Allotment/Veg Patch - Thread 7 - The Harvesters Arms

[bookbook]

Well, it's been an interesting summer, to say the least.
We are now heading into the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness :)
Everyone welcome to join in and ask for advice , share their woes and just enjoy growing!
previous thread here

Back - it started raining again , before we even got there.

good thinking there shove re rhubarb !

Shovetheholly and Bookbook,

Thanks for replying, very much appreciated. Have you any experience with Pennard Plants? Their site is very informative and their seeds appear to be of good quality.

We have alot of fruit trees, there's pear, apple, plum, cherry and lots of berry brambles which I've mostly hacked away, I'm sure they'll be back. I don't think we have any rhubarb (does it disappear over winter?), I'll add that onto my list.

I have a nice and sunny side path which needs something to give us privacy from a friendly (but nosy) neighbour.

On the upside, it's a big garden. Downside, the leaves are taking over my life! Some of the tree's need to be pruned which will give us more sun in the garden. The neighbour's garden is beautifully sunny as they aren't overshadowed by trees.

Morning!
a quick dip in. ( babysitting DGS at my daughters today and guess what - its lovely outside!)
coolpattern - I haven't used Pennard Plants, so have no idea, sorry! How wide is your path separating you from neighbour? did you want something productive ( producing edibles) or just lovely? Just look upthread about leaves though - with a big garden, could you build a little leaf pen to chuck them into?

Morning!
Rather windy here ! I bet it is everywhere . It is supposed to be attempt #2 at laying paving stones ... we shall see. Do need to go and pick some sprouts and maybe broccoli too, regardless.
coolpattern - rhubarb does die down over winter, but it has a big rooty /brown leaf ends lumpy look to it ( or mine does anyway) and my early variety also has breaking growth ( somewhat frost damaged after last week!).
And it looks like snow later on in the week, but further south than me - how odd is that?

It's blowing a hoolie here! Unfortunately, down my road it is also recycling bin day and all the blue bins full of cardboard have blown over, scattering litter everywhere. It looks like the aftermath of some kind of festival.

Think I'm going to remain indoors until this has blown over. #nesh

my niece has just posted a picture of her back garden - the summer house ( quite a substantial looking thing) has blown over and collapsed.. There will be a bit of this today.
At least I put my cheapo plastic bench at the plot inside the shed the other day , so at least it wont be MIA !

Ooof book - I hope all her stuff inside was OK! It's still very, very windy here. Just went out to grab 20 minutes to sort out my hellebores and I swear I was nearly blown away. Expected to see the scarecrow, tin man and the lion any second! It was worth it for a glimpse of all the spring bulbs coming through, though.

Afternoon!
We did it ! paving slabs laid, and trellis up and secure . DH deserves a medal , but he has got an extra big slice of cake instead.
We went just before 2, the wind seemed to ease a tweak. He laid slabs. I weeded all around the base of the loganberry, which is an ongoing battle with couch, then helped with the trellis. The wind seemed to pick up again, but we managed, and I got my sprouts and broccoli picked . can put my feet up and knit now :)

Wow book - you did so well! It was really blustery here all of yesterday, right into the evening. High Bradfield, across the city, had gusts of 90mph! We're braced for snow this afternoon... I am about to move my echiums into the shed and under fleece for the umpteenth time this winter!

Afternoon!
I heard that High Bradfield had the worst of it in the UK on the news shove . The type when you need to tie yourself down. It wasn't as bad as that thank goodness! Will the echiums need travel sickness pills? The only thing I have done ( well a week ago) is to put my bay tree under the protection of my porch.
Well, it was nice today , but I didn't know it was going to be , so have been busy doing other stuff. And now the forecast says heavy snow overnight. I don't believe any of them :)

Morning!
Snow here - not a deep layer, but a proper covering.
Hope everyone else is okay, and not affected by the flood warnings/ice going to work
So glad we got done earlier in the week. The thing is , I need leeks ...... :)

Morning! We have snow here - not that much as a lot of it melted overnight but the lawn is just about covered. According to the weather forecast we're due a bit more at about 11am but the sun is out at the moment so don't know whether that will come to anything.

Nothing much to report on the gardening front as haven't done any. Bookbook you certainly seem to be getting a lot done on your plot this winter. Will you venture to get leeks or make do without?

Someone Shove? maybe asked about storing vegetables upthread. We store ours in the shed - potatoes in a bag and onions in old tights and garlic hung up. They keep pretty well - well the onions are anyway, the potatoes were eaten months ago! I'd think they'd be OK in a drawer as long as the room is cool. My parents store their veg in the garage which is mostly cold.

