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....

Mine's not enough for cake yet either but I reckon it will be by the weekend at this rate.

just watching the weather - we have had a warning for a drop in temperatures at the weekend, with a widespread ground frost - arghhhhhhh!

Evening everyone. Dashed home from work to water seedlings and shrubs in greenhouse at 8pm - they were not too bad as gave a massive soaking yesterday eve.
Hello to all fellow newcomers.
I have potted up honeysuckle x2 , jasmine x2 (all Aldi bargains) - should these and larger shrubs all be outside now rather than in greenhouse?

Frost??? I'm sure gardening in the UK shouldn't be quite this changeable!

I'm also small of rhubarb, although we did have enough for rhubarb and custard at the weekend. I like the sound of cake though!

Keeping my sunflowers in the greenhouse for as long as possible, in the hope of not losing them all to slugs. I suspect it's going to be a bad year for slugs though.

morning!
quince - ground frost only in Yorkshire and further north - thats me ......
I have just been out and put all my baby brassicas in a wind shelter , to give them a bit of respite.All hardened off, but only small, and warm wind is almost worse than cold.
My tomatoes have the first flower trusses forming :)

cath - tomatoes! amazing! One of the things I love about this thread is reading about those growing in very different conditions. I never have to think about the upper limit temperatures for veg in Sheffield!

I want cupcake's gorgeous DDog to come help me dig at my allotment! Managed to get down at last yesterday eve, to plant in brassicas (romanesco caulis, hispi cabbage, which I planted with catch crops pak choi and kohl rabi). Also planted out my sweet peas, the roots of which were starting to outgrow their loo rolls! I was hoping that they'd all get a good soaking overnight, but for once it hasn't rained here. I think this afternoon is supposed to make up for it.

My tomatoes are WAY off flower trusses!

Tomatoes are really on their last legs but chilli plants have flowered again and gone for a second crop which I didn't realise they did having only ever grown them in uk in the greenhouse before. We moved house in uk and I finally got a garden and then just under 2 years later we left for two years overseas. I had got as far as putting in a big raised bed and a pavement planting of alpines before we left. Visits back have been a bit frantic and I've had to bung various things in like rhubarb and raspberries and fruit trees and then leave again and hope for the best. The couple who had the house before us were there 15 years and threw themselves into transforming what was essentially a field into a lovely garden full of all sorts of things. It was all getting a bit much for them by the time they left so as I thin and clear beds I keep finding amazing plants like a tree peony and a magnolia tree , beautiful roses etc deep in a clumps of trees and bushes. I miss being in it and we are home this summer and so I'm reading all your posts and thinking about what I could do next year and what is still feasible in late June. I've only grown simple things like peas, beans, lettuce and spring onions in the raised bed and I'm interested in how to do things like purple sprouting broccoli as I have no idea.

Afternoon!
just a quick trip down to the plot, before the rain is due.
Checked on size of net for brassica cage, yep its fine.
Picked 3 caulis.......
and.......the first asparagus , just 2 Stewarts Purple and the rest green Gijnlim
guess what is for tea?
ethelb - you were asking about autumn raspberries, so took a couple of photos to show what is happening to mine , no canes shot up, just a general growth from the ground

Evening!
cathpot - that garden sounds wonderful, it sounds like a secret garden, just waiting for you to find things :) trying to figure out what you can do June time - I think, at a pinch you could get away with sowing some purple sprouting, and some late french beans - the other option is to see if anyone has any plug plants left when you get home. I nearly always have more than I need, and tend to offer them around on my local fb gardening page

Cathpot - I agree about plugplants, garden centres round here seem to have them well into the summer. Our local Lidl had some lovely healthy looking tomato and pepper plants today. Your garden sounds fascinating!

Cupcakes - yes to slugs, they are everywhere. Think I am going to invest in some nematodes in the next couple of weeks before planting everything out.

Book - yum, asparagus!

I spent a happy half hour in the greenhouse this evening potting on lots of things (cucumbers, butternut squash, courgettes, sunflowers). My tomatoes are nowhere near setting flowers but they already look sturdier since repotting a week or so back. I also spent half an hour out there this morning before work with a cup of tea and the Radio Times

Shove - we had fairly heavy rain here today, first time in 2 or 3 weeks. It has been intensely humid for a few days with lots of black clouds but no thunderstorms to clear the air.

cath - are you back for good this summer? It sounds like the start of an amazing garden!

book - your asparagus is magnificent! I am very jealous. Mine are all through (after last year's disaster), but I can't pick because they are too young.

It is absolutely soaking here and there has been a slugplosion.

I'm back for at least 2 years- it all depends on DHs next job but I've said I'm staying put for 2 years as our girls need some stability for school. We haven't got the money to do the major things on the house at the moment so I tend to throw myself at the garden instead. I'm slightly nervous about slug talk. Raised bed is like slug temple and I had a killing frenzy at Easter and then nematoded it but it may not be enough. I threw in lettuce seeds and spring onions and (possibly foolishly) raspberries plants and then left again. I like the idea that there might still be time to find some plug plants from late June. What crops can I plant that will go on into the Autumn? We are south west of uk so usually mild.

Ooh cathpot, I'm sw UK too! If you're near me I'll save you some plants!

