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....

(Please note - I can form a proper sentence, but my autocorrect tries to thwart me.)

Glad you like my hashtag Zebra - I’ve only just learned what they’re for so I’m quite excited!

Thank you everybody for the Apple Tree advice – lots for me to think about. I think I might scope out a few online options and then see if I can find a few smaller nurseries locally and see what I can find. I’m tempted by Lidl but my Mum bought a load of their fruit trees a couple of years ago. More than half have died and none of the others have turned out to be the varieties on the labels! That might have been a local store issue rather than a wider one, but since we have the same local store I think I shall avoid for now. We do have a morrisons nearby so I’ll have a look there, too. Loving the idea of grafting my own tree!!

So sad to see so many garden centres going. Ours used to be packed full of every plant imaginable, with lots of knowledgable staff, an aquatic centre and even a garden design centre where you could take photos of your garden and they would help you plan what to do. Now the aquatic centre is a pet shop and the design centre is a swish restaurant (no children allowed). They’ve built an “antiques centre” and added a gift shop and toy shop. The only good thing is they have kept the lovely children’s garden club and have lots of activities at the weekend. They give out plants and seeds for them.

I also meant to ask – what are people’s rhubarbs doing? Mine aren’t through at all yet and I’m beginning to worry a bit.

Well, just got back in for a quick dip, and the fonts all changed. I am getting old, and can't cope!
Cupcakes - rhubarb thug has been out a while - seriously thinking of picking some, one is nicely out of bud into small leaf, one just budding, one no show so far. Time yet I think, do you know if it's an early or late variety?

cupcakes - about those Lidl trees - that's really bad! I do understand that a proportion of trees die, but that's a really big slice of them. Plus, the varieties thing is just appalling.

2 of my three 'barb crowns are up. One is getting going, the other is only just up. The late variety is nowhere to be seen.

I might have misheard, but I think Monty Don said he'd been picking rhubarb since November on the telly last week. His must be very sheltered I think!! Or maybe he's heard about Zebra's Year of Fruit and trying to steal her thunder.

I've no idea what variety is they were here when we bought the house, however I've just dug out my spreadsheet and it looks like they appeared on 26th March last year, so I can stop panicking. Really should have checked the spreadsheet sooner!

Monty had lettuce all winter too, I think. at Monty stealing the Year Of Fruit though!

Had today off and headed to the allotment. Arrived at 10 and didn't leave until 3.40, I honestly didn't notice the time as it is so lovely today in London. I had forgotten how nice it was to be at the allotment in the sunshine!

I sowed sunflowers, marigold (african and french) calabrese and spinach in the communal greenhouse and early tomato varieties for the windowsill (for outside as I don't have a greenhouse). I have also had some pretty terrible germination with my chillis (sitting on the radiator!) so I am soaking some seed now to sow tomorrow .... and return to the radiator, and hoping they grow in time.

I also reclaimed about 1m of bed from the path which the grass had taken over and sowed silverskin onions direct, and stuck in the rest of my Stuttgart onion sets, 60 of them, so hopefully it should be quite productive. I have put in onions so I am FORCED to weed that bed!

Despite managing to weed part of that bed I still need to go back and do some tomorrow morning I think, before it all takes over. The rest of my overwintering onions and garlic are coming on really well (despite some onion splitting!) so I am pleased with that. My Bedfordshire onion seed has had a serious case of dampening off so I think I'm going to have to chuck and just rely on the millions of sets I planted. Something has been munching my overwintering shallot leaves, any idea what?

Despite being down there for so long I didn't manage to mulch a bed with compost, which I needed to do in order to direct sow radish, spinach, beetroot and spring onion which annoyed me. But maybe for the best due to how cool the weather has been, has anyone down south done any direct sowing yet?

Nematodes also arrived today so will have to head down to get that done.

I need to get it done so that I can plant potatoes and the rest of the tomato seed (a significant undertaking for me) over the Easter weekend, when I am going away.

