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

I have just been out in the garden for the first time proper since sowing the path. Whoop.

Planted rudbeckia and echinacia for next year, and alliums and black and white tulips. And chopped and dropped all the died back stuff, and dug out my Honeydew Melon Sage into a pot to go into the greenhouse before the winter kills it off.

It was great - windy and mild. Fab. Just me and the ducks and moorhens out there.

it was lovely today Doreen - the grass has had a good time since you sowed it!
Same here - just about the only one down at the plot, so peaceful :)

Nothing to report here as either the weather has been rubbish or I've been busy so haven't taken a look at the plot. It's warm again, though so I'm expecting the weeds to be growing away. The wallflowers in the back garden (flowered last spring) have started flowering again and I can see a couple of primroses poking their heads out today as well.

Lovely to think of warm weather in Australia. I'm guessing that you have a long growing season echt or does it get too hot for things in the middle of summer?

Posted too soon.
Doreen I also have some tulips to go in the ground and must go and plant those.
bookbook do you grow asparagus? My H is keen and I know he is getting a gift of some crowns (is that the right word?) for Christmas. I shall be looking for tips as I have no idea what to do with it (or even which bit of the plot I am going to let him have).

Afternoon! no plot today, other things need doing occasionally :)
I will be back there in the morning - forecast is looking okay so far.
cedar - I do grow asparagus. We love it, and it was one of the first 'planned' thing when we took on the plot. We bought 2 year crowns in 3 varieties, to prolong the harvest time. You can buy 1 year as well. They need a little bit of care to start, but as you can crop them for many years, I think its worth it. You may find you don't actually get your crowns until they are lifted in early spring - iirc mine came in March ( unless they are in pots ?). We dug down to the subsoil ( not that far here) and did a really thorough weed and sieve, added lots of compost and rotted manure. Its the only thing we have in a raised bed - DH made it with scaffold planks. Crowns arrived bare rooted, wrapped in damp newspaper - I plonked them straight into a bucket of water to keep them from drying out . They were planted on little hillocks so the roots draped down them. I did not cut anything for 2 years, then last year took a spear off each plant. This year we took between 4 and 6 spears . Next year , we should be okay to cut as and when. :) I have acquired another asparagus bed in the neighbours half that I have taken over. They are younger, and ( dare I say) haven't had such a coddled time, and so looking rather weedy. I am thinking of moving them before they get any more established. A bit of a risk, but they are slap bang in the middle of nowhere, with no protection and no raised bed, so I think its worth it in the long run.
I have primroses flowering all over the place at home as well!

Afternoon
just had another couple of hours this morning - wanted to get a bit more done, as the weather is looking iffy for this afternoon and tomorrow. and then I will not beable to get until Tuesday. Started to dig out all the old strawberry plants. A grey morning, and breezy. I was overseen by my usual Ministry of Works - he keeps a beady eye on me - he's in picture :)
Now, I do have a globe artichoke plant, which firstly is in totally the wrong place, and secondly, I really don't need (There are 5 at the end of the plot, and I'm not a big fan...) Would anyone like it? no one around me does - I'm happy to post it, (its not enormous), but I do hate to not find a home for it .

Cedar the growing season is long. There's something growing above, ground, such as broad beans and sugar snap peas even in winter. I live in Melbourne, so frost-free, though as soon you're out in regional Victoria, plenty of frost, hence the superb stone fruit.

Summer can be a problem, if days are 35+ in a row and 40s is doozie. Our veggie patch is in full sun for a lot of the day, though only catches the late afternoon sun at one end. We rig up shade cloth onto stakes for these days.

I should say that that afternoon, 3-6 is the hottest part of any sunny day here.

Its howling a bit today, and yet its warm. I don't think I am going down to the plot. Instead I am going to pot up a load of strawberry runners for my DD's in the relative comfort of the greenhouse :)

so, been in the greenhouse, warm but incredibly noisy. I have potted up 4 enormous pots with runners from my old strawberry bed, now its time for feet up and coffee

Glad you have the greenhouse. I wondered up to get some soil for testing it, dug up some j artichokes and picked some kale.

I'm missing it all a bit at the moment. All the beds are mulched and covered (though not dig over we will have to do that in the spring now as it is too wet), the paths re-wood chipped, the shed is up, the alliums and broad beans planted and the seed potatoes ordered.

Nothing else to do really except wait and hope there are enough frosts to allow my garlic to clove and the soil to break up enough to allow the worms to do their work with the mulch.

I suppose there is still stuff to harvest. Might treat myself to a red cabbage and some leeks next week!

Not much to report here this week either, wandered up to the plot in howling gales to check it was still all there this afternoon, some of my cardboard had blown away but otherwise all fine. Hadn't been up for about a fortnight though, I think I have more or less given up for the winter.

Morning
off gadding to a Christmas Food Fair today, so no plot. Its still fairly windy here at the moment.
ethelb that is very organised!
I still have a few hours work yet - more due to taking on the other half plot and getting that sorted at the same time, but getting there. Hoping to have it done before the bad weather comes. I am away for 3 weeks in February, so really want it all done by then. But I do like to pop and harvest fairly regularly -there is enough for all over winter , fingers crossed, though the leeks are disappearing at a rate of knots.
WhoKnows - lots don't do winter , its such dark nights, and a busy time of year as well, its not surprising! It will be there in the spring.

Not to be left out, it's been windy here in Melbourne too, though finally some bogging rain has arrived. Not enough, of course, but all a blessing, unlike the inundated of the north of England.

Black and dwarf geen beans I planted last week have sprouted, though only one of the telegraph cucumbers. Tomatoes are going great guns, with fruit allergy showing.

