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

Enjoy yourself, and don't fret Linski - it will survive, .... and it will be a good post holiday workout ! :)

evening!
well. I came in from work, ready to read what everyone was up to Is everyone very busy harvesting?.:)
All I did yesterday ( hah - a full on hour and a half) was cut and edge the grass -. But it is at least tidy, and tomorrow I can get on ....

just back from 2 weeks camping and all plants have survived thanks to my der neighbours.
it's a bit of a jungle and the tomatos are straining under the weight. but I relieved it off a couple of firs red ones (gardener's delight).
meanwhile a delivery of real seeds has arrived: black krim and green zebra.
something has eaten the carrot tops (suspect slugs) but as some of the green is still there I'm hoping not all is lost.

can I trim my triffid cougette plant?
it's huge and it's getting difficult to get past it to the other plants.

stealth boast

I've spent hours podding peas! I have a freezer full and I think that pea and mint soup might be on the menu for tomorrow.

Lots of tomatoes here, no courgettes, just massive unhealthy looking leaves and a few weedy courgettes that don't seem to be growing at all.

I have a flower on my pumpkin, but nothing on my fat-baby or cucamelon.

Harvested loads of potatoes - mostly ones that I didn't plant they must have been leftover from last year.

We've emptied one of the big beds so DH is going to move all out compost onto it - it's very clayey so we might add lime as well.

of course it is mink :o
but nothing of my doing really. the plants are doing all the growing themselves and I can only do some weeding and watering and staring in awe at the wonder that is plants!

it seems to be a good year, warm, but not too warm or dry.

morning!
a quick peek before I head off to the plot
Kumi - I've never trimmed my courgettes, as knowing they like to straggle, I tend to give them lots of space, but a few leaves wouldn't matter I wouldn't have thought. Can you persuade them in a different direction? I tend to swirl the runners around to where they are least in the way.
Mine are doing okayish, but nothing like last year, but there again, I am growing a different variety, so you cannot compare.
Rooster - It takes longer than you ever think podding and freezing, doesn't it - with black fingernails at the end !
Re squashes - mine are doing fine, lots of the crown prince set, ( they have been totally reliable every year) but the butternut I am still waiting in hope. They do this every year, as being oop north its a bit of luck with the weather keeping warm into autumn for any sort of crop.

I'm just back [very very late last night] from a week in the Dordogne/Paris and my plants in the greenhouse have survived! And I have three cucumbers. What's not to like?

I gave them a good drenching a week last Friday and just left them to it.

When I eventually get dressed I am off to the garden and lottie to see what I can pick for food today. OH is off to the shops at 10 to get some milk - I'm gasping for a coffee.

Whilst I was away I bought some seeds for next year and got some grapes which I deseeded from a bunch that fell of the grapes at one of the gardens that I visited.

It was so hot out there that we had to head north two days early [hence Paris] and it reached 107deg f. I have never been so hot. I was very worried about my plants but my chums on facebook were moaning at me moaning about the heat and telling me it was raining back here so I stopped worrying about the plants and started worrying about how I was to walk the next 10 paces in the heat.

welcome back Lethal - 107º - wow! but back to reality - though it has been warm here for the last couple of days, its been coolish and cloudy for the rest of the time.

I went to water my tomatoes tonight, and I have a casualty - a bunch of tomatoes (with stalk) collapsed and broke the stem - a lovely bunch of marmande tomatoes, all green :). I have brought them in in the vain hope they may ripen..... Better support next year methinks .

that should have been a :( for my tomatoes....

oh dear goodbook paperbag + ripe banana in a warm place often helps.

and at a pinch green tomato chutney! Thanks Kumi

I'm just back from a few days away too, everything has survived a mini heatwave here, but my cucamelons have been slugged or snailed. They are still alive, but looking sorry for themselves and still no fruit, they are flowering and tiny fruits forming, but just shrivelling and dropping off. Maybe I haven't been feeding/watering regularly enough.

Shove - I haven't even got green tomatoes yet alone red yet. We've just been on the Isle of Wight so I have brought back a big bag of IOW cherry tomatoes to munch on for the next few days to make up for it. Also brought back some IOW seed garlic.

Next job is going to be weeding, then digging over the space where my onions were and getting more seeds in, need to refer to that list on here a week or so back.

Also - a question. Potato storage. Mine will be ready to come up soon, last year I tried storing them in hessian bags in the shed, it wasn't dark or cool enough and a lot went green and sprouted. What do you all do? I was thinking about getting some paper sacks, which should be light proof, but coolness is a problem, we have no garage or cellar.

I get flat apple boxes from supermarkets, and when the spuds are dug up they are left in the sun to dry off, and once dry, they are put in layers in the boxes and the boxes are stacked in the shed and a dark cover put over the top [usually a bigger box].

However they will all start sprouting after december/jan - as that's the time of year that they start to regrow. Just cut the sprouts off and peel them as usual.

Morning all! My mum had DS for the weekend so managed to spend all day yesterday out in the garden. DH mowed lawns, strimmed, and finally got rid of all of the rubbish he's been hoarding. We have SPACE!

Good we have a similar tomato casualty, although the stem isn't completely snapped so I've sort of splinted it and I'm hoping the tomatoes will be OK. It's the main stem, too, so if it doesn't I lost a whole plant.

Last night's dinner consisted almost entirely of home grown veg - even the stuffing had home grown sage in it. Yum. I also made a cherry tomato and basil quiche on saturday which was lovely.