Despite weeks of being desparate to get out there it seems to be suddenly getting very busy, anyone feeling the same?

Grouchykiwi I also picked up some golden raspberries at Wilkos for 2.50 today and stuck them in. Last chance saloon. However, the rest of my autumn raspberries haven't come up yet so should be ok.

Ethel - I got one of my volunteers to sow French, Pot and African Marigolds today too - plus sunflowers and a few others. Must have been the nice day we had.

I am still trying to trawl through all the plants they have been propagating to get as many out for sale for Easter.

Tomorrow of course it is the traditional day for planting potatoes; so on Friday I will get the gang to get on and put some spuds in. Just to get rid of them as I need the space for new stuff.

Evening!
ethelb - its so easy to 'loose' time at the plot isn't it, it's such a joyous time.
though with me ( a lot older than you I bet) I would be struggling to get up now !
and right - if Doreen says its sunflower sowing time, then I had better get on with it. Though my potatoes are going to have to wait a bit yet , I'm not ready with them yet .
I did get the area dug over where the artichokes had been, ready to plant up now, but that was just an hour this afternoon - bit of a cool breeze today mind.

bookbook the wind today was awful! The reason I didn't get the area I wanted to mulched was I wanted to put a layer of newspaper down but it blew everywhere about a millisecond after I took it out of the shed. That and it was getting on for 4pm and I was shattered!
Doreen where abouts are you? I planted potatoes on 17th last year and thought it was a bit early (most people on the plot planted them later, no one has planned them yet). But if you say so...
Plus, what is the difference between a pot and a French marigold? My packet says French pot marigolds, I thought they were the same thing? Apparently not.
I might choke and plant some more tomatoes tomorrow as that GrowVeg thing says I should get them in....
Maybe just the black tomatoes (take an AGE to germinate) and cherries then

ethelb - my tomatoes go in the greenhouse, as I am in Yorkshire, but I sowed them last Wednesday, on my kitchen windowsill, and all are through - including some Black Crimean ones ( I pop a plastic bag over the pot as a mini greenhouse until they germinate) The peppers aren't through though, but I have an aubergine ready to spring out.
My potatoes up here don't need to go in for another month nearly. Good job, as I still have kale,sprouting broccoli and savoys in that patch!

Well, pottering in my kitchen, I was listening to Sundays GQT - there was an interesting tip on growing tomatoes- (something I sort of do by accident, sort of) and that is to water them with warm water,- it makes them grow more quickly. - I d0 it by watering , then filling the cans straight away ready for the next time. and leaving in the greenhouse

Snap Book - I heard that too , and I also refill my can and leave it to warm. I do the same for my houseplants, they are supposed to prefer room temperature water to that straight out of the tap.

Re fruit trees: I recommend Brogdale: You choose your tree and either fit it into the car or they deliver

and also Blackmoor
www.blackmoor.co.uk/

my lidl trees haven't died but they haven't fruited yet either

re what sort of apple, I think it is nice to choose a variety which has come from local types grown in the past. Also you can choose one that fruits early or late, and it is nice to choose a variety that you cant get easily in the shops

Adams Pearmain is good, for example, or Beauty of Bath. Monty said last year on GW that his Arthur Turner cooking apple always fruits early.

Then there are apple trees for small gardens.......or ones with three different varieties on the same rootstock, therefore three different types of blossom....

ethel - nematodes! I knew there was something I'd forgotten to buy! Thanks for the reminder, and glad you had a wonderful time at your plot.

I have really bad experiences with Blackmoor nurseries funny - they are the dastardly people who sold me duff asparagus crowns! I guess I'm judging by a sample of one, though, so not exactly a balanced survey

What low temperature can tomatoes tolerate? I'm currently ferrying my seedlings down to the greenhouse every morning and then back up to the house every night. Low in the greenhouse last night was 3 degrees. Should I start leaving them out, or is it safest to keep bringing them in for a bit longer?

