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

We are off next week for a fortnight and I am taking my toms and chillis in to work to be looked after. The rest are going on trays outside with a good inch of water, in the shade and hoping for the best.

I am going to try and get my solar pump up and running though - I forgot about it so will get it out later today and see how it is running. That would sort it!

the sumflowers are way too big to be moved (5ft plus).
a neighbour has offered to water them, much easier than to figure out any system :)

Afternoon!
have a great holiday Doreen - somewhere hot again? -though we are due some heat here too!
lets hear it for kind neighbours Blue
Well, I managed a really good do at the plot this morning, I have planted everything I can - plug carrots and all the left over brassica seedlings which didn't have a home. I decided they were better in the ground than me keeping them alive in pots at home, particularly as we are now due some serious sun. There is a disparate bed of kale/cavalo nero/white sprouting broccoli/ and calabrese. with no organisation other than spacing. with a real Heath Robinson cage over them made from various poles and hoops :). I also planted out the last of my savoy cabbage seedlings - also spare, but was going to replant where the slugs had done the damage. The slug damaged little cabbages have made a good comeback, so I had to squeeze the 6 spare plants here and there instead.
I picked a courgette, the last two spring cabbage , some broad beans ( still loads to come) and the last few of the peas from my first row.
Strawberries next - one punnet from one bed- its the last I shall be bothering with , so took the nets off to let the birds have the last ones. The blimmin' pigeons were sat on the shed roof watching -( they were also having a canoodle! ) The new strawberry bed I also got a punnet worth from, they are still going well. Then the raspberries, but only the red ones, not the yellow, as I ran out of time. I managed to palm off a punnet of strawberries to a neighbour.

Hello! Hope everyone's OK. Haven't been on here for a bit as dh has been doing all the allotment stuff- had a "proceedure" in hospital and haven't got up there until yesterday. But we have potatoes! Actual, real life potatoes in the ground! I'm so bloomin chuffed
Off to catch up with the thread now.

hello again!
I bet you are chuffed mog - but take it steady - health is more important.
A busy afternoon, cooking up beetroot, topping and tailing yet more gooseberries ( 2lb yesterday for jam, another 2 lb for pie filling, then luckily DH took over to do the other 3/4 lb while watching cricket)
I went out to water, checking on tomatoes and one fell off in my hand, honest. Not quite ripe yet , but they are starting to go...

book I bet it smells amazind!

Wow book. I only have a few teeny tiny green toms. I grew some in the garden last year but they were really mushy. Hoping for better from the allotment.

Definitely going to put in some other fruit trees. It seems like a good return for effort in. And I like jam.

Thanks, yes the smell!
They are in a greenhouse Belle so ahead in that respect, and only this one variety 'Red Alert' which is new to me this year. Everything else is rather further behind, but once they start ripening, I think the gases they give off give them all a boost. I'm really waiting for my 'Sungold' cherry ones, my all time favourite. Fruit bushes are amazing, though you do need a bit of patience. Mine are all between 6-8 years old now, so in full production. Spotted is having to wait for her babies , sadly. I tend to buy bigger ones.. But its worth asking around. My NDN is reorganising the end of her plot, which is full of gooseberries/blackcurrants/raspberries and is digging them all up. I don't need any more(!) but someone will, and get them for free.. And raspberries are so productive with suckers, if you don't have any , but know someone who has, just ask. I give loads away, it doesn't harm the plants, and you have to dig them up anyway so you don't end up with a thicket!

Glad I've found this thread. I looked for one a couple of years ago but looked in food and drink.
Have had an allotment for about 4 years but in Scotland so behind many of you. My early potatoes are just flowering and I picked loads of strawberries and broad beans today. We have too lax allotment officers as the council police them so despite a huge waiting list we have several weed filled plots that are rarely touched. You then get someone new who says they'll have ti and tries for an hour in the heavy clay soil then gives in.
I covered mine with black plastic and worked on a bit at a time when I got it. It took me 18 months to get it all cultivated.
I have a fruit cage with apple cordons and soft fruit. These are tasy low maintenance things.
My squashes aren't doing much this year. too much rain. The peas and beans and strawberries are loving it though.

Imfine thanks for the welly tip I'll try to get to Aldi this week.
Back at the plot today for more weeding. It's looking OK now - the committee have been round and seem pleased so I'm safe for a few months!
First pic is the day I took it over (end of June) and the second one is the same view today. About 8 bags of weeds still need to be brought back....
And the last pic is my indulgence for today, I made myself a gardening apron/toolkit from a pair of old jeans and a webbing belt. It wasn't nearly as easy as the tutorial suggested but it's DONE and it fits! My Nutscene twine cutter was a charity shop bargain just before I got the allotment and I've been desperate to be able to use it, it fits in the apron pocket perfectly

