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

I sort of train my pumpkin/courgette gently with bamboo sticks. just so that they spiral round and round instead of sprawling all over.

how does it work with pinching out pumpkin flowers? the dc want a great big one for halloween...

My courgettes were fairly compact last year (my first time growing them), they just sprouted from a central crown to about 18" diameter, no trailing. No one else in our house eats them unless I cunningly disguise them, I tried the spiralised and steamed instead of pasta thing and it was rejected by all including me. I love them raw in salads though, and the others will tolerate them that way too. I'd say about 1 per day per plant is right, you can almost sit and watch them grow, also they hide under the leaves and stems so it's easy to miss them till they get quite large.

I will leave a fair amount of space next to the squashes then.

thank you Spotted !
We don't pinch out the flowers. we chop off the runners once a fruit has set , and started to properly grow.( Though I usually leave about 3 per plant, one per runner ). For just 1 big one, i would let a few set, and pick what looks like the best, and cut the runner back to just beyond the fruit. And water like mad.

My tomatoes are in a greenhouse too - just not happy !

The melons grew very well to start with but predictably aren't looking happy now. I can't even get basil to grow. But dandelions....well....

We don't like courgettes enough to bother growing them. I don't even think the courgette chocolate cake recipe is enough to tempt me to give them a go.

With our pumpkins last year we just chopped off the growing stems. We had a variety which is supposed to produce a big sized pumpkin and I think we got one off each plant.

Bookbook my potatoes are coming up in a bed which we planted green manure in for the winter. So although it's been dug over at least three times (once to get the potatoes out, once to dig in the green manure and then again to plant the beans) there are several plants still sitting there. One, annoyingly, is trying to come up right next to where we've planted a bean. Why couldn't we find those potatoes last year when we wanted them!

Oh dear, I've got courgette fear now as all of mine have germinated, 10 green and 5 yellow.
Donating some to the school fair plant stall looks like the best option or I'll put my dc off courgettes for life

I like the courgette bamboo support idea BluePitchFork. Going to try that.

last year I planted my spare courgette seedlings on a verge near a bus stop. they did really well better than mine at home

Morning!
hahaha Ipanema - the first proper full year of my allotment, I was given 5 spare plants from a friend - I had 2 of my own. I know every courgette recipe known to man I think, and tested them all! (Courgette and gruyere muffins are good) The yellow ones I found not to be quite as prolific. But as far as i could tell, taste no different to the green ones, they just are yellow!
And hurrah - we have rain at last - gentle, but steady

Love reading about everyone's progress. My alllotment seems about 2 months behind in comparison. My tomatoes are about 7 inches high never mind bearing fruit. But hey ho.... I'm still enjoying it. That's what matters. :)

I'm going away in a couple of days for a month. It's too late to set some kind of irrigation system up but any ideas on what I can do for my chilli, pepper and cucumbers that are in the mini polytunnel? Should I just remove the cover and let them be rained on or ask someone to water them once or twice whilst I'm away?

DH was VERY interested in the Flamethrower-on-the-weeds suggestion. I think I'm going to have to keep an eye on him...

Sorry to whoever asked about my beer traps, kept meaning to say I just use dishes and cover with a tile (to stop the dogs drinking it - trust me, drunk Labradors are NOT FUN (and hungover ones are even worse)).

Sowed some more beetroot and parsnip - a little late but oh well, they have 2 choices! I then realized I've planted my pumpkins to close to where the parsnips are. Oops.

Got a little slug damage on the beans but not to bad yet. They're growing well so hopefully they'll survive. I've realized I forgot to allocate space on my plan for leeks. Disaster! I've been eyeing up the neighbour's neglected garden. I doubt they'd even notice...

Not sure when I'll be around over the next few weeks as MIL passed away suddenly in the night. Quite a shock. Will try and keep an eye on the thread though (if I can keep up!!)

I'm sorry to hear that Cupcakes

It was me that asked about the slug traps, good idea about covering them, drunk cats would be no better than drunk dogs.

Sorry for your loss, Cupcakes.

Re drunk labradors: many, many years ago my parents had a lovely labrador-retriever cross. My Mum used to make ginger beer quite often but one time they forgot about it and it fermented, so my Dad popped it outside. The dog found it, drank it, climbed into Dad's truck and got her head stuck between the gear stick and the seat because she was so drunk. She also vomited inside the cab of the truck, on top of the engine cover (which was inside the cab and used to get very hot while the truck was driving). The smell of cooked vomit is apparently one that takes a while to leave you...

The year I had courgette-a-geddon, I did loads with them. Including courgette cake (which was very very tasty!! and not at all courgette-like), lots of stuffed courgettes and marrow chutney. (Please don't ask for recipes - I think I got most of them through people on the Grapevine - the forum on the website of a veggie gardening and allotment magazine, possibly called "Grow Your Own").

My bought yellow courgette plant is trying to set fruits - but there's no male flowers yet (usually it's all male flowers and no females for me!). But if I get lucky, I'll get 1 male, hand pollinate, and have a handful of courgettes before I go on holidays, perhaps a couple on my overnight in the middle and another glut when I get back.

