Allotment/Veg Patch Thread 6 - Weed 'em and Reap!

[bookbook]

Thanks WhoKnowsWhereThe Time GOes for the title of the new thread.
So, we head into summer, praying for sun, gentle rain and no slugs
Everyone welcome to join in and share joys and woes and advice, given freely!
Previous thread here
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/gardening/2582241-Allotment-Veg-Patch-Thread-5-The-Diggers-Rest?pg=1

wow bookbook could that be reported to the council? should be illegal

I think its par for the course these days on new builds. We assumed that they put everything in a big heap, and then level it for turf laying....

That sounds awful, books. I'm so glad our development was a farm before becoming new builds.

Rain rain rain here for the past few days but it's meant to be nice tomorrow so will hopefully get into the garden to weed etc.

Every last spinach plant has bolted. There are still plenty of leaves on them, though, so can we continue to eat them?

Kiwi it'll still be fine to eat. Maybe a teeny bit tougher than before, but fine to eat. I've just this week (in the rain!) picked over my last last year's spinach/perpetual spinach/chard plants, and have made 2 massive spanakopitas, and frozen quite a few balls of greens too.

And today, I went to the plot and ripped the plants out. Yes, it stopped raining. It's started again, obvs, and it is so loud that I've had to turn the tv volume up so that I can hear Gardener's World. I planted some more courgettes and squash. The ground was sodden, so it was heavy going. Excitingly, my peas are now in flower - purple Shiraz peas, so the flowers are beautiful. The rhubarb is now even bigger, and the raspberries seem to be thriving. All green stuff doing quite well. I picked a load more broadies too. But hardly any growth on the tomatoes or my courgettes alas.

Oh, and BenSquash is back in the game! Last year, I dug up a load of weedy clots, and one of the things I did with them is pile them in a heap, enrichen it a bit and cover it with black polythene. Then in it, I planted a squash, and it did quite decently.

Well, guess what? I'm a lazy old tyke and the plastic-covered mound is still there, filled with bindweed and frogs. I've ripped out most of the bindweed and introduced myself to the frogs - but this time I've planted 2 squashes!

Whose was the original BenSquash idea? - well, I know it was mink's but I lost track of who nc-d to whom! Anyway, I am not trying to out you but I ought to thank you, and planting it up today did make me smile.

Oh my goodness! I've flicked through last year's thread/s, and this time last year, I was bothering abput tomatoes, who'd have thunk it! But 1 year ago today, they were soooooo much further on. maybe >2x the height, and I had quite a few trusses of fruit set. Now, I am still on my first truss, and that's not on all the plants.

Ahh, I've just remembered who mink is now.

God my memory is getting slow. I'm still in my 30s too.

32 fennels in.

Weeds out and mowed and used as mulch for said fennel.

Swedes and more fennel in at work. Some of the 100 extra cucumbers in a spare bed and mulched. Pumpkins, and dwarf beans in tomorrow.

Still well behind with planting out but we can't have everything. It will all come in good time.

well, Grouchy - I suspect its the dry/cold/wet that has made it bolt. You can perhaps try to extend it a bit by chopping the flowering stalks off, but once they start its hard to stop. I tend to succession sow - I have some germinated, and waiting to be big enough to plant out. Normally it doesn't do so well in the height of the summer anyway, but that seems a long way away.
hello Ben Squash! - I had forgotten that Spotted :) - was it mink's that blew away? And its hard to compare against last year. I will have some peas to shell whilst watching tennis, but no great shakes on that harvest. Though the strawberries are coming along nicely, as long as the slugs don't get them all. Tomatoes though are doing okay here - the greenhouse is definitely going to be so worth its money this year .
Doreen - 100 cucumbers - thats a lot of cucumbers, and space. How many are helping you, it sounds back breaking!
And this is the year of being behind with planting. I am still eating spring cabbage, which was late, and the summer cabbage isn't far behind on being ready
With DDs garden, it was about 5" of compacted rubble we think. No one big block, just lots of bits that have been tamped down hard to level, and then got very wet. Once we got through that, we were down to some better stuff. And we got rid of quite a big area so there is room to plant some bulbs and low growing things around the tree.

Well, I got a lot done today, 2.5 hours, which is a very long session for me. The whole couch grass bit totally cleared - I have enough to create my own Ben Squash, but have already planted all mine out. I'm stacking it all at the back of the plot behind the raspberry canes (out of sight of the plot inspectors!). We get a green waste trailer in the autumn, so I will move it to that I think.

