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Gardening

Find tips and tricks to make your garden or allotment flourish on our Gardening forum.

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

997 replies

bookbook · 04/06/2016 22:20

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

OP posts:
Thread gallery
83
Cedar03 · 16/09/2016 16:01

Thanks for all the advice about celery up thread. It seems to be doing OK. Had to go and put a load of water on it on Tuesday because it was so hot. We'll definitely be eating it in soups and stews this Autumn.

Timtam fingers crossed the damage to your plot isn't too bad.

It's rained a lot today which is a real change from the hot weather we've had the last few days. No flash flooding fortunately.

It was a quick visit on Tuesday just to water, harvest some more beans, blackberries and spinach. Trying to remember to eat the spinach as we keep forgetting to harvest it.
Tomatoes in the back garden are starting to get blight. Which is a shame because there are a lot of potential tomatoes there. I cut off affected parts of the plant last weekend in the hope that that might slow it up.

We started on our plot a couple of years ago. It was July/August when we first took it on. It was full of weeds. We applied weedkiller and covered it up with tarpaulins. Then gradually dug it over during the autumn and winter. It's a half plot and we aimed to get half of it dug by the summer. We actually did a bit better than that in the end. Slow and steady is the way to go with clearing I think. Last winter I planted green manure on some of it and it did help to keep the weeds down.

teacuphalfempty · 16/09/2016 17:02

Sorry about all your rotten luck shove, and timtam hope your dh comes back/has come back with good news.

Have dug up half the raspberries from my freerange soft fruit corner and think I may reduce them even more (they have been covering a lot of space). I did have the intention of taking cuttings from my single blackcurrant bush but I've been waiting for three summers now for flavour to 'get going' and it just hasn't. I'll leave it where it is for now while I consider it's future. Will, however, have a go at taking cuttings from the goosegog - which is delicious Smile

VilootShesCute · 16/09/2016 17:04

I break into a cold sweat thinking about my allotment Sad

bookbook · 16/09/2016 21:53

Evening!
What a horrible week for you shove - lets hope that wraps up everything going wrong.
teacup - so you are raspberried out too :) Flavour does vary, no doubt My best one was sent as a twig from sending off Ribena wrappers - its an absolutely fabulous one, and a big currant, so relatively easy to pick. No idea what variety though...
Viloot - problems? can we help? It should be enjoyable if at all possible.
Well today was annoying - expected heavy rain all morning. So made alternative plans for the day. Rain finally turned up at about 10.45. Bit of heavy-ish rain. Stopped at 1.30. ah well, hopefully I can get in a bit extra tomorrow, and looking forward to picking up the seed catalogue too. :)

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WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeG0es · 16/09/2016 23:34

Oh no Shove, what a pain. Glad the other car owners are being understanding.

Book - I posted a photo of my cucamelon harvest on FB and a friend suggested pickling them. When I googled, all the recipes suggested adding a grapevine leaf as the tannins apparently keep the cucamelons crisper, I thought I'd have to leave that out but fortuitously, the very same day I went to visit a friend in her new house and they had a grapevine. Our rain stopped fairly early, thunder was from about 1 till 5 but I got back to sleep around 2, no real damage thankfully.

VilootShesCute · 17/09/2016 01:04

book it's just the over wintering and the sheer anount of weeds. Makes me want to cry. I lost all of my raspberry plants to some unknown disease and the whole fruit cage has literally been taken over by weeds. I haven't had the time over summer but need to get arse into gear. Sorry to be a moper!!

BellaGoth · 17/09/2016 06:22

Hello everyone! I've not had chance to garden lately with a newborn, but yesterday I managed a little weeding! Hopefully will do a bit more today. I need to dig out the last potatoes. I have an enormous pumpkin - do I just leave it in situ until Halloween? I don't want it to rot!

Shove are you still our resident bokashi expert? There's a thread in gardening that requires your input!

shovetheholly · 17/09/2016 08:55

Vilfoot: we have all been there with gardens and plots. It feels overwhelming. But you can do this! And you don't have to do it all at once (this is a recipe for exhaustion). Just a bit of work each week over the winter, which will be here soon, will sort it all out ready for next spring. We are all here to hold your hand! Sometimes the worst bit is oddly not the doing but the feelings before you start.

