Allotment /Veg patch thread 4 "Lettuce and Peppers and Pears OH MY!"

[agoodbook]

as per Cupcakes :)
come and join in the harvest !

previous thread here
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/gardening/2386388-The-2015-Allotment-Veg-Patch-Thread-Part-3-already?msgid=55842529

Evening!
welcome pizza - now, just maybe a word of help about veg plots. Not everything needs watering . Could you reuse the space at the end, as you have prepared it , for something like fruit bushes/strawberries/ raspberries? These all mostly look after them selves, and will reward you for a walk down the garden ( hope its not too much of a hike)
Cedar - I think Queensland Blue do tend to get quite big, but like every winter squash, they really, really like feeding and watering and sun. On my plot, the crown prince have done pretty well 9 fruit off 4 plants (i will do a 'harvest festival' photo when I harvest!) but my butternut are just rubbish - I may get 2 very small ones if lucky off 5 plants. Thats life...
I managed to get down for a couple of hours this afternoon. Glorious sunshine which turned to black clouds soon after I got there . I started to pick beans rather than weed, just in case, and it began raining as I picked raspberries ( very quickly!)-cue running like a mad thing to the shed :). But it didn't last long, so went back out to weed .
In passing I had a quick look at a little row of parsnips I put in months ago. Totally left to their own devices apart from a cursory thinning when they first got going- (first time I have got them to germinate.) Realised they were a bit crowded, and pulled some from inbetween to leave a bit more space - really nice size, so roasted parsnips call :)

shove - in my dreams I have a nice new house, with one of those wonderful walled gardens from a big estate :)

a kitchen garden of course...
shove - recipe! It looks like a lot, so I shall be doing half quantities I think

Fruit and Vegetable Pickle

450 gm cooking apples, weight when peeled and cored
2 medium lemons
450 gm green tomatoes
450gm dates
900gm mixed vegetables, weight when prepared
600ml brown malt vinegar
2 teaspoons mixed pickling spices
300gm sugar - preferably dark brown
salt and pepper to taste

Cut apples into 6mm dice
Grate the rind from the lemons, then squeeze- (3 tablespoons juice needed)
Blend lemon rind and juice with the diced apple.
Skin the tomatoes- cut into same size dice as the apples
Chop dates also to same size dice
Choose equal amounts of any mix of carrots,cucumber,marrow, turnips, etc - weigh after cutting into dice, to make sure you have 900gm
Pour the vinegar into a preserving pan, add the pickling spices tied in a muslin bag, add the fruits, vegetables and lemon juice.
Simmer steadily for 45 minutes. Add the sugar, stir over a low heat until dissolved, then boil steadily until a thick mixture. Season to taste. Remove muslin bag with spices. Spoon into hot jars and seal down.

Hello.... Hopping on again! I managed to grab some purple sprouting broc, spring cabbage, parsley and kale from the little garden centre down the road (a Japanese anemone and an aconite didn't jump into my basket as well, honest!) so I'm looking forward to planting those on Sunday. Will parsley be ok outside, or better in pots so I can bring it in? I'm chuffed to pits I got some, as we love it in pea and ham soup.

Had a lovely hour weeding the patio, sounds like I had the same rain as others, I just shoved a raincoat on and got on with it - time in the garden is so few and far between for me these days! I'm looking forward to a whole afternoon planting and tidying on Sunday, while my boys are off biking.

I don't know about moving trees - will they survive? The laurel hedge isn't on our land bookbook - so we have struggled to cut it back, it must be 20 feet high now. It's at the top of a bank on the other side, on what was a trading estate that's recently been built on, so it's now in a hit of a no mans land!

I think the pear tree is rotten, but the plum isn't, would I just give it a good -scalp prune and then move it to a new spot?

I had a fab squash curry tonight for all you squash growers! And I've been busy sorting my apple harvest - in to trays for storage. This is the first year we've properly harvested them!

I also dream of a large walled kitchen garden..I used to live in London and we had a wonderful red brick wall stretching the length of our front and back garden - it was a tiny cottage, oh how I loved that house and garden! Until the wall fell down

bookbook You must have read my mind as I have got strawbs and rasps at the end of the garden!
puffy I grow parsley all year round in the garden, I try and sew it regularly so we never run out....I always mistime this and always run out every 4 months or so. I would also love a walled garden and an orchard.

