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!
a busy day, not in a gardening sense.
No rain here, just damp in the air, which turned humid when it warmed up this afternoon.
WhoKnows - for the first time, I have had one of my squashes eaten to death. Luckily I have 3 spare 'insurance' plants, so have already chucked, re dug , raked and replanted.( yesterday) .hoping no more depradation.
Cedar - its miserable gardening in the rain , you just end up clarted.
That sounds like a busy diary Biddy - I have just got in from a committee meeting - my eyes were trying to close...:)
Now Spotted - you know what grow lights are used for , dont you? :)
And everywhere it is raining - its June !!!! the slugs are busily munching on my summer cabbages
High Five teacup for carrots!-( sorry --- DGS has been here today). We prune gooseberries early spring ( Feb/March)
Raspberries are just a bit away here , dependant on weather!!!! but there are loads of varieties.

Showers on and off all day here, no gardening but I have just made the rhubarb and vanilla jam which was very easy and is very tasty :)

If you'd like to swap your rain for my miserable-but-dry weather then please let me know. My garden could use a good soaking.

Slugs are everywhere again. Need to get back out there with the sluggo.

DD1 helped DH pick some spinach for dinner tonight. She was so delighted. I love that.

Slugs are everywhere again- so true.
I had DGS today, and while in the garden this morning ( 8.30.....urghhh) playing football, we ended up watching snails, slugs and worms . I had to dispense with them while he wasn't looking. He was fascinated by the snail who was making its way across the grass

Evening !
Hope every ones okay. DH and I had a 'recharge the batteries' day today, so no plot.
But I had a lovely time pottering in the garden and greenhouse. I potted up some spare pepper plants into the big pots , ready to go and live on my DD s windowsill. Planted up a spare planter with some of the overflow annuals that i still have loads of.
And I cracked folks...... organic slug pellets have come out for the first time for many, many years. The blighters ( or maybe snails?) have started chomping on tomato and aubergine leaves in the greenhouse- thats apart from my calabrese seedlings :( - down to 3 from 8 , but I will plant out some more Brokali to compensate, which they have not tried to chomp yet - fingers crossed.
Hopefully up to the plot tomorrow, to hoe and water - still no rain... -( sorry to those in the throes of Noahs Flood !)

We finally got our rain today, and it's meant to last three days, so it will be an inside week. Which isn't going to drive me insane at all with two children who'd rather be outside.

book Brokali?

yes Grouchy Brokali :) - its a cross between broccoli and kale , and is lovely, and starts earlier - harvest from July . I found it a couple of years ago in the seed catalogue, and have grown it every year since. The variety is Atlantis that I have had - though there may be others now

here
www.kingsseeds.com/Products/Vegetables/Brokali/Brokali-Atlantis-F1

Looks delicious. Does it take up less space than regular broccoli? I want to grow some but don't have the room.

yes - quite a tidy plant -about 2 ' tall - and more like a calabrese size, not the enormous sprouting broccoli. You pick the head, and it gets extra smaller shoots on the side like sprouting. We have really liked it - but we do love broccoli in whatever form!

That sounds amazing bookbook... One for next year!

Speaking of broccoli, our purple sprouting has already started... sprouting. Is this normal? Are we supposed to pick already (we have erm)?

Oooh, I like the idea of brokali!

FOUR Smith periods in a row here since the weekend. FOUR. My poor potatoes. I am desperately hoping they will be OK. The only things enjoying this are the wretched slugs!

Afternoon!
HiaHia - some varieties are early -(for summer) and you are in the SW if I remember? So just a bit early, or they are totally confused ( a bit like the rest of us this season)
well, managed a stint at the plot this morning.Hoed in the brassica cage and planted more Brokali - I wonder if seeds sales will soar? Planted out a few cauliflowers for succession, and yet more annuals for cut flower bed - thats almost full now. Nice to see that things are starting to flower- more cosmos, dahlias already, but borage just about to break bud as well.
On a less good note, my overwintering shallots are staring to go to seed -
:( and nowhere near the size of last years. I was speaking to the absolute best plot holder/grower ( across the path from me - his plot is just amazing) and even his are doing the same - down to wet and cold earlier in the season. The spring planted ones are still okay though. Just reminds me yet again, not to put all the eggs in one basket!. Have put straw around 2 of my squash plants - the slugs are still making a meal of them, but not the other 3 - how weird is that? First courgette has set .Flower buds just starting to appear on one or two potato plants ( oh and said plot holder is also due to sign up for blight warnings....) And to make up for all the poor news- the first 2 strawberries ! And at home, first cucumber has set

For those who ‘know’ me. Lightning struck twice this morning. Wise after the previous event, having noticed that a storm was getting rather close, I disconncted all (brand new)TV/set top box equipment from electricity and satellite/arial. Just in time. The strikes were only about a minute apart. The first strike interrupted the electricity, the second strike tripped it. I waited until I was really sure the strom had moved on before I switched it back on again. I’m feeling picked on now. (3 times in one year, never before in my life!!!)

Spotted not sure what my raspberries are. I get crops now and more in autumn. Might be 2 types in one big mass . . .

Shove + book - blight - have already had to remove a couple of arms off my cherry tomatoes, been spraying all of them with copper spray. As soon as I see signs on the potatoes, I take that leaf/section off. Thing is, one or two of them haven’t much leaf left. Think I might harvest them this week (Charlotte and Anya), a bit earlier than I would like (no flowers), but better than them all being blighted.

PurpleTeepee beans were planted a couple of days ago. The first of the White Lady runners has reached the top of the cane. Broadies nearly ready to start picking. When it dries out a bit, I’ll start potting up some of those asparagus seedlings. Slugs are attacking my courgettes again.

