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

Hello everybody. Thank you for all of the lovely supportive messages. I didn't think I could stay away from MN from long - and especially you guys - so here I am back again.

Garden is a disaster (although surprisingly a football sized pumpkin seems to have appeared overnight. How do they DO that?). Getting a few tomatoes. Pup dog is eating all the fruit. But I don't care because LOOK WHAT I'VE GOT!! Squishy newborn, 3 weeks early and a little bit dinky but gorgeous all the same.

And I don't have to water anything today because it's raining.

book - oooh, how exciting, I do hope you have some beans for the show*

bella - gorgeous! Oh wow! So perfect!

Congratulations Bella - lovely to hear from you and who cares about gardens when you have a beautiful baby ! Lovely to hear from you- take care .

I really think I should be able to edit or remember to read before pressing post......

BellaGoth what a beautiful baby! You've got the best harvest of us all. :)

Love the pic of intertwined carrots. Cute.

My peas and broadbeans looked like a bit of a sorry mess a few weeks ago but they've still produced lots. I think its because they were falling about all over the place as I hadn't tied them up properly. Come to think of it, I don't think I supported anything too well. I always underestimate how much my plants will grow. My tomatoes are quite slanted and some are growing almost prostrate. Too late to straighten them out now. My outdoor cucumbers are also sprawled all over the place although my indoor ones are nicely tied and vertical. I want to take some of the lower leaves of my tomatoes to get some sun and air in but I'm not sure which ones I should be taking off. What if I slice a prospective fruit bearing branch off?

My butternut squash have nothing yet. Does that mean I should give up on them now?

I was planning on going down to give everything a good soak today but so glad it rained today. Was really overdue.

Evening!
There has been a couple of threads about taking leaves off tomatoes, and lack of butternuts Lulooo !
Tomatoes - well, mine are in the greenhouse, and all I do is let them grow, and take off dead/sad leaves around the bottom, and the growing tip at the top when they reach the roof . Its a tomato jungle in there, and the tomatoes have been ripening with no problem so far. But I am a wimp when it comes to cutting growing things .
The general advice is to cut away the low leaves, below the fruit .
Butternut squash - 2 plants here, no sign of a set fruit so far.... But my crown prince are doing fine. Not as large as last year- after all it has been a lot drier, 4 plants, and I have I think 8 growing nicely .
Well - rain today is just a pathetic mizzle . Barely wet the surface here.
I went and deadheaded the flowers , and cut a big vase of sweet peas. Then picked every bean and courgette I could, as I have a busy , no plot, weekend.
I was very careful with the picking, just in case I had some to show. Well, I really didn't have 7 runner beans to match - see photo! And the 4 courgettes are nice, but not up to close inspection. So no show for me, I think I am relieved in truth :)

Congratulations, Bella. What a beautiful baby. Enjoy all of your newborn snuggles and don't worry about that garden.

I've now harvested all of my carrots. I think I have about 12 meals, which isn't too bad.

After I learned more about how to grow courgettes they're now taking off. I should have 5 ready in the next few days. Good thing I love courgettes!

Bella - many congratulations!

Been away- came back to lots of chillies and some green tomatoes and less aphids- hurrah. Finally ate some chard- had visitors who were old hands with chard and we fried it with garlic , very nice. Keep trying blueberries which look ripe but are really really tart. Not sure if I'm not waiting long enough or if I'm just a woman with tart blueberries. Late peas are still alive and one has a flower on, sweet peas still threatening to flower but not out yet. Baby apple trees finally have given some apples- bit sharp , again I pick too early I think. Old apple tree covered in apples with black spot - watered in calcium but didn't get hold of foliage spray in time. Next year maybe.

I Will Make It To The Allotment Next Week!!!

I need to get my onions out. I also ordered some strong weed fleece.
I for one is very pleased about the heavy rain here yesterday.

