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

Evening!
Gardening does that - highs and lows. We lost quite a few on the allotment site after a really bad year from an explosion of rabbits absolutely ruining peoples plants. And then readjustments happen - fencing put up etc, and gradually everyone settles down again. Same with blight too...
I think that a lot of people don't really understand what climate change might look like. Being somewhat ( a long time ago) trained in science, to me it was always going to be about extremes. And that needs to be allowed for. As you say shove - the flood risk details are just a joke now .
Well, no plot today . I had managed to ignore/forget the fact that these next few days were booked in for decorating. ( I will just say- I hate decorating.) But it's gone surprisingly well today, so I can go down to the plot tomorrow morning , while DH carries on with the bits I'm not good at < whistles innocently > :)

Oh, good luck with the rubbing down and painting, book. It's such a slow, painstaking job - and one I am with you in disliking. It's good when it's done, though! Like your plan of escaping to the plot!

I am starting to put together my seed order today! I notice King's are doing giant Kohl Rabi that do not go woody. Even though I grew far too many this year, this sounds like a challenge too good to pass up. (I can always give half of each one to my neighbours!)

I agree with you about people not 'getting' climate change - I wonder if the term 'global warming' has perhaps done damage. It's so often misinterpreted (people saying on exactly the kind of unusually warm, wet winter's day that is indicated: 'When's this global warming going to happen?'!)

Also, a heads up to everyone about the Real Junk Food Project. If you have one near you, and a glut at your allotment, you can take it down and it will be cooked up into a meal for the community. The guy who heads it up is amazing. Video of it here:

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/the-real-junk-food-project-founder-adam-smith-on-how-to-make-restaurant-quality-meals-out-of-food-a7316231.html

Good morning allotmenters!

I FINALLY have my allotment! If anyone remembers, I 'got' my allotment back in July but the paperwork wrangling with the council became a ridiculous saga.... however, I finally got the key about 10 days ago, just in time for my Dad (who is retired and an experienced allotmenter) to come and spend 3 days with me to kickstart the plot. We cleared weeds (some were taller than me!) and uncovered almost all of the plot - there was tonnes of rotten carpet and perished black plastic stuff under huge matts of weeds, dug out a lot of bigger weed roots and dug over 3 of what will be 4 rotational beds, and a bed that will be my cut flower patch as well. Even planted some late potatoes in one bed, and some echinacea, coreopsis and scabious plug plants that arrived - I'd forgotten I ordered them!

I am so happy to finally have my plot, and have been down every day since, even if only for half an hour before work. Just going through everywhere digging out weed roots basically. I have a plan laid out, and autumn/winter will be mostly spent digging, tidying and doing structural stuff - building the greenhouse, making the pond, preparing beds. Planning on starting a lot of fruit in a few different areas - a main soft fruit bed that I will eventually build a cage around, as well as a few mini dwarf trees and vines in other spots. And the other big project is sorting out the perennial bed, which will be a lot of digging as it's the least tackled area so far, but I need to get it ready to put some asparagus in to get it started.

So far we have had one meal of small potatoes we found in one area, and a single surviving fig I shared with my Dad! I have a huge mature fig tree at the top of the plot, but someone else foraged the figs this year. Lots of baby fruit already set for next year though :)

So I am very happy to finally be able to properly join the thread! Yay!

Wow PhoenixJasmine they really did take their time over letting you actually get on the plot didn't they? Sounds like you've made a good start. It's a good time to get one because you can spend the autumn and winter clearing and planning ready for next spring.

Someone was up looking at a plot near ours the other day with having a view to taking it on. She asked me how long we spend up there and I said on average a couple of hours over the weekend and more during the summer with watering, etc. I think I may have underestimated actually how much time I do spend up there.

Not much to report from here. We're harvesting a few beans still, spinach and beetroot but not much else. Leeks are coming on and one or two could be harvested but it's been so warm recently that I haven't fancied making the soups, stews, etc that leeks are so useful for. The rest need to get a move on and grow a bit more (they were a second late sowing because the slugs took the first lot)

I was very jealous of the picture of the rejected carrots a couple of pages back. My carrot harvest this year has consisted of one teeny tiny one and there's one still in the ground. And that is it. Oh to be able to give away good sized ones because they're not big enough!

That's wonderful news phoenix. And what a great time of year to get it - as you say, you can get it all ready over the winter for next spring!

