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

Phoenix talk about making you jump through hoops! Ridiculous.

My mixed bag this year is:
Potatoes - blight on earlies, size of crop not brilliant anyway. Maincrop still in there but we didn't earth up properly so not expecting much
Garlic - tiny bulbs almost wasn't worth the effort
Carrots - I think I may get two plants if I'm lucky
Peas - seeds eaten by mice, pigeons attacked the ones I'd sown at home. We've managed about a handful of pea pods in total from several sowings.
Radishes - a lot bolted before they swelled.
Fennel - some plants germinated but they all disappeared before getting going.
Thyme and oregano - germinated and were doing well then went into a mysterious sulk and died.

Doing well:
Raspberry and blackcurrant for first year
Blackberry
Onions - not looking too bad although some plants didn't swell.
Beans
Pumpkin - although something has nibbled a bit out of the biggest one I think it is mice
Sweetcorn - looking healthy
Beetroot - growing nicely
Baby spinach and lambs leaves. Also cut and come again lettuce sown in a pot at home.

So definitely a mixed bag with some positives and negatives. The bean harvest is really starting to pick up now. We're having beans and fish for dinner tonight and I might have to start freezing them fairly soon.

not strickly veg, but anyone else like the garden rescue programme?
I love charlie.

ooh, I think HiaHia mentioned that on the other gardening thread, and I have been meaning to look :)
no plot today, had a bit of rain, no where near enough, but probably enough to germinate every weed seed going. Better shift myself tomorrow and get down there for some serious hoeing...

I plan to get onto the climbers again.
2 weeks of warm weather and they have overtaken the border completely.
pumpkin plant is gigantic but no fruit set yet, had first of yellow courgette tonight. toms looking good (just need to tell them dirty jokes)

Hi everyone. Got back from a 4 week holiday two weeks ago. Plot wasn't as wild and weedy as I thought it would be so that's a good thing. Crops aren't growing as madly as I'd like either though. My carrot bed has turned into a weed bed and everything else is so so. Courgettes and cucumbers growing well though.

Sunny - hello - that's an oriental poppy

Nice to have a 4 week holiday Lulooo although you know that holidays aren't really compatible with vegetable growing unless you go away in November

I had a quick trip over to the plot last night to pick beans for tea. Also got the first pickings of blackberries. So we had beans and fish for tea and then blackberries for pudding. Although DD did rather annoyingly announce that she's decided she's not as keen on the runner beans (just coming into their own) as she is on the french beans (not as great a crop expected overall). But then she's off to visit the grandparents next week so we'll just have to eat them all while she's away

BluePitchFork you could try pollinating the fruiting flowers yourself if you have time to catch the male flowers when they're out to make sure of getting some fruit. My pumpkin is fairly rampant but actually not many female flowers so far.

there is actually loads of male flowers and a few female ones but the 'bulb' falls off after flowering.

welcome back Lulooo - I suspect that its all down to the fact that its been warm, and not much rain ,lucky-ish for you :)
Blue the bulb usually falls off ( after going a bit yellow) when it hasn't been fertilised.
Well, its proper raining this morning, so plot will have to wait until this afternoon. I need to pick cabbage and beans - maybe not raspberries as its wet, but then again, i need some as I am trialling making some raspberry ice cream this afternoon - I have some recipes to try !

I have lots of pollinators in the garden, but will try with dc's paintbrush.

Thank you for the gardening sympathy. I am trying hard to recover my love for it.

And as such, I have some exciting plot news - my shed has gone! Yes, after only 18 months of intent, my rotten, holed shed is now an ex-shed and is at the tip. I have some more clearing to do of blown-on rubbish, and my stone harvest, as well as all the weeds, and then it is onwards and upwards.

And to counterbalance that, I had said that my front garden tayberries were one of my highlights. I actually have 2 varieties close together -one is Buckingham and was first to ripen and utterly delicious. Tje other is from lidl or aldi or some such and is very vigorous and seemed quite bounteous and is only ripening now. And it's a.... common blackberry. Of the sort that surrounds me, the one thing I'd never grow myself as I have no need. So that needs to be tackled.

