows - I am sure you'll see yours do this in the next week or so.

I have several baby courgettes, too. Hooray! I have staggered the plants, so that three are coming now, and two are still small. I'm hoping that if we have a warm autumn, this means I will extend my season. (Last year, I put tiny plants in during late July and they cropped right through October).

Picked the end of my early peas (I'm leaving some for seed), some spinach, the last of the overwinter broad beans and loads of salad leaves. I also did some much-needed weeding, as those have taken off too in the last 7 days.

My roots are pathetic. I really don't know what I'm doing wrong, but I seem to be unable to grow anything rooty except radishes . However, this is a longstanding problem. The only real disaster while I've been away has been that a slug got into the greenhouse at home and chomped up all my overwinter brassicas. There are just sticks left! Should I sow some more, or hope that they recover?

Hope all these broken bones heal quickly, cedar and whoknows.

Thanks Holly and AgoodBook.

Slugs have got three of the 6 tiny kale plants my friend gave me. Even after I put down some pellets after 2 went they then ate a third. I've moved them onto a window sill.

Roots - might be you have the wrong kind of soil. Or some of them don't like too much manure (according to my book) or not enough water. Its a little disheartening because you don't know what's going on because you can't see.

My beans definitely took off having sulked for weeks (well, to be fair it was very windy which seemed to get some of the early leaves).

I'm wondering whether to put some more peas in as someone said they were going to sow kelvedon wonder to crop for the autumn and that is what I have.

cedar and whoknows hope your DCs are feeling OK. How miserable for them to have broken bones over the summer holidays!

I've had no luck at all with slug pellets (though am limited as to what I can use due to labradors). I've found the best thing is a beer trap (FYI - Speckled Hen the most popular, though Sainsbury's Basics Lager has been quite good too). Since placing one by my beans they've not been touched and are finally recovering.

Can somebody remind me what's likely to have had my swede leaves, leaving only the stalky bit? Is it a pigeon?

Holly do you know what's wrong with the roots? Are they not germinating? dying? Not forming?

DDog has eaten 6 sungolds and a rabbit.

I think it's perhaps a combination of issues: overly rich soil (I'm on clay and added lots of compost but no manure), and lack of water (we still don't have any taps on my site so I have to carry all my water down there). The soil is also really stony, and while I've tried my best to get these out of the beds, there are still more lingering around than I'd like.

I can't get the wretched things to germinate at all! Onions from sets put in to overwinter all vanished (rot? mouse?). Onions from seed, planted when small have all gone brown and died, ditto for leeks. Three lots of carrot seed, sown under enviromesh at various times have failed to germinate, ditto for turnips, beetroot, fennel romanesco.

I haven't seen anyone at my new site grow carrots, beets, or turnips but there are definitely people who have grown onions so it can't be impossible!

However, celeriac grown in the greenhouse and then planted out is flourishing. I have no idea if there's anything under the ground, though. Radishes, however, are fine.

for carrots a family member sows them indoors on loo paper and then plants the out when germinated. maybe that helps against snails/slugs?
coffe grounds and crushed egg shells also help.

Evening!
and welcome home shove
It does sound like it may be lack of enough damp to get things germinated. Roots are the devil - my turnips didn't appear at all this year. Did you direct plant your leeks? I grow mine in a pot and then transplant
Cupcakes - my swede leaves got eaten to death, but most are making new ones, so its worth leaving them and seeing how it goes.
Cedar - its me doing the Kelvedon wonder peas - they have just all nicely germinated - I put them in about 10 days ago.
I managed to get a good stint this afternoon at the plot -( I doubt I will get back before Monday) so I weeded around my leeks, cabbages and carrots, and finally, finally finished digging and turning over the very last bit of new plot.
Picked my first two courgettes, and dug up what were 1st early potatoes for tea. Picked all my broad beans, and dug out the plants - crawling with blackfly. And took out all the bolted spinach . So I can dig all that area over ready for my new strawberry bed
And I have at least two set Crown Prince squashes - they have really started to motor :)

Just come in from watering everything here at home - that wind is getting up! and its a bit cool !
After wondering if my aubergine flower was ever going to open - the other plant suddenly sprouted 3! ( and the original has opened as well ) And my first ever green pepper - eyeing it up to go in salad tomorrow :)

Cedar - sorry your DD is suffering too. DS broke his wrist two summers ago, quite a bad break that had to be pinned and required at least 5 hospital visits and being in a cast for 7 weeks, at the same time a friend's DS broke their wrist and got away with a splint for a month. He is having round the clock calpol / nurofen this time, which he had to for the first couple of weeks last time too. He's 11 and in his last week at primary school, this has put a bit of a dampener on the festivities.

Agoodbook - is that an aubergine in the picture? A friend gave us some seedlings in a big pot the other week and I'm not sure what to do with them, whether to plant out or keep in the greenhouse, they do need splitting up.

Got back about an hour ago from watering the whole plot with plant food and it started raining heavily on the way back, first time in weeks. Stopped after about 5 mins but got that fabulous big drops hitting hot roads smell. I've sown more radishes and weeded round my potatoes too tonight.

Shove - I'm the other way round, radishes are crap and carrots are doing really well. My first lot of radishes cropped weeks ago and were great, two subsequent sowings have either bolted or been all spindly and just not developed at all.