I ask because I've made my usual mistake of booking a week off and away in March. When will I learn that this is the worst time possible to go away??!! I either need to leave the toms indoors the whole time, or in the greenhouse. (I am an idiot!! )

Morning!
Not sure on temperatures shove, but I have just looked at the longer term weather forecast ( www.netweather.tv/index.cgi?action=monthly;sess= ) - not that any of them have a clue! and its looking a bit...... I think if it were me , I would pop them back into the house somewhere bright .
Going away somewhere lovely is never a mistake , and it doesn't matter when you go, its never the right time for gardening :).

When the rain finally stopped in the middle of last week, I spent some time doing the annual chop-down-the-over-hanging-from-next-door-where-nobody-lives-kiwi-triffids. If I don’t keep on top of it, tendrils sneakily make contact with terra firma on my side and rapidly take root.

Last Friday I finally sowed my broad beans and some peas (Dorian). The broad beans are now year out of date, but my fingers were crossed so that means they’ll be fine . The peas were even more out of date so I completely over sowed them in order to use up the packet. I’ll give them max 4 weeks to demonstrate their potency.

book - I googled trugs and indeed along with an image of what I would previously have had in mind when hearing that word, were images of capazos.

I think I have far too may onions this year, I won’t bore with the details, but I still have more to plant, and also have shallots to put in.

My Timperly Early rhubarb has been through for weeks and is looking happy. I also have seven tiny Victoria rhubarb seedlings, sown last Aug. There might actually be two more - patiently waiting to see. Curiously, the idea of eating rhubarb is fairly novel here - they’re more usually used for flower arranging.

And cupcakes you keep notes on a spreadsheet - I have everything on a database and do my crop rotations on a spreadsheet. (And according to my database, those rhubarb seeds were sown on 27/8)

On the subject of apple trees #YearofFruit I planted three early last year. Rogelia - theoretically first to fruit in Jul/Aug then Royal Gala fruiting in Sep and Granny Smith in Oct. Granny Smiths are apparently not to be eaten straight from the tree, but rather stored for eating later by which time they have improved.

Well, it’s been dry and very pleasant for a week or so, but back to rain tomorrow. Sun will return on Monday.

PS Rogelia (also spelled Roxelia locally) are from this neck of the woods and can be used to make cider 🍎

at Monty and #YearofFruit . He can be our spokesmodel. I've not picked rhubarb, but I probably could. It never really went dormant - perhaps for a fortnight, other than that, it's been fine although occasionally dies back a bit if it gets frosted. But I have been focusing on eating the rhubarb that I'd frozen. I'm nearly there...

On the subject of #YoF, I thought I'd tidy over my strawbs which are l now in containers at home. Most were fine and just needed dead leaves picking off, but one container the roots were a bit loose and the plants seems a bit dying. Had a furtle, and it was teeming with vine weevil larvae. Ick. So its now an ex-container. I am wondering if that's the reason be why 2 of my blueberries have died. I think they're definitely dead now: I've given up all hope that they'll stage a Lazarus-style resurrection. Gloves back on tomorrow for an excavation.

In tomato news, they're all germinating, apart from... Black Krim. . Shove I suddenly have the fear that I've 'sold you a lemon', and that it will be a rubbish tomato, that 2015 was but a fluke.

The cherry tree in our garden came from Blackmoor, it is local to us and people here do speak very highly of them as a tree nursery. However they had a shocking industrial accident a few years ago which has made me feel a bit reluctant to support them. Hmm.

Noooooooo, I refuse to let that suspendered, smock-wearing, ladedah poetic type be spokesperson for Year of Fruit. That is most definitely your role, Zebra and I am willing to fight him off with a pitchfork especially if he starts going on about the writing garden.

And I am sure you didn't sell me a lemon - my black krim seedlings are up, though they took longer to germinate than some of the other tomatoes! (I think book has some on the go too?)

And double noooooooo to vine weevils - what a PITA! I think you can get nematodes that attack them - a different type to the ones that control slugs. Also, your frogs should reward your care for them in the compost by gobbling some of them up. It's typical isn't it - if there's a pest that can eat your carefully-tended veggies, it will find them and do so.

