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....

I am learning so much on this thread.

We've had such dry weather here lately that I actually had to water the whole garden today. DD2 helped by holding onto the hose and getting in my way.

I've put beetroot, spring onions, carrots, marigolds, nasturtiums, peas and courgettes waiting to germinate in the garden. Will be interesting to see how long they take. Tomato seeds have been in a large tub inside for just over a week, I think, and there's no sign of them. But the sweet peas, marigolds and nasturtiums I put inside at the same time have just started sprouting so I'm holding out hope it won't be too much longer.

A friend gave me some narcis plants that had been growing out of their pot in her house today so I've separated them and planted the bulbs into spaces in the garden. Curious to see whether they'll revive and grow happily now. They were looking a little sad.

You've been watering Kiwi ? Yikes!

No such need here, as guess what - it's raining. Again. And it is getting cold now too. Will I have snow this weekend, I wonder? I have left my newly hardened-off plants outside to face the music - I'm not letting them back in, so it's thrive or die. But everything else is tucked up again, and my blueberries are wrapped up nicely, lest the frost nix their blossom.

I checked on my beetroot - nothing has shown in 3 weeks. And we've had a bit of warm! 3 different varieties -1 packet was oldish but the other 2 were new. Does that seem late? Should I re sow?

And beans. Who has started runner or french beans off. My sowing fingers are itching again...

Been dry here as well- had to water the two shrubs I have in pots, and a pot of tulips. I think its not going to be nice this weekend either.
Spotted - I sowed my beetroot - 'chioggia' in plugs almost exactly 3 weeks ago, in the cold greenhouse. They germinated about 6-7 days ago, and they are now out in the little plastic greenhouse,( unzipped cover ), against a warm wall.
Tomato seeds germinate quite quickly normally Grouchy , but I do mine on a warm, sunny windowsill, covered with a plastic bag until they are germinated , to keep the soil moist.Usually takes 7-10 days.
Haven't even thought about courgettes yet, or any beans. They are for next week, after the weekend cold goes. And they will all be either on my kitchen windowsill ( courgettes/ squashes) or the greenhouse ( all the beans).
Cedar has planted some beans though :)

I have just ordered some lovage seeds - does anyone grow this? Its supposed to be celery flavour. I love celery, but no one else does. But its such a good thing flavour wise to put in soups and stews .
I should have said, it has been dry enough here to give a dry 'pan' on the top of the soil at the plot - had to break it a bit to get weeds out!

Tastes like celery (the 1 veg I HATE*) and is great with chicken (am veggie) so nope, not grown lovage!

I'm sort of tempted though - it feels like my herb collection is not complete until I have lovage and hyssop. Where did you buy it from?

My summer savoury is going great guns. Anyone else grow that? All I know is that it is beans' best partner, in the ground or in the pot.

• asparagus pea, I have not forgotten you. But you are too evil to be a vegetable.

I have my perilla to sow -maybe I'll do that tomorrow?

But every soup/stew made in my kitchen starts with sofrito , just about! Its just I have to blitz it so no one knows there is celery in there :) Well, DH does, but he would always use celery seed instead.....
I have very ordinary, but well used favourite herbs which are all picked straight out of the garden as needed. Rosemary, Sage, Thyme, Bay, Majoram, Chives, lemon Thyme. Then I grow basil in the summer. I have had others, but never really used them in a culinary sense

Forgot thug mint!

I would know,booky. I can sniff it out. I just use extra extra onion instead of that evil thing.

In addition to your list I have tarragon and a few varieties of mint. I grow coriander, (lots of) for as long as I can. And loads and loads of parsley too. And I'm adding in a couple of types of basil, . And now summer savory. I've got cumin and caraway seeds also, but not really sure whether to bother.

Oh, and dill! That's my favourite!

Actually I don't know what's classed as herb and what is not. Borage, is that a herb? The self seeded ones are popping up everywhere this week.

