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....

hi book! I'm in Scotland, roughly halfway between Edinburgh and Glasgow, hence the rubbish weather!

fruit bed is quite long and narrow, maybe 2ft by 9/10 ft, veggie one is about 4 ft by 8ft, main flower bed is about 6ft by 12 ft and the one that's is full of weeds is the smallest, about 1.5ft by 6ft....I'm on the look out for a dog rose to put in it, and maybe a nice peony....but climbers are good as estate is on a hill and we're towards the bottom, so they help cover up to wooden banking. I've also started putting some rockery plants between the stones on the banking, with mixed success, and last year mother mater gave me a wee cluster of wild poppies in it, and I would be soooo happy if they grew back

anyways, I'm a novice, all be it an enthusiastic one, so looking forward to any tips I can get here

oops, meant to say Mother Nature gave me the wild poppies.

here's a wee pic of my veggie bed

Ooh, talking of poppies, some oriental poppies in my garden, that have been there happily for years, have suddenly been shredded. Overnight, right back to the ribs of the leaves and beyond. Yet other poppy clumps are fine. What would do that - slugs? Pigeons ? It's so odd!

booky can you believe... I'm not doing cucamelons this year Well, thus far, anyway. Maybe I'll panic sow later on? I don't have the room, and I want to do more other cucurbity things.

Wow, that bed is impressive! So big and so tidy!

may well be slugs - I had two beautiful big lupins planted out last year and after being fine, went down to a stump of a stalk overnight, nothing else touched in the bed at all.
Its a lovely bed there ClosedAura - maybe just be careful to not overcrowd , as that may be why the potatoes did well last year, and not much else - they are greedy!

something is digging at my courgette plant.
it's in a cage already. but whatever it is it's very eager to get at it.
diggers in my area are squirrels (hottest suspect), foxes and cats (worse shitter and digger has moved though).

I have more huge holes in my garden! Three of them, at least a foot long and about 25 cm deep. I have bought a trailcam to try to see what it is that's doing it. I think it might be badgers as I found a footprint that looked quite wide. Foxes also a possibility. However, I have those at the allotment and they make neater holes searching for earthworms and other grubs I think. These are huge, shallow things!

Zebra - sorry about your poppy! It should come back, but if it doesn't, Gardeners' World offer this month is delphiniums and oriental poppies. Plus that 2-for-1 garden entry card.

Sorry all I forgot to come back and thank you for the pot suggestions - now have courgettes and squashes in a dazzling array of buckets, grow bags and tesco delivery crates (don't tell tescos).......also dfil has spotted my emerging garden and donated some scruffy but serviceable large pots - hurrah!

And just to add in case of local veg swaps etc I'm in Dorset

Could I ask some advice about leeks please? I have never grown them before, but have about 30 happily germinated and growing in cells in my greenhouse. They are about 2" high at the moment, just a thread like needle. How big do I want to get them before planting out? They look very tiny and vulnerable at the moment.

Reporting back on my tomatoes (they were yellow and weedy looking a couple of weeks ago so I repotted them) - they are so much stronger and healthier looking now. I haven't fed them, but they obviously needed the extra space and compost nutrients.

Fraggle - I get the impression that aren't many of us on the thread in the South of England, I'm in Hampshire but a very long way from the border with Dorset (Surrey borders).

I'd like to know that about leeks too! Last time I tried them, I planted them out too early and they struggled.

I think everyone knows I'm in Sheffield . I've wondered sometimes about making a private Facebook group for regulars of the thread, but appreciate that some people might want to stay incognito. Happy to set one up if there's demand, tho!

People always talk about pencil thickness with leeks, don't they? So that's what I did. A skinny pencil, mind.

I'm north Bucks, by the way. On heavy clay. Have I mentioned my clay?

Shove I'm on a magazine-buying ban, as I used to spend waaaaaay too much on All The Mags! I have quite a few other poppy clumps, and loads of saved seeds, so I should be alright, but thanks anyway. It's just so very very odd! Why that clump, and why now? It's like when pigeons swoop down and strip brassicas, but it's a big poppy clump.

Odd about your garden holes too. Are there claw marks? That's one great thing about clay - it really retains a claw mark!