Evening!
my goodness, the heat -( I'm not a fan as I don't sleep )
Welcome 2rebecca - we have a couple in Scotland - too much rain indeed, though I have been let off lightly here in East Yorkshire.
timtam that is looking impressive! And the tool belt is ace - :) talented lady!
I have just been to the plot tonight to water everything really well, particularly the newly planted out stuff., as I am out all tomorrow and evening, and it is predicted to be in the 90's . So picked 2 more courgettes, the yellow and red raspberries and more strawberries.
My sweetcorn are looking like dwarves to everyone elses, and still a little yellow, even though I have fed them some more. Will have to put some liquid foliar feed on I think. It hasn't stopped them putting up flower stalks mind you, but they do look sad.. I picked 3 green french beans! and I found the first runner bean that has set -

Hot hot hot today!
Over the weekend and the last couple of days we have picked more french beans, the first runner beans and borlotti beans. I realised that one runner bean had well developed beans on it lurking at the bottom. It's way ahead of the rest of the plants. French bean plants don't look that great but they're producing the beans. I think I may have our first pumpkin set but I'm not shouting too loudly in case the fruit drops off.

Welcome to the thread 2Rebecca I am in the south east so we're ahead of Scotland but I also garden on heavy clay soil which is cracking up and drying out now we're having some dry weather.

Timtam23 your allotment is looking good considering you've only had it since the beginning of June. Cover up any soil you're not going to be planting up to stop the weeds coming back as soon as your back is turned. Or plant some green manure. I do like your tool belt so much more handy than my plastic bag.

I expect I shall have to go and water again this evening. We went last night and did most things but it's going to be so hot today that the seedlings will need some more tonight I reckon.

Have picked most of my broad beans and the rest of my green gosseberries today and some mange tout. Weeded round the squashes that still aren't doing much. Will have to dig up my earlies but couldn't face it in the heat today. My Shetland blacks are dying off before flowering so need digging up before they rot.
Made 2 jars of gooseberry jelly. I did jam last year but have too many fillings to cope with the pips.
Now to work out what I'm going to do with the broad beans

Evening!
the first squash off one of my plants fell off, but lots are starting to set now. It will be crowd control soon Cedar - honest!
2rebecca - probably telling you what you already know, but with all the rain, could they be needing extra feed?. I have given a few broad beans away this year - I don't grow loads , just enough to pick every 3-4 days, but they have been very prolific this year, and I was given a few later plants which have only just starting setting, so a while to go yet on them
I have tried broad bean hummus - nice but I haven't quite got the seasoning right yet - I think I used Hugh F-W's recipe .
I have made gooseberry jam - DH's favourite, but made the rest into pie filling for the freezer.
Blight is just starting up on our site, so keeping a close eye - I didn't plant earlies, just second earlies and maincrop. I just do not do well with potatoes, as I can't bring myself to broadcast slug pellets everywhere.
I rushed in this afternoon, and frantically threw water on everything - cucumbers/peppers and basil wilting in the greenhouse, hanging basket as well. Out to a meeting this evening and had to re water when I got back in this evening Too, too hot -

A very interesting and unexpected development down the lottie this eve. There was I dripping in sweat just planting out some purple spouting when over wanders shirtless young man wanting to know if it was my hose in the tap. I didnt know quite where to look, his muscles had muscles. I expected many things of the allotment, a diet coke break moment was not one of them.

It looks like I have at least one courgette and one squash. I thought the slugs had the lot! book I used some organic society certified slug pellets from wilkos. Seems to be doing the trick.
This weekend sees the inauguration of the compost bin. Any tips on how to set it up for.success welcome.

An excellent development. My allotment is middle aged women like me and old men.
I fed my squashes quite a lot. I planted them on mounds filled with commpost, then worried the leaves were growing yellow because of an imbalance in my compost so poured over a liquid tomato feed and scattered chicken poo pellet around them. I then read that too much nitrogen could make the leaves yellow and they may need magnesium so got some epsom salts and poured that over them.
The strawberries I've done nothing to are thriving and the squashes are small and yellow leaved, and they're a mix of butternut squash, pumpkins and courgettes. I wondered if that patch of soil was dodgy but planted some borage and nasturtiums to attract pollinators and they're growing like triffids and I had to trim them back today to try and encourage the squashes.

Belle, such a thing has never happened up at our plot, I'm nearly 50 and amongst the youngest up there. I'm not very clued up about compost, I just chuck in everything except perennial weeds and it seems to work.

Welcome 2Rebecca - clay soil here too, but in SE England. We have an overly zealous allotment committee and yet there are still overgrown plots. Something isn't working with the system

Sorry not to have posted much lately, our family computer is on a go slow, so I have been mainly MNing on my phone, which isn't great for posting more than the odd line.

In the last week I have dug up all my first early potatoes (I only had about 8 plants, so not too many). Planted out my purple sprouting brocolli, harvested my first courgettes (only one plant fruiting so far due to slug attack, but the others are recovering). Spotted my first cucumber setting. I have lots of green tomatoes.

But I have lost all my gooseberries . A week ago my gooseberry bush was lush and green and had nearly ripe fruit on it. By the weekend most of the leaves had gone, just a few left at the ends, which have a rusty mark on them and the fruit is gone too. Any ideas what might have happened?

Are they covered from birds? Mine are in a fruit cage or the ones at home covered in net. I get a lot of gooseberry sawfly but they just eat the leaves on mine. I've just realised the derris I've been happily spraying on them for several years is now banned, it was organic when I got it years ago. Hope I can find a good alternative. My whitecurrent has a plague of them at the moment but I can't spray them because they are nearly ripe.