Congrats Bella, absolutely beautiful X

congrats to squishy newborn!
I now have 2 pumpkins on one plant (different branches) and am feeding the bugger a lot in the hope that it keeps both.
slight problem with one of them: it's about 2ft up in the air, growing up the fence... will need to build something for support.
lots of toms and courgettes but not gluttish (yet)

Congratulations Bella, what a beautiful baby.

Not much to report from my allotment as I'm not growing any proper crops this year. But I went up and weeded (a whole carrier bag full of weeds), deadheaded the marigolds and another plotholder gave me a blackcurrant cutting with a lot of roots so I planted that. Also drained the sump on my wormery at home, took the liquid up to the plot and watered the beds with it then re-covered them with weed membrane. All of that took me well over 2 hours including some time spent drinking tea and observing my plot!

Very glad of the rain over the last few days as it'll help my currant twigs bushes to put down some strong roots I hope.

On the negative side, the slugs have completely devoured my lovely coreopsis. I suppose it was too fresh and juicy to survive. At least I'll know to plant clumps of it next year to divert slugs from my crops!

beautiful baby: wishing it long life,good health and happiness!

I JUST ATE A RIPE TOMATO!! And it was lovely .

For those new joiners: I had a dreadful time with my tomatoes last year, which just didn't ripen at all. I took recommendations from doreen and spotted and book about growing some varieties that would do better in a cool climate, and they seem to have worked because I have several trusses of fruit that are now racing along! So I am very grateful for all the help and advice. They are in the greenhouse, so I have been fortunate enough to escape blight problems so far (fingers crossed).

Zebra - I was looking at the story of sarpo potatoes and blight resistance over the weekend. A bloke lost his whole crop to blight, apart from a few potatoes. realised these must have some resistance, and propagated them. I wonder if your surviving tomatoes might be similarly robust ones that are worth saving seed from? Maybe there's a silver lining to this cloud!!

No plot for me over the weekend - I really need to get up there later on today to pick more bleedin' courgettes.

Congratulations Shove! We're not quite at glut point yet but it won't be long. The sungolds don't even make it inside, I scoff them straight from the plant!

Dug some potatoes for tea last night. Really need to get out and pick the blackberries. Given up on the gooseberries, I don't like eating them enough to fight through the thorns and dog! I shall leave them in place as the bees love them.

My pumpkin has romped over two thirds of the veggie patch now. At least the weeds are being suppressed, even if we do only have 1 pumpkin!

Is it feeling really autumnal where everybody else is? It's making me think about next year's planting already!

I love the description of your romping pumpkin plant bella. Aren't they supposed to get magnificently huge if you just have one?

And YY to a distinctly autumnal feel in the air. I was up early today, and it was only just sunrise. I get used to the lovely light in the summer and forget winter must come.

I am very disorganised this year due to all the chaos with family. I haven't managed to sow things properly for the winter at all. I have about 5 kale plants, some chard, and some leeks that I put in ages ago, and that's about it. Oh, and some perpetual caulis that should be arriving soon. I urgently need to get my winter brassicas sown - what is everyone doing for the cold season?

Evening!

• just dropped DGS off after a marathon 3 days. Its been lovely, but no plot. So tomorrow, I will be busy. Start getting the courgette recipes out Grouchy - I am now on the next page - trying out something I haven't done before so tomorrow is a courgette/green bean/potato /tomato stew thing ! Cathpot- does seem a little early for apples. The easiest way to check for ripeness is if you cup them in the palm of your hand and lift them gently up - the stalk should just come away /snap easily from the branch- you shouldn't need to pull , or twist timtam - shame on your coreopsis and those slugs.They haven't been so bad here recently.( ha-) shove - tomato joy! I'm so glad you have some after last years disaster. I have had lots of Sungold, and an early one called Red Alert ( sadly , it was early, but not particularly flavoursome) - the Black Russian ones are nearly there, as are the heritage French St. Pierre - just a bit to go on my plum cooking one Roma. Absolutely no sign of an aubergine, so that is it for me - it was last chance this year. Bella - lovely to hear that the garden is producing - even if its 1 pumpkin. And yes - it really is already staring to feel like autumn. The nights are getting shorter quite quickly now. My plot has got bare patches, so must get some green manure soon I think. shove - I am also waiting for the perennial cauliflowers to come soon. I have planted out the first two sowings of autumn cauliflowers , and I have the last lot - about 8 - just about ready to go in as well. I sowed spring greens last week, and they are just germinating now - I have gone for a variety called April this year . I am also eyeing up garlic. I have to make a decision - there is a special offer on a selection of garlic ( including elephant) that seems a good buy -4 elephant garlic and 6 different varieties for £9.95 I will overwinter shallots again as well as doing a lot more in spring as well to not have all my eggs in one basket. Also broad beans , but I think I may start them off in plugs and then plant out. My brassicas and leeks have been planted out a while now. It finally rained properly last night , and all this morning. Joy! But it encouraged the slugs - when the rain stopped, just before lunch, I took DGS out for a run around the garden . He ran over to his slide ,and lo! here is what we saw....truly blatant!