• of course parsley! I do a bit of coriander, . Must try tarragon - I use it a lot, but dried normally

I've neverhad any luck growing coriander and basil from seed, but I usually buy a pot or two of each from the supermarket and plant them out, get a few weeks out of them. Also parsley. My perennial herbs are bay, thyme, rosemary and chives. When we bought this house 15 years ago the garden was a wasteground but there was a bashed plastic pot lying on it's side on the patio with chives in. They'rd still going strong snd have produced numerous offspring which have gone to the allotment, school garden, plant stalls and friends.

Oh and I'vd never had much luck with mint either for some reason.

I have indeed planted some beans - I did it this week so they've only just gone in and they're in the house. Slightly later than I planted them last year but the French beans last year didn't germinate much anyway (dud seeds I reckon). This year I am trying a purple variety.

I take cuttings from basil when I buy them in pots from the supermarket. I just put the cuttings in water and they root really easily. I've done Rosemary the same way too.

Today I've planted some beetroot and spinach in the ground. And our asparagus crowns have arrived. My DH will be preparing the ground for those tomorrow.

Ooh, have you, Cedar? Then I think I will (sow beans). Yes, I AM that easily lead!

So, no snow today. In fact it was glorious! And off I toddled to the allotment, where I dug put my path. Man, it was heavy-going! I took off the top bit of compacted clay and couch combo, then I pulled loads and loads and loads of couch out of cold claggy clay. Not so much fun.

Actually the couch is doing my head in a bit. Is there something that can edge the bed wih, that will prevent the couch from invading? I'd love to get rid of the grass paths that run between the plots, but both my neighbours love the grass. They also love mowing, and glyphosohating anything and everything.

Do you know, I'd never thought of rooting cuttings from store-bought basil. That is actually GENIUS.

WhoKnows wowsers - can chives really last that long?!

evening!
been out gadding today, so no plot, but time to prick out yet more flower seedlings. (I must have been mad!)
forgot to say Spotted - I bought the lovage seeds from ebay - 99p and free p&p
There is I believe nothing to stop couch once its there. I am weeding all around the edges at the moment, just keeping it at bay to the grass paths. We have to upkeep the paths between the plots, so no choice. I have thrown in the towel on paths around my beds- I dug them up about 3 years ago, as they were just infested with couch and bindweed.
Purple beans are lovely Cedar - I have grown Cosse Violette for the last 2 years- but I will still wait until next week to sow. And your asparagus crowns have arrived at last :)
I haven't had any real problem getting basil to germinate, but what a good idea to take cuttings!

I had lots of lovely basil seedlings that were getting big and strong in a pot but one of the cats decided to turn that pot into his throne so now the seedlings are all dead. I've got one hopeful seedling in there now with a kebab stick to ward off cats so hopefully it will grow. It's my last shot before buying a plant from the supermarket. I got a good Summer out of the last one. Will also get mint, parsley and dill plants since none of those seeds are taking. Must persevere with the lemon balm, though, as I can't find plants for that.

3 of my tomato seeds sprouted today! One of them is about an inch tall so it must have absolutely powered through overnight.

oh Grouchy - your poor basil....but I haven't even sown mine for this year yet. Thats another thing to sow after this week ......
Hurrah for tomato seedlings!
I have never , so far managed to germinate parsley. I invariably try, then give up and buy a plant. It usually manages about 2-3 years before giving up the ghost, and then I have another go....
They had lemon balm plants today in our local stuff shop garden centre. I was there trying to find some strawberry planter stacking pot thingys ( for some alpine strawberries I have been given) that were not completely ugly. I had no success , unless I wanted to sell a kidney first

kiwi lemon balm grows like a weed in my garden (ie in all the beds, between paving slabs etc). If you have no joy PM me and I'll put some in the post to you (it will be a little experiment, it may not survive but my variety seems impossible to kill so it will probably tolerate a plastic bag in an envelope for a day or two).

Basil root cuttings eh ? Off to look that one up.

Coriander germinates but I can't get the bushy stuff you can buy cut in the supermarkets or Indian supermarkets. Any suggestions ?

Thanks, didi. I love a good cup of lemon balm tea so really, really want a plant in my garden!