No, they're not, I thought they might not be attractive to birds being dull green. This is my first year with them, when I took over the plot three years ago it was a ragged, stunty thing which didn't do much that or the second year. Last spring I decided to dig it out and get rid, but couldn't get the last root out, and it grew back looking really strong and healthy, so I thought I'd give it another chance. There isn't space to put a cage round it really and I have no idea what I would have done with them anyway. So not that big a loss really, but I don't like being defeated by nature!

We always leave a fair amount of berries specifically for the birds. If the leaves have gone then it is likely to be sawfly.

I also had a diet coke moment. Got to the plot last night and some lovely young chap was doing woodwork on the next plot. I suspect the current owner is letting someone share her plot as i have not seen her in ages. A nice surprise.

Setting up a compost bin - just make sure that you are adding browns as well as greens. Eg newspaper, shredded paper, cardboard etc. and you can use comfrey, nettles, coffee grounds, male wee to speed it up. And the smaller the bits that go in the quicker you get it. And the more often you turn it, the quicker it composts.

Hello Allotmentets!

I have been lurking on your thread for quite some time. I am hopefully, fingers crossed, just about to get the keys to my first allotment. I visited to choose my plot nearly 2 weeks ago and submitted the required paperwork to the council within a few days, so hopefully should be in there soon. It's all a bit unexpected- I only just moved house and am still sorting out the house and tiny balcony/yard, put my name on the allotment list thinking it'd take years and then was called up within a week to go and visit the site and choose a plot!

My plot is a massive challenge to me. It's a half plot (5 poles), has a shed and a sprawling fig tree going rampant over the top of it - lots of figs maturing nicely when I saw it though. The rest is knee-to-waist high in weedy growth. It's going to be a huge job to get it cleared.

I have high hopes and dreams, I want to grow not just fruit and veg for eating but also flowers and herbs for cutting and use in homemade bath/beauty recipes, herbal teas/remedies etc as well as food for my tortoise (so a deliberate weed patch lol!) and a little wildlife pond/area. Fruit and veg wise I'm hugely excited about the opportunity to grow more unusual things - colourful and heritage varieties of common stuff, as well as try out more 'exotic' stuff as well (have been reading James Wong!)

Anyway I just wanted to say hi really and that I can't wait to join in properly and share my progress with like-minded people. My efforts so far are planting some seeds in my cold frame at home - cabbage, lettuce, mooli, chard, rocket, mizuna and lambs lettuce - in the hope that by the time they're ready to plant out I'll have somewhere for them to go! I'm also growing chillis, peppers and herbs on my balcony, potted up a few weeks ago from plants rescued from the bargain bin at the range (and a few supermarket living herbs thrown in too) - they're all doing pretty well, the chilli in particular seems to be growing a new fruit each time I turn around. The coriander is ramping away as well, I'm going to have to make some kind of pesto or chutney to start making more use of it. Oh and I have some alfalfa sprouts growing in a jar on the kitchen windowsill, super easy and lovely to be able to see some progress each day.

Popped into the allotment yesterday on the way to somewhere else. Picked some strawberries & green beans! Sunflowers doing well. & carrots really growing too!

Doreen - why only male urine?

figs - any ideas why my figs haven't fruited for the last 2 years? the first year they were great. they are in pots. i confess my watering and feeding is a bit sporadic - is that the problem? or should i repot them?

Afternoon!
welcome PhoenixJasmine - lovely to have you- exciting times. Sounds as if you have been planning this for a while :)
Belle - a diet coke moment - nothing like that at our site , here it is mostly middle aged couples, older women like me , a few younger ones and a lot of older men who turn up on bikes with carrier bags on the handles. Ah well.....and yes, I gave in and used some organic slug pellets, so they are now stating to produce at least 2 a day for me - soon be making courgette brownies... .Doreen has explained all about compost bins,. I have a dalek and an open one - one at each end, so I dont have to cart anything too far.
WhoKnows - agree with Doreen again there - definitely sawfly on the leaves , and birds stripping the fruit - I lost a whole bush full, so then just threw a net over the other one , and that has been enough to save them.I read somewhere that sawfly tends to go for young bushes, and after a couple of years, they don't seem to cause as much damage, so I suspect it will be fine next year.
Mindful - thats amazing progress after those photos of your pond!
I have no fig experience at all sadly dreaming - I love figs.....dont they fruit on the buds from overwinter? so something about last year autumn maybe?
Well, I went this morning to pick the blackcurrants, as the forecast was thunderstorms this afternoon. Full, hot sun, an hour and 2 kgs of the things later, I looked like a glowing beetroot. But I just have a last trawl through in a couple of days time, and then the fruit cage door will be left open for the birds. I also try to leave a fair few for the wildlife. I try to be a 'messy' picker :). Also 2 courgettes picked. And still keeping a close eye on the potatoes. The borage and cosmos flowers were so loud with insects while I was picking sweet peas, it was nearly deafening. And now it looks as if there will be no rain, and its cooled down!