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....

depends on the weeds quince - annual , seeded weeds as long as they dont have ripe seed heads, put in the dalek. Perennial nasties - couch, bindweed, dandelions, thistles you can drown in a bucket, cover and leave for 2-4 weeks, then use the juice for feeding.

Thank you! Very cheering on the broccoli front - I've had a job interview and an exam in the last 24hrs and I've had to think very seriously about gardening just to get to sleep. This thread is currently my happy place.

They have actually got a whole range of veg plug plants for staggered dispatch, so may be worth a look .
Scary stuff, exams and job interviews :)

Hi new to this post and allotments. After several weeks my over grown allotment is finally ready!! I am not going to plant all of it this year as don't want to be overwhelmed so have sheeting to cover some of it over. I want to plant strawberrys today. I am going to get a couple of varieties. Do I need plug plants now or will seeds work? Any other top tips for planting!?

Just had a proper look at website and they do all sorts, which is great. How much space will I need for broccoli- do they get really big? Also I fancy trying leeks- do they need lots of space? I have about 3 square metres

Hello Sunny and welcome! I'd bung in some plants now, you'll be able to buy some in flower probably and have fruit in no time. Although there is advice that you don't let your strawbs fruit the first year, to encourage them to establish well. But I ignore all that type of thing, for I am impatient and greedy.

So , despite covering them, and using the ferric phosphate slug pellets, my squash/courgette plants are still getting hammered by slugs. It's disheartening, isn't it.

Just popped over to plot where I picked a bin bag full of about-to-bolt chard and perpetual spinach. And there is still that much again! It went crazy with the heat and then rain. So will make a spanakopita today, and blanch and green some more. And my new chard and perpetual spinach really needs to be planted out, as it outgrew its tray weeks ago.

I like planting out, but it's still too early for most things . I do have lots of pollinator-attracting flowers to put out, so maybe I can do that this weekend? I also really need to erect my el cheapo arches, it'd be good to do that whilst the clay is still claggy so it can seem to concrete and hold fast the arch.

My sprouting broccoli are about 2ft in diameter each (mature ones from last year that is).

this morning - I have had a warning letter from the council about the state of my plot. I haven't been up there as much as usual because I have an exam looming but I have done a lot of tidying this year and about a third of it is obviously planted up. I think it was probably because I have got quite a lot of grass and weeds in awkward to get at places (my predecessor put in a pallet enclosure and raised bed close together but not adjoining and not right up to the edges of the plot, leaving lots of awkward inaccessible strips of land). I did take the strimmer up there yesterday and gave it a thorough going over but the inspection was last week. Not happy.

dh has started to interfere gardening. he has some plants (tomatos, herbs, strawberries) in pots on the patio.
he is a right know it all questioning everything I do.

he asks why you remove all foliage from the strawberries after fruiting?
I do it because monty told me to :)

Evening!
Welcome Sunnyshine :) - strawberry plants for this year and next year fruiting - seed for fruiting in 2-3 years . And once you have some, the runners will provide all the new plants you will need for years to come!
cathpot - leeks I plant about 9" apart- you can go down to 6" if you want to pick them smaller though. Sprouting broccoli need to be planted about 18" -20" apart. I plant mine in an offset fashion so they don't take up quite as much space. Doreen has a lovely diagram to show what I mean. They are in the ground a long time, but to me worth it for the fresh vegetables at a tricky time of year .
oh Spotted - they are chomping merrily away - my squashes and courgettes are still indoors- I am still awaiting some to germinate, stubborn things....
I have flicked off and squashed so many hiding underneath pots in the last few days. I do a patrol before I water, and there is at least 1 slug hiding on every pot. Its rather tedious.
I think that the coldest night is tonight ( Saturday), so I am guessing that if you plant tomorrow, they will be fine. Mine are all hardened off, so have to get planting the sweet peas and such. Even the sunflowers seem to have survived so far outside. Tomorrow morning will show if I they are okay.
WhoKnows - thats a kick in the teeth :( . Do you have a contact email/address? On our site, people go 'on watch' and are contacted, but usually so any problems can be sorted out. I'm sure you can explain what has been happening. (Some of our plots got allocated in January, without a spade or fork being used yet. They get 3 warnings before anything happens.) Fingers crossed for you .
GreenMarker - oh dear - my DH is pretty good, leaves me to sort most of the growing stuff . He does all the pruning as he is much better ( tougher) than me, and also does all the building/erecting of structures etc. He can do the rest, sort of, but he knows I prefer him not to interfere help

Evening!