Continuing the potato theme - do I HAVE to dig up the whole crop, or can I just dig what I need? I don't need the space yet, and I'm short of storage space that the dogs can't reach, so are they OK to stay in the ground?

Shoved another row of lettuce and swede in yesterday. Slightly late but you never know, they might catch up.

My brassicas are doing really well despite never getting around to netting them. I planted them quite close together, assuming I'd lose some, but so far they've all survived - I'm going to have to pull some out at this rate! The garden is full of butterflies though - I look out in the afternoon and it's like the sky is dancing.

Morning!
At first , I tend to dig my potatoes up as I need them. But I lay mine out, check them over and put the good ones in potato sacks and keep them in my garage. The rest I just use as quickly as possible - but I've never grown loads. Nearly didn't bother at all this year.
Commiserations Cupcakes on the tomatoes- I had a half hearted attempt to do that, but mine was just one stalk, and it was pulling others down , so cut it off.
My little spring greens/spring cabbages haven't been pricked out yet, but even though tiny, I have to go and rub eggs off the leaves every day. And I had a snail hiding in the drip tray yesterday - it had bypassed all the plants in pots on the floor ( penstemons/chrysanths etc ) , climbed up a 4' plain brick wall to get there as well....
There are a lot of cabbage whites around ( as well as others !)

goodbook - I'm glad you say that about the white butterflies - there are loads here! And loads of gatekeepers too. Last night in the garden a really, really big moth flew past me, but I got so excited that I lost sight of it. I think it might have been a privet hawk moth, but not sure.

I have gone a bit mad on the tattie front and I now have a storage issue (not EVEN a stealth boast ). I'm storing my first earlies in a doubled-up jute sack. I figure one layer isn't dark enough on its own! I still have two large rows to dig out though so I may try Doreen's method with the apple trays for those.

My runners are nearly at the top of their arches now, which somehow feels like a milestone has nearly been reached. I've been urging them on all season.

I've also had my first courgettetastrophe - missed a small 'un and came back a few days later to a marrow. I stuffed and baked it and now have food for the whole week! I have commenced my role as courgette-pusher, forcing vegetables on every unsuspecting friend around me!

shove - I am glad there is another one who loves moths and butterflies. We got very excited with a tiny little one in our garden , took a photo as we thought it may just be a small brown, but it was a ringlet, without its rings - ah well!
I have made briam for tonights meal, as it uses 5 courgettes - the courgettes are just beginning to gang up on me, not true glut, but nearly.....

Not only do I not have a courgette glut (1 so far) we haven't even had any butterflies since I saw 2 small coppers in early June. It has been a rotten year for them.

goodbook - yep! I am very much a beginner at identifying them, though! I knew nothing before last Christmas, when a friend of mine asked me to edit his book about them (he talks about their links to culture and history as well as biology). I learnt so much doing it! When I was in Germany recently, DH and I were staying with him and his wife (who is one of my best friends) and we all went to a place called Spreewald. It's a very beautiful nature reserve that is full of flowers, birds and insects. We cycled round all day looking for rare butterflies and moths. I managed to see a Purple Emperor, which was really exciting! I am still really getting used to the very varied morphology you can get with them (totally understand the 'ringlet without rings' bafflement - I have done similar many times this summer) so having someone with me who could show me how to identify things was really useful. I have an unfortunate tendency to assume that whatever I am seeing must be The Most Amazing Thing Ever. So every buzzard is a golden eagle, every bird is a Golden Oriole etc etc etc. I am learning not to get so carried away!!

mink - that's so interesting and sad that you have no butterflies. I guess it points to how local populations can thrive (or not) depending on very immediate conditions. Where I am it is normally too wet in the summer to see many of them, but this year has been warmer and dryer than most. Perhaps you'll get a better time in September!!

On another subject, I had to google 'briam'. Never heard of it before! (My culinary ignorance strikes again). It looks yummy though!! I love things that sit in the oven for ages.

Evening!
shove - that sounds wonderful.
mink - I suspect you've had a lot of rain? the butterflies have only been around for 3-4 days while its been dry and warm.
well, just a quick trip to pick stuff and water tonight, and a small amount of time to weed .Another 2 courgettes - courgette brownies are now looming...:) and more french beans - how is it that you pick every day, but always find some enormous ones you have missed, and another thing - you supply a lovely wigwam, and the beans are hell bent on not using it!

I hope the vine holds until they are red...

It is too cold for them to fly most days and/or too windy. But there were times in the really sunny spells in May when it was perfect weather for them and still there were very few because the spring was too cold and mistimed. I do survey work for butterfly conservation but have got hardly any done this year as the conditions have been wrong. I'd be almost happy to see some caterpillars on my braasicas.

I did see a few fritillaries though and the small coppers but it is a terrible year all in. Pretty much refelected in my allotment haul except for the fruit which is never ending

Morning! It's raining properly here which is the first time for a couple of weeks.

I'm storing potatoes in a hessian sack and then have an old bicycle cover over the top. They're at the back of the shed. Although the shed is warm the potatoes are cool.

Beans galore at the moment. Although I think the French beans are waiting until next week when we'll be on holiday. Mange tout have done well - I've never grown them before so had no idea what they'd be like. Sweet corn has ears coming.

Do cabbage whites lay eggs on kale? Mine are tiny at the moment but I'm going to have to plant them out and it hadn't occurred to me that I should net them (which is stupid because we have lots of pigeons).