I've been thinking back to last year too. The area with the couch grass was in use last year, but I was lazy and only cleared the bits I planted, leaving little strips of grass in between, so it re-invaded again when I wasn't looking. I also didn't clear the entire plot last autumn, I did about 1/4 of it thoroughly and abandoned the rest (I started my studies in Sept, that's my excuse). So, must do better this year.

Also spent a good hour clearing brambles and bindweed at home, I have a very densely planted border and these tend to fill it from behind, so they aren't too noticeable until the brambles start arcing out of the top of the shrubs, but there was masses to clear. Still got more to do but will leave it till next week as my green waste bin will get emptied on Monday.

How annoying about DD's garden Book, I have heard tales like this from owners of new builds before.

Morning all,

The rain has stopped so I'm off to plant the new courgette & to see how everything has fared in the storms :)

Afternoon!
hope you managed a good hot soak after that WhoKnows :)
fingers crossed for you Midnight
Well, I spent the morning hoeing and digging out bindweed. The new planted squash is a sad stump, and the next plant along looks as if they have had a go. soooo- out came the organic slug pellets, sprinkled around them all, and the courgettes, which are also looking suspiciously nibbled .
Managed to gift some savoy/brokali and sprouting broccoli seedlings , so I don't have to angst about slugs on them.
This afternoon, I have sown carrots and peas into plugs. Pricked out and potted basil seedlings. Repotted up my last 2 spare squash plants - I thought I may as well get them growing really big at home first , to give them a fighting chance. And potted up the cucamelons, which are straggling everywhere. Should I put a cane in, or leave them to it?
Best bit was we had SUN
Do hope everyone else saw it....

Hello everyone.
I'm on holiday so have abandoned my plot for 4 weeks. This is the 2nd week but I'll get DD to go pick some strawberries when she gets home from college in a week or so but until then I'm relying on the rain to take care of things until I get back. I've a good mind to drive there straight from the airport but I'll have to be prepared to find my plot first under the forest of weeds which will inevitably have taken over.

This is a bit random and not really allotment related but I just wanted to say that bookbook, your posts always amaze me; not just because of your commitment to gardening but because of just how amazingly kind and considerate you seem. All we talk about is plants and soil but even then your kindness just shines through. I love how you make time to mention everyone's name and answer so many queries. You always seem on hand to offer advice and never patronising or dismissive of any of us newbies. I imagine you're an amazing person to know in RL and and even more kind and considerate then you appear to be on here.

Right. Said it now. Back to business. :)

What a lovely thing to say, Lulooo - and seconded!
I hope you're having a lovely holiday. I hope your in one of the parts of the country which had had plenty of rain recently!

A quick pop to plot today, and have a courgette flower - Ooh! Just the one though... And I planted put 2 more tomatoes. Maybe I shall do more tomorrow. I still have quite a few that need to be planted, or binned.

I often think the same about you Book

Luloo, I can't remember whereabouts you are in the UK but it seems highly unlikely your plants will have dried out this week.

No gardening for me today, we've been up to London for the Hockey internationals at the Olympic park, but hoping tomorrow stays dry so I can get my strimmer up to the allotment and tidy up my edges/grassy bits.

Look at this beautiful potato flower, taken yesterday, the only one flowering so far.

absolutely!
a weath of information and advice.

I did some weeding today and fed the pumpkin and sweetcorn with the famous comfrey juice.
the weeds also like the stuff, I pulled out a dandelion that had a root as big as a large carrot.

Evening!
stop it you lot I'm just older, not sure how much wiser though ...
but thank you anyway.
Lulooo - one thing - at least you don't need to worry about the watering in your cloche ! And strawberry and raspberry picking are about the only thing that will drag either of my DD's to the plot, so good thinking :)
It always lovely to know that vegetables can be beautiful too , and potato flowers are I agree WhoKnows - I have barely a couple out - one a paler purple, one nearly white. (And also , if you let them set, how like they are to a tomato - I do know they are both from the same Solanum family, but it still makes me smile.)
The only time we have nearly eradicated dandelions ( admittedly at home in my garden) is when my girls had hamsters - the hamsters loved dandelion leaves and flowers, so were picked to extinction! Can't you make a sort of coffee from dandelion roots ( and dandelion and burdock too,) never tried though...

A big wave from Melbourne where marking and reports have kept me out of the veggie patch. We've had lots of rain. with temperatures in the low 50s, so the weeds are loving it. Winter is the busiest weed growing time.

I spent AGES weeding the veggies.[boo hiss] and then a pleasant time tying in broad beans, the first of the snow peas. I put in two new rows of lettuce seedlings. Chard, garlic and daikon are all doing well.

