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

mink - survey work sounds amazing! You must be great at identifying them. But sad that it's such a bad year where you are. It's like missing friends when a part of the ecosystem is missing. So many things are really starting to struggle now.

kumi - I am agog at your tomatoes. What a haul! I wonder if there's any way that you can put them in some kind of sling to take the weight off the plant... you know, like those old pictures of people with broken legs in hospital with a hoist winching the leg upwards? (Why did they used to do that?)

Went up to my plot just to harvest yesterday, and I got my first 'balanced' box. Up to now, there's been a few of this, a few of that, but this time - for the first time ever - I got all my veg for the week: peas, broad beans, French beans, beetroot, kale, chard, spinach, courgettes, raspberries, potatoes. (I could use a few more root crops, but hey). This is the first time I've done this and - confession of stupidity - I even got a bit emotional about it!!

In about 2-3 weeks I will have a massive, massive glut of French and runner beans. I didn't really think when I put up four arches with 6 plants on each that I probably wouldn't need a bed of beans on top. What on earth can I do with loads of beans? I have limited freezer space!

^^ Oops, this is me by the way!

Butterfly conservation are always looking for more volunteers to survey if you have time its only a few hours 3 or 4 times in summer. And there is the big butterfly count every year which is only 15 minutes. That's why I do butterflies and not birds because you only have togo out on good weather

Mink - I am definitely interested. I have wanted to get involved in more conservation activity for some time - I have started to look on the website of my local wildlife trust as I'm now strong enough again to do some physical work for them. I was thinking of asking about some office work too, though I don't know whether I would be of much use to them really. I don't want to be more of a burden than a help!

I am not very confident or good at identifying moths and butterflies, so I would definitely need to be put with someone who knew what they were doing to learn. Otherwise, there may be mistaken and over-enthusiastic identification of Commas as High Brown Fritilleries and all sorts.

Ah, hallo lovely people! I seem not to have been on this thread for ages. I'm loving al the butterfly talk- I went through a butterly-OBSESSED phase when I was a kid. My sis, my cousin and I were so into them, we had a club, with its own badge and club sign. We'd identify butterflies and - erm, that's it. I seem to have forgotten most of the butterflies that I knew, so when ever I see one and id it, it takes me right back!

Not much allotmenting has gone on in the last few days,I have been super busy as we had house guests. I did nip away on Sunday, early, to briefly water and pick more tomatoes. I'm fully in glut mode now, and very happy to be so. We ate lots of tomato based stuff, and had the nicest tomato salad (with which I was a right tomato twat, and named each variety to an audience of people who tried to feign interest ), but no actual preserving of tomatoes has gone on. Yet. That might change today. I have tomatoes, sugar, chillis, vinegar, spices, jars and bottles, so I might have a kitchen play tonight.

Kumi is that overloaded branch Gardener's Delight? There are soooo many! Ooh, you have Black Krim seeds - that's my favourite! And I want to try Green Zebra next year too!

Courgettes doing much better now too. Thank goodness. I've eaten lots now, and I made a lovely (IISSM), gratin that I'd do again. I ate a few as courgetti, but it didn't really full me up so then I had some toast. I like my carbs. My Delicata squash never took off though,maybe I'll pull them out now. Not a single flower on them, ever. Little Gem squash have gone bonkers, climbing super high and loads of flowers, male and female. I've not even eaten the ones tat I picked the other day, as we're slightly inundated wih food and they would keep. Likewise, courgettes. I've probably got enough to make a cake, but we had loads and loads of puds over weekend so need to eat slightly more plainly for a few days. And the freezer is full too. And I scrumped picked too many Victoria plums, we still have more that will go over soon. And he wild ones are nearly ripe...

mink you asked about my quince/quinces! They're Meeches Prolific, and on a dwarf stock. I bought them a couple of years ago, when I wasn't into gardening at all and wanted low maintenance shape. They fruited a bit last year, so I picked them but then got sick. And all the fruits rotted . But this year it looks like there are soooo many fruit; I can hardly wait. The trees are beautiful, a lovely shape so they look lovely all year round, but they are particularly lovely at the mo with their furry, burgeoning golden fruits.