You are not the only one with rasp problems. My autumn ones need to come out too. Pathetic harvest with tiny tiny berries suggests some kind of virus. My fruit cage is too full anyway so it needs sorting out.

This summer, encouraged by this thread, I made jam for the first time. I have discovered that I love doing it!! So I am growing loads more fruit next year. I hope to have 3 rhubarb crowns, 1 kiwi vine, 2 blackcurrants, 2 redcurrants, 2 whitecurrants, rasps and strawberries and my 10 or so espalier apples (which I really need to get on top of, they are a right mess). What am I missing fruit wise?? There must be loads of lovely berries I haven't got or even heard of!!

shovetheholly · 17/09/2016 08:56

Oh and I had the strangest dream!! I was sitting on the floor watching Gardeners' World. And all you guys were sitting on a huge sofa behind me. But I wasn't allowed to turn around or you would all vanish. Bit I felt this tremendous sense of comfort knowing you were all there!!

shovetheholly · 17/09/2016 08:57

Oh, and book had made the BEST biscuits for us all to eat!!

Speaking of us all, I hope spotted is OK.

WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeG0es · 17/09/2016 12:42

Red cabbage update. Peeked under my mesh today and found that the cabbages I planted out at the end of June and have totally ignored apart from watering are fully grown.

Courgettes have started cropping again after a lull, raspberries doing nicely, chard prolific and I decided to harvest my first leek too.

Viloot - I frequently feel overwhelmed by my plot, had it three years now and still haven't cultivated all of it but being on this thread really keeps my spirits up when it all seems too much.

Allotment/Veg Patch Thread 6 -  Weed 'em and Reap!
bookbook · 17/09/2016 13:29

Afternoon!
Well, I managed to go and pick runner beans. And then I have had the most amazing gift. We have a champion veg grower on our site (he is a member of the veg growers society and wins prizes everywhere) I got given some of his reject carrots - they are beauties - here ( and ignore my wonky runner beans!)
WhoKnows -that is a lovely harvest - and thanks for the grapevine leaf tip - hmm sadly, I don't know anyone with a grapevine up here...
Viloot - its very easy to feel overwhelmed. When I first started I had a priority to do list , and just ticked off however small..It helped to feel I was in control somewhat!. So it may just have been - cut down raspberry canes. or, just dig for half an hour, or this particular patch, but it gave me a reason to be there, and if I got another tick, I felt as if I had really done some good.
Bella - lovely to hear from you . Pumpkins will store fine, just make sure the stalk is nice and hard ( corky) before you cut it off. Then leave somewhere cool and dry until you need it. Needs to be in before the frosts start.
shove - haven't you got gooseberries? They make amazing jam. And I think you said you had got a jostaberry. I have alpine strawberries, which have grown absolutely everywhere. I have an avalanche of runners. But It would need enormous amounts of the tiny things to make jam I suspect. I have mostly left them for a cheeky blackbird.I really like that idea of all on the sofa together - a rather large sofa Grin and thank you for thinking I can make good biscuits!

Allotment/Veg Patch Thread 6 -  Weed 'em and Reap!
OP posts:
GrouchyKiwi · 17/09/2016 16:11

How do you know if your plants have viruses etc and need to come out? I'm wondering about one of my raspberries. It hasn't really grown any fruit and has a lot of yellow leaves around the base. The upper leaves are fine.

I bought some gardening paint spray to mark out the shape for the new garden we're going to dig this Autumn. Marking the line is a lot harder than it looks! I'll try again after DH mows the lawns tomorrow.

bookbook · 17/09/2016 16:28

It can be tricky Grouchy - I have been humming and hawing about mine too. Typically yellowing along the veins and reduced fruit, crumbly fruit are markers. But I think yours are new canes aren't they? So no harvest to compare to in previous years. My harvest seemed pretty good- I dosed mine with sequestrene last year, an am going to give them a dose of Epsom salts this year.Then see ....
How about a rope/washing line for marking out as a first attempt - easy to move, then mark with paint :)

OP posts:
GrouchyKiwi · 17/09/2016 19:16

Thanks, books. I'll feed it some Epsom salts and see if it perks up.