Thanks book - I might try that next! I have just finished making the piccalilli and I have a batch of chutney on the way. I have made ridiculously much and I don't have enough jam jars , so I am filling kilner jars - which is ridiculous because who needs a kilner jar full of pickle??!

The piccalilli was a bit on the translucent side and not that yellow when I put it in the jars - is that OK? Will it go thicker and yellower as it cools/ages? Or did I mess it up. I am rubbish at cooking :(

How big is your tree puffy? You can move young uns out of the growing season (after all, this is how we get trees to plant in) - but older and established ones will struggle and resent it and may well die. So chopping them down or changing your design may be the only options.

I learned something interesting about laurel this week, which is that you should never drive cuttings to the tip in your car with your windows shut. The crushed leaves release cyanide, and people have actually passed out as a result of transporting it. Some people have also unfortunately confused it with bay leaves, with very negative effects.

Evening!
just a quick drop in, a very busy day at work, and brain has shut down.
puffy - would love the squash curry recipe :). You can certainly prune the plum tree, but you may find you don't get any fruit for a couple of years, but maybe worth it anyway, to re-invigorate it. Don't forget to feed it well- a good mulch around the roots ( same sort of area as the branches cover)
pizza - I am impressed, and must try sowing my own parsley. I dont seem to have much success, so tend to by a plant about every 2/3 years to replace my poor raggy one.
shove - my son in law loves pickle, and I have a kilner jar of the chutney I made last week, to give him as an extra little home made present for his birthday :). I doubt the piccalilli will get any more yellow ( did you use tumeric?) but it should thicken as it gets cold.

I kind of made this one up, but it was very nice, and very simple!

Organic curry paste (I used balti as that's what was in the cupboard), Tin of coconut milk, and all the veg I could find - garden peas, runner beans, potatoes, cubed squash, onion, chilli, pepper, courgette - fried off the onions, added mushrooms, then the squash and paste, then the coconut milk and the rest of the veg and cooked it on low until dp got back from his bike ride (around 50 mins), served with basmati rice and coriander naan, would've been lovely to have had some cucumber yogurt on the side, but we didn't have any

I think my plum might be too big to move, but I thought I could at least give it a go, couldn't I! I might go and badger the estate manager and see if I can nag persuade him to chop some of the hedge down. The trouble is, I don't really want to see the roof of the house below, at the moment I am blessed with a lovely view, albeit slightly too much laurel

I'm planning an afternoon of planting, tidying and weeding tomorrow, in the sun - can't wait! And I've nicked a load of going over organic garlic from work, so I'm going to chance putting some in and seeing how it does. I'm also finally seeing sprouts from the garlic I put in in spring.

Chuffed I just found the list shove put in, I'd forgotten about spinach but more importantly it has pak choi on it! I luffs pak choi!

pizza I meant to say, my hosepipe only JUST reaches my veg plot, but ordinarily I just don't bother watering unless I need to occupy the boys for a bit. This year I haven't really needed to. Lugging watering cans down to the greenhouse is a bit of a ballache though, I've been waiting for dp to set me up a water butt down there for about 18 months now. Think I might just attempt it myself!

Evening - hope everyone is okay
Thanks puffy - will try that when I harvest my squashes.
I now have 4 butternut - 2 small, 2 tiny.so they had better get a move on before the frosts.
Didn't manage to get everything I needed to do today , but harvested carrots cauliflower and broccoli. I also picked 3 borlotti bean pods just to have a look ,as some of the leaves are dying back, but they are not ready yet, pods are still a bit solid.
I did manage to complete the planting out of my new strawberry bed with some mature plants from the old bed. I can now empty, weed and dig down the old one, ready for asparagus.
The rhubarb has suddenly started to look lovely again - I have to split it this year, and was expecting it to be dying down now!
Rain all day tomorrow -pah!

Evening all!

No real plotting for me today, but I did get a good few hours in yesterday. I did general tidying up -picked some more beans, the almost last of the summer squash and courgettes, more tomatoes. And I started to clear up, as (as mentioned previously ), quite a few other plotters are pulling things up now. So ill came 2 courgettes, my cucumbers, and a sorry looking tomato. And I weeded loads - the couch is encroaching into my beds. Then I got back home and read that were set for an Indian summer!