My cofused Conference pear tree has just started to produce more blossom buds.

Hi, am I able to join?

This is my first year growing veg, I have a titchy garden so am growing:

Sweetcorn, potatoes, courgette, winter squash, onions, peppers, chillies, strawberries, loads of herbs, green beans, cucumber & beetroot.

I have delusion of grandeur & am considering a dwarf cherry tree in a pot & have just bought a dwarf raspberry bush on Groupon :)

DP has just jetwashed the paths & I lost 3 of the green bean plants & my courgette to it, I planted some winter squash seeds & assume they are dead as not a sausage from them.

But otherwise all fine :)

midnight - squash seeds take ages to sprout. i had a nightmare this year - in the end i balanced some on radiators (no good now as they are off) and put some in the airing cupboard. Continuous heat is what they like apparently

Ah thanks dreaming, mine were in the ground at mid May so maybe the cold killed them.

I'm planning to buy some winter squash shoots next week, there's a man at my local market who sells them as small plants :)

Blimey, Teacup that's awful. Do you live at the top of a massive hill or something? Poor you!

Welcome Midnight - I'm quite sure that you need a cherry tree. I have a dwarf cherry tree in a pot. It's its 2nd year and I have about 8 fruits forming. I shall save them from the squirrelly thieves and eat them all myself. Hopefully.

I feel so behind this year. My courgettes are so far off flowering. In fact they've stalled a bit since being planted out. My french and runner beans are nowhere near the top of the canes, nowhere near flowering. (I am picking a ton of broadies though, including some for the freezer.) My strawbs seem some way off, and am having to make sure that he rain isn't rotting the nascent fruits and the plants themselves. I wonder if their long season last year - I was getting the odd fruit in December, IIRC, bit definitely November - has knocked the plants back. That, and the rain.

It's rained again today, of course. The back lawn is back to squelching, and if you walk on it, you leave behind a water - filled footprint. And Tis been really windy here, and the wind has whipped and ripped the foliage of my potatoes in pots and bags. So I'll have to harvest sooner than planned.

I am dreading blight, which would pretty much put the kibosh on my whole growing!

And yes, booky I do know what grow lights are used for. Tomatoes, right?

Afternoon (again!)
I thought it was supposed to rain this afternoon, so planned on cake baking. But it hasn't so did an hour of home gardening as well as baking :)
teacup - well prepared after last time - you do lead an exciting life! How do you get used to living at the top of a valley when that can happen anytime?
welcome Midnight - thats a lot to pack in a titchy garden- but trees are so worth it! yy to squashes needing warm and time, so good plan to buy some ready germinated. And oh dear - some of us do have slightly heavy-handed partners. ( Cupcakes and WhoKnows will testify to that :) ) You can still buy courgette and bean plants I bet.I do think everything does seem a bit 'on hold' at the moment- almost waiting to get going. Nothing is really going strong - my beans are okay, but a long way from the top of the canes, the squashes are sort of 'sitting' there , and the peas are just slow.- I forgot to say, I hoed off one of my kale plants this morning , so a self inflicted loss-
Spotted - not herbs then

Lightning strikes? Wow Teacup

Welcome Midnight I've borrowed Alys Fowler's gardening book from the library which is all about growing vegetables in a small garden. She packs in loads of stuff. I'm thinking of trying some of her methods next year - she broadcast sows mixed seeds rather than planting in rows. Very interesting stuff.

Quick trip to the plot last night for a bit of weeding and a rather hopeless attempt to earth up the potatoes. Some of my potatoes are starting flower - I think it's the maincrop ones and it seems a bit early.
Carrots seems to have disappeared altogether - I know they had germinated but the row seems to have gone. Beetroot are doing well so far. Radishes look awful as they are being attacked. Don't think I'll bother next year. Leeks seem to be taking forever to do anything very much. Second sowing of peas doesn't seem to have resulted in anything much so far. Oh and in my enthusiasm for weeding I think I've weeded where I'd put in more beetroot seeds so I don't suppose they're going to do anything now!

Runner beans and climbing french beans are about half way up the poles now and have one or two flowers starting to appear. Strawberries have lots of fruit appearing - I need to get some net over them. These were given to me by my plot neighbour and I just shoved them in for now so I'm pleased they're doing anything.

Yesterday had first cropping from cut and come again salad leaves (these are in a pot in the back garden for convenience). This is about the only thing that is anywhere near edible. At the moment it is all about patience and weeding

Cedar my maincrops are flowering and my first earlies are way behind them

Similarly my runner beans are barely a quarter up their poles, and I sowed and planted out at the right time etc.

At the dentist right now and going to head off to the allotment afterwards (its right next door) and dreading how wet it will be. It was covered in puddles on Sunday and rained heavily and continuously here for the rest of Sunday, Monday and Tuesday so a bit worried about how it will be doing.

Hope its not been slugged

lightening
you must now play the lottery

the warm and wet weather has meant a plant explosion in my garden. unfortunately mostly weeds...

loads and loads of black currants, the whole bush is tipping over due to the weight. must support it before is gives way too much!
loads of strawberries. lots of male flowers on courgette&pumpkin.

Teacup while that sounds awful and Im glad you are ok, it sounds very exciting!

I pulled up one of my (very leek rusted) soft neck garlics as the leaves looked half died back to see if it was ready for pulling. I think it isn't and this is just 'green' garlic, but what do you lot think? I haven't grown it before.

Teacup while that sounds awful and Im glad you are ok, it sounds very exciting!

I pulled up one of my (very leek rusted) soft neck garlics as the leaves looked half died back to see if it was ready for pulling. I think it isn't and this is just 'green' garlic, but what do you lot think? I haven't grown it before.

they look perfect!