What are people putting in after onions and potatoes? It has occurred to me that I'm going to have a lot of empty space in a few weeks and I have nothing coming through to plant out.

(formerly small rodent)

broken bones - been there as well. dc had a broken leg and half a year later it's still not 100% and the hospital apps have eaten up our annual leave.
wishing you all a good recovery.

my (well the dc's really) sunflowers keep falling over. they are in balcony boxes. what can I use to keep them up?
the tallest is more than 2m and I don't have stakes high enough!

Hi WhoKnows - yes its an aubergine , I have two as they set better I believe. First time of trying them , but was advised that they have more chance of a crop if they are in a greenhouse. They are looking a bit triffid like, and have spikes on the leaves and the unopened flowers :)
After potatoes, I may sow mustard as a green manure ( must be careful not to put brassicas there next year, as its in the same family) and a last row of beetroot, and some more spinach. I have perpetual spinach already, but had to dig out the proper spinach as it had all bolted. My shallots/garlic area I am going to sow some more lettuce

Your aubergines are fantastic, agoodbook! I did ok with aubergines last year, a home in the open. This year, they are rubbish! They're at the plot, and 2 plants are suffering wih only a few leaves, and another plant has more leaves but still no flowers. Maybe I should pull them out?

Hmm, so things are slightly better for me but still not amazing. I've pulled up quite a lot of my allotment spuds. The harvest was ok but nothing amazing, and probably not worth the faff, tho I think I might grow in containers next year. Having said that, 1 of my 2 containers looks either illing or very ready to come out today so I'll empty it out and see what's what. So I might change my mind on container spuds too!

Doing best are my tomatoes - getting hanging basket ones every day now, and last night I harvested my first allotment cordon tomato- Tigerella. The Black Cherry are close to ripe now, and the Gardener's Delight are just starting to get colour too.

I have a couple of squashes seem to have set fruit -hurrah! Including 1 or 2 on BenSquash. That is still my healthiest looking cucurbit! A couple of nascent fruit too on my Little Gems (which don't seem to climb though are being tied in ok), but my Delicata squash are still crap and possibly won't recover now. Maybe I should try moving one to a better spot and see what happens? I've had a coup,e of courgettes, but all from 1 plant, and only when they are babies. I still think I've failed at courgettes!

I've got a couple of borlotti beans now, but the plants still seem to have been really hammered by black fly and I doubt they'll get back to full health. My dwarf beans that I planted a week or so ago have either had a very poor germination rate, or have been chomped. Is it too late to pop in a few more seeds does anyone know?

I've still not moved the baby brassica that I was given, and I have some leeks t go into in too. I'm not really sure what's going where now.

Welcome back Shove, hope Berlin was fab.

Poor mini gardeners, all those broken bones, and just in time for holidays too!

Lovely new name, Kumi. But what does it mean?

goodbook - hooray for aubergines! It's the first year I've done them and I am quite pleasantly surprised at how beautiful the flowers and plants are. Zebra - I think it would be a real challenge to do aubos outdoors in the UK, unless you have one of those really sheltered suntrap spots. I'm jealous of your tomato harvest. Mine are only just starting to set tiny first fruits and my squash is aaaaages off doing anything interesting. You could try spraying your borlottis with a small amount of ecover mixed with water - it really works to reduce the fly organically, in fact I'm quite surprised at how effective it is. There's still time for them to recover - growing season's only just started really.

Whoknows I'm also pondering the succession problem. I'm debating whether to get a third lot of peas in for the autumn, as both spring and summer ones have done/are doing really well. Is there time to sow another load of broad beans too or is it too late? Perpetual spinach is a must for me - and maybe a bit more kale to extend the season for that too. I just love harvesting leaf crops. There's something so satisfying about grabbing a big bunch of leaves!!

Definitely going to do cape broccoli and caulis and cabbages to overwinter (from around September), along with another load of peas and broad beans. I might give onion setts another go, if I can stand the pain of watching them all fail again!!

Oh and leeks - I grew them in a container, and then planted out. I think I should have used peat pots or something instead, as separating all the little thin plants involved a lot of disruption to the roots, which may be the reason they are nearly all dead . Ditto for onions.

spotted - when I was reading up on green manures, french beans are suggested as a good one - pop them in and see, why not - you have nothing to lose :). I bet its been a bit cold this year for doing aubergines outside- could you pot them up , and put them somewhere warmer? And allotments are also a lot more exposed and open to the elements - not nearly as cosy as at home !
If like me, you end up bunging in things where there is a space, without much planning or thought :)
shove - thats really odd about the leeks - its what I do , I water the pot really well, then just tip out the whole pot , tease them apart ( easier with very wet compost!) and plop into a dibbed hole and fill the hole with water. I've done nothing else , and had no problems.
I will be overwintering broad beans, but not til late autumn, but I don't think Aquadulce again - seemed to get tough skins too quickly for my taste

That's reminded me that I have some donated leeks sitting in a pot on the decking and I must take them to the allotment and find somewhere to put them!

I'm definitely going to put some more peas in as we like them. Also chard. And I've got some green manure seeds - some is a winter mix and some is something beginning with a p which has blue flowers - and I am going to plant those where I'm not growing anything else during the winter to see what happens.

My pumpkins have flowered but no fruit set yet and don't think the squashes have either.

I'm impressed with the aubergines. Sadly I don't have a greenhouse so nowhere to grow the exotic plants.