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!
ethelb - its just horrid being wet through -I keep a waterproof in the shed, but I am quite tall, and the coat not that long , so drips onto the back of my legs, and its just yuk :)
Spotted - you are going to be overrun with raspberries in approximately 2 years time, but maybe thats a good thing for you .
Something dug up and nibbled my broadbeans last year - I had to hurriedly sow more in very early spring. Whatever did it ( mice I think) had dug them up, eaten what was left of the seed, and left the little shoots on the ground, the little critters.
And yes to furtling in seed boxes - though i have to actually get out some spinach seed . My DGS 'helped Grandma' and forked through all my little spinach plants that were in a big pot in there., it looks like a massacre. Ah well...
I managed a fair bit of time this morning at the plot weeding/forking and digging up some beetroot, it was not raining!! . Rained all afternoon , and the forecast is horrible for tomorrow , so tried to make the most of my time there.
I do hope shove is making the most of Portugal - the Pennines are taking a battering with all this rain

Well, no gardening activity at all for me in the last week or so, but I miss you all when I'm not posting so I thought I'd pop in and say hello.

I think I've lost the battle with the weeds to be honest, I was keeping really on top of them in the first half of the year, it all started to slide in the school summer holidays and since school went back in October I seem to have been busier than ever or it's been raining the entire time. A third of my plot is weed free, if that (about a third is still grass, the other third is this year's weeds). Been too busy to get up there today and won't tomorrow either, weekdays are almost impossible now too with work and dark evenings, plus we've arrived in that time of year where the DC's schools have some sort of event to go to at least once a week.

Whoknows, now is not a bad time to be defeated by weeds. Just cover up in black plastic or cardboard and they will have rotted by spring.

Thanks Ethel, I have been doing that with the parts that are clear, layer of leafmould, cardboard and black membrane to hold it down, got defeated by strong winds last time I went up there though. I need to get hold of more cardboard from work.

I think this year is pretty bad for weeds tbh WhoKnows - they are still germinating and growing, as it is so mild.

I'm glad I posted, it inspired me to pop up there for half an hour just now, taking two more bin bags of leaves that I had raked up from the lawn. On the part that was used this year but had reverted to weeds I pulled out all the big tap root types (dandelions, thistles), so the stuff that's left should rot down easily if I cover it. Brought home my first red cabbage too

its nice , harvesting your own veg (do you braise your red cabbage? ) and every little bit of weeding helps especially at this time of year I think , particularly with the bad weeds!
I went this morning -( it's actually warmer today) , but that horrible mizzle set in after about an hour, and it was rather claggy underfoot, so I came home!

Warm here too and dry for once, but the ground is very clayey and claggy, it's easy to pull the weeds out but getting the clods of soil of is not easy.

I have to confess to not liking braised red cabbage, I don't like the sweet spiciness of it (I don't like sweetness with savoury foods at all). It will be going into coleslaw.

Darn it WhoKnows - neither do I - I was hoping someone had a recipe that I could like! I do coleslaw and pickled red cabbage, but tbh , I don't grow them for that reason :)

Just caught up with allow your lovely updates. Not done anything in the garden for ages but reading through has inspired me. If DS is amenable we shall get outside this afternoon. Will report back later!

Allow? All of!

Evening
just recovering with a cold flannel on forehead after having DGS today. I wish I had half his energy!
Lovely to hear from you Cupcakes :)
Hopefully, it will be dry in the morning, and I can get on with emptying the compost heap - I left in an enormous claggy heap yesterday !

Hope no one has been blown away yet by the storm. Its been nowhere near as bad yet as they said it would be in London but well aware it would be worse in other parts of the country.
It seems my fellow allotment holders have taken the opportunity to have a bit of a whine on FB during the bad weather.

The issue is that the allotment queen bee clique have been discovered to have access to lockers and storage containers that no one else knew about (despite having massive castle like summer houses/sheds on their plots with burglar alarms I kid you not but that is a whole other thread).
I don't agree with this either, and have offered to help the other second class citizens find out how all this came about, but bringing it up on FB has lead to an absolute explosion on defensiveness.
Anyone else had allotment tensions over cliques come to a head?

Evening!
not so bad wind wise today, but just starting to blow a bit now. It rained all afternoon, but I did manage to get an hour in this morning. I planted my tayberry (at last!) as I did hear the weather is turning for the cooler by this weekend.
ethelb - its amazing how this seems to happen, almost in any sphere! Luckily its all quiet at ours at the moment. Our committee has its spats, recently about poor path/road maintenance, but on the whole, as its a big site, most people have nothing much to do with the running, and just get on with their allotment . It tends to be petty bickering between plotters with different ideas on how to do things :)

Evening!
I decided to pop down late this afternoon to pick some sprouts and broccoli for tea - I put the bench in the shed, and I got wet. Its so windy, with sudden squally showers here. It's blimmin' squelchy underfoot as well. But the veggies were worth it, totally scrumptious :)

Hello hello! No plotting for me in ages, again. It's been rain here so much! My garden is now sodden, so the allotment must be very wet indeed. Still, he wind has died down now which is good. I ought to pop over to check that the remainder of my shed is still there, and not on top of someone's crops or greenhouse.