Outrageous slug invasion of the play area!

Winter: I think I'm going to do caulis, shallots, kale, garlic, chard. I'm thinking of using peas and broad beans almost as a green manure in some beds, as I have loads of saved seed. I might follow your example, book and do broad beans in pots after the voracious mouse escapade last autumn. I will also start them off earlier than suggested on the packet.

It's complicated by the fact that I've decided on a slightly mad plan of digging the topsoil out of my back garden where the extension will go and transporting it in trugs to the allotment, where I shall mix it with loads of manure then put on my raised beds. I've been improving it for years, so it's pretty nice soil now and I can't bear for it to be skipped! I realise this means that I have actually managed to become emotionally attached to dirt. It also means I will have unsightly holes appearing close to the house over the winter, but that my beds for next year should be properly deep and raised. Might save the builders a bit of work too!!

Oh, and if anyone has suggestions of how to use green beans (French), I'd be grateful.

I had planned on blanching and freezing but my tiny freezer is full and I have a huge bag to preserve. I'm wondering about some kind of pickling process?

Shove Delia Smith's pickled runner beans are fabulous and I see no reason why you couldn't use green beans instead of runners. Give me a shout if you want the recipe.

I am at the audacity of slugs. I had one sliming its way up my kitchen window at the weekend.

We get slugs in the house .

Shove - I made this runner bean pickle last year and it was amazing, still using it up. This year I didn't do runners, just green beans and I have sliced them very finely in the food processor so I could fit them in the freezer as compactly as possible.

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1411639/green-bean-and-mustard-pickle

Looking at those two recipes, they seem variants on the same thing! I'm counting that as double the recommendation to do it. It sounds delicious!

Spend 1h45 in the allotment this morning. Got some green beans and runner beans. Had my heavy 3m old in is carrier. Also awaiting heavy duty fleece for the grass covered paths and bits I don't grow. Need to get my onions out too. The borage is looking crazy with bees

Afternoon!
shove - along with pickling, I believe salting works really well with beans, though I haven't personally tried it. To use up my glut of beans and courgettes, I am cooking this ready for tomorrow. ( I always think stews are better next day) courgette and green bean stew
wigels - I am seeing you in one of those pictures of women with a baby in a shawl backpack, looking over mums shoulder! :)
I managed a bit this morning. I planted out the last winter cauliflowers ( I think I said autumn in my last post) and picking beans , courgettes and raspberries. The raspberries are a bit small, so they are going in a cake I think this afternoon. They don't seem to keep as well as the earlier summer raspberries. My NDN really wanted to chat, and I didn't have the time tbh, so didn't get as much done as I would like. Its warm out there now.
But I did have a scrape at a carrot or two - and considering they are chanteney, the first one was a whopper, but it was just the one, no bunch, so maybe thats why. Really pleased as no sign of carrot fly, with no protection. The next little bunch came out as I expected though - short and stubby! I also picked the very last of the peas and broad beans. With some spinach from home, that will make a nice pasta dish.