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

konserve - I missed your post! So sorry that you've been in hospital all day. I hope you and your family are OK.

the fig tree can join the triffid crew. fast growing bugger.
I pollarded it last winter, you wouln'g think so now...
dc is fine (ish), recovering from the short operation and watching cbbc all day.

We're all back in, hurrah!
Poor DCs, konserve - hope you're all very well now.

And Shove - why a purple minion? Have you been rolling in blackberries or something?

Yesterday, one of my cats came in and he was bleeding on his 'haunches' and bum/undercarriage, quite heavily . The other cat has only just recovered from an op, and they are both my lovelies, so as you can understand, I was very very worried. But on closer examination, the blood was purple, and he actually had been rolling g in blackberries, the eejit.

So it finally stopped raining, just briefly, this morning and off I went to the plot. I did lots (and lots) of chatting, but did manage to pick a lot too - loads of toms, courgettes, more little gem squash, cucumbers, rasps and some greens. And more beans, so many beans. Everyone is trying to give everyone else beans, down at the plot. But no one is taking... And I was given corn and apples. And flowers. So all lovely.

But on the downside, I may have spotted early signs of blight on my toms. Or it could be wind/rain scorch, no one is quite sure. It's all on the leaves not the stalk, and not on all my tom plants. So I did lots of hacking back, to get air in and take out the bad bits, and picked whatever was ripe, which was quite a lot. So fingers crossed that it is not actually blight at all. And I've now disinfected my secateurs and knife. It's so wet that loads of mushrooms are popping up on my soil and on my mulch!

Ooh, and the rain and the one day of scorchio-grade weather has given my cucurbits a growth spurt. One of my marina di Chioggia plants has grown maybe 1.5m in a few days - it's sort of climbed my corn, tendrilled round it, the bought it all crashing down. Oh well, it was crap anyway.
booky I've not actually tried my marina di Chioggia yet, as I want to leave them to get huuuge, but I think I've had it before in Italy. It's quite distinctive, isn't it?! see pics

Zebra - oh my GOD! That's so funny about your cat. They do get themselves into a right pickle! I'm relieved it wasn't anything serious. I am the same about mine - it is so hard when they are ill and I just panic the moment they look even slightly off colour! (quite literally in your case)

I was saying purple minion just because they are the more aggressive, evil minions, and the DDoS attack made me feel all 'RAWR! Men's Rights Activists, I will flay you with my autumn raspberry canes!' Also, my hair is much like the purple minion look today (though, to be fair, it is never far off).

about possible blight. My experience of that disease is that it moves really, really fast so that if it is that, you will see them shrivel almost beneath your eyes. So my fingers are firmly crossed for the next few days. As you say, there are loads of things that can make the leaves go a bit manky looking, so I'm hoping it's one of those instead. The ideal conditions for blight are a LOT of rain (like 10 hours non-stop or something), so hopefully it's dried out enough inbetween for yours to escape!

at that growth rate of your marina di Chiogga. BLIMEY!

Thanks for the welcome all and the advice - it's very much appreciated!

I'm very reading about all your produce (especially figs and tomatoes - they never taste amazing from the supermarket).

I've got some seed catalogues to flick through and it makes me embarrassingly happy. I'm sure I'll feel differently when digging starts on Sunday!

hahaha Spotted - everyone here doing the same - I was blatantly offered cabbages, when I have two rows of the things! Both round and sweetheart :)
And I am just about full to the gunnels with beans, and there are so many more to come. Shall have to start making pickles and chutneys shortly.
And yy to the squashes, I am attacking them with secateurs every time I go - they are trying for world domination I think.
fingers crossed on blight on your toms though -the humidity has a real downside.
At long last I have cauliflower heads starting to fill out . And I have flowers and some setting peas on the row I sowed not long ago

x post with Malc - there is no better thing than to pick and eat/cook the same day.
How big is your plot? Do you have a total blank canvas?
If so work out where the sun comes, and where you have any trees/shaded areas, you can then plan where to put things. It would be good to have an area for a compost heap/bin, if you have the space for it. If you are digging up grass, that is a good start to a compost heap. Dig up in turves. Turn the turves upside down on top of one another, and leave in peace and quiet for a year, - you will have compost next year, ready and waiting. If you can cover it, even better!i (Or make a bin out of old pallets )

how is bunny poop for the beds?
does it need to mature or can it be used immediately?

and Zebra's cat.

I finally have flowers on my french beans and my fat baby. Sadly my only surviving cucamelon has bitten the dust.

book it's 25ftx10ft and all grass - it was an allotment 40 years ago but hasn't been used since. Each plot has a separate bit set aside for sheds/compost so I'd like to get a bin up asap but it'll probably be a month or so.