I feel like we should have some induction ceremony to commemorate the special moment someone first gets a plot.

book shall present you with this GOLDEN TROWEL!

on the tomato front: we didn't have many as was late planting them. but the varieties we had were amazing: green zebra & black krim.
really juicy (not floury) and intense tomato flavour. and pretty as well

Morning!
Back from the plot, coffee in hand :)
Phoenix - fantastic news, and what a wonderful kickstart for you- perfect timing for getting on top of things - respect to the Dad too . And another one with a fig tree....
Cedar - those rejected carrots were rejected because they were not even enough to have 3 the same !
shove - maybe a golden trowel - and a bottle of Radox Muscle Soak ?
I managed about an hour of digging/weeding , then another hour harvesting - raspberries (lots - sigh) 3 rather too large courgettes (another sigh) and 4 leeks gone to seed ( yet another sigh - I will not be growing 'Prizetaker' again). And a bit of looking around - the Borlotti beans are looking good, I need to take out the French Beans and the wigwams. And I now have - ta-da 9 , yes 9! butternut squashes set , all in the last week or so , all right at the end of long runners., straggling through the strawberry patch. These were the replacemnet 'runt' plants that I put in after the evil slugs munched the first ones. They are all small, but I am now hoping against hope we have a long autumn and no frosts...

btw - thanks shove for that link - there is one in York, quite near to where my DH goes for his physiotherapy, so could easily drop off stuff . :)

Thank you for the welcome! And the golden trowel shall hang pride of place in my shed

Spent a few hours allotmenting today, it was my afternoon off. Picked up the second lot of brick pavers that I got free from gumtree, and laid them out edging around the pond (currently a big hole- but will be a pond!) and the bed next to it, which will be flowers/herbs under my mini dwarf fruit trees, and the bed around the shed as well, plan to grow something viney up the shed and more herbs in the bed around it as well. The first lot of pavers are going to be greenhouse base.

Then did some more digging, rotational bed 4 is now half dug over and I got another half a barrow of weed roots out, very satisfying.

I'm thinking of painting my shed. It's 6x4, but it's a double shed in that it's 6x8 in total, but with a dividing wall down the middle with a door each end, so one half is mine and the other is my plot neighbour's. I am a colourful person in general.....so I'd really love to paint my shed something colourful, maybe lavender or pale blue. There's nothing in the allotment rule book to say I can't paint my half of the shed, but should I talk to my plot neighbour first? The site secretary's plot is also very close, so maybe I should ask them as well.

Welcome Phoenix and congratulations! It sounds like you've made great progress already. I love this time of year, harvesting crops and thinking ahead to next year. Well, I'm not harvesting crops. I had a baby instead. I do have a pumpkin and some tomatoes though.

Re: the shed. I think I'd chat to your neighbour first, just to be polite! They might want to do their half too.

Apologies in advance but I need to talk about poo (all I seem to do these days!). We have a friend with a stable. He has offered us bags of horse manure. It's droppings only, no straw or anything. It's all bagged up in thick rubble bags. Obviously as it's fresh I need to rot it down but I'm very short on space. It needs to stay covered otherwise the dogs will eat it. Can I leave it in the bags and lay it over the veggie patch? There's nothing growing in it over winter. I'm thinking the bags would keep the weeds down? Then could I just open the bags in the spring? But not on the bit I plan to grow roots, is that right. Alternatively I have enough pallets to make a temporary bin. Which would be better?

I started clearing some of the grass on my patch yesterday, and it just pulled up like carpet! It was really odd, there were just a few tufts of it that had grown really long...

bella - with my manure, I dump it in a big pile on the earth and then cover it with weed sheeting. It seems to be fine - I would worry a bit that being surrounded by plastic in bags, odd things might happen to the way it decomposes, but I've never tried it so I am guessing (which probably isn't that helpful for you!!) You could spread it on the beds and cover??

And yes, we do seem to spend ages obsessing about poo and rotten stuff, don't we?!

I wonder whether you'd need to have air holes in the bags to help with the rotting down? Just thinking that that's what you have to do with leaf mold if you are using a bag to store the leaves in.