I'd also propagated 2 new tayberries from the tips of last year's canes and they're both looking healthy, and I was feeling quietly proud. Of course I have no idea now which plant they are from. But I think we can probably guess...

Hi all - my raised beds have arrived! They're going to take a bit of construction but its exciting. I have three beds each one is 8ft by 4ft and 60 cm high.

Popped into the nursery yesterday and there was very little. I came away with a rhubarb plant (victoria) but nothing else. I will go back tomorrow without the DC to give me some time to look at seeds without constant loud exclamations of "mummy come and look at the stone fox!" "mummy look at the life sized metal zebra!". They're 9 and 11 and so I thought they'd be past that stage but apparently not.

Is it worth trying to move raspberry and gooseberries? We currently have plants in the woods which are useless since the wildlife gets to anything before we do. Or are we better off starting from scratch with new plants?

you can move them, I would doit when they are dormant, i.e winter. but they might take a season to establish in the new location but you would have the same issue when buying new plants.

Hi all. Hadn't really done anything in the garden till today.

Have enough blackcurrants to make a batch of muffins, which is exciting. There aren't many more berries on the bushes - combination of first year and naughty children - but enough when they ripen to have with yoghurt or something.

The raspberries are ripening quickly now, though one bush is a long way ahead of the others so I've not yet had enough at once to do anything with. DH is enjoying them - as are the slugs. Have to give them a jolly good wash to get slug slime off!

Discovered that both of my plum trees have about three green plums on them. Wonder if they'll ever ripen. Tomatoes are slowly ripening. Have one sitting on the windowsill to finish off after the wind blew it off the plant.

Carrots are doing really well. I think my garden has enough other food that the slugs are leaving them alone. Beetroot coming along nicely, and my courgette plants have suddenly started growing fruit so it won't be long till I can get some of those. Peas are nearly finished, though I tried sowing a few more of those about a week ago. Suspect they're not going to do anything as they haven't germinated yet.

Still loads of lettuce and far too many nasturtiums - will only sow 4 seeds next year, I think; they're rampant! Borage is just starting to flower and it's nice to have blue in the garden.

And my roses have all of a sudden shot up and started growing more flowers. I've also discovered that the clematis I thought was a Montana is actually something completely different. Still pretty.

A newbie question: what's the best way to harvest carrots? Using a fork?

redhat I've got a couple of raspberries I'm going to move after they've fruited. They're in the main garden and completely taking over their section. I'm going to put them in gaps in my baby hedges.

I've been spending a lot of time recently thinking about the changes I want to make in the garden and what I'm going to do next year. I might have to learn some DIY skills as DH doesn't care in the slightest about it and can't do anything. I want to make some strong obelisk-type things that I can move around for peas etc to climb on.

Evening!
well, it has rained on and off all day , so I only managed an hour to pick beans, a cabbage, the loganberries. Dug up every last shallot ( which should have been done last week) . A very hasty hoe around as the weeds are going hell for leather, and that was it. Can only hope I can find some extra time this weekend.
Spotted - that is a big leap forward, getting rid of the heap! Are you going to replace it, or are you going to use the space for something else? And it will be so annoying if the cuttings are not tayberries. I am jealous of your blackberry though. I love them, and don't have any - I have to scrounge them!
redhat - so its going to be a busy weekend, putting up raised beds? :) Sorry to hear no joy with plants. I suspect its because I am further north, and a bit behind everyone. Gooseberries - I moved mine about February/early March, and it has settled well. Put on new growth , and had gooseberries on it ( mind you the birds got to them first ). I moved a blackcurrant at the same time, and that is fine too.Raspberries - just pull up the runners from around the original plant, taking as much root as possible and use those as new plants.
Grouchy - 3 plums! I didn't even get any flowers from my new bushes. I am lucky that DH is so good, but I do a lot of the support canes/nets myself, so as long s you get time ( tricky with 3 little ones) why not? :) Though not for the allotment, I had a local metal fabricator make me some obelisks for my garden, as I couldn't find anything I liked to buy ready made. He did them for a fraction of the price of any I saw at garden centres/online.

