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

violet it has been shown snails do 'home'.

So fennugreek- you just east the leaves as salad?

Ah, rabbits then probably. We have loads on our plot. My neighbour once filled a hole in his plot only to discover he'd suffocated some baby rabbits :(

I can only say this Duelling - they will start decimating your vegetables - it happened to me last year . Everyone has been putting fencing around their plots this year (including me). Its incredibly annoying and depressing to see all the stuff nibbled to death - I had to replant all my brassicas 3 times last year while trying to rabbit proof them ...

mink someone else mentioned fenugreek in a salad up thread. We never eat it raw though. It's always cooked and used as an ingredient in a dish.

Cooked like spinach or coriander leaf?

The fenugreek sounds wonderful!

Has anyone actually made it do the allotment today? We need to head up just for an hour or so to check the seedlings in the greenhouse and plant my sweetcorn but the weather is too foul.

Like spinach.

Afternoon all.

I've been a very busy bee this week and flumped this morning.

I've weeded large areas, found slug havens and mowed the bastards [when I weed I fling them on the paths and then mow the lot for the compost heap and so the slugs also get flung on there for a good mowing too], I've dug out weeds, and been to see some friends who have a nursery and who are moving and they gave us around 100 [could have been 200 if I'd been able to stuff them into the van] spare plants. I've planted the allotment up as much as I could and collected reams of cardboard to add to our compost as we have a massive clayey area that needs extreme compost adding to it. I've weeded the top area next to my comfrey, mowed all that to add to the extreme compost area and this morning was so exhausted I went back to bed and was woken by my OH at quarter to three! I thought it was about 10am.

I've checked and the frogs are still in the 'pond'. I had thought the disturbance would upset them as there was no sign during the week but they were back yesterday.

I've also redesigned two of our community garden areas and we will start work to manoeuvre these into the new layouts/plantings in the next few weeks. They are big jobs so need to be managed like small projects. Plus, our site hut's roof is being refelted this week - huzzah!

Fenugreek - a handy download to growing and using fenugreek/methi can be found here www.gardenorganic.org.uk/sites/www.gardenorganic.org.uk/files/sns/factsheets/FactsheetFenugreek.pdf
It can be used as a green manure, seed sprouts, leaves or left for seed. Fab crop.

This week: weeding, planting, some ornamental design for the new plants donated to us, picking up a fridge, getting the materials and managing the refelting, more weeding and planting, sowing more seeds, seed bombing with students and laying out the two new designs so that we can work towards the new layouts.

Wow Alternative, that sounds amazing. Two community gardens! How do they work? Are they for the whole community or for the people on the allotment?

I just went down to check on everything. The slugs have eaten my lovage, and the courgettes and pumpkins have taken a beating but have a lot of new growth. Two cucumbers have snuffed it out of 6 That will learn me about planting them out to early.

On the other hand, my tomatoes are doing brilliantly for all the extra room they have despite some cold nights. So planting them out a bit earlier than was recommended was perhaps a good idea, touch wood.

Potatoes are growing well and starting to flower, and strawberries and raspberries have doubled in size with the rain. Kale is untouched by slugs which is a miracle. I was given these plants by another allotmenteer on the site so I will have to ask what her secret is!

I will head down tomorrow am to plant out sweetcorn which have grown well under fleece for the past two weeks. When they are 30cm tall (20-25cm at the mo) I will put some beans in to climb up them to complete my three sisters bed!

Two community gardens! How do they work?

No - one community garden, two mahoosive areas that need a complete rethink!

We have two open days a week, and some regular volunteers who have proved their worth and who have keys to come and go as they please. The rest is access during the two open days. It took us a full year of two full days a week just to be able to let people onto site - as it was so overgrown and falling apart at the seams.

The finance to pay for it all comes from our other work - teaching on the gardens or by bidding for projects or from donations. So although we are a ltd company, all our surplus goes back into the gardens [eg - paying for the hut to be reroofed]. It's a big job, a big garden and alot of hard work to keep it afloat!

Community members can access the gardens and have the community veg at low prices. We give away more seeds than we sow to people as we run seed circles and swaps etc; and we give plants away to those that help on the gardens. and our community groups that access the gardens regularly get first refusal on any funded projects.

Oh is fenugreek the same as methi?
in that case we use it in cooking as follows
a) makes a great veg curry when cooked with aubergine and tomato (add last when the aubergine is cooked)
b) makes a great curry when cooked with potato (aloo methi)
c) excellent to stuff paratha then eaten with yoghurt and mango pickle. (methi ka paratha)
d) seeds are used in south indian dahl (sambhar) and gujarati dhokla

PS a-c uses the leaves
I am off to sow some since apparently one can use the seeds from the spice cupboard!!!!!!

Yes - the same. And yes to sowing the ones in your spice cupboard! Good isn't it?