I managed to get some time in the garden over the weekend. So the 2 broad bean plants that grew, are now in the bed, as well as a handful of lettuce seedlings. And the courgette plant I bought. The peas are finally making some height (about 15" only), so I will sow another row next weekend. I potted on the climbing tomato plants (2 Gardener's Delight) and the pot Roma as well. I bought my 3 Tumbler plants but need to get out the hanging basket for them yet. More broad bean seeds sown in the bed and a container (2 types), more dwarf French beans sown, lettuce, beetroot and spring onions. And 2 short rows of radishes in a seed tray (I've decided to sow 2 short rows per week, aiming to have enough to harvest each week for work lunch salads in a few weeks time).

Hopefully there will be something to eat at the end of all this.

I usually plant out leeks when they are about the width of the lead in a pencil - I oversow in the pots and there are roots coming out of the bottom to tease apart when I do it this way, but they are big enough to handle and work out fine.

Evening!
ooh , leeks my favourite.....
I sow mine fairly thinly in a deepish pot - I stagger the sowings, and have 2 varieties - an early and an overwinter one ( Blue Solaise is my absolute favourite) so I have a succession to plant and harvest.( 6 pots so far) I don't go on the thickness thing, but on height. I plant mine in a hole made by my trusty dibber- hole about 5-6 " deep. I decide when the leeks are long enough to pop in the hole, and leave at least an inch or more poking out the top. I dib a hole. pop a seedling in, then fill the hole gently with water, then leave them be.
I tend to think everyone on here is a long way from me! - East Yorkshire, about 15 mile east of York, right on the edge of the Yorkshire Wolds - so not a deep layer of soil, lots of chalk and flint stones, free draining, with a hard underneath of gravel/stones/rubble stuff . Though its getting better with every year with the 6" of mulch I have put on each autumn.
shove - that sounds fascinating and infuriating in equal measures - badgers eh?
The diggers and nibblers at our site are rabbits - the did for a heck of a lot of my brassicas a couple of years back , and mice for digging up peas and beans.

You are the Lady of the Leek book! It's like King Arthur, but instead of a sword coming out of the lake, you get a lovely big leek to cook! think you must make up for that soil in the beauty of your surroundings - the wolds are so lovely!

I managed to set my new trailcam up wrong last night, so instead of capturing whatever was digging the holes, all I got was extensive footage of my cat doing a poo!

The holes weren't all your cat, we're they? Imagine that?

Right, I bit the bullet yesterday and have started hardening off with intent. Out on a sheltered table stayed 2 lots of beans, courgettes, sweetcorn possibly (can't quite remember). The last, inthink, of my many batches of broad beans. And a tomato. It's happening, people.

At my plot, others have started planting out beans already. It fells early, but we're more than halfway through May.

Morning!
well, its lovely and sunny here today, so as Spotted is doing, the hardening off of beans and sweetcorn begins....:) - though I guess I worry too much - the sunflowers have been out for nearly 2 weeks, overnight as well.
and off to the plot with DH to wrestle a frankly enormous (10m x8m ) net over the polytunnel frame for my brassica cage...wish me luck!

I worry too much too, booky - and I grow things 'too soft' I suspect.
In fact one of my gardening resolutions of a past thread was to toughen up a bit. So I am trying!

Of course the major of my tomatoes are a different story, and ashamed ly, most of them are still inside tomatoes, and I cast out a couple a day as room becomes an issue. I've not counted them up yet, but I have way way too many, and the couple of plot pals I've seen, don't need any.

It's hard to toughen up, isn't it? I still have a shivery cold moment when I have to thin things.

For James Wong fans, Secret Gardening club currently have day lilies 3 for under £4. Apparently you can eat the flower buds!

Evening!
well, we've done what we need to on the brassica net, and are still speaking. It's pinned down not too tight, ready to finish to the proper tension in a couple of days time. New nets are horrid - when you try to put them on , its like pinning jelly to a wall!
It took a bit longer than I thought, but DH then cut the grass , while I planted out my summer cabbages. They are nicely tucked up under enviromesh now :)
And I notice the weather is going to be changeable from tomorrow -hah!

From tomorrow?? It's hammering it down here already!

Good work on the net. I've planted out 8 blackcurrant plants-from-cuttings at my mum's today. I had to promise to look after them.

Shove are you ok with lilies with the cat? I avoid all of them. Am I being over protection?

Protective

Whats rain? - haven't seen any for oooh about 3 weeks
I have loads of day lilies - and lots of the neighbourhood cats.

we had a good soaking rain last week, but other than that it has been nice since then.

anyone know about lawns? I re-seeded some area just before easter (fox damage) and wonder if I can start mowing again?