I like the golden trowel

Evening!
well, I managed to sneak an hour today in between splattering paint everywhere.. So I took out the beans and wigwams. Left the borlottis, which will need picking shortly, and one wigwam with a late planting bunch of overflow runner and french beans ( only half a dozen) which are still producing. Also dug up some beetroot , and picked courgettes and runner beans. I have to pop in first thing tomorrow and pick some cavalo nero and perpetual spinach. (I am copying Lulooo and doing a veg box, for a dear friend who has an allotment , but has been going through chemo, so has not been able to do much this summer.)
Phoenix - some sites require certain colours on sheds ( sad eh?) but maybe just have a word with the site secretary to be sure , and then have a nice chat with the NDN - you could be colour co-ordinated!
Mine is dead boring brown , as we have a 4 sheds so tend to buy big tins of the stuff when on special offer - which will do both at home and the plot.
Bella - mm, I have the thought that the droppings may end up rotting but not in a good way. I would do the temporary bin myself, and cover with the rubble bags to keep the rain off. Or do as shove says, and spread it out on the veg patch and cover. I think there is time to rot down for next spring.
shove - a thought - have you heard anything about your perennial cauliflowers? I have it on my calendar that they are due about now.

Sorry to hear about the flooding, Timtam. That must be really gutting.

Re painting the shed, I'd just ask. Always better to ask than not. I'm getting excited about next year already. I'm planning to create a fruit cage and rejig my new plot, so should get my fix over next few months. Am planning to sow some 'winter' lettuce, though a bit jaded about overwintering stuff after last year - didn't seem worth the effort!

Talked to the allotment rep about my neighbour blocking our path and she's marked out the boundaries (along with some other overgrown paths). Am pleased she's done it. Just hope neighbour doesn't get nasty - he's not a very nice man.

book - not a peep about the caulis here either! Was thinking about this the other day. I could do with them arriving so they can go in while the soil is reasonably warm. I'll send an email chasing and let you know!

Just heard back - apparently the caulis will be sent later this week! Hooray!

Afternoon!
fingers crossed for me then shove - I have just emailed them too :)
dahlias - sounds like your allotment rep is on the case - quite a good ploy that, as he may be annoyed, but not at you specifically!
I have had a lovely day out. I was carrying an old fashioned bag of veg with a sheaf of very large spinach beet leaves poking out of the top. I was at an Italian food market stall and was asked where I had got it from by the stall holder - he had his eyes on them ! and felt rather proud :). My friend brought me an enormous bag of jerusalem artichokes as a swap . So - any recommendations for recipes? I am assured they are the newer ( non- wind producing ) variety

There's non-windy Jerusalem artichokes?

Just back from a lovely 4 hours allotmenting. Weeded the first 2 rotational beds, dug over the rest of the fourth rotational bed and the bed in front of the shed which will be a vining fruit and herbs. It's one of the smallest beds but it was a lot of hard work, full of bramble roots and then I discovered carpet and rotting bin bags 3 inches down! But it is clear and dug over now. Had a good chat with the site secretary too - apparently painting sheds anything apart from brown is not the done thing! He liked my plans for the pond and flower patches though and the brick edging I've done at the top of the plot as well. And in return for helping him pull a few things up ive come home with celery, turnips, yellow beetroot, kohl rabi and tomatoes! Very generous man, and helpful with hints and tips too.

Having a hot shower now and then have a 2 hour immersive yoga session tonight.... I am going to sleep very well later!!!

Hello all, newbie here!! Very excited about taking on a half plot next weekend, but we are complete novices and don't have much idea other than it'll be blooming hard work and if were lucky we might have some lovely fresh produce to eat next year!

We're very lucky that we will inherit a shed and a greenhouse from the previous tenant. We are next to a big water trough too so watering will be easier than it is for some people on our site.

We are trying to plan what we'll do... We would like a fruit cage (DH is looking forward to building one) and we have one raised bed a bit below waist height. But the question is... on a half plot, how do you organise everything else?! Rows vs beds? If you have beds, how big and how many?

Are there any good tv programs to watch... a kind of gardeners world for allotments?

I'm so excited but completely lost! Looking forward to picking up tips from this thread and learning from others at our allotment site - we've been a few times to check it out and everyone has been so friendly, there's a great sense of community and tranquility there.

Welcome cupcake! Such an exciting time for you. I've not seen any veg growing programmes, but you'll get lots of help and advice here! Roughly where in the country are you? And do you know your soil type.

Thanks for the advice re manure, I'll get DH to build me a bin.

Hoping to get out a bit later on if DCs allow, really want to have a good tidy in the greenhouse.