Afternoon!
Hope everyone is well. Lovely day , sunny but not too hot.
Managed a quick trip this morning to hoe around the beans and plant some perpetual spinach. Dug up one more potato as it looked a bit sad. A few very nice potatoes. Just enough for a boiling, and no holes !!
I should have picked raspberries, but ran out of time.
Took away the door to the fruit cage, as I need to get in there tomorrow to do a big weeding session .

Went out yesterday morning when it was cloudy and then it massively cheered up and by the time I thought to check the greenhouse my tomatoes looked very forlorn indeed. Panic watered them and now I'm hoping for the best. First blackberries coming - a thornless version, I've netted them this year so we may actually get eat them. May need more nematodes as starting to see holes in lettuces. Is perpetual spinach one you cut and come again?

I hope they pick up again. they go surprisingly limp and can perk up again.
you can also remove a lot of foliage (everything below the fruit trusses) which helps them need less water.

Afternoon!
Cathpot - yes the perpetual spinach is a cut and come again - lasts about 2 years. Its also called spinach beet . Sort of a bit like chard - but I only use the leaves. Your tomatoes should be fine - you may just find that the fruit split, but you can still eat them ..
I had a good go at the plot this morning- I properly weeded around the courgettes and squashes. So much so I didn't get to do the fruit cage, which was the first job on my list....
I swapped a summer cabbage for 10 winter cauliflower plants with a neighbour - I'm pleased, as mine are tiny seedlings at the moment.
Picked 3 courgettes. The plants are looking lovely now, and I will soon be making courgette brownies I think.
This afternoon, am making the first ( of many, hopefully) pasta sauces of roasted tomatoes/courgettes/green peppers/shallots/garlic/basil . And its all home grown - well, not the olive oil , sadly..... And ice cream. I have attempted, after asking for help ,home made without a machine. I have done the first recipe - left half as vanilla, and chucked in an enormous amount of raspberries in the other half. I am about to try the second recipe , which again I will split into 2 - vanilla and puree'd raspberry and loganberry. Fingers crossed . DH has gallantly offered to taste test them for me :)

my 'garden' ice cream = freeze berries and in a blender blend frozen berries, cream, icing sugar.
instant result.

I got to visit my plot yesterday! I was walking past the site with my parents and the secretary just happened to be on his plot within calling distance of the gate so he let us in for a little poke around the weeds weren't quite as bad as I remembered, I discovered an elder at the back I hadn't noticed before - love elderflower cordial - and, I found a big hole - perhaps an old pond - almost exactly where I thought I wanted to put a pond myself! It's fate. Was nice to do a walk around with my Dad and talk through my ideas, he's had 2 allotments for years. Plus the secretary gave us a marrow :)

Just need my own bloody key now....!

:o she's probably marrowed out and happy to have had takers :o

Phoenix - that sounds good! How did you get on in the farce of invoice/key deposit at the council office?
Blue - marrowed out - they turn up under a leaf on a courgette plant and cannot believe you can have missed it, but oh yes you can!

Evening all. Tomatoes look ok today happily and we had another lovely day mucking about in the sea. bluepitchfork have you got a recipe for your instant ice cream or do you do it by eye? I really want an ice cream maker but I can't justify the posh freeze on your worktop version price and no room in my little freezer for the cheaper one. It might be just as well, I don't think easy access to ice cream is a good idea for me! would also appreciate things to do with chard- I think it's time I tried it..,

Cathpot - we have just tasted the no churn ice cream recipe from Mary Berry. Its ^wonderful* , though obviously not soft scoop, and rather calorific
www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/no-churn_ice_cream_72012
And may have to try Blue's idea too :)
Spotted is the one with the chard recipes , but the leaves can be used as I do with my perpetual spinach . Young leaves I just cook in butter. Tougher leaves in things like Spanakopita. Its the stems I don't get on with !