I didn't know about the industrial accident whoknows. That's awful

I'm wondering if my hatred of Granny Smiths is due to my gluttony and inability not to eat them straight away now...

Morning!
I have a confession- I do not have a spreadsheet or database.
YesI I have tomatoes on the go - all are up in 7 days, including Black Crimean, which is the nearest I could find while looking for Black Krim/Russian ( I am assuming they are all rather similar, hopefully!).
I am hopefully off to the plot today to plant raspberries and my broad bean plants - and get some more fruit cage work done.
oh Spotted , thats a blow with the strawberries. Lucky its only 1 container.
DH is suggesting a hanging type thing for my alpine strawberries - I got a tray full from a friend who was digging hers up, and I just do not have any floor space for them - she said they just carpet everything like a weed, so wanted to keep them under control, and even maybe get a crop!

Afternoon!
sowed flower seeds this morning- sunflowers, scabious and a couple of packets of mixed annuals ( white and yellow bee friendly it says) while waiting in for a repair man.
My peas and sweet peas are just starting to move the soil on the surface - they seem to have taken a while. Leeks have suddenly popped up at last.
Spent a bit of time at the plot this afternoon. Planted my raspberries and broad bean plants, harvested celeriac and sprouts. Had to re- net one of my rows of spring cabbages - darned pigeons had found a way to get to them, so they are looking raggy and sorry for themselves, poor things, but, they should recover

Sounds like a busy day.

All of my inside broad beans have now sprouted so will spend tomorrow repotting a pile of seedlings for hardening off. If I have enough pots.

The ericaceous fertiliser I ordered was damaged in transit so they've refunded me and now I'll have to go to a garden centre to get some, which is a pain.

Beautiful sunshine here now so I've spent a couple of hours potting and planting. I've put the two blueberries into large pots and will pick up some ericaceous fertiliser tomorrow (unless DH can find it in Tesco today). Have bravely put some of my seedlings straight into the garden (and doubled up in pots in case the garden ones die) but it's lovely and warm and should be for the next week at least so I'm hoping they'll do ok and be strong enough to cope if the weather changes. If not, then the pots should save me. The soil felt lovely and warm too.

Still no spinach seedlings so I think I have to give up on those ones and try again. Can you get spinach plug plants? If so, I might have to find those instead. I have read, though, that spinach doesn't really like being transplanted.

My final shrubs have finally come into the nursery so the gardeners are coming out on Monday afternoon to put them in. I am excited! I'll also get them to plant my choisya and the two hydrangeas that are trying to survive in pots. They've got some new growth so I think they'll be ok now. And I might be able to convince them to add in the extra raspberries I've got, although that's a longer shot. I've decided to put them in a different part of the garden where the turf didn't bed in properly.

Next plan is to find some lovely shade plants for a carpet (I know shove has a lovely one she likes to tell about - please remind me!) in another place where the turf didn't grow because of lack of sun. DH has a few days off coming up so I'm going to get him doing manual labour for me. The two hours I spent this morning have encouraged my Braxton Hicks to ramp up so I need to be careful.

Lucky you Grouchy - its been a bit grey here. Take care - when is your baby due?
It will be lovely to have it all planted up, and ready to go.
No spinach seedlings here either, and virtually everything else has popped up- mind you, I have been using up various odds and ends of opened seed packets, so maybe I will try with a fresh packet this week.
Not had any time today to go to the plot, but I have managed to re-home 2 artichokes and the last of the spare raspberries. So I have planted the last 2 artichokes at home, near the herbs .
Also, I have almost finished clearing out the shed we took over from other tenant. I have found yet more stuff that he never used. Three baby polytunnels/greenhouses 2m x1m by about 90 cm tall, so I assume for tomatoes or something , along with spare fleece to use instead of the plastic covers, still in the boxes . Such a waste. Not sure if I can use them, so may regift at the allotment hut.