Allotment/Veg Patch Thread 5 - The Diggers Rest !

[bookbook]

Thanks to teacuphalfempty for supplying the title .
so, its the 1st of March, the meteorological spring is here, and it's all systems go for the coming growing season. Let's hope for a good one -no pests and diseases, enough rain overnight and plenty of sunshine. Well, we can dream....

This is me starting to roll back the black membrane today. A year ago this was solid grass, today just a few dandelions and very easy to dig out.

Thats pretty impressive WhoKnows !

I may have, during my extensive research, that I've been undertaking for the good of mankind you understand, found said plant at Marshall's Zebra. But I will have to deny all knowledge if DH finds out what you lot have MADE me do. I'm so easily led...

Green - damping off that is. Your pots need to be drier.

thanks all.
I have poked drainage with a coctail stick and put the pots on the draining board over night.
no more floppage this morning.

Black raspberries, you say?

Imnot all of my questions are also sheep related. Are they pets? If you move them, won’t they just move back? Or are they not real sheep? What do you do with them? Do you have to shear them?

My mum gave me some strawberry plants yesterday so hoping to get those planted today. She has obviously heart about #YoF. I took cuttings from my gooseberries and jostaberry and they’ve all taken, and now I’m not sure what to do with them as I’ve no more space (and we can’t physically eat any more gooseberries!). So I did the only sensible thing I could do. Potted up more.

Are the darker gooseberries really edible straight from the bush ?

Mine are green. Ddog ate about 2 lbs of them straight off the bush last summer. But he was a lab so not really surprising! My mum eats them but doesn't have much of a sweet tooth.

I have a ridiculously sweet tooth and I eat red gooseberries raw. They were a donation so not sure which variety. But I'm sure I've read that if you leave all/any goosegogs on the plant for longer, they become sweeter. Which I guess makes sense.

I may now need to check out that black raspberry. For my monitoring.

It's really sunny today and will be all day here, I think, so I really want to go and pant stuff out. But it's going to be baltic again soon, isn't it?

Cupcakes v glad that your mum is engaged in #YoF too. Good evangelising.

Just wanted to drop by and give an update on my patch / swamp with all the rain I haven't been really able to get on at all. Managed to get my shed and first raised bed up, but as you can see in the picture I need my waders. So have done the cardboard thing and am waiting for the waters to abate. Suspect I am going to have to look at this year as a trial to get up and running!

Oh my goodness, Notstayingup that is very damp! And now that makes me thing that I oughtn't moan quite so much about my claggy clay . But, er, I probably still will

You've made great progress though, despite it all - a bed and shed already! Are other plots as flooded as yours, or is yours worse because of its location/aspect or soil condition? We have had sooooooooo much rain in the UK this year - it's been quite exceptional so it hopefully won't be an annual thing.

Can you play around with seeds at home in the meantime?

Talking of playing with seeds, that's all I've done all day. Not that I've been busy with them, you understand -I really streeetttcccchhhhed it out. The weather was so nice here today that I did naff all apart from sit about with my elderly cat, who LOVES company in a sunny garden. It was a bit poignant, as I couldn't help thinking that it will most likely be his last spring/summer. And he is very lovely.

That sitting took me up 'til lunch, at which point I obviously had a well-deserved rest. And in the afternoon I exerted myself with pricking out the last of the tomatoes, sowing the 1st of my cucurbit swathe, then a had a spot of bimbling. Good times.

Thanks for the sympathy Zebra!

It really seems to vary - my immediate neighbour seems to be very damp to but no one else has a "pond". It is all land that was dug from the embankments of the railways in the 30s so it is a real mix of soil. I seem to have drawn the short straw. Where I have my shed and bed is the high ground as the site slopes down towards the pond.

So to get on, I've planted a load of tomato seeds and got some plants in grow bags on the patio - my dog ate my cucumber plants soIkilledhim but I am pottering and waiting for the sunshine.

