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!
glad the code came in useful teacup
well, slugs and aphids.
Aphids I squirt with soapy water. My DH is a very keen ant nest hunter, but I think whatever you do, they just move along somewhere else, sadly
I don't use any control at the plot - both my neighbours are rather mad keen on slug pellets.
At home, I have a couple of small areas for wildlife , just bird feeding stations and water for drinking/washing , that sort of thing. One of them has resident frogs- its a small ,pretend stone sink at ground level with stones in to provide different shallow water levels. Sadly, that hasn't stopped the slugs munching my plum tomatoes in the greenhouse (even though one frog set up home in one of the growbags last year)
I make my own beer traps, which had some success last year- ( sports drink/small water bottle with the end cut off which was put inside the bottle so they could get in, but not out IYSWIM ).
This year I have bought a reel of copper tape, with the hope it may deter a few more. I am not holding out too much hope, but its worth a try :)

I had heard that frogs like to eat slugs, but I'm not sure how they'd find our garden considering we're a new build and they've been working on the development for a few years. They're putting in a pond and planted area at the bottom of our hill but that's not anywhere near ready yet. The area was originally a farm so maybe there is some nice wildlife nearby?

Will look into the copper tape.

Its surprising how easily wildlife finds you. Do you know anyone with a pond and frogs? You could then ask to scoop a bit of frogspawn. One of my frogs favourite places is a small bucket tipped on its side with a bit of rainwater in the bottom ! And if you get birds arriving, they bring all sorts.

Honest - just leave out a tray or two and let it become part of the garden. They will find you. You just have to provide the habitat. This year, after a couple of years with just a storage box left outdoors, we have frogs, toads and newts!

I've been meaning to dig a pond for my garden for years - you guys are really inspiring me to do so! We have frogs living under the shed and in the danker, darker corners of the garden. The only thing is to make sure that whatever environment you provide doesn't dry out in hot weather, I guess.

I might try beer traps this year along with nematodes. Slugs are a terrible, terrible problem where I am - it rains so much and they just love the heavy clay. They cause total devastation very, very quickly too - and I'm talking at the level of a healthy medium sized brunnera gone completely in two days, not even a stem remaining. I just have to avoid growing some things they find particularly tasty and it really restricts my ability to grow from seed - I have to get things going strongly in the greenhouse and then plant out. I do use organic pellets (never metaldehyde) when I'm planting out seedlings.

I have frog .

Aussie fences all go right to the ground, with bargeboards, possibly to prevent snakes, though they clearly don't work, as snakes can slither up a fence.

Slugs are few, but snails prolific.

On the bird front, I saw scrub wrens using my birdbath, so will put up more, as birds see to like a number of sources.

Morning!
It is a bit on the stiff breeze side, but warm so have had the nicest couple of hours at the plot - dug up the last of the grass (hurrah!!) which had a load of couch grass in .
Then pottered and harvested leeks, sprouts and celeriac.
This is my 'pond' - a little on the scruffy side , and the grass is a bit messy to say the least!

Awww, it's lovely! So cute! Your cyclamen look in fine fettle too

This is very cool to know and I love the idea of having a little pond. Will go nicely amongst my ferns.

books Yours is beautiful.

The only other thing will be to make sure there's somewhere safe for the frogs where our cats can't get the. Doubt they'd eat them, but I imagine they'd look like fun toys.

Grouchy frogs are very good at hiding. I have a cat that drinks out of it, and I think they just hop into the rather dense mess around it!
Thank you shove I just leave them to get on with it really - they are scattered in clumps all over my garden

Cats torture frogs - I've had to rescue loads when I've heard them screaming out. :(

Imagine my delight when I found a newt at my allotment this summer when I was weeding near my celeriac. I was cock a hoop!

Scruffy ponds are fab [although that one is fab] - mine is full of couch grass but that provides good cover for things to get in and out.

Morning! Sunny day here. Going to continue weeding out docks and brambles today. Arggh the tap roots which snap off despite me trying ease them out .

I'd love a mini pond or bog at the back of the garden. I've got too many projects in my head already though for this year.

If you have a really big problem with docks (or any taprooted weed - in my case dandelions), a horihori is brilliant.

I would be delighted at the sight of a newt too!!

My seeds have arrived (where is the jumping-up-and-down-with-joy emoticon?)! I don't know why it make me so exited/delighted, but it does.

