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....

can anyone advise on how I would make a raised bed on sloping ground please?

well, common sense would say to do it as a sort of terracing , depending on how much of a slope? It would need some serious strength I would suspect..... But hopefully someone with more expertise/ knowledge than me will come along!

More shredding of brambles today, and potting on most of seedlings. Just too hot though! I think I should get a wide-brimmed hat especially for gardening if this weather continues. Only for the garden though, They make me look slightly vacant.

midlifehope yes you can do it with terraced beds. Some of the plots near mine are on a steep slope and people build them by braking up into smaller terraced beds just need a bigger barrier at the end that is on the bottom of the slope.

We did more sowing on Saturday - carrots, cabbage and broccoli. Also quickly planted up 6 runner bean plants that my plot neighbour donated. We have our own beans still at home waiting to go in so will - hopefully - be eating A LOT of beans. Suspect the mice have eating my first sowing of peas as nothing is growing and I found one on the surface. I will resow and cover with netting. I do also have a few started off in pots at home.

Yesterday re potted beans and other seedlings. Last year had trouble getting French beans to germinate so planted three in each little pot. Well this year's seeds have all germinated so they were crowded and I had to tease them apart. Not the yellow beans though. None of those have germinated.

How sloping? And in which direction is is sloping?

I have not even sown most of my squashes or French Beans yet. You find they very quickly get growing once your last Frost date has been and gone, it was only a week ago we were having snow. Also, put them out too early and a late showering of hail can rip them to shreds.

Can I join you? I'm not back in our house until late June so I'm stuck overseas gently fretting about the garden in uk and thinking about what I can do when I get back. It's nice to read what people are doing - vicarious gardening. (I realise that is a bit sad- don't judge me! )

My plot slopes, but the angle isn't dreadful. I was able just to make the beds up as normal and lay them on the ground. The raised bit inside slopes with everything else!

However, a couple just down from me (on a slightly steeper part of the hill) have created level beds. They did this by having one side double width wood, and the other single width wood. I imagine it was a load more hassle and expense, but they do look really good.

quince - I know what you mean about hats. I bought one when on holiday to cope with a very long, very hot walk. When I look back at the pictures of it, I see stunning scenery with someone who looks to be doing an impression of an old-fashioned, comedy village idiot.

It's lovely that you're here cath!!

I've been enjoying a little bit of funemployment for the past month but starting a new (albeit part time) job at the end of this week so rushing to get the final bits done. The Allotment is in good shape, with two big beds ready to be planted up at the end of this month so I am excited to be in this position. I need to spend April unemployed every year!

I sowed my cucumbers, pumpkins, squash etc two weeks ago and have had predictably crap results with germination due to freezing temperatures. I have some stuff sprouted, but about half what I need so replanted a number of cucumbers and courgette varieties yesterday in the hope this excessive heat will get them sprouted.

I'm planning on growing mini pumpkins and my cucumbers up some metal arches I got a couple of months ago, so this will be the year of the cucurbit (fingers crossed).

Also, finally got my herbs sown. I am heading off today to weed the herb garden to make some space for them when they finally grow.

My sunflowers are drying out quickly in the greenhouse, is it ok to plant them out yet?

Also, another question, my autumn planted raspberries were hacked back in Feb (as per RHS instructions) and though they are sprouting leaves on the remaining stumps, they have thrown up no extra stems, and neither have the loganberries (not hacked back). Should they have produced primocane shoots yet?

Hello everybody! I've finally been able to get out in the garden a bit so have something to post at last.

I keep fretting at how behind things are but as Doreen pointed out we were having snow last week, so I figure I'm OK.

FINALLY got the potatoes in (with some help from DDog - see pic). Seeds in the greenhouse are doing well (although whatever is labelled "purple sprouting" is very much NOT purple sprouting. Might be a cucumber. Who knows? I thought it was odd I had two pots of purple sprouting!!). DS plants beans on a fairly regular basis - they're EVERYWHERE. We should be OK for beans this year.

In #YearOfFruit news... Cherry and Apple Trees absolutely covered in blossom, which is very exciting. Both are now 3 years old so perhaps we'll get a bit of fruit. Gooseberries, Blueberries and Jostaberry also flowering and fruits are forming. Yay! Now, about this #YoF thing. Somebody said on another thread (might have been yours, cath) something about a Golden Gooseberry Award. What's that about then? How do I win it? Heaviest Gooseberry? Best Fruit Crop? Do I get a handicap for being pregnant?

And welcome to you cath - have you decided how many pots to buy yet?

YOUVE JUST MENTIONED JOSTABERRIES.

So apparently 6 pots and counting.

I'm so ignorant about berries you lot could just start making them up and I would be forlornly combing garden centres.

(Looks suspiciously at the jostaberry)

Oh jostaberries are real, I promise. Bit thuggish thought mine is huuuuuuge. Not sure they do pots big enough actually

That was me, trying to bankrupt book by persuading her she could win the Golden Gooseberry for Research if she bought 4 whole new plants.