Welcome Sunny - I hope your NN brings us lots and lots of sun! Roughly where are you? What you plan and when will be influence a bit by that. I'm in the cushy SW, so I can get away with all sorts (good job too - most of my gardening is mostly luck!)

WhoKnows that's rubbish. My veggie patch looks completely unloved at the moment - it's empty aside from the potatoes - but that's because it's been so cold everything's sheltering in the greenhouse. Surely they must realise things are behind this year?

Cath I always think leeks are great value for "space", if that makes sense! Sprouting is great but as others say takes up a lot of space.

Green that would make me . DH has learned the hard way not to interfere and to just do as he is told in the garden.

Right, I've just snatched an hour outside to do a bit more digging and have come in with a bucket full of potatoes that got left in last year! Is there any reason why I can't use them? They look like regular potatoes, not wrinkled up or anything. I only found them because they'd sprouted!

Took DS to the garden centre today for their annual Strawberry Event and he was very chuffed to be given his very own strawberry plant. He agonised over pot choices for some time (you understand, right Cath?) and still hasn't decided what to use. .

I mid south. Managed to get a fair bit in and started. Hoping that at least something grows this year and I can learn from it. Am willing to try planting anything. Have met some lovely people up there too who have helped me get it ready and today when saw I was planting bought me all sorts of things over to plant I think I have found my happy place

Thats great Sunny - why not plant, find what you like to eat, and go for it. We only learn by making mistakes, and trying. Its absolutely the right time to do it as well. Allotment people are nice - at my site, we all share spare plants, and bumper harvests :)

I can email the town council and give my excuses! Otherwise it's two strikes and they start eviction, but I'm not letting that happen. I'm pretty pissed off to be honest. I saw my friend tonight, she has had the plot two along from me for about 10 years and couldn't believe I'd got a letter. Neither could my plot neighbour who was up there this afternoon when I went up there. Anyway, I created a black membrane foot path the length of the plot (over grass) which looks a lot better than the milk bottles weighing down cardboard that were there previously. And I am going to get the shears out and trim the long grass round the raspberry canes tomorrow.

Good luck whoknows, a letter sounds harsh given the time of year and that you are working the plot.

Thanks for the weed advice, book - mainly grass, dock, thistles and ...er...some other stuff! I will drown the weeds and love the recycling of the water back onto the soil. I can then put the drowned weeds in the Dalek?

Can't wait to get out into garden tomorrow. Dcs are germinating yellow, purple and green French beans on their windowsills on damp paper towel. They are at least 15 cm tall so will brave putting them in raised bed tomorrow.

Toms, chillies, aubergines all potted on in greenhouse, and nice and moist. They just seem to be growing so slowly though! Most still on first pair true leaves with a second pair peeping through. Is that normal still after all the sunshine? I have fed them with a little diluted multi-purpose feed as was worried prolonged germination in seed compost had left them short of nutrients. I am clearly just making this up as I go along, though!

Warning quince - french beans if they have been grown on a windowsill ( so inside) need hardening off. Pot them up first- they need compost. But then pop them outside for the day, and into greenhouse or house on a night, just for about 7 days. Otherwise they will stress out .
Dry out the drowned weeds - spread them out in the sun, and then in the dalek

Will aim for leeks- the raised bed is wrapped round the area where we sit so probably nicer to look at than 4 broccolis as then I can fit other things in as well. Feel like a sweet pea bonanza this year, Weather here is high 40s today and coupled with a dusty wind like a hairdryer my tomatoes look like some sort of post apocalyptic scene. There is some sort of scale insect on one of them which must be hardiest pest ever. Time to call it a day , clean out and sell the pots I have here and think of ways to squirrel that money away for pots at home....

I have leeks in a balcony box. they don't grow huge, but I'm more after the green anyway.

Thanks book, that seems obvious now... Will pot up the beans this eve. Wow, I will have plenty of Dalek-filling weeds to come. I will feed some to the chickens too. They are loving being moved round each week to a new massively overgrown area! Ds is fascinated by the emerging beans so has another pot on his windowsill today. Any tips for borlotti beans? They just went mouldy on paper towel or did nothing. I tried soaking them first as they are bigger but no joy. Maybe just try sow in compost as usual.