Yes, thinking of those in the East in particular, keeping my fingers crossed for y'all. So many flood warnings .

Snow here too book - well, there was at 6.30am anyway. Since then, it's stopped falling and the stuff on the ground has all melted, refrozen, and turned to ice. So it was fine and crunchy when I left the house first thing, but unfortunately I can't get the car back home now because it's so slippy. I had to leave it half way up the hill to my house and carry my shopping the rest of the way myself!

Cedar - I think we are on a roll! -, but really wanted to get some of the non growing stuff out of the way - we go away shortly for 3 weeks. Leeks - its a howling wind this morning, but the leeks were just for a vat of leek and potato soup to freeze, so it could wait
shove - you have been outside already? brave woman. I am just gearing myself up to go and feed the birds, and sort out their water. it is looking a bit horrid for them.

cedar - I cross-posted with you! Thanks for the info on veg storage. I'm wondering whether I could put my potatoes in the shed, but slightly concerned that they will be eaten by mice or other things in there? My shed (purposely) has openings under the ceiling for ventilation, so it's not exactly mouse-proof. Is this not a problem for you guys?

Well this year the potatoes didn't last long enough. There's no sign of damage from mice or (more likely as we've had them before in the garden if not in the shed) rats. The shed is sitting on a concrete base and there used to be at least one rat underneath it. It used to eat the slug bait I put out (I saw it doing it otherwise I wouldn't have thought it would).

I haven't ventured outside yet - I work from home on Fridays. It has clouded over now. It looks prettyish but not as nice as if we'd had a proper dumping of snow.

Book I could do with a 3 week holiday. Are you going somewhere sunny?

Back in , kettle on for coffee. Fed the birds and hung out washing - its fair breezy , quite bright and the snow is beginning to melt.
Same here with potatoes shove - they got used up pronto due to slug damage not making them worth trying to keep. The shallots and garlic don't seem to get touched though.
Cedar - yes, warm hopefully - Tenerife - go in 10 days time , so trying to get everything in order . Have to sow broad beans and sweet peas before I go too. Nice day for working at home :)

Afternoon!
well, I went and dug up leeks today - I chickened out yesterday
It was beautiful - gorgeous blue sky, bright sun , no wind and......1º :) .The digging of leeks was a tweak more tricky than normal. But I can get on and make soup now.
Everything looking okay after all the wind, luckily most things had managed to stay strapped down.
When I got home - a parcel of Jermor shallots , which I know I cancelled when I realised they wouldn't be here at the right time. Never mind , they will be spring planted instead, will just have to shuffle my planting plan round a little.

the best thing about growing leeks is that you get the best part - the green.
the white bit is nice, but the green is extra nice imo. they cut off too much of it in the stuff you can buy imo.

leeks-butter-glugg of white wine (or martini)-cream
great as veg for a roast dinner

I love what my DD calls creamy leeks
I just have an ordinary, but vat size , leek and potato soup on the go. I leave quite a bit of green on my leeks, but don't like them too tough . Tough ones go into making stock :)

book - your leeks look really good! I know you are disappointed, but I think you have really high standards! I hope the soup is lovely, leek and potato is my absolute favourite. There's nothing like it on a cold day. I think the green bits sometimes have the most flavour!

I'm not feeling great today. Combination of a cold that's been coming on all week and a dental abscess, which I foolishly thought I could ignore yesterday only to be kept awake half the night! I was lucky that I could get into a dentist first thing for help. I'm really upset because DH promised we could go out in the garden and shift a viburnum that really needs to be moved soon (it's too large for me to lift by myself, and I'm not one to ask for help normally!) and now I haven't been able to do is and I was so looking forward to it as well.

oh shove - not sure if hugs are appropriate, but a dental abscess you tried to ignore must have been agony. Hope it gets sorted out .
If it helps, the ground was very solid digging up the leeks - still fairly hard/ frozen the top couple of inches, so it may be it would have been a fruitless exercise anyway.

I forgot to ask - is that the viburnum with the beetle attack? Mine did very well after a hard prune, lots of lovely new growth ( I knew I wouldn't get any flowers , but needs must) Then the horrible beetles have gone and decimated it again. I was silly, not realising that they would have a second go, I assumed I could sort them out over winter. DH is now asking whether we need to dig it up and replace it with something else......

Bookbook There was something about this on GQT this week.
Q – The large Viburnums have succumbed to Viburnum Beetle – what should I do?

Pippa – You can do some hand picking and collecting. You can spray the grubs with insecticide. I would hang bird feeders nearby to bring in birds like Blue Tits to naturally control the beetles

Bob – You can cut Viburnums back very hard. Burn that. Then monitor the new growth carefully

found it!