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

Afternoon!

well, it may not have actually rained, but....
I have spent an hour and a half in that lovely mizzle that just soaks in, then decided enough was enough.
Will just have to get out my books, and start a bit of roughing out in the diary of what and when instead.
My NDN on the plot turned up - first I have seen of him since before Christmas. I was offered sprouts, they have a way, way too many. I still have a sufficiency , so to speak :)

In the midst of the flooding, mine is a tale of unabated drought. More than two weeks with nowt but sun and high winds. I'm keeping the watering down to only containers and veggies.

However, the daikon has gone bonkers, so now we have to think of ways to use it; curries seem good. I'm harvesting them as their shoulders push out of the soil. DG Hessayon says: "eat with coarse bread, salt, butter…and alcohol." and that the Pharaohs fed them to their, [ahem], builders. I tried it today grated as a salad with soy sauce, rice vinegar, mirin and bonito flakes with steamed salmon. Very nice, and uses up a whole daikon. Only three to go.:o

Lebanese aubergines and the first tomatoes are here, too.

Rain again here today. Wish I was with you pondering daikon in the sunshine, echt!! What does it taste like??

Congratulations Cupcake! I was still gardening when overdue but that was first baby and in the spring when not so hot.

Raining here again as well Shove although I think it is supposed to get colder next week. Which will just add to the misery of those suffering from flooding.

I too am wondering what a daikon tastes like, Echt.

On the subject of beans I don't know whether we ordered climbing or dwarf borlotti beans. I don't think it occurred to me to check as I assumed they were all climbers. Last year we got blackfly on our runner beans but a fairly liberal campaign of spraying with diluted washing up liquid put paid to them. I'm interested to hear some of you saying you never get them on yours as I think it's quite common to get it.

Morning all - and Cupcakes congrats, and great to hear that CakeDog is still holding on.

No drought and Daikon round these parts. Nope, it's rained most days - for weeks it seems. Still were lucky that were not affected by floods or similar, but it does mean that for me, gardening is put for a while. Even squelching up the garden needs wellies and wrecks the soil - but my allotment backs on to a stream and is very very water logged. The stream was about 15cm from my plot, and the water table is still really high. And it's clay, so will take a while to dry out. I don't think I'll ever plant my garlic, and I fear for my load of raspberries that I so lovingly planted. I hope they survive.

I did borlotti last year (lingua di fuoco) - also purple french beans (Cosse Violette ) and runners (painted lady). And I whammed in some dwarf frenchies later on in season. I'm a dissenting voice, but I'm not wowed by the borlotti: they were beautiful and tasty but not that productive, esp when compared to the other climbers. And when I dried the beans, the volume looked paltry! I'm undecided as to whether I'll do them again this year. Maybe if you're limited on space and you want a big harvest (like me!), then they're not the best bean?

Also, I did get blackfly -across all my beans. And other things too. It was a bad blackfly year! I think the runners seemed the most resilient.

Today I might buy some more... tomato seed. Or at least idly wonder what varieties to grow this year.

From last year, I will definitely repeat: black Krim, black cherry, gardeners delight, Tigerella and golden nugget.

Not sure I'll bother with any of those trial blight resistant ones, and I think I might not do plums. Lor maybe I'll try a different plum?

I want 'a green one' (green zebra ? ), maybe some brandy wines, and an orange one. Any reccos?

Morning!
Rain here as well - so much for digging out our compost to mulch the asparagus.
So I have made some bread rolls for lunch instead while debating if it will be dry enough this afternoon.
echt - thats tough - we have winds, just with buckets of water in it as well. Ooh and aubergines - I tried last year but to no real avail, but will try again this year, hope it gets warm enough!
cedar - first year I grew Borlotti, I didn't realise either, just ordered them without a lot of thought, but took more notice last year! I grew ( and again this year) the same as shove - Lingua di Fooca'
Nope , never had aphids on climbing beans - plenty on broad beans, even though I do that tip of taking out the growing tip once they have flowered.( Supposedly you miss the worst by doing the overwintering, but last 2 years there has been too much attrition,mice and weather so had to resow)

Greetings growers! I've often dipped into your threads but didn't have access to a garden at the time.
I've moved into a house with some large veg beds containing rhubarb, some sad looking potatoes and not much else (discounting weeds!).

Welcome ipanema - and how exciting about your new house! It sounds like there is tons of potential there.

afternoon!
Hello Ipanema -lovely time of year to plan! - what do you think you may like to grow?
sorry Spotted must have missed your post as I was typing as I'm very slow:) - could you plant the garlic in tubs? and tomatoes already- how many are you growing this year?
Well it rained until about 2 , then stopped - DH and I looked at one another and dashed out. Filled 3 big bags of compost from the bin,(started raining again.) threw them into the boot and drove down to the plot, emptied them onto asparagus bed and came home. Tomorrow I will go and neatly rake it into something more tidy :)

This is like a contest: book versus weather. Weather doesn't stand a chance!

Haha shove - if only!
Its a race to get mulch on before weather turns colder , though its truly squelchy, so not ideal. We wheelbarrowed it down the grass path, so we didn't have to walk on the beds, and chucked it over the rabbit fencing.
(We have another bed to do tomorrow.)
Funnily enough, we were the only ones there

I need to get my beds mulched too. Which means the dreaded poo run across the city to the stables to fill as many bags with horse poo as I can fit into the back of my (fortunately) very ancient VW Polo. This is the major reason that we cannot buy a new car. I'm worried about how wet the manure heap will be, though - it becomes so slippery in these conditions. I am so clumsy too. I can just see this disaster playing out in my mind's eye. But the veggies will need their poo, so this weekend I think I'd better get over there.