Evening!
Gosh, that is still amazingly wet Notsaying - I seem to remember you saying it hadn't been worked for a few years- wonder if that is why. However, you have done a lot of hard work there. So is it clay? You may need to work in a lot of grit and sand to get some drainage going on, and then lots of manure to work its magic to help grow things. And then we just need some dry weather for you.
Today, I have resisted the temptation to buy black raspberries :) ( I have already done my bit for #YoF by buying Tayberry, Victoria Plum and Greengage....)
Instead, I also spent most of my spare time in the greenhouse - I have potted up tomatoes into the next size pots ( and given away a few), and also pricked out what seems like hundreds of flower seedlings . Miles too many......, with still a lot to go. Think I went a bit mad when Aldi and Wilkos sold off the seeds at the end of last year! Ah well, plenty to swap with some like minded folk on my local fb gardening page :) and a nice cutting bed at the plot!

notstayingup - have you considered cranberries ? Don't they grow in pond like conditions ?

Yeah, that is wet notsaying . I imagine there's some kind of compacted layer underneath that needs breaking up. Nothing that a bit of double digging and grit can't sort out, though, as book says.

Zebra - that's sad about your cat. It's lovely to have an old, faithful pet with you outside. I think my old moggie likes the protection I provided from other cats - he's a timid beastie.

not I think you should see this as an opportunity! As well as the cranberries, how about rice? Or watercress? Although I think you need movement for watercress, so you might need to add a pump...

Afternoon!
Been a busy plot day today, so feet now :)
What a glorious day!
Sorted out and forked over/weeded all the area that the kale came out from, moved all the netting around the sprouting broccoli to keep it protected (and the savoys I have left.) I thought I had planned well, to reduce the size of the brassica cage as I used up sprouts/broccoli and kale and cabbages to find I have 3 savoy cabbages out in no mans land...!
Asparagus is starting to look interesting, lots of spears appearing
And did some general tidying
Picked my last 4 leeks for a risotto tonight- mantra is - grow more leeks next year

Evening! It's been busy here so have just had enough time to catch up on this thread. That plot looks very damp - definitely poor drainage if it's just your plot that's affected.

We got our potatoes planted last Sunday,. In fact DH and our daughter did most of the work while I got on with some other digging. My winter green manure - which I thought I had dug in is still growing in places so that's not ideal!

Have just planted up sweet peas, peas, runner beans and some French beans into pots. Have more seeds to go in, I may have to commandeer the dining room table as we are short of window ledges. So far I've got a seed tray full of celery, a few leeks and I'm waiting impatiently for my cabbage seeds to germinate.

Morning!
not nearly so warm today, so have been in the greenhouse
Sowed another load of leeks, and pricked out celeriac, curly kale and cavolo nero. There are a lot... brassicas really, have a high germination rate !

My cabbages are doing nothing so far. But I am quite impatient. I keep looking at my pots of beans planted yesterday and wondering. Even though I know I only planted them yesterday (Cabbages were planted a couple of weeks ago though).

I meant to try cavolo nero but I think I forgot to order the seed for it. Still I've probably got enough to be going on with this year!

mm Cedar - 2 weeks seems a bit long for cabbages... Mine on the whole take 4-5 day to germinate, ( in a pot covered with a plastic bag in the cold greenhouse). Then I have to wait impatiently for them to be big enough to prick out. Mind you, not nearly as good with sweetcorn. I am going to sow some more after the cold weekend .

Yes, I might sow cabbages again and have another try. My sweetcorn completely failed to germinate last year and we ended up buying plants instead.

My DH complained yesterday because a tray full of small pots has appeared in the kitchen. He doesn't realise I've only just started

I smell like a brewery! Just carted four large sacks of spent hops to my allotment, and spread them as a mulch on my fruit cage. They are weird and very drying on the hands.

The brewer gave me something called 'trub', which is a waste product high in nitrogen. Anyone used this? I've dug it into one half of one of my raised beds - going to do an experiment to see if it helps things to grow!

Evening!
shove - 'eau de spent hops ' - :) nowhere near a brewery here, so never had any to try- will be interesting to see. ( Didn't they use spent hops to stuff mattresses?)
DH and I popped up to the plot this afternoon, to get some bits sorted. I am now the proud owner of a proper door for my fruit cage- I was coping by tying up the front of the net when I needed to be in, and constantly leaving enough room for birds to get in, when I pulled it back down. So - I have a door, all ready to place in its frame, now just need to re- net the rest of the front where the door isn't