Maybe it's the idea (ahead of the actual) that this will be the perfect growing year, with everything producing bountiful but not burdonsome amounts, the year that I will 'crack it' with just the right number of plants of everything . . .

Cool pool book.

Had to google horihori shove. Looks lethal, dangerous and fabulous all at the same time.

It is a great feeling to get your seeds, isn't it? I'm going to see my parents this weekend and will pick up my order from my Dad, and I'm really excited about it . No matter how many times I do it, there's still something magical about the germination of seeds.

The horihoris are more jaggedy sharp than slicey sharp if that makes sense. Even though they're amusingly called 'leisure knives' they're more like a thin trowel with teeth than a blade!

Evening!
oh , so jealous of Doreen and her newt - my DB and I used to keep them when we were little.
Ipanema - what a combination, brambles and docks, you will deserve a medal, but well worth the effort and a sense of satisfaction.
teacup - its just having to resist the temptation to start opening packets and sowing them , but I love sorting my seed box and planning :)

I also had to google a horihori! Might try one out at the local garden centre.
book I've also got a wild onion plant everywhere which is I've discovered is very invasive. I'm pulling clumps out of every border. They come out quite easily so I may pay the children to assist (the onion smell may put them off though).

joining this thread.....first year with a half plot.

Good morning and welcome Orange.

Afternoon!
Welcome Orange - have you had it for a year, or is it going to be your first season of growing?
We lot love to offer advice and thoughts, covering a wide range of styles :)
Well, no plot for the last couple of days here as too busy, but I drove home this afternoon through rain, hail, sleet and snow . So just hoping its a bit better for tomorrow mornings foray to harvest some veg.
I was just speaking to another grower, and they are sowing tomato seeds this weekend - what madness is that!

Welcome Orange ! What are you growing?

Well, I popped up to plot today to get some leeks, and to check out whether I can walk much on it yet. Nope, still sodden, even walking on the grass paths was leaving massive holes. So still I wait to dig out a path and prune my apple. The garden is a lot drier, so I did manage to spend a bit of time outside cutting back my buddleia and taking out a couple of crossing branches on my quince/s. I still don't know the plural of quince.

I've also bought a few more packs of tomato seed this week. But I am nowhere near sowing, booky ! Surely, unless they're using grow lights, that's madness? But actually is there anything that I can start sowing, in a tiny grow house thing -(like an outside polycarbonate cupboard rather than a proper greenhouse)? My fingers are itching and want to grow something.

In cheap news, Lidl's seeds are due in on 4th. And Aldi have fruit trees on the same day, appara. And I went to Poundland and felt sorry for a blueberry that was clearly trying to not be dead, so I bought it, and potted it up today.

Ooh, the one good thing about sodden, half - drowned ground is that with a gentle hand, docks and dandelions pull right out. And it's very very satisfying.

Although I am hoping to have markedly fewer of them this year, as I have been v v attentive at pulling them up and out all last year.

Morning!
I have had an hour at the plot this morning, picking leeks, sprouting broccoli, kale and a swede. Mended and made good all the netting on the brassica cage ( though more windy weather tomorrow!) I rushed back to do my Big Garden Bird Watch, and my dear NDN decided it was a good day to mow the lawn. So I have made a cup of coffee , and come on here to pass a few minutes until it all settles down again.
Spotted - madness I think for tomatoes - I think they are just in his conservatory, no extra lights as far as I know. I think the only thing to maybe start is chillies? I don't grow them, but seem to think they need a long grow season
I am not sowing anything as I go away on holiday on Saturday for 3 weeks, back at the end of February,and thats quite soon enough for me :)

Hello! I too did the Garden Bird Watch. It was raining, of course. And all the birds were hiding I think - certainly I saw less in an hour than I'd typically see while waiting for the kettle to boil. And not even a single sparrow, which is worrying. I did see some lovely goldcrest that I've not seen in ages though, so that was nice.

Ooh, I grew chillies. Last year I grew them badly, however, but I had too too many in 2014 - I couldn't give enough plants or fruit away. But the poor weather last year did for them I think. I could start them off, but it's still too cold in my conservatory aka Seed Central for them yet. So I had better wait a bit.

3 weeks ? Anywhere nice?

Oh, I forgot to say in my 'what I've done growing-wise' update yesterday, that I've also bought spud seed and put them to chit. I'm only doing a few in pots/bags this year, and I have Anya and Red Duke of York. So technically, the growing has begun...