Right -chard and perpetual spinach have been planted out (badly), and they are now nesting under big plastic, or individual plastic bottle, cloches. I planted loads out, and I have lots left over, so I may pop some into the borders at home. Or pot them up in trays for baby leaves. And I also planted out more limnanthes. Next to go out will be my first courgettes I think. I have spares, so if they die, I'm alright.

People have planted bean plants out already! That seems wildly optimistic, but it is mid may. My first lot of beans (Cosse Violette purple french), will soon be ready for planting out so maybe that can be done this week?

quince I grew borlotti last year, I had no germination problems. However I'm also trying to grow them this year, and I've had 1 up of 9 I think. My borlotti and broad beans are all wrong this year, and I have no idea why! Are you growing the to eat fresh incl pods, or just the bean, or the dry bean? I did all last year but hated throwing so much pod away, so I'm not sure if I'll bother to dry them again.

Oh no, WhoKnows - I dead that happening to me. I hope you get it sorted soon.

It's amazing what a difference edging the grass makes, isn't it? I'm bordered on both sides by crazily tidy people, and I'm more - erm, freeform. They had both mowed, AGAIN today, and I tidied my edges with a serrated knife, and suddenly my plot was transformed.

It's the other way round here, I have an abandoned plot on one side of me (new person took over last week thank goodness) and on the long side a well meaning but completely inept gardening family who make very little effort and yet miraculously hang onto theirs, I've been keeping their edges and paths clear as well as my own and had edged properly with a tool two sides of mine in the last month so although my plot isn't terribly tidy I do feel hard done by.

Anyway, I had a chat with the site rep today, she said just phone up the council and tell them you're still working on it and it should be fine, they are really after the people who have given up or really aren't bothering like my neighbours.

waves hello

can I join?? I'm a bit of a haphazard gardener, but I love it. we had a crazy wild garden with weeds everywhere till a couple of years ago, when we got professionals in to literally rip everything out and start again

we're in a new build estate with tons of rubble under the soil, so I've got 4 raised beds, one for fruit (apple tree, gooseberries, blueberries and strawberries) one for veg, a big main flower bed which currently has lots of tulips in it and one I'm still not sure what to do with, although I have ideas...

have only just planted my veggies in the last couple of days, due to a combination of crazy work schedule and crazy weather (snow in April )
have planted up seedling onions, lettuce, carrots and leeks and also some carrot and lettuce seeds. was too late to buy seed potatoes but when I was planting yesterday I found some old tatties in the cupboard that were sprouting, so on the basis of nothing ventured nothing gained I shoved them in too...

hoping to do ok with them, last year my potatoes grew but no other veggies, we got apples from the tree and loads of gooseberries , but lack of sun meant blueberries were slow to ripen and the few that did were eaten by pesky birds!!

anyways, sorry for long post....I was excited to find this thread and wanted to say hello

off to water now, as DD finally fallen asleep

Evening!
cathpot - 40º - wow, don't think I could cope with that .....
I sowed all my beans at the same time , 2 weeks ago - cosse violette (purple french)- all but one germinated - cobra ( green french) - so far 9 out of 16, borlotti - all but 1 germinated , runner beans (white lady)- 10 out of 18. so far...All last years seeds , all sown in little pots in multi compost. Most germinated in 7 days. A couple of the runner beans have come up 'blind' though, so may pop a few more into pots. I would rather have a few too many, than not enough.
sounds like you will be fine WhoKnows fingers crossed. Maybe they just have to show they are doing something.....
Well, I also did a bit of edging - not enough, just down one side - it must have been edging day.
I sowed a row of peas -my favourite 'Hurst Green Shaft"
forked and weeded ready to plant out summer cabbages this week.
worked out where all the cane wigwams are going.
Picked 3 cauliflowers - gave 2 away .......
My direct sown swede have germinated, through neglect! I noticed when I went to water them. It has been so dry. No sign of the direct sown beetroot and carrots yet. But I have plug beetroot nearly ready to plant out ( and some baby spinach too)
The strawberries are in full flower too, and I have little gooseberries, so fruit is on the way :)
Spotted - I have been given the offer of cucamelon plants! - I off course said yes, foolish person that I am

I am so slow typing ...
Welcome ClosedAura - how big are the beds? and are you north, south , east or west? ( just nosey! :) )