Shove I am sure you'd be more help than burden! But you write/communicate really beautifully, and your interest and joy in all things natural is so infectious... could that be an area for you to bring together somehow your passions and talents?

Loads of beans... pickle?

I must google Meeches prolific not that I have any more room for trees.

Butterfly ID I would recommend the Field Guides - map fold cardboard guide, butterflies are actual size which helps a lot. Plus you get some training and you can take a look at uk butterlies to see if you even get that species where you are. I often photograph and id later of use iSpot which is brilliant for getting ids of all nature. Butterflies are relatively easy but moths!!! So I always stick those on ispotand let someone else tell me what they are.

I do the wider countryside butterfly survey (wcbs). And I am not that good at id either

afternoon
Kumi - those tomatoes are amazing - I thought mine were doing well bit....!
oh shove isn't it just a joy with a basket full - like harvest festival in small amounts. And where is the picture? :) Old fashioned salting for the beans? I seem to think 1lb salt for every 3-4lb sliced beans, tightly packed in a glass jar. Then you rinse well when you need them, and throw into hot water without any salt in.
spotted - I am relieved to hear your courgettes are now getting going . My butternut squash have only nicely got flower buds on - a couple more warm days, and we may be getting somewhere
Cedar - kale - mine is under netting due to pigeons, so not sure, but I dont remember getting eggs laid the first year I grew it. And of course, you can pull the leaves off , and it keeps producing new ones.

yep they are gardener's delight. but sizewise somewhere between cherry and vine toms.
and those are only half the toms from that plant cat shit and comfrey juice seems to work well.

Cedar the cabbage whites got my kale where it was touching the neting.
I just remove the damaged leaves, made the netting a bit bigger and it is thriving (and delicious).

Zebra - thank you for your kind words, you made my day! But I really, really don't know enough to do a gardening blog. You guys are all very tolerant of my over-enthusiastic ways on here, but I promise underneath there is a very solid ignorance of all things horticultural. I think I'd need to do a qualification or something to be able to write about it properly.

I just spent the last two hours digging out my compost bin. Possibly one of my least favourite garden/allotment jobs. It's not that I mind the dirt at all - there's just something about it that makes my heart sink (maybe this is the root of my love of bokashi!!). But at least I got a few trugs worth of decent compost out of the bottom. I'm using them as mulch - it's really dry here and the soil in my garden and allotment is just showing signs of splitting.

evening!
shove - get where you are coming from on compost digging. I am very, very lucky that DH does the lions share of it, but it is a big job, needing quite a bit of assistance.( We have 2 compost bins and 2 compost heaps at home, as well as 2 at the plot) and the dread creeps in on the words- 'we need to do the compost ' .
I managed a visit this afternoon for an hour to water and harvest.
I'm not sure I can get back before Sunday, so picked all I could - will freeze runners/french and purple beans.
Also picked cabbage ,broccoli, courgettes and carrots to give to DD2 who was here.
I am really, really hoping we do get some rain on Friday - its so dry.

You've all been busy.
I'm very lucky that DH sees the compost as his thing - he has 6 big composters on the go at the moment and has a gran plan that I am not allowed to interfere with when it comes to compost distribution. I just let him get on with it!

I have more purple spouting brocoli - it is the most delicous thing ever.
I've just made a cheese and tomato tart to try and use up some of the tomato glut.

I am SO jealous of everyone's compost infrastructure! I have just been chatting to Gatekeeper about this on another thread... I have the envy really badly of all your serried ranks of bins.