Slugs. I got some nematodes to get rid of my invasion and I'm not sure they're doing anything. It doesn't help that it has been sunny and windy here for days so the ground is drying out very quickly and I have to water pretty much every day. Think I'll have to invest in some slug pellets but I'm a bit nervous about using them with the cats and children around.

Speaking of cats: one of DH's cats has taken a liking to my little nasturtium seedlings and has been nibbling on the leaves. He's worse than the slugs.

Some of the potatoes I planted with crossed fingers are starting to grow above the ground now, so that's exciting, and all seeds except my courgettes are finally sprouting. I've loads of courgette seeds left so if they don't grow soon I can sow some more.

Are potatoes tricky? (Waves at cupcakes- there is a thread at the moment about people moving back to the uk and being disappointed- I thought clearly they don't live by the sea or like gardening).

cath - you can definitely do overwintering stuff: caulis, cabbages, broad beans, peas, chard, kale.

Also, your fast growers should be fine: pak choi, kohl rabi, turnips, radishes, salad leaves. A courgette plant got in at a decent size in June might well produce til late October in the SW!

Thanks shove that's very pleasing- I've taken a screen shot so I remember options. I've not used the raised bed over the Autumn / early winter before. I throw horse poo in it once a year- if I use it more will I need to feed it again?

I horse poo/compost mine for each crop, so if I'm packing in two a year I do it twice. But I try * to use different quantities according to where each bed is in my rotation. So if you imagine this rotates like this: roots > brassicas > legumes -->heavy feeders, I do:

1. roots - just a bit of compost
2. brassicas - a bit of horse manure plus lime
3. legumes - raw kitchen waste, bit of compost and manure
4. courgettes and other heavy feeders - LOADS of manure!

I am not sure if this is right (would welcome comments/suggestions from seasoned gardeners) but has worked OK the last few years!

• I say try because I have been known to prep everything up really carefully... and then forget which bed is which. Last year, I had to go digging to find the raw kitchen waste so I could work out where I was supposed to put the beans. It's not often you see a grown woman shrieking 'ROTTING CARROT PEELINGS, HOORAY!' at the top of her voice.

You won't need manure for any beds where you grow green manure over the winter, which is a really good thing to do with bare earth.

Afternoon!
cath - raspberries should be fine! And as you are in the SW, anything that is pick and come again should be fine , and dont forget you can sow peas/ beetroot/carrots almost every 3 weeks up to the frost, (if you get any any :) ) also as shove says caulis and cabbages have varieties for through the year, you could get away with most of them. You could even grow new potatoes for Christmas down there I bet - any new potato, if you can get hold of the seed potato- but the one most people recommend is Carlingford. Just a couple in a bucket or big compost bag, along with generous watering/feeding.
I manure after every crop just about - its only a thin layer of soil up here,. I just leave a small patch unmanured for parsnips, beetroot and carrots. And I don't lime ( see pics of raspberries - thats chalk and flint stones you see!). If I run out of manure, I sow green manure. I can't say I have noticed a problem manuring when I shouldn't- I apply as a mulch after crops are finished, dug out, weeded. Then left on top, just to turn in when replanting. And I add extra for squashes/courgettes .
Just make sure its well rotted if you are not leaving much time between crops.
Grouchy - potatoes up? - be ready to pop a bit of protection over them this weekend. The young shoots do not like frost. Fleece, newspaper, black plastic.....No plot today, but have planted up some hanging baskets, to get them going before they are due to go on display (though it looks like a trip into the greenhouse this weekend for them !)

Blimey, this thread has moved quickly! It must be a busy time of year!

Well, we had a lovely few days of good and hot weather, and I have have been duly punished for moaning about the heat, as it is now back to the standard rain and grey. But the sunlight did appear to give my tomatoes a bit of a boost, and as such my blowaway greenhouse is now up and some tomatoes have been evicted there.

Also up are some squash and courgette, my runner and borlotti beans, and even some more broadies, the latter of which must have been sown well over a month ago. And loads of peas too - I think I may have over-sown them, so perhaps I'll just savage some of them for pea shoots.

And I have pods forming on my home broadies too - currently as big as my index fingers! But my hands are small, so small in fact that I wear kids' gardening gloves, as the 'ladies' gloves are too big.

Talking of kids, and of slugs, I've mentioned it before on here but my DS likes to help by chopping up slugs. He uses 'his chopper' which thankfully is actually a small but oddly sharp junior hand fork. He loves going on slug patrol with me. I also have a patented method of lobbing them over the garden fence, either into the trees behind, or over/through into parkland. And of course, we befriend frogs and (hedge)hogs.

My spuds are in pots and bags, and they are well up (earlies), so I shall pay attention to ensuring all foliage is buried, if we have chilly nights again.

V jealous of the asparagus! one day I shall have plenty of room, room enough for asparagus... and an orchard

Zebra - sounds like you're firing on all cylinders!! There is a woman called in the 'indigo tomato thread who could use your legendary tomato expertise!!

Sorry, that was supposed to say firing on all cylinders with seedlings. You're always firing on all cylinders in other ways!!

Slugs is where the grand plan of covering unusec ground in cardboard/black membrane goes wrong, it provides a perfect home for them and stops nematodes from reaching them either.