Afternoon!
just a couple of hours this morning- forking over and weeding ready to sow some carrots and beetroot later in the week.
Oh, but a bit of a cold wind.
Picked sprouting broccoli and a small savoy - so here is the savoy . I assume I must have damaged it in its early life, but they don't give up, do they? :)

It's been a very warm autumn here in Melbourne.

Today I put in the side poles and horizontal bamboo pole for the sprouting broad beans and tied in the shoots. The less sunny patch with snow peas is doing less all, and if they've not cheered up in ten days, I'll plant new seeds in containers in the sunnier parts.

A lucky find was a perennial basil in the local market today for $2, so let's see how it goes

I'll be trying seeds ( from Aldi tomatoes) in the late winter. My first outing, as up until now it's always been using fairly well-grown plants.

we could do with a bit of warmth here echt a bit of snow forecast for around here tomorrow night...
I spent yet more time this aftternoon, listening to GQT whilst pricking out stuff , but at least it was brassicas today :) calabrese, cauliflower, white, purple and summer broccoli

Wow, book, that really is 2-for-the-price-of-one! They look smashing too, as do your leeks! If you are ever down my way, there is a very good factory shop at Naylor Myers where you can often get strawberry pots cheap (probably worth giving them a bell to see if they have them in stock first). Everything there is seconds - some are VERY seconds, i.e. broken - others are near-perfect. www.yorkshire.com/view/attractions/barnsley/naylor-gardenware-factory-shop-1142373

spotted - I'm struggling with beetroot too. All my other brassica-type things are through, but not the beetroot. It's a pack of mixed varieties from Poundland, but I have another couple of packs from Kings, so I'm going to try sowing a second batch with some of those this week. I'm getting quite into comparing and contrasting germination rate/quantity of different seeds!!

I spent the whole of yesterday sorting out my fruit cage. The bane of my life is finally, I think, fixed. I was trying to construct it solely out of things I'd pulled out of skips, but because it's quite tall, and I was using wire to hang the netting, the force of the tension in the wire kept pulling the corner posts inwards, to the point that the whole thing kept sagging So I bit the bullet and spend £20 on copper piping - flattened the ends, of each piece, drilled through them, and bolted them onto the corners. It keeps its shape a LOT better now and is no longer the disgrace of the allotment!

Sorry for the slow response have been away (without Internet ) thanks for the suggestions a la cranberry, watercress etc. I was joking with DH about rice, only I though rice was for warmer climates because after this weekends rain and cold my pond is deeper!!

So I am looking into grit, sand and soil improvers - stupid questions to follow:

• any suggestions on brand or doesn't it matter.
• what kind of quantity for each or is it equal quantities
• do I just head off to a garden centre or should I Internet order - what do others do??

Thanks again for all the comments and tips - I have a dream that I'll one day have something actually growing on my allotment

Sorry for the slow response have been away (without Internet ) thanks for the suggestions a la cranberry, watercress etc. I was joking with DH about rice, only I though rice was for warmer climates because after this weekends rain and cold my pond is deeper!!

So I am looking into grit, sand and soil improvers - stupid questions to follow:

• any suggestions on brand or doesn't it matter.
• what kind of quantity for each or is it equal quantities
• do I just head off to a garden centre or should I Internet order - what do others do??

Thanks again for all the comments and tips - I have a dream that I'll one day have something actually growing on my allotment

The weather is just appalling, isn't it, Not ? It's made my clay clag even worse, so yours must be like a brown ocean now. Boo. No idea re your questions, so we shall await some knowledgeable people!

Shove isn't it odd re beetroot! I totally failed with the, last year, too. We'll, I sowed them direct, a few came up and they all got chomped. Thought using 3 different seed types, it'd be belt and braces and then some, but clearly not! The conditions must not have suited them. Odd that leeks and parsley - which normally take an age, have managed to grow in that time. Even my sweetcorn is (just) popping up.

Today I've sown more peas, for mangetout, which I pre - germinated on damp kitchen towel in the airing cupboard. So now I've put some broadbeans in the cupboard too, as I am also struggling with getting my 2nd sowing of them to show. Some had toots a while ago, but... stalled. Probably died.

echt a perennial basil? That sounds good! I guess you need warmth for that?