I just have one at home and one at the allotment, though obviously I have my two BOKASHI BEAUTIES too (though these end up in the compost eventually). One thing I was thinking was that I have left myself too little space at the allotment for compost and manure piles. I maintain that this is a clear indication that we NEED a second allotment. DH says 'No' very resolutely to that idea but I am working on him.

MIL has promised me a compost turner that she doesn't use, so I'm looking forward to giving that a go too.

I think my slapdash compost habits bung it in a pile and leave it were too much for DH. His compost is carefully crafted and turned. If I dare to add anything it has to be in the right one - so I usually leave stuff in a pile for him to deal with.
He's currently experimenting with a form of trench composting on one of the large veg beds.

shove of course you need that second allotment - you could set up a dedicated compost area and having two plots would mean you would generate enough waste to make it worth while...

I'm a useless composter. Most of my waste is bindweed/dandelion/other Bad Things so I take it home for the council collection that gets cooked at high temps. And the only times I've tried to turn the compost, loads of terrified frogs jumped out. I love frogs and don't want to upset them, so now I just leave them be and just add bits and bobs on as and when. I guess it's rotting down as the height isn't really rising. Unless I'm not adding much on at all... It still has bloody spud bits growing in it, despite me trying to pull them all out or pull off the foliage.

I'm still wondering about applying for a 2nd allotment. Mine is a small one, so it would be manageable I think. And I'd fill it up with soft fruit. There is currently only 1 free on my site - as far as poss away from current plot as you could get, and whilst it's sunny, it's right in the corner and next to someone who is very nice, and VERY prolific at growing stuff, but a bit bossy.

Shove I don't think you come across as horticulturally ignorant at all! And besides, you don't need to know everything about a subject in order to write about it. But you know a lot more than many, ie me. And you do write beautiful, evocative things. Maybe you can inspire and educate the ignorant?!

Ooh, and I forgot to say, I'd like to thank this thread for my Service to Armpits award. I am getting armpit fruit now. I am so fully gluttified, tomato-ly, that I made tomato soup today to use up some of the older ones, and leftover cream. It was nice, but a bit of a faff for something that ended up tasting oddly like Heinz.

No plotting today. We were forecast rain all day, but we've actually o ly had about 30 mins of it, and light at that. We rather need rain. The soil is crazily-cracked, cracks that I could put all my fingers into should I so wish, even where I mulched and have been watering frequently.

I do NEED a second allotment Rooster. For so many reasons. More fruit. And small trees. And compost bins. And maybe a polytunnel. I do not know why DH cannot see this. I do like the sound of your trench composting experiment - do you leave it to rot in the open ground? I did this for my beans and then I found it was all getting mashed up - I suspect a fox found some things it liked in there (ew)!

Zebra - maybe I could do a blog along the lines of 'If an eejit like me can do it, anyone can!'. I would then feel comfortable that I wasn't conning anyone with a pretence of horticultural sophistication that I don't possess. And I do feel really, really passionate about getting people to garden. Did you know some people say that they do not enjoy it? . I mean... how is such a thing possible? I want to give them a big hug and show them how amazing and wonderful it is to have a green, green garden or allotment! I swear to God, people get sold crap plants, and then they die, and they blame themselves and think they are no good and get all discouraged and put decking all over the place in revenge.

I STILL have no red tomatoes so I am of your soup. Same situation with rain here. I've been sitting waiting for it patiently all day and none has materialised.

shove apparently there are two types of trench composting being set up in the veg garden. One where he digs a trench and actually buries stuff.

Another where is is spreading the compostable material thinly over an unused bed which he will then cover with a thin layer of sieved topsoil.
Next spring he will decide which method was most successful.