I did pop over briefly today to collect the 2nd trug of rubbish for the council compost and it was super busy. And it seems that blight has started to hit people's tomatoes and potatoes -Yikes! So I have seen it in real life now, and smelt it too -it has a distinctive smell, doesn't it? I have loads of fruit left on my toms so will have to be vigilant. I actually wonder if my illing tomato did in fact have the 1st signs of blight.

I also picked my first marina di Chioggia squash, the first and biggest from BenSquash. There are still a few small fruits on the plant, but they're not yet warty looking.

booky my rhubarb is looking excellent too. It's a shame, as the gutso in me would like to eat it, but it's probably too full of oxalate now. Well, mostly excellent -but falling apples have splatted it in places. It needs to be divided this year, and I might take out a plant also. My plot neighbours have cut theirs right back so it is just the crown remaining - should I do this, or just leave it for a bit?
V jealous at your asparagus bed. One day I will have enough room for that. Probably when I win the lottery and buy my huuuge country house wih an old walled kitchen garden that needs bringing back to life,. You know, the one that also has the orchard, nuttery and massive mulberry tree...

Oh, I picked a few of my borlotti a week or so ago - the pods that had the beans rattling inside. I've dried the beans now, and... They don't look much at all! It seems an awful waste to chuck the pod away. Not sure I'll do the, for drying again, although they are v v pretty.

Well, I've been eating my rhubarb again, it is a late variety anyway and I did a bit of googling and apparently the oxalic acid in late season thing is an old wives tale, the real reason to stop picking it it is to let it gain strength for next year. I hadn't had any for a few weeks but DD persuaded me to bring some home the other day. just a few stalks.

Had a nice couple of hours up at the plot today, weather has been fabulous this weekend, warm and sunny. Courgettes are still growing faster than we can eat them, still picking corncobs and got lots of celery ready too. But today's job was digging potatoes. I must thank whoever it was that suggested getting fruit boxes from the supermarket to store them, I have some banana boxes that have vents in the sides and some black fabric to put over them.

I wanted to report back on my "growing potatoes through cardboard" experiment. Some of you talked me out of rotavating my plot this spring, and instead we covered the grassy areas with cardboard and compost, I planted potatoes through holes in the cardboard. They grew well, but I was a bit alarmed at how rapidly the grass took hold again round them. So today was harvesting day (I planted late, end of April because I had no way of banking them up much). I thought the grass was going to be a nightmare, but actually it's not at all, it's all couch grass with its thick white roots and it is all close to the surface, the cardboard having stopped it going too deep I guess. Plus a lot of bindweed, with similar roots. But all the thick thatch of lawn-like grass that we had until spring has gone, and I havs esat there today gently lifting all the couch and bindweed roots out and I have lots of lovely crumbly soil full of spuds underneath. A success! I have to say though, other parts of the plot have recolonised t grass more thoroughly and I'm back to square one with some of them, but it was a good start.

Oh and allergy wise, it turns out I'm allergic to nickel and some obscure pine resin which is used in fabric plasters (I knew I was allergic to those already, but now I know the name of the ingredient I can look out for it in other things). Nickel - I have been wearing an old "silver" ring which I bought in my teens (a long time ago) and it may not be proper silver, also I carry my keys in my hand a lot rather than in bags (never take a bag with me on the school runs for example), I also fiddle with them constantly when they are in coat pockets, so I may have been getting exposure that way. All interesting stuff.

Hello all. Sorry for the looooong absence. Combination of holiday / Jeffrey / toddler throwing water over my monitor has meant I've been offline for a bit. Have been trying to keep up on my phone but hate posting from it so am just starting to get back in to my threads at last.

So many new names! I don't know who anybody is. Oops.

My garden got a bit neglected whilst we were away. I've all but given up on my beans. The slugs and snails are now climbing up the poles and eating the beans themselves. They've also had my second batch of beetroot. Caterpillars have decimated my brassicas (was hoping to pick up some net curtains in a charity shop but never came accross any. Can't afford any proper nets).

BUT - tomatoes are brilliant. Have been freezing them in portions for pasta sauces / soups. Spent Saturday morning pottering in the greenhouse and have now chopped all of the leaves off. The remaining fruits are ripening beautifully now.

Potatoes are all out and bloody lovely. Might have been converted to loving them.

