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

mink - hope your Mum didn't ring again!
Rooster - its almost my favourite veg :)

mink I hope you made that jam. Me and the Zebralets have been oinking through our blackcurrant jam, and even go so far as to say it's now officially my Number 1 Favourite Jam.

Just a quick plot visit for me today, just to quickly water the beans that I forgot to water yesterday. Well, that was the plan. But I got chatting. Then I scrimped some plums from an untended plot. I'm very law - abiding, so I feel ferociously naughty. The plums are Victoria, and they are perfectly ripe. I may continue my thieving tomorrow, but I'll have DS wih me and I really don't want to set him a bad example.

2 days germination, agoodbook !

they germinated in 2 days, the photo is from today, so the seedlings are 6 days old spotted :) . Just need to keep the cabbage whites away now....

Sorry to hear about the fruit thieving, whoever that was.

Blackcurrant jam sounds good, it is my mum's favourite. Raspberry pips it for me though (boom, boom!).

I haven't had much time at the plot this week with it being school holidays, but I have today harvested my onions (brought them straight home and onto a slatted shelf in the shed rather than leaving them to dry on the ground, I want to re-use some of the ground they were in for my aubergines. These have been languishing a bit in the greenhouse, probably too late to do much with them now, but I want to get them out there now I have space.

Tonight I have been going through the photos for the last year (I make an album of mementos of each school year for the DCs) and have had a lovely time looking at all the various allotment photos I have taken over the same period. The plot was completely bare (apart from a lot of grass and some fruit bushes) in March, now it's totally different, full of healthy, producing plants, it's a great feeling.

Tomorrow. For sure

I managed a couple of hours yesterday at the plot. I picked a lot of runner beans. I froze a lot of them without blanching so hope they'll be OK. I'm looking after a friends plot while she's on holiday and she has some purple french beans which taste nice. I must ask her what they are when she's back.
So most of my time was either spent picking beans or watering two plots. It will certainly help build up my arm muscles!

I picked the first few blacberries. I tried one last week and ot didn't taste that great but the ones yesterday were much nicer so I was probably impatient and didn't wait for it to ripen properly.

Anyway we had beans, potatoes, lettuce, peas, carrots and spring onions all fresh from the plot for dinner last night.

Morining all! Forgot to mark my place on the new thread and then kept sitting in "I'm on" wondering where everybody was!

Rooster purple sprouting already! I'm very jealous. Mine is still a long way off harvesting I think.

Scrumping Zebra? I'm SHOCKED and APPALLED. That reminds me, there's an unattended plum tree in a barren part of my street. Must check that out.

We were away for the weekend so no gardenning for me, but I did have a quick check last night and it looks like the tomato glut is imminent. Can't wait!

I know, scrumping (which tablet changes to scrimping). I am so naughty.

To clarify, the plot is definitely untended as there's work needing doing on some pipes, and it's plot zero for horsetail at the site. But it has a lovely, massive plum tree, a smaller damson and also an apple. And it's also quite a big sunny plot and I am tempted, if the horsetail gets addressed, to ask if I can swap to it...

But I still feel naughty about 'stealing', especially after all the tales of proper plot theft.

WhoKnows, I've taken loads of plot progress pics too, and I like to watch them all run together, slideshow-stylee, to see my plot spring back into life!

Morning!
now why didn't I think of the photos - I just save pictures of the plants/harvest really- not of the plot.
cedar - I and spotted are growing Cosse Violette purple french beans - they are lovely.
I don't have as many as last year as one seems to have died , and I accidentally caught one with the hoe and cut right though it

• did that with a cabbage last week as well - self inflicted attrition of plants. Same with peas - tug a bit hard on a pod, and the whole plant comes up .

cupcakes -hello! wondered what happened to you :) I asked at our site yesterday about the discount seeds thing - they were not hopeful, as he says they are quite strict, but I will double check with the chairman :)

I blithely take strawberries from my abandoned weed infested neighbouring plot. No point wasting them. But I do also tell other plotholders to pile in.

Think I will nip to plot shortly to see if I have more caulis and to pick some blackcurrants.

warming up the jam pan mink ? :)
well, popped down to the plot - watered and harvested french beans/peas/courgettes/broccoli.
Put more tiles under squashes- though still no sign of butternuts so far.
Noticed the autumn raspberries are starting to set - about 2 weeks at a guess. Still picking the summer ones at home- they are in full flow at the moment.

Jam pan is on. Worried I may be a bit sjort of sugar. Going to top up with icing sugar. Don't want overly tart jam

Bc jam done. Many, many jars. It tasted a bit sweet so I checked the flavour thesaurus and added some star anise. Tastes nice in a slightly unusual way

good work there mink mmm- star anise eh. The blackcurrants have been sweet this year.

Star anise sounds like a good idea. I don't think it would have occurred to me to use icing sugar to top up sugar.

agoodbook I stole your suggestion of using tiles which is a brilliant idea and seems to be working OK so far. H turned them upside down because he thought our left over black and white bathroom tiles looked weird the pattern side up!

Star anise you say? Hmm.

Was it my imagination or was Monty talking about it being Late Summer on GW last week? LATE summer? Surely not?

cedar love that your DH is worried about patterned tiles in the allotment!

Zebra if it's ground zero for horsetail, could you all get together and try and clear that? That way the scumping would be in exchange, surely?

The horsetail in my plot - which is everywhere - is an annoyance ratjer than doing any actual damage. Its just the persistance which is a bit depressing.

Hi all, I am a very novice gardener and earlier this year I created a small veg plot in the garden. I then completely ignored it and of course it became a tangled mass of weeds. I am clearing it all today and have salvaged one broccoli plant and dug up a few spuds. I was reading that I might get away with planting a few things so late in the season. I was thinking some more lettuce, fast growing carrots, kale, cabbage and a few parsnips. What do you think? I promise I'll look after them this time

Hello earthy - welcome to the club! I've had a fair few false starts with my veggie patch, too.

Monty Don was planting Dwarf French beans last week, for a late harvest. Lots of things are still fine to go in - I'm about to sow another row of lettuce and some more kale. I popped in some carrots about 10 days ago and they're doing well.

Ooh that's good news then. I've let the chickens loose on it this afternoon and am weeding and cutting back in the rest of the garden to tidy it up then I think tomorrow I'll pop to the garden centre and buy a few things to sow.

earthy - don't forget stuff for overwintering too! If you get some cauli, cabbage and kale seeds on now, you still have time to plant them out for a crop next March/April. Oh, and you can overwinter peas and broad beans too. In all cases, it's important to check that the variety is winter hardy, because not all will survive! I'm doing cauliflower 'Aalsmeer', Cabbage 'Tundra', cape broccoli, broad bean 'The Sutton' and pea 'meteor' to overwinter.

cedar - I think horsetail is the kind of thing that's a war of attrition. You will win, but it's a long fight!

My Dad has it on his plot, and I bought him a hori-hori. It's a Japanese digging knife and it's brilliant for getting into the soil around the stems and down to the roots and really weakening the plant. You can buy them from Niwaki, which is an online store selling lots of Japanese gardening gear. I covet one of the tripod ladders!

Pak choi and other oriental salads can go i just now earthy and you can buy plug plants of overwintering brassica if you cannot grow from seed. You get winter selections online (alrhough usually too many brocolli it is not a small plant!)

Excellent, had a good old sort out in the garden ready to start again. My legs and arms are killing me! Just packed the other half off to the tip with all the rubbish I created!! Thanks for the advice, I'm very much a wannabe gardener, all the gear and no idea...yet!