Flowerwise, the two huge pots of gardenias on either side of the front door have been wonderful this year. The first flush of brugmansia has come and gone, with the late summer madness yet to come.

Mrs blackbird has built up her old nest and is now formally ensconced on, I assume, a second clutch of eggs. Mr blackbird is singing every morning from the tip-top of the tea-tree at the bottom of the garden.

Allergy??? Already. (already):o

Do you harvest your water echt ? and do you get enough to last you through the season? And a week to sprout beans ! No chance of that here.
I got down today, to finish emptying the old strawberry bed and inspect any damage. Not too bad - a couple of holes torn in the netting on the brassica cage, a fleece tunnel over my broad beans is still there, but the fleece and the hoops have parted company, and half the fleece blown off over the peas. So okayish, all repairable.
It was lovely and warm, the ground was soft, not too claggy. And pleasure from digging up bind weed, when you know you have managed to get it out down to the very roots

I do hope everyone is safe and okay after all this horrendous weather ( it's a quiet time of year for most growing vegetables, but I am sure we have some in the NW who occasionally post on here)
can I do an adopt an artichoke plea? I will even put a photo up, so you can see its alive and well ! If not, I shall have to pot it up and give it to a charity shop.

A water tank is definitely on for this summer, boobook. We can have quite big one, and still keep it out sight behind the garage. For some reason, no-one have a water tank visible from the road where I live. Or wheelie bins.

A quick poke in the bean pots shows they've all sprouted so I can water and mulch now.

maybe we can send you some water echt
Its raining again this morning and it blew rather hard last evening, so need to get down to check - I left my bench out, so hope it hasn't blown away! I was going to do a bit yesterday, but went to look after DGS , he wasn't well enough to go to nursery ( lovely and dry yesterday of course!)

Has anyone got your artichoke bookbook because I would really really like it!
Is it edible? Can I propagate other artichokes from it?

You certainly may have it funnyperson - sorry I don't know the variety, they were gifted to me . Just send me a message with your address :).
It is edible -( its the leaves dipped in butter thing, drawn through your teeth, and the artichoke 'heart' ). But they are really rather nice as an architectural plant as well. I haven't tried any propagation, but I think you split/divide them when they get too big .
We popped down to the plot late this afternoon, to weigh up any wind damage, again no problems , but all the rain we have had has made the last big water butt to sort out really start to sink into the ground in one corner. So, we are draining it overnight, and go tomorrow to spend the day re-levelling and shoring up the pallets and paving slabs. I am so looking forward to that .

If anyone is still thinking of seeds for next year, I just had this off one of my allotment fb pages :)
we can offer a 35% discount exclusive to the UK Here We Grow community and friends - simply visit
Kings Seeds - /

• bit.ly/1LkDACb and enter UKHWG35 at the checkout, (valid until 30th June 2016)

think I missed a bit!

bit.ly/1LkDACb

Am determined to actually go and have a look at the allotment this weekend, see that everything is OK after all the wind the other day.

We do have some leeks so maybe harvest some of those. Hoped to do this last Sunday but it was raining so there was no point. I could do with getting some digging/tidying done. One area hasn't been dug at all since we took on the plot and it is covered over so it won't be too damp.

Plus the green manure that I grew over the late summer/autumn and chopped down ought to be dug in properly. We'll see what the weather is doing over the next few days.

Afternoon!
cedar - the forecast is looking rather poor here tomorrow- rain all day, then fog and only up to 3º on Sunday - yuk!
DH and I have been at the plot since this morning. Just managed to finish before the light faded. We have sorted out the last of the water butts. They are pretty big things - they hold a 1,000 litres . We thought we had done a good job originally, but it has been so wet this year, one corner has been sinking into the ground rather badly. It rained/sleeted right in the middle of it - and it was cold as well (never got above 4º today). But its done!!!

OMG this thread dropped off my TIO - it's been that long since I did any gardening! And talking of that, where is Shove ? Have no seen her about since she went off for her hols. SHOVE if you're reading this, I hope all well.

I popped up to the plot briefly today, in the rain. It was actually quite lovely. I wore my fetching blue waterproof jacket with the hood up so I looked like an odd combo of ET (it's my long neck! ) and a smurf. Still, I was very warm and dry. The shed still stands. It seems the people who said they wanted it now don't, so I may sledgehammer it if it's dry over Xmas and I have family overload. And my rasps are all still there, none have been pulled out by foxes sniffing out the bone meal. And my original patch of rasps is fast dividing.

And I planted my broadbeans, finally. There is a theme here, isn't there? Good intentions, not followed through, and everything done a bit too late. I sowed them at home in modules (with a few direct in a raised bed too), for planting out on the plot, but the weather has been so warm and wet that they h shot up before I could get up there to plant them out. But out they are now. They're not exactly leggy, but they are a bit too tall for this time of year, so I'd not be surprised if they get blown about and damaged. Suspect I'll be sowing again come spring.

Good to hear from you Zebra. We are looking after a friend's puppy (well six months) and took her up with us to do some quick allotmenting. Phew, that was tough!
DH had to chase her and stop her going down fox holes while I very quickly weeded the onions, shallots and garlic! How do people normally manage with a dog. I have previously had fantasies of having a dog like Monty Don's following me round the plot, but obviously an old fat retriever has a slightly different temperament to a dachshund puppy!

The garlic and broad beans have finally come up! Horray! Though Im a bit worried about how warm it has been in London, as I heard they needed 40 days/nights under 4C in order to clove up. I have so far counted 4! The bulbs are coming up in front of our house and its December!

None the less I am very pleased we haven't been affected by the awful flooding and really feel for people up in the NW. Its just awful. Has anyone here been affected by flooding?