I always use it in my seed resource pack for teaching about herbs as the smell is amazing.

Alternative I'm hoping to get a pallet compost bin together (zip ties) for my browns I have a lot of feed sacks, will they be best shredded or can I just layer them in?

Either - the smaller the bits the faster the compost so it depends if you want it fast or not. I usually tear and ball up my browns, or shred, just to help it on it's way.

wow you have been busy.
I have untangled neighbours clematis from my trees. filled my green bin without making any visible impact.

Another very damp day here. I too didn't go to the plot, not even to check on my beans that I planted yesterday. In hindsight, perhaps it was too cold and damp to plant them out. Oh well.

I also didn't dig out my fenugreek, but I definitely will! Are there any other things in the kitchen that I can plant and grow? Especially anything that I can plant a seed and get a leaf? I love cumin, can you eat the cumin plant, or just the seeds? I did plant a tray of lettuces, which a maximise the 1st time that I have ever tried to grow lettuce.

2 questions if I may:
BORAGE - I have grown some plantlets, and have some in the garden, and at the fence end of the plot. Should I plant more in the beds, esp with the tomatoes? They can be thugs, right, so if there any special treatment, or do I just bung them in and expect self seeded ones in years to come?

PLANTS NR RASPS AND RHUBARB? There's a bit of room in that section, until my new rasps fill out a bit I guess. Is there anything that I can squeeze in there this year, that won't hamper my rasps too much? It's quite a sunny spot, although next to an apple tree and gets shaded 1st thing. The ground has been well cared for and seems quite rich and free - draining.

Boo to the rabbits, Duelling. We had hem at the allotment site, up he other end. It was quite amazing how they nibbled every th to exactly the same height (ok, probably quite obvious to most people, but I was surprised). Eg they trimmed leeks down so neatly! The rabbits have since been dealt with, and the leeks have since recovered.

Alternative your community garden sounds idyllic!

ethel - which beans will you grow up corn? I wonder if I need to try that. I was going to, then I've done them separately but together. Mind you I've only done tall beans.

Another stupid question, on subject of 3 sisters. Do the squash just find their way round the other plants? I mean, they don't bash them out of the way, or strangle them or anything do they? I am really hoping jot, as I am planning to grow lots of cucurbits in among other things. I'm happy for them to ramble and meander, and for me to have to step carefully, but I want other things to survive too.

squash/corgette/pumpkin I gently form by using sticks to get them to grow where I want them to. my first pumpkin went 3 times round the sweetcorn...

borrage - self seeding thug. great for green fertiliser and the flowers are tasty in salad. bees love them so they are great news in any garden.

evening!
I did manage to get to the plot this morning -it was raining overnight but it stopped raining at about 9.15 so I went for it. I planted out all the rest of my beans, another lot of leeks, courgettes, and the crown prince squashes. Managed to get a bit more dug over as well. It hasn't rained since, though more is due , but my heart sank this afternoon when I saw the weather warning for tomorrow and Tuesday - strong winds

So this afternoon, DH and I had to set to to saw off a large branch of my lovely pink chestnut tree - it had cracked , but with the wind warning, we didn't want to risk it falling off and causing damage. I did manage to prick out and plant up a big tub of spinach .

I did also manage to listen to GQT and there was a nice little section on growing in small spaces. - spotted a man who was growing on a small balcony, north west facing, grew peas in the darkest corner! I wonder if they could work in your shady spot ?

I'm hopeing the pumpkins smother the weeds. To be fair I hoped that last year....

I will grow runner beans up them.

I have chives and then strawberries under my raspberries. Brings the bees in to improve pollination as it flowers slightly earlier than the rasps.

Borage yes, thuggish but as an annual can just be pulled out and composted where not needed. I grow the white flowered variety. Love it. So do the bees.

I too planted borage today! I'm hoping it will fill the empty corner of my herb garden.
The courgettes I planted out a couple of weeks ago aren't looking too happy but luckily my reserve courgettes look good.
In six weeks time when I'm drowning in courgette I'll probably look back at this post and laugh.
DH tuned over one of last year's compost heaps and it's lovely crumbly stuff. He's going to spread it on one of the beds tomorrow, weather permitting.
I also put a tray load of plants in the boot of the car to use in work tomorrow which has freed up some room in the greenhouse.

Sounds like everyone has been busy!
Poured with rain most of yesterday so the only thing we did was peer though the fence on our way past later in the day. The runner beans I planted out on Saturday were still upright. Managed to get beans and peas planted out, a big chunk of the bed where I am planting sweetcorn and squashes dug and also a lot of weeding done on Saturday.
H was keen to go and plant the sweetcorn after the rain but I think it would have been too wet and cold for them so we didn't bother.
Potatoes, onion and garlic all look like they are doing well. I've realised that the radishes have been attacked by flea beetle (I think) so we may have to plant another row somewhere else.