A different food plant I put in today was a yam daisy, macrocelis lanceolata, sent through the post by a lovely friend of DH's who lives in rural Victoria. It's a plant that aboriginal Australians relied on very much, and totally buggered by the grazing animals brought over by European settlers. I'm growing it for the craic rather than as food. I sent masses of bromeliad pups to her, and gather they are were duly divided are are now in about three other gardens too.

echt your winter sounds like our summer so far . DH was in our sitting room yesterday evening at about 8pm and I was going to ask him why he'd put the lights on when I realised it was the sun! It had actually come out for once. It has been either raining or overcast pretty much all week here and I know we've not had it as bad as some parts of the country.

Not much chance of gardening this weekend but I did sneak in a quick trip to the plot late afternoon. Mostly armed with my organic slug pellets. I thinned out one row of beetroot. Then harvested a small amount of baby spinach leaves and some corn salad. We're having family over for lunch today and will have salad. We've got cut and come again lettuce in the garden at home and will have some of that too. So our first tiny croppings

We also have some slightly pink strawberries. I put some netting over these which will stop the birds. Just have to hope the slugs don't find them.

I'm pleased to hear that ben squash is back again for a second year We were so impressed after visiting Great Dixter (lovely gardens not too far from us) the other year where they have enormous compost beds (bigger than my entire back garden) and grow pumpkins and squashes all over them. I must get around to trying something similar in my plot. Not this year though owing to poor rate of seed germination.

Have a nice day everyone!

Evening!
echt - I sympathise with you poor teachers ( DD1 is one! ) - rain everywhere it seems, but at least you have had the heat first.
Cedar - wishing on the pink strawberries - ours are just starting, but the little alpine ones are staying stubbornly white - I have never had any, so quite impatient.
had a nice bit of time at the plot this morning - more leeks planted out, and the brassica cage is now officially planted up ( well, apart from a few lettuces in between sprouts!) and weeded.
Had a chat with ndn on the plot, who was spraying - he has heard about the diamondback moth invasion, and decided on a pre-emptive strike....
Then had a first proper picking tray of the season. We ate the lot tonight - shallots ( well, they are going to seed) , baby broad beans and a little bit of wilted spinach with pasta, truffle oil and parmesan, Then strawberries with ice cream and a pot ( pigs us!) of Hotel Chocolat salted caramel /pecan and milk chocolate stuff , which has been sat waiting ...
Happy Days.
Its now raining, after a rather nice day

my strawbs are very dark this year. weird as it's the same plants as last year (unless birds dropped me some new plants).
dc asked me: if we take cuttings and cuttings etc, could plants live forever?

Hello
I'm an allotment newbie, got our half plot in September. We were really really lucky to get a beautiful plot with raised news, paths, a fruit cage and a shed, with a flower bed at the front. I'm feeling a lot of pressure as it slowly gets taken over by bindweed! Getting a lot of enjoyment but not much produce, peas and beans all eaten by slugs and sweetcorn is so very tiny and spindly compared to all others on the site. We've harvested lots of strawberries this week but not sure what to do with them, I recall they don't freeze well and go mushy.

Hello, wejammin and welcome! Surely you can make... jam?
Lucky you to inherit such a lovely set up. And strawbs too! Mine are appalling so far - not a hint of ripening, but then it's been raining almost constantly, for weeks.

You could freeze your strawbs if you're going to blitz them when defrosted, eg for jam or smoothies?

Lovely to hear from you echt -although it seems odd that you're doing broadies at the same time as I am (my last sown ones, anyway) on this side of the world!

Lovely harvest, booky. No plotting from me today, but I did tie in quite a lot a few tomatoes at home, and hack down a triffidy passionflower for my mum.

And now it's raining again.

Evening
and welcome wejammin. Don't panic - its not easy though! Bindweed and weeds are rampant at this time of year. Whatever job I have gone to do on my 'to do' list ( yes, I do have one :) ) I always carry around a bucket and a fork ( Hand or big one) and as I finish that job, I just look around me and dig up what bindweed I can see. as deep as possible. Little and often, little and often. I try not to let the big picture worry me, just concentrate on what I have to do, with the time constraint I have .
We are all suffering from slugs at the moment - and you may find that those around you are using slug pellets. If you can replant with bigger/stronger plants , that will help. Sweetcorn doesn't like the cold - mine are a bit yellow even now, so am planning on giving them a foliar feed this week, as a pick me up.
I am planning strawberry lollies with my spare. Just blitz the strawberries with greek yoghurt( or marsacapone/any thick yoghurt or whipped cream) add runny honey to sweeten to taste, and pour into moulds, if you have them , or ice cube tray if not. Makes lovely crumble mixed with rhubarb too :).
Has it stopped raining at all at yours Spotted ? horrid weather....