I also hope to get a couple of peas (a handful of pods have emerged) and some strawberries before we go. Nicely early in the season this year.

It's amazing watching the back garden thrive this year - better than the past 4 years at least. I've been doing a LOT of watering at night, and I need to start feeding this week as well (normally it's mid-July before that happens). My main gripe is with my window-box of dwarf French and dwarf broad beans - they keep keeling over and dying off. I have 2 French plants, and down to 4 broadies - having started with 9 frenchies germinating and about 12 broadies.

Sorry to hear about your MIL Cupcakes, I hope the next while goes ok for the whole family.

Sorry to hear about your MIL Cupcakes

Lulooo if you can get someone to water them for you that would be ideal. Otherwise, take off the polytunnel and hope for the best.

Luloo - if I noticed that a neighbouring plot had wilting plants I would give them a quick watering while I did my own. And it's bound to rain some of the time! Whenever my friend and I agree to water each other's plots it always rains so we don't need to.

Managed about 2 hours up at the plot this morning, makes a nice change for me to get so long up there. Hand clearing of couch grass though, pretty tedious. I also popped in a few more broad bean seeds and radishes and had a good chat with a plot neighbour who I rarely bump into (3rd time in nearly 3 years?). Anyway, I have space for my tomatoes to go out now and then I haven't got much more to get out until my leeks, brassicas and chard get bigger, planning to get them out in about a month. Still got a lot of couch clearing to do though.

Afternoon
sorry for you and family Cupcakes
Lulooo - do you know any of your neighbours on the plot? We had reciprocal watering/picking for holidays - just in general passing as much as anything, but it worked quite well. A month in a polytunnel may well do for your plants if you don't get them watered. Could you rig it to be well open at the top? Cucumbers are a bit like squash/pumpkins - they trail everywhere, and set fruit regularly, so in a month, there may be quite a few....
It rained all morning here, so popped there once it had stopped after lunch. Finished netting everything now, the strawberries are looking good, but a while to ripen I think. Picked spring greens for tea, and noticed my direct sown beetroot have finally germinated .
BiddyPop - if there is no sign of slugs/snails hiding away, is there something else coming along to nibble through the stems? Any signs at all?

sorry for your loss cupcakes

I'm stuck in the office still, but have a loooooong list of things to do for the weekend!

Grrrrr don't know what is more annoying. Couch grass or lost posts! Anyways I am a bit crispy from an afternoon in the allotment in the hot sun with poorly applied sun cream. I met a really inspiring lady. She took on her first plot in 2014. It was was bad as mine and she was a complete novice. She now has two full plots oozing with produce and was looking after a third for a man in hospital. She gave us some beautiful lettuce some mange tout and some tomato plants. This is why I wanted an allotment. Interesting people and free stuff.

Cupcakes I hope you and your family are ok.

some of my early potatoes have started flowering, we planted them exactly 10 weeks ago. I've only earthed them once. Is it worth earthing up again or should I just harvest? The leaves haven't started going yellow, they're a healthy green!

carrots are popping up under the fleece, seem to have ok germination.

we have no butterfly and the birds are kept out, but we have loads of cabbage whitefly over our brassica bed :( the net has about 1cm square opening... should I replace the net with enviromesh or something like that?the bed mostly has kale so it's a bit bothersome!

Hope everyone has a productive weekend at the allotment, I for one can't wait. #addictedtoweeding

Oh Cupcakes so sorry for your loss.

Hia 1cm sounds like it might leg things through, alas... And the net mustn't be touching the plant also, as they can just lay their eggs through the mesh in that case. Have you looked scaffolding /debris net?

Bellende I have an allotment inspo too. She has soooo much growing -loads of different things and her plot is so bounteous. Her whole plot is long vertical beds running the length of the plot with small paths between. She grows everything direct and hardly waters - yet somehow it's amazing. She said the secret is her soil -she's been there 12 orc 15 yrs, I forget which, and nutures the soil and not the plants.

My tea tonight was a fat salad with homegrown broadies, lettuce, radish, herbs and baby leaves - ok, thinning of chard and kale. So proud!

I need to get more compost this weekend and finish planting my potted tomatoes at home, as well as erect my 2nd arch, plant out my last beans and my last squash. Er, and the kale and broccoli raab... Then, Operation Salad Leaf will start in earnest.

Evening!
that lady is truly dedicated Belleende :)
HiaHia for earlies , I would just try an experimental furtle around the roots -( just try and scrape the earth away) . And see whats there - thats the exciting bit!

forgot to say - butterfly netting is best at 7mm - mine is nearer 8mm , but seems to work! , and yes to what Spotted said - try to keep the net well above the plants

I'm so, so sorry cupcakes. You and your lovely family are taking a battering at the moment by the sounds of things. It isn't fair.

Sending you very unmumsnetty hugs and .

Ah thanks guys. We're doing Ok, DH in total denial though. It'll hit him hard eventually. Good job we've got this baby on the way to bring a bit of brightness!

I'm loving hearing these tales of inspirational allotmenteers! I might start loitering around our local ones to see if anybody inspires me.

Torrential rain here yesterday which has filled the water butts thank goodness, but has brought out the slugs. I am fretting about going away today and leaving my beans unguarded!!