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

smink - summer squash then ? so basically treat as a courgette - nice not too big in my mind , and there will be more.
shove - my minds gone tonight after a busy day at work - overwintering brassicas - I have just pricked out my spring greens and spring cabbages - is that what you meant? If so, I shall be planting out in about 2-3 weeks time, when they are a decent size :)

Thanks agoodbook I better get eating them then!!

Thanks goodbook. I think my latest lot of seedlings are probably about the same size as yours - they were sown a couple of weeks bback. I'm getting such a good germination rate on them (not me, the seeds are just really good) that I have sown straight into pots.

STILL no tomatoes. So I spent yesterday evening chopping back some of the leaves in the hope that this might encourage ripening. Otherwise, I'm going to have trusses and trusses worth of green tomato chutney

smink I am of your squash. My Crown Prince thingy has sulked for weeks, then suddenly gone mental and put on feet and feet of growth. But it is only just coming into flower. I don't think I'm going to get squashes before the frosts start .

Shoveltheholly I think that quite a fee people have had bad squash/pumpkins. I put in five pumpkin plants and only have one the size of a golf ball that hasn't stopped other people on my plot having behemoths in great-number !
In good news the tomato stem snappage seems to have healed itself on one plant i tied them back together and the stem is now fine.
I need to sow my overwintering onion seed and order my shallots (maybe garlic if I am feeling flush) this week

Shoveltheholly I think that quite a fee people have had bad squash/pumpkins. I put in five pumpkin plants and only have one the size of a golf ball that hasn't stopped other people on my plot having behemoths in great-number !
In good news the tomato stem snappage seems to have healed itself on one plant i tied them back together and the stem is now fine.
I need to sow my overwintering onion seed and order my shallots (maybe garlic if I am feeling flush) this week

Tomatoes have another month to ripen. It will be fine but i do get the frustration. San marzano and marmande arent supposed to ripen until september for example. I have only had ripe toms off my stupice and tigerella which are hardy early toms.

Hello, plotters. I've been away for a few days again so not been updating. I've come back to.... not much change at all. The lots of rain we had a week or so ago made my tomatoes swell and split, but since then it's all been oddly static. It's been very overcast here apparently, with very little sun. I need more please.

One teeny change since I was away is that I've had a fruit set on my Delicata squash. So that's 1 tiny fruit on 2 or 3 plants. My Marina di Chioggia each have 1 fruit - the plant on BenSquash having shed a few, and 1 rotted. But the main fruit is coming along nicely I think. And the frog still lives in the plastic wrap of the mound, I might be happier about that . My squash success has been Little Gem, which I've grown over an arch - it's given me a few squash already and there's loads more growing.

My tomatoes are still doing really well though, isn't odd how we experience different things? In fact, someone called me the site's tomato expert the other day. That made me laugh, given that a) I know nothing, and b) my advice would only be: armpits. Grow Armpits! All the Armpits.

I've actually had a tomato turn triffid on me. It's Losetto, one of those free seeds from Gardener's World months ago. It's a bush tomato and supposedly blight-resistant and it gives small, sweet red cherries. It's given me a ton of fruit already but now it mostly has flowers. And it's taking over

my tomatos are starting now, also little later than expected but good that they started 'after' my holiday...

You are the tomato whisperer, Zebra! That plant is rampant!

Thanks for the reassurance ethel (and hooray for toms ori). If it doesn't work, I honestly think I'm going to give up with squash outdoors. I wonder if there is a critical threshold level for some of these things: my Dad and I have been comparing and over the last few weeks his allotment has had pretty routine temperatures around 24-25 degrees (sometimes more), whereas mine has been more around 18-19 (and a lot wetter). Cooler weather crops like brassicas and rasps do well, though, so maybe I'll focus on those next year!

I'm amazed about your tomato healing itself. Fantastic! You are like the tomato hospital!

agoodbook you have so much allotmenting space for so little (relatively) £££. What else do you get for that money? And Shove yours seems expensive too, and for no water? Mine is somewhere in the middle - I have about 93 sq m for about £35 I think. We get water but we can't use hoses. There's a good safe fence and locked gate, and that's it, no loo, no much heap, but also not much interference.

I had thought about asking to change plots, in fact I've posted about it lots on here. But with every stone that I pull out, and every frog that i see, I get more and more attached to my little bit of space. So ill be keeping it. But if another plot v. near to me did come up, I might go for it aswell. Bit I doubt it will.

Chatting yesterday to people, all plots are gone again - there has been another influx of newbies. Yet I still consider myself a v v Newby. I was told yesterday that I was doing it All Wrong. By someone that had had his plot for... a day and a half. So he can do one. And 3 separate plots (of 40) are all talking about getting chickens next year, which is an odd trend to suddenly pop up!

ethel when you say you tied hem back together, did you tape up the stem or just leave it? Yes, I am taking notes! I had split and broken stems too after all that rain swelled the fruits. But I sacrificed the stems to the great tomato god in the sky.

Actually, I was a bit chop-happy yesterday with my new secateurs from lidl, to match my new long tree lopper thing also from lidl . Normally I save everything, don't cut much at all, but yesterday I was shopping, ripping stuff out, like a fury. I've come back to quite a lot of mildew, unfortunately. On courgette leaves, but also on marigolds.