Leeks and Parsnips are looking brilliant. I have 2 pumpkins as well.

Holly thanks for the overwintering list, there's way more than I thought!

DDog got into the greenhouse last week and ate his own body weight in tomatoes. I didn't realise until that night that tomatoes are a diaretic. Poor Dog was weeing everywhere - completely out of control. Oops. Will have to make a proper mesh door for next year I think - he's learned how to pull down the wire I've been balancing in front of it.

Pine resin Time that's interesting. You don't really think what things like plasters are made of do you?

Interesting re the weeds and plantingthrough. I spent a couple of hours teasing out couch grass from my front garden yesterday - complicated by having slate stones all over the top.A tedious job.

We cleared one lot of runner beans and our sweetcorn yesterday. Also rigged up some supports for my raspberry. My neighbour clearly didn't think I'd got the posts in properly - kept offering me his hammer and then finally begged me to allow him to hammer them in for me!
We harvested a couple of squashes which are small but the plants have died. And I started digging out the old overgrown strawberry bed.
So quite a lot done.

Your poor dog Cupcakes!

Poor Dog? Poor carpets more like!

YAY! cupcakes is back! I love the stories about cupcakesdog. BEST DOG IN GARDENING (and I am including Nigel off GW).

Brassicas and caterpillars: for netting - I have been using scaffolding net. You can buy it in a roll for around £20, and there is more than you can ever need on there. But apparently when building sites finish off, they just bin the nets, so if there is construction near you, you might well be able to get some for free. The only drawback with it is that some types have a kind of seam in the middle and enterprising caterpillars can get through. You can sew it up very quickly with twine, but I haven't found it too much of a problem so far.

Time - it's good to hear your cardboard worked! I am logging this mentally for the future. I feel like this year I have had almost no work to do against weeds because it has been so cold here that a lot of things haven't grown that well. For example, I normally need to cut my privet hedges at home (I HATE PRIVET) at least three times, and each time it will be a job that really needs doing when I get round to it. But this year, I've only had to do it once, and will just need a minor tidy-up before winter. It's amazing how much it's cut down on work, though I have to say that on balance, I think I prefer an actual summer and a battle against things!

Also good that you've had results of your tests back and that you now have an explanation/way forward. Hope you're doing OK - it can be a bit of a shock but also a relief to know.

Thanks for the warm welcome holly. DDog is honoured - I shall try and remember to upload a pic of his gardening antics later.

Morning!
hello again cupcakes - your poor DDog - he loves potatoes as well, doesn't he - there must be an irresistible smell to them - both same family after all!
AsTime - knowledge is definitely power when it comes to knowing what to avoid, but its amazing when you start looking what some ingredients are in everyday things. And what an outcome for the potatoes :)
well, the forecast was rain all day, so was sat this morning eating breakfast, and I suddenly realised that it hadn't actually started, so from a lazy,(still dressing gown ) sit, I decided it was worth a really quick trip to pick raspberries, so I have zoomed down, and also picked a couple of cabbages, (which will keep us going for about a week, they are so heavy ) May have to donate one .
On an at home note, I have a lot of plum tomatoes nice and ripe,I have 3 peppers ready, so another big pasta sauce is due to be made. And the spinach I sowed has germinated nicely, just. Why can it do that in a pot at home, and the row I sowed at the plot never showed up?
I listened to GQT last night - I am relieved to hear that even two on the panel haven't had any success with butternut this year, its not just me !

cupcakes - I meant to say , do you have a local fb selling site? If so, it may be worth a punt putting out a wish for old net curtains. I got a lot of chicken wire for an absolute bargain, by just asking if anyone had some to sell . Or freecycle?

book that's a good idea re: FB selling - thanks! It's DDog 2 that likes to eat seed potatoes. DDog 1 steals them, realises he doesn't want to eat them, then buries them so I end up with plants everywhere.

Just got home from a rubbish morning, thought I'd pick some tomatoes for lunch and....
This is an urgent request for help on my newly - started thread (dramatic) www.mumsnet.com/Talk/gardening/2472042-BLIGHT-Urgent-help-for-novice-gardener

Dammit.

Afternoon
spotted just got in from work, and saw this :( - I came home yesterday, and the site was already down, darn it! So posted on your other thread.
Just make sure next year you plant them in a totally different area, and try and get rid of the volunteer potatoes - not easy I know