Rooster I had to google fat baby! They look interesting. So many cool vegetables I've never heard of.

Evening!
hope everyone is well :)
fascinated by your question Rooster - I had no idea, so had a quick google, and came up with this - looks like it could be a good thing!
www.vegetablegardener.com/item/8156/rabbit-manure-in-the-garden
Well, on our outage on Tuesday, I went and ordered my shallots/garlic and meteor peas for overwintering. The garlic and shallots wont be sent until near the end of September, so I am a bit early having dug and weeded the area they are going into...bet it needs weeding again before then ...

great book will trade courgette for rabbit poo then :)

evening! -
well, I have been busy elsewhere ( I presume so have you lot!) , but did manage to harvest, and some necessary, but tedious and time consuming mending of sheds and water butts .
My peas and seeds arrived today - good service there

At home I now have a tomato glut - (more pasta sauce to be made !), and the cucumbers are starting to gang up on me

Wow, that was quick on the order book!

I STILL don't have a single ripe tomato. cries

Oh no, Shove - still no tomatoes? Come down here and have some of mine. They are still coming thick and as, and you will all be relieved to know, blight-free. Hurrah! Well, they were yesterday anyway, when I popped over to check. And we have no rain forecast until Sunday now, so hopefully everything will dry out a bit.

Also fruiting quite well are my Little Gem squash. Only problem is, they're not that tasty! It St tastes like a slightly sweeter courgette, and it is a lot of faff for that, both in terms of growing, prepping and cooking. Their skin can definitely not be eaten or easily slipped off! I guess if nothing else, they can be soup fodder.

On the rubbish side however, is cucamelon. I've only had a handful from 2 plants, whereas last year I was swimming in hem and using them to repel visitors (Have some! No, I insist. No, more than that...) Rooster I was wondering about your fat baby and cucamelons the other day! What a shame the latter came to nowt.

Ooh, and in other cucurbit news, I now have a nascent fruit on my 2nd delicata squash plant.

No, no tomatoes sob sob sob. Do you think I should take some kind of drastic action? I've already chopped quite a lot of leaves off to allow air around the plant. Maybe I should take more?

That's a shame about the squash. I'm getting the sense from all of the experience on here that some varieties just come out a bit bitter in the UK. Maybe we should have a squash roundup at the end of the season and come up with our top varieties for next year.

Look at my dinner! I grew everything on this plate!

that looks delish!
well done

Just checking in, haven't posted for a while as I'm away and have no gardening news to report (v.little internet access here). Looking forward to seeing my plot again on Monday. I've namechanged BTW (Who Knows who I was before).

evening!
oh shove - I am sure they will come, this is exactly what happened to me 3 years ago - they did ripen eventually, but the last trusses ripened in a box with brown paper covering them .( I have started them off a bit earlier since then)
And as compensation, you have had a beautiful plate of food
Right Spotted thats Little Gem scrubbed off my list - to my reasoning, there is just no point in growing vegetables that are not tasty!
On that note, my summer sprouting broccoli is just scrumptious at the moment.
As Time -its been warm and damp with us - the weeds are loving it :)
Malc make sure that every plant earns its space - I started with my plot
about that size , so check how much space you need for a particular spot, otherwise you soon realise its full, before you have half of your favourite things in ( voice of experience ). You may find that sowing /planting little and often is the way to go - that way you dont waste anything :)

Two of my tomato plants are doing much better since I moved them out of the greenhouse to join their outdoor friend.

My phacelia seed artived today. A huge bag. Thank goodness I didn't go for the £10 bag!! Got quite a lot of tidying done at the allotment. Abd a bit done in the garden which had gone feral.

Yy to thinkibg what you really need. I am giving up the following salsify/scorzonera - poor germination rates, green beans, summer squash.
Courgettes failed this year but good mosy years so will keep.
Callaloo and quinoa came to feck all. And sweetcorn also a waste of time.

shove most impressed with your tea!

I'm back - just went out to water in my greenhouse ( btw - how dark its getting now!) and I have a little frog in there , he jumped up and smiled at me while I was watering, then went and hid. Made my day :)
Also my hunt for beasties on my spring green seedlings - this is a nightly affair - not too many eggs and no caterpillars, but 3 snails hiding underneath the little devils....
shove - just had a thought re tomatoes - have you nipped out the tops? It makes them concentrate on the fruit they have....

re toms, I find taking off many of the leaves helps.
my tigerella only has one truss (planted out very late) and I have taken off all leaves below the truss and pinched out the top or there will be no tigerella this year.

Just watched gardeners world - shove -you are in good company -Monty's tomatoes are not doing too well either!

When I left I only had one truss of green tomatoes on 6 plants . According to FB it has done nothing but rain while we've been away so not too optimistic for when we get back.