I could use the hose to mark out the garden. Thanks for that idea.

shovetheholly · 18/09/2016 15:24

What a glorious day we are having!!

I've just planted in purple sprouting broccoli, radicchio, cape cauliflowers and down a big bed of green manure (winter rye). Also FINALLY tidied up my espaliers. My James Grieve apples are fruiting quite well and the apples are huge!! I am waiting as long as possible to harvest so they sweeten up (you can use them as cookers or eaters depending on when you pick). I did, however, get some fruit for today: a tiny crop off my favourite tree, the Laxton's Fortune and a few autumn rasps. Smile

VilootShesCute · 18/09/2016 20:20

Thanks shove. I'm going to prioritise. Doesn't help that the badgers ate every single one of my amazing sweetcorn, dug a huge hole next to the ruins and filled it with poo.

VilootShesCute · 18/09/2016 20:21

And thank you book, too Smile

VilootShesCute · 18/09/2016 20:22

Sorry shove getting confused here! Wink

bookbook · 18/09/2016 21:12

Evening!
A truly lovely day, yes shove :) I loved my James Grieve when I had one.
Viloot - badgers Shock thieving your sweetcorn and leaving poo! I'm not sure there is much you can do about them though,. Good that you can maybe see a way forward , and shove is the one who writes elegantly, and clearly. I just mumble on :)
I actually didn't spend too much time at the plot today - just a bit of hoeing and picking raspberries and brokali. Hoping to get a good stint in tomorrow
(Was however rather busy doing major shrub/tree clearing out at home while DH is able to saw/prune/lop).
I have my Kings seeds allotment catalogue, so may just have to go and browse now....

OP posts:
WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeG0es · 18/09/2016 22:10

No glorious weather here, a bit of half hearted sunshine this morning then cloudy the rest of the day. Another hour of weeding and not much else today, I do find hand weeding quite enjoyable in an odd way, but an hour is enough.

I think I want to get rid of my gooseberry bush. It is an awkward place and the thorns are treacherous. I have a sack full of bits I trimmed off it and I don't know what to do with them, I don't want them in my compost in case the thorns survive. I think I will lacerate myself (again) if I try and transfer them to the garden waste sack, think it needs to go. I'm sick of it and it's horrid thorns.

shovetheholly · 19/09/2016 09:24

Some gooseberries are just mean! You can get thornless ones, I think? (Pax?)

My thoughts are turning to sorting out a bed at the front of my house. It was intended to be a lovely herb garden, but owing to my plonking things just any old where, it doesn't look good at all (quelle surprise!). I think one problem is that I don't have enough height in it. So I'm looking for something the size of a very dwarf tree to use as a centrepiece. I'd like to keep everything in there edible, but it needs to be really ornamental this one, as I basically will be looking out of my front window straight at it. I do not need any more apple trees! Grin Any ideas oh wise, green-fingered folk?

BellaGoth · 19/09/2016 09:37

A bay tree?

Or maybe go a bit off piste and put in some sort of structure that you can plant somehow?

SunshineOutdoors · 19/09/2016 09:45

Hello! I'd love to join you, please. Got my allotment at the weekend after being on a waiting list for 2 years. It's fully enclosed so the kids can run wild, and I've already found a fig tree, an olive tree, a plum tree, rhubarb, raspberries, blackberries, a rather ill looking blueberry bush, a bed of lovely wild flowers, and some things I can't identify so will take some pics and maybe you can help me?
Currently trying to clear all the bindweed and dandelions that have taken over whilst the plots been unattended. We're planning on making a fire pit and spending some nice autumn afternoons up there. Off there now with ds(3) to pick some raspberries and black berries.

BellaGoth · 19/09/2016 10:07

Hello sunshine and congratulations on the plot. Roughly where in the country are you?

That blueberry is probably struggling because it needs acidic soil. I keep mine in pots with ericaceous compost.

There are some amazing plant identifiers here, so post away!