My secret weapon for this job (and other things in the garden) is this: THE BLUE IKEA BAG. They are tightly woven enough that the poo doesn't leak out. But they are also loose topped enough that it's easy to spade it out at the other end. They are even better for hedge clippings, which don't get stuck as they do in deeper bags, or go through the sides, as with plastic. I have 15 of them in my shed, all filthy (I kid you not).

Afternoon!
Oh a poo run shove - :) I am spoilt being able to order and have it brought to the plot.
It rained this morning ....but, the sun ,YES, the sun came out this afternoon, so we managed to get another 4 bags filled to mulch the second asparagus bed. Its much bigger ( about 20 crowns) so we need another run tomorrow with more bags. But, we have to go tomorrow as its rent day, so we can kill two birds with one stone. I just hope its not raining. But, with that, my mulching is done, in time for next week getting colder.
And my waterbutt is now half full - 500L . It had better be a sunny summer!!

The flavour of daikon is like a strong radish. If you grate it, the brassica pong is unbelievable, but cut, less so. I haven't cooked with it yet. The asparagus talk has made me decide to try one in big container. I know they don't do as well, but will give it a go.

Thinking of that IKEA bag, I bet you could plant veggies in it.

Sun? - it came out here at 8.30am and disappeared 3 mins later.

Book I'm planning on growing salad stuff, courgettes, beans, mini cucumbers and peas but once I open the seed catalogs I'm sure that list will grow...

hello!

• sorry! mention of the sun frightened it off. It has rained since yesterday evening so no more mulching for me. But the rent is paid, and I am now officially the tenant of my half plot, not a joint tenant , so DH and I now have both halves . It means I can actually move stuff around and not feel a bit guilty :) I can dig up the last bit of rhubarb, and get rid of the dead herb tubs which have been driving me mad. But I didn't like to do too much, in case he wanted to come back and 'help'....

Afternoon!
It hasn't rained today. Windy a bit chillier than of late. I harvested leeks and sprouts.
Ipanema - are you planning tomatoes and cucumbers outside, or under some protection? I am oop North, and they haven't really coped outdoors - Spotted had success with outdoor tomatoes somewhat further south :) I guess it will depend a bit on how much ( or little) warmth and sun we get this year
Having paid the rent and spoken at length to my previous joint tenant, yesterday his shed, and all remaining contents are mine. So I have given it a proper look, and a bit of a tidy. I can't quite believe that he has left so much stuff ( he did come with us and go through it all) - total generosity. So though I was using the enviromesh, and a couple of cheap net tunnels, I now have unopened boxes with fleece, 2 make your own tunnels - quite big ones made of metal rods, weed suppressant , a camping stove and kettle, lots of posts and wood, and an absolute load of brand new bamboo canes in every size, along with packets of unopened seed, twine etc . I'm a bit gobsmacked tbh.
And then at home a friend from down the street knocked on our door, we had a bit of a chat, and he gave me a load of seeds that he wasn't going to use -this years Thomson & Morgan - everything from Tomatoes to Calabrese . All I have to do in return , is to gift back 2 or 3 tomato plants when I have them ready to plant up.
Feeling very lucky today :)

There are a load of alpine strawberries alongside the footpath leading to our allotments, I was on the lookout for runners to pinch last year but no joy. They do look pretty with their tiny flowers and fruit and are good ground cover, but you'd need an awful lot of them to be much practical use as a fruit.

Question for you all, I need a new trowel, I have had various cheap ones over the years but I use them a lot and keep bending them till they break off the handle, can anyone recommend a really decent one?

Morning
WhoKnows - I use my hand fork more than my trowel. I think they are by Wilkinsons - stainless steel with wood handles , lovely feel in the hand . First ones have gone down to the plot - they are also stainless steel, over 20 years old and in good condition apart from a slightly bent tine on the fork.

Hooray for your haul, book - how lovely of him to give it all to you. And three cheers for you and your DH now having both ends of the plot. This year's grop is going to be brilliant!!

I have a Burgon and Ball trowel that I got really cheap in the Tesco Christmas sale a couple of years back. It's as good as new, and that's saying something, as I have a tendency to knacker any but the most solidly built of gardening kit. You can sometimes get lovely looking wooden-handled tools in TK Maxx by names like Joseph Bentley. I haven't tried the hand tools, but I do have a Bentley fork which is excellent.

I love alpine strawberries - they're so much stronger (and so different) to ordinary ones that you only need a few to really transform a bowl of muesli!

No plotting for me this weekend - I'm desperately scrambling to get jobs done in the back garden because lots of plants need to be moved this year. Feeling very post-viral still: I'm coughing still, and I can definitely feel that I've lost a bit of muscle during the time I've been in bed. I think I need a bit of sun and some time digging!!

I quite like that description of daikon echt. But then I don't mind brassica pong!!

Grop? CROP!!

Thank you - I use a fork a lot more than a trowel, but have never broken one of them. I think it's because I use the trowels to dig and turn over the compost in my small raised beds (I can only access them from one side and they're only 90cm across so I kneel and reach over rather than trying to use a normal spade or fork).

I use a trowel for 90% my plantings -in fact I rarely use a spade -and I was fed up of buying trowels only for them to break. NB I do have stupid heavy clay soil, but try to mulch heavily and plant through that.

But last year I went and bought a trowel that said that the steel ran all the way through the handle -but I can't remember exactly how that was termed. I bought it from dobbies, which is the only garden centre round here - I had to read through the product descriptions of a million trowels before I found it.

But this year, I am tempted by a long-handled trowel.

V jealous of all you who have been gardening. It's rained every day for weeks, and the ground is even more sodden than it was last time I moaned. You can't even tread on the lawn without making a footprint that fills up with water, so I've not bothered going to the plot in a while.

Excellent news on the plot, booky! Why did the other person give up? Will they not do any more growing at all?