It's raining here today so I haven't done any gardening. Yesterday I cleared miles of bindweed. Where the garden borders the field it is a perpetual problem. I don't think I'll ever clear it all because it just creeps in from the field hedge.

evening!
no rain here yet either -, but its supposedly due.
now shove - do you have extra thought powers? My DH announced this afternoon - we need to dig out the compost heap at home . 4 large wheelbarrows full of compost ready to mulch new flowerbed ( which has not been prepared yet!) and about a third of the way in. Did unearth some lovely solitary bees doing their thing in there. He decided that was enough for today. Totally stopped me from tidying up a rather messy bed elsewhere....but I did clean out my shed gutters, ready to fill up water butts.
On 2nd allotments -
shove - do you know your square footage? Would it help to know how big mine is, now I have both halves? It may help your argument for more space :)
spotted - do you mean an extra plot? If its in the corner, is it near hedges/big trees - may dry out the ground more quickly, but why not - especially if its been well looked after.
I now have to own up to something very bad - I have bought my first ever slug pellets - the shame!. The horrible little monsters are chomping through my ripe marmande tomatoes, one at a time. I have copper tape, beer traps , no luck. They are even munching the aubergine leaves, which are spiky and rough!
an spotted - I haven't found a tomato soup recipe that doesn't taste like Heinz, and I have tried :)

I have compost envy
have no space for it, the shady spots are all too close to the house (north facing garden)

I compensate with my smelly comfrey juice though :o

well, just been out to water my tomatoes, and I have the rage !
Die you dratted slugs

I have tomato envy, still none, not even green. the plants look healthy enough and have flowers, but I think I held them back in small pots too long when I only had my portable greenhouse and no space for them. Haven't been up to the plot since Sunday as it has rained off and on and I've been at work a lot of the time, but must go tomorrow for a bit, the weeds will be running riot.

Thank you for those who replied about potato storage, the apple boxes sound like a good idea, I could stack them under the bench in my greenhouse.

You know that thing Facebook does where it pings up old photos on the anniversary of you posting them? Well, 2 years ago today apparently is when I went to view the jungle that is now my pride and joy. I remember thinking I would never tame it, I haven't entirely, but it is so much better than I had hoped.

Compost, well, at home I have had one good compost gin going for many years, it is a PITA to dig out (one of those barrel shaped ones) but it does make excellent compost with literally no effort at all. At the allotment I am just not generating that much waste, most of it is dandelions and bindweed so I leave it in little piles to make sure it is well and truly dead then there is hardly anything to put in the bin. Whereas at home we have all our fruit and veg scraps and grass cuttings, I chuck weeds in the council bin.

Shove - I'm sure the wildlife trust would be glad of your help in whatever capacity. I used to be a conservation volunteer in my younger days and go off for week-long projects all over the UK, went to beautiful places, met great people and learnt about nature and traditional skills. Unfortunately I can no longer do heavy lifting so a lot of it would be ruled out nowadays (I used to love drystone walling) but I definitely want to get involved again one day when the DCs are older.

Oh no, agoodbook
I could send my DS round for a visit? He likes chopping slugs with 'his chopper' (it's a hand fork!), he likes being out in the rain and he'd happily accept a tomato as payment. Odd child, but quite useful...

Yup, it's an extra plot. Well, I wondered about trying to swap my plot for a sunnier one, but I'm actually quite fond of it now. Then I wondered about getting a second. On the plus side, that other one, being on the opposite side, is not at all shaded by the boundary. And I think that the boundary is made of plum or gage trees of some sort, whereas my boundary is a big horrid sycamore and something else annoying. Neither of which I can plunder for food.

Oh Shove I agree with the wonders of being outside in the green. It's been good for me in so many ways. And I still know nothing, and am quite comfortable with my ignorance! Your nlig could be aimed atme and my ilk! Re decking, I mostly just talk about rats, all the rats. That puts lots of people off.

on plant knowledge, whenever the great monty says 'whatever you do, don't...' you can be sure I have done just that half an hour earlier...

on the tom front, my tigerella ist about to flower. will let it get one truss (no point letting it have more this late in summer). it was one of the discarded seedlings that just wouldn't die, so I potted it in a big pot. gave it a good comfrey feed and it took off.