My broadbeans have come up this week, which is good. I sowed about 20 in modules to take to the allotment, then some more in a raised bed at home. That's as much gardening as I've done!

ethel that sounds awful! I hate cliques, and 'us and them'. That kind of thing would erode my plotting pleasure! I think I'm quite lucky that mine is a small plot, with water provided but nothing else, as that way, there is nothing for anyone to hog or dominate!

Evening!
Spotted - haven't you got that shed down yet? :)
maybe I should check my broad beans under the fleece - I haven't looked since I sowed them
No plot today, but will be trying to get there tomorrow. Saturday is looking rather bad weather wise, and I am off gadding on Sunday.
I did ring up my favourite nursery today and order my bare root plum and gage , I just need to ring up next week to confirm when I can get there. I had a chat with them and they have recommended a white currant, which I think I am going to buy as well - its 'Versailles Blanche' and grows well with them (they are about 25 miles further north, so I should be okay). Its a cooker, and if you leave it on the bush, its a dessert type as well.

Hallo not much gardening here either. Although I did manage to get up there last weekend and get my garlic in the ground. We bought a couple of elephant garlic. I was stupidly trying to ease them apart before I realised that they were actually cloves and not bulbs! So I have a short row of normal garlic and two elephant garlic. No idea how they'll do.

Managed to get some weeding done and cut down my phalecia (never sure about the spelling) which has been flowering for weeks. I felt bad when I spotted a bee on one flower but it is November. I chopped up the plants and left them to rot down a bit on the surface and then will dig them in properly to rot down further. We've covered up some areas with tarpaulin but more is exposed than last year. I've got two beds with winter green manure and one where the seeds completely failed to germinate.

I have a raspberry and blackcurrant which really should go in the ground but may have left it too late because its supposed to be really cold this weekend. Will have to wait for it to warm up a little I suppose (and given that I live in the South East that could be next week).

Afternoon!
Well, I managed a good morning down at the plot. I finished digging out the compost bin, and then putting everything back in that hadn't broken down, all tidy now, and the manure bin next to it is just about empty as well, so I can ring and hopefully get a load in before the weather gets really bad.
I harvested leeks, kale, sprouts and sprouting broccoli, so set for the weekend.
I had a peek at my overwintering broad beans - not a sign. But the peas I put in at the same time have come up - so go Meteor!
Cedar - it supposed to be back to slightly warmer next week, so I expect you still have plenty of time to plant. I certainly hope so, as I will be picking up my bare root fruit bushes next week!

It is looking rather bad overnight - gales here, and then sleet/snow tomorrow.
I am feeling slightly smug that I tidied up my brassica cage today - got rid of every fallen /yellow/sad leaf so the cold could maybe kill some bugs. Considering I do a bit every time I pick stuff, I was a bit taken aback at how may leaves had got onto the floor while my back was turned.

Afternoon
well, dashed down to check all was okay after the high winds. Not too bad- one net on the brassica cage had torn and pulled down, thats it

By gum , its cold though - been sleeting/snowing this morning and its a balmy 2º with a wind chill of goodness knows :)

Boobkbook similar here. Went to check the shed hadn't fallen over. It hadn't. The black plastic had largely stayed in place. I turned the manure pile to one side to make some room for a bit more so I can get some more rotted down but not mix the piles up if you see what I mean.
The stuff we started piling up in the summer has rotted down really well and is full of worms so thats good.
No sign of the broad beans I planted two weeks ago, same with the garlic. To be fair soil isn't too cold yet so I havent given up hope just yet.
Im feeling like a v smug allotmenteer tonight though, just had a raspberry and mint (from the lottie) gin and tonic, and will be having a black radish remoulade alongside a kale pesto pizza so it is all worth it after all.
But God it was cold!
Back down tomorrow to try and lasagne layer next year's overwintering bed. Wish me luck!

Me too! I also popped over, briefly, to check that the allotment hadn't fallen over in the wind. It hadn't.
And nor had the (well-ventilated) shed, which is still there. It is still there as someone had said that they wanted it and would move it themselves... I've not seen them for ages, I suspect they either no longer want it or just can't be bothered. And so it remains. Once this wind had died down, I'll need to bash it in I think, so I can prep the ground.

ethel that sounds delicious! I've never made kale pesto, and I have a forest of kale. My cages had fallen over, but I've just left them until the winds have gone.

I'm really slacking. My rasps and josta remain unplanted, my newer rasps have not yet arrived, and I've not planted my garlic still. My broadbeans in modules are looking healthy though. But they obvs need planting out too. Hopefully I'll be able to carve out some time next week...

Oh, and my rhubarb is sprouting. Is that normal? It's a tad early, isn't it? The leaves have only been off for a few weeks.

ethelb - the shed building was good then! and yy to being cold -nothing like a bit of manure shifting to warm you up though :)
I'm not expecting broad beans and garlic sprouting anytime soon - I was a bit gobsmacked that the peas are up. I haven't fleeced my garlic, as it needs a good cold spell to make it split into cloves.
I hope its a better day weather wise as well for you. (no plot for me until Tuesday)