I reckon we need a golden one of each of the fruits to award. Golden apple, golden pear, golden plums (that sounds wrong and trophy design will need careful consideration), golden raspberry, tayberry, currants, jostawhatsit etc. etc. etc.

Serious question, serious face. Are tomatoes a fruit for the purpose of #YearofFruit?

Maybe we should have lots of categories?

Best of each variety, like you say.
Funniest shaped apple
Longest rhubarb
Etc

Tomatoes... Hmm... I'm not sure. Is #YoF Zebra's baby? Maybe she should decide.

Yes, yes, yes the more the merrier. We should each get at least THREE I think.

If last year is anything to go by, Zebra will be odds-on favourite for that golden tomato. Though we may not be able to see her by that stage for the mountains of fruit around her home.

I went on YouTube today and browsed some videos of allotments in May and everyone has huge plants that they're potting into the plots this month. Mine are either tiny seedlings or still in the packet!
Then I decided I should come onto this thread to pacify myself, because whenever I worry that I am way behind in planting there's always someone else here who is just as behind. Thanks Doreen

I just pottet on my tomato seedlings.
and put the courgette + pumpkin into the ground.
they are in cages to protect them from the digging cats and foxes.

Hello to the new people. :)

My new lemon tree arrived today. It has two small green lemons on it. Wonder how long they take to ripen. I think they'll be the only fruit it grows before I manage to kill this one too. And my amelanchier arrived as well. I've planted it into a big pot that DH can move around till we decide exactly where it's going to go. Also because I know he'll never get around to digging a hole in the turf for me so it has to wait till this baby is out and my body can do things again. Do june berries count for #YoF? I don't know what they are...

My blackcurrant bushes have lots of tiny fruit buds on them. Very, very happy about this. I really hope plenty of them ripen. I am so keen to eat fresh-off-the-bush berries again. And one of my strawberry plants has a couple of beautiful flowers.

My tomato seedlings are big and strong. I grew them in the large trough I plan to leave them in; do I need to set up some kind of support framework for them? I have no idea what they'll actually look like when they're bigger.

Ooo can I have most out of season tomato award as I am not in uk and I'm just getting the last of the harvest in before it's polished off by 45 degree heat and Bulbuls? This is my only shot at an award this year...

depends what kind of tomato, there are bushy kinds that are fine flipping over and tumbling and others that need staking. they easy get to 6 ft tall but should be capped at 3 or 4 fruit twigs.

6ft! My windowsill wouldn't cope with that!

They were free with the Gardeners' World April edition. Called Super Sweet 100 from Thomson & Morgan. Info I found online says they're cordon type.

Just whizzing past, I'm supposed to be revising but wanted to keep up with the thread.

My tomatoes are small and weedy looking, I've just repotted them from 2.5 to 4" pots, should I be feeding them as well?

I also have sunflowers bursting to get out of the greenhouse and into the garden.

Oh and who else was it that had rhubarb only just appearing in the last week or so? I went to the plot on Fri and found mine had quadrupled in size over the last week.

Evening!

its lovely to hear from you all , and nice to hear from ethelb - its lovely having the time to do things not in a rush! My sunflowers have been hardening off for about 5/6 days, and seem to be fine - but won't be planting them out for about 2 weeks, when they are a bit bigger ( though I am growing short ones!)
and cath - you found us here :) We kid you not, there are a lot of currants and berries to be thought of. Though its rather tricky doing it remotely, from a long way away . Is it an already established garden, or new to you?
shove very kindly nominated me to try 4 new gooseberries when I already have 2 - I will be buying 1 ( sensible eh?)
Grouchy - you can restrict the height of your tomatoes, don't panic - just nip the growing tip out when you have enough flower trusses - usually 4/5, or it gets too big. I normally have a structure for mine, but last year grew a cherry one in a pot outside with no help, and it was fine if rather untidy/straggly, and lost a few tomatoes by them bending onto the grass.
French beans all through after 7 days, borlotti no sign on Saturday - today all out! Runners just appearing.
A bit more hit and miss with curcubits - so far 1 crown prince and 2 butternut through. No courgette or cucumber. Thats also after sowing last Saturday.
Luloo - just remember, you are in Yorkshire, not the balmy south :) we can be as much as 3/4 weeks behind on planting, don't panic!
WhoKnows - revising takes me back........ I don't normally feed tomatoes until first trusses appear, though a general feed can't hurt.
Its been so cold, and then so warm. My summer cabbage plants have been sat, doing nothing, and all of a sudden they have put on loads of growth. Need planting out sooner rather than later!
Pots of leeks are starting to motor now as well.

t'was me with the tiny rhubarb.
it has grown, but is still not enough for cake. I wonder if taking some stalks off might stimulate growth?

dc and I have sown sunflower seeds today. half collected from the giant one last year (3m tall!) and half from a bird seed packet. I wonder how that experiment will fare. hopes the school sows sunflower again this year