Afternoon!
hopefully shove the squashes will do good - my crown prince are doing fine, (though they sulked when I first planted them out ), lots and nicely growing, but the butternuts are only just flowering now, so just have to hope we have an Indian summer. You may be a bit cooler than me, as you are higher up.
I have a triffid tomato as well - a little pot bound plant donated to me, an outside cherry one ( all the rest of mine are in the greenhouse) and it is taking over as well...
I have one surviving aubergine , which is growing ! (The others fell off, so I suspect they didn't really set.)
spotted for that princely sum, we get :-
the plot
water pipes about every 10-12 meters ( every 3rd plot ) we can use a hose pipe to fill a new waterbutt, but otherwise no hose pipes, but can use watering cans. Waterbutts are free , you go on a waiting list and they come with fittings.( They are supplied by a local business that gives them to the allotment society) You do have to harvest water if you have a shed that can be guttered .
Gates, with keys
Shop open at weekends
Regular trailers for getting rid of green stuff/prunings - anything that can be composted that you want to get rid of really.
A lovely community of (mostly) helpful, nice people

Now then folks- I am thinking of moving some asparagus - whats the vote on digging up in October/November, or leaving until March?
When I ordered mine originally they arrived bare rooted in March, but came from Norfolk -I'm not so sure they will enjoy being dug up at all - they are from second plot, only about 2-3 years old, and slap bang in the middle of nowhere now, so would like to extend our existing asparagus bed to add these to.

asparagus doesn't like being relocated. will take a while again before you can harvest.

I tied them back together with string! Tape would be good though.

evening !
new name - what a faff !
OriKumi , yes its a toss up with the asparagus - move it, and no real harvest, or new crowns, and no real harvest!
We managed a fair amount of rain yesterday, so managed to weed the brassica cage nice and easily by hand today, while picking broccoli.
And made my first pasta sauce with the roma and marmande tomatoes .
reminded by ethel to see about ordering my shallots, thanks!

Laughing at zebra's enthusiasm with the new Lidl cutting tools! Reminds me of when I was a little girl and I decided to 'test' my new scissors on my bedspread (which I gave a lovely, uneven fringe), the venetian blinds, the carpet, the cushions. My Mum was less than amused.

goodbook - I am getting some new asparagus crowns because mine arrived very dessicated from the nursery this spring and never grew. The plants that have sprouted are pathetically weedy - literally sticks around a foot high. I was hoping to put the replacements in during Oct/Nov because I read that they can really do quite a bit of getting their roots in during the winter and that you don't have to wait til spring provided you've trenched up properly and got drainage. But the nursery won't send til next spring . I think I would be tempted to move them in during the autumn as it might compensate a bit for the transplanting. Maybe if you leave the biggest clump of soil you can budge around the bottom of each, they won't complain so much about the move??

I am thoroughly confused (not to mention deeply annoyed) by this hack thing. Bloody MRAs! What gives them the right? I changed my password but do I need to change my username as well??

We bought a new shredder in Aldi today, apparently this is a different type to the one we own already and will be more suitable for leafy stuff and make the compost that DH is nurturing even more lovely!

Yesterday I started to reduce the hedge between the main garden and the veg garden, it was about 9 foot high and I'm taking it down to 4 foot. I've only done half but this morning I was able to stand in my bedroom window and admire the veg beds. Unfortunately it's raining today so I couldn't complete the task.

This afternoon an old friend called in, he now lives abroad and I met his German girlfriend today. She too is an avid gardener and vegetable grower so we have a lovely time as I showed her my garden (in the rain, but neither of us minded) and we chatted about plant growing in general.
The pictures of her veg plot show regimented magnificence so while she was very complimentary about my set up I'm sure she was secretly giving it a neat makeover.

Eeuuuugh yuch!

I tried my summer squash today it is really, really nasty and bitter

Even touching it tranfers bitter flavour to everything else. I think I will have to bin them all.

rooster a shredder? From Aldi you say?.how much may I ask?

£59 smink
They also had electric hedge trimmers (2 sizes), leaf blowers, ratchet lopers and loads of other garden stuff.
We were very disciplined and just bought the one thing that we needed although I was tempted by lots of other stuff

They also had some very nice looking clematis and winter bedding plants.

Perhaps you should treat yourself to make up for the bitter squash!

smink do not eat squash or courgettes if they are too bitter. they can contain a toxin that gives nasty food poisoning.

orikumi It isn't even posdible to eat it.

evening!
no plotting for me today , too busy
shove - its a real dilemma. The ones in the way - there are 4 rows , each planted, I think, with 5 crowns in. I seem to remember he bought them late, and they came at different times as well. The first two rows have 9 plants, quite nice size. The next two rows have 7 plants, all thin and poor. So I think we have decided to move the big ones. And the advice online is also a toss up, but leans towards digging up early spring, keeping them somewhere damp and cool, and then replanting as the soil warms up. So fingers crossed, and if it fails, we move the weedy ones in the autumn/winter
smink - when you read up, they produce the toxin when they are under stress. I have had to bin 3 cucumbers in the last week - they are next to the door in my greenhouse, The only thing I can guess has happened to mine is we did have one very cold night about 10-14 days ago BUT - the ones that are now coming along are fine, so is it worth leaving it growing, to see if others set?
Laughing at Rooster s DH and shredder. My DH finally decided to give up shredding, and we sold ours!

bookbook mine loves shredding! Says it makes the compost better.

It was raining when we came back so he assembled it in the utility room and he is itching to use it. Unfortunately the forecast is for rain for the next three days.