Hi cupcake

I'm only very new too, but in terms of programmes I have found loads of YouTube channels run by amateur allotmenters which document their allotment adventures. Some of my favourites are Sean James Cameron (The Hort Channel), Lavender & Leeks, Sam the Allotment Man and Jane's Allotment. I've garnered lots of ideas and inspiration from watching them. I do watch Gardener's World as well - which you can watch on YouTube too.

I have a half plot and am going down the bed route. Beds ideally no wider than you can reach into the middle from either side, to minimise walking on the soil you'll have spent a lot of time and effort getting perfect! I am laying out 4 rotational beds 3 x 15ft each, a perennial bed that is a bit wider and longer, a cut flower patch, a soft fruit bed that will eventually have a cage built around it, a small shade bed under some trees at the back for things like wasabi and mint, and then a few miscellaneous beds for herbs, mini dwarf fruit trees, wildflowers around a pond, some pretty flowers behind the greenhouse that will be seen as you approach the plot etc. Even with all that I've found space for compost bins, a little seating area etc. I have gone about it by thinking about what do I want to grow, prioritising things and then going from there. I had an idea sketched out of what my layout would be but it has been tweaked quite a lot since getting onto the plot. It'll probably be tweaked a lot more as I go on!!! My plot is my only
outside space - live in a flat - so it is going to be more of a proper kitchen garden type space to spend time in as well, rather than 'just' a patch of land to grow veg on.

Time will tell if all these grand plans will work out though! I'm off back down the plot for more digging this morning :)

I did not know there were non-windy Jerusalem artichokes!! I would love to know more because I do like the flavour... Just not the (ahem) after effects!

Afternoon!
well, feet up a bit now - morning at the plot, this afternoon finishing up and re- tidying after decorating.( which is almost as bad!)
Phoenix - all that work - you are going to be exhausted , but content I bet.!
Shame about the shed , but maybe you can have hanging baskets of tomatoes and climbing plants to reduce the severity of the brown? And there is nothing worse than finding rotting carpet and such - just yuk, but a real feeling of achievement too to know you have got rid.
Welcome littlecupcake! it sounds like you are off to a good start with a shed and a greenhouse. I think how you manage your plot - both rotational and looks wise, is a very personal preference thing. First off, the most important thing is to only grow what you like to eat. This may affect how many beds you feel you need . Mine started off in good fashion with grass paths dividing up the space. I got rid of those, as the weeds and couch grass just kept invading.. Its now divided into areas for rotation, but marked out by posts at 2 m intervals along the paths, just for reference really ( and also to anchor nets and fleece to) and to walk around, not across! Lots do raised beds. or do a variation of deep beds with flattened ground/bark/flagstones/weed membrane between them. I would do a very good plan to scale - measure carefully. Then map on there the shed/greenhouse and any trees that might give shade. See where the sun comes from and go from there. It may be worth going to the library , and seeing if they have any allotment books in. My personal favourites are The Allotment Book by Andi Clevely , and also the fruit and vegetable growing section in the RHS Encyclopedia of Gardening, but there are loads to choose from.
I will get back to you on the non windy jerusalem artichokes, hopefully not with tmi! Am planning to roast with garlic and shallots in olive oil and ghee I think...
So today I managed a fair amount of digging/weeding . Then went to uncover the cauliflowers from the enviromesh to weed, and plant spring greens next to them. I have been keeping my eye on one at the end of the row, almost ready to pick,, but not quite. Well - that is looking good - next to it is not a blind cauliflower ( as I thought ) but a sprouting broccoli in full go , and then next to that was a great big cauliflower hidden completely by the leaves bent over due to pushing against the mesh! ) . Just shows how much I notice... So that has come home. I dug up the last of the potatoes - a few badly got by slugs , but on the whole a darn sight better than I expected. I needed to get that area ready to plant garlic and shallots. Then the last pick of sweet peas. They will need to come up this week, though the other flowers have just enough on for me to want to give the bees a bit longer go at them. I started picking raspberries, but I was ready for home then , so only did about half of what I should have done.
shove - I have a reply too - plants are being packed, ready for despatch. Now where was I planning on putting them....:)

littlecupcake -welcome!

I don't have much to add to phoenix and book's advice except:

• Work out what soil, aspect you have and make a plan that works with it.
• It feels like a BIG area at the start. Make life as easy as possible for yourself by weedsheeting anything you're not using.
• Little and often is better than having huge sessions that are more spaced. For your body, mind and for the garden too!
• You still have time to get in one of the faster maturing green manures to dig in next spring.