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

anyone watching the edible garden?
a slightly pretentious programme and a bit dull but with some ideas about herbs and companion plants.

last year I saved seeds from my giant american pumpkin, so I will try to grow that this year.

1 or 2 courgette plants?
my leeks and beetroot look very pretty on the windowsill but have some way to go before I can plant.
tomatos: I plant to sow in a couple of weeks time. green zebra, black krim (a firm favourite, so tasty!), tigerella.

took loads of cutting from shrubs in the garden (ceanothus, wisteria and an everygreen thingy which bees love) a few weeks ago, they are looking good (as in not dead yet) so far.

oh, anyone know where we could find a good bonsai pot? dc has a sycamore(?) which currently is residing in a 5l tomato pot but needs it's final home.

redbugmug those tomatoes sound interesting - do you buy online? I've got window sills covered in wet kitchen roll and pricey artyfarty tomatoes seeds to germinate. DH had an anti- bramble rampage today and came back ranting about their sneaky ways. Weather is generally awful and almost completely horizontal at the moment. Plum tree is in a relatively protected spot but I think the best hope is only a few of the flowers are fully out.

I mainly use the real seed company. and plant/seed swaps and collecting seeds myself.

Oh that's where mine are from this year! I had a bit of an expensive run away up so it's lucky I didn't spot your varieties as well. I will definitely make sure I save seeds this year. I've been away for a bit and I've found some dried chillies in the cupboard from 2 years ago so I'm going to try and see if any of those are viable as that was a lovely plant. When I checked what I'd bought this year I've ended up with some old fashioned rocket like herb which having read the packet I've realised will grow to 4 feet! Not sure where that's going to go.

May I join too? I'm a sorta newbie- planted asparagus, rosemary, mint, and grapevine a few years back. Hoping to do plant

-potato

• tomato

-courgette

• strawberies
• spinach
• salad leaves

How do you know whether to save seeds or not? I thought if they were F1 hybrids it doesn't work? I buy quite a lot of my veg plants from car boot sales; runner beans, courgettes, tomatoes, cucumbers etc. they are very cheap around here but the dried chillies got me thinking - DS1 in his first year at uni nurtured a chilli plant, I have still have some dried ones so I will give it a go so he could have a son of Chilli McChilli. Lack of window sill space is a problem here.

the real seed seeds come with instructions on how to save seeds.
they don't use hybrid plants/seeds.

elephant it's lack of window sill space which holds me back (or perhaps its just as well as I can't take over the house?)

I've saved seeds from beans and from pumpkins but I think you are right that if they are hybrid seeds they won't come true the following year.

Welcome to the thread taytopotato are you growing in your garden or do you have an allotment? How do your grapes do? My plot neighbour has a vine growing against the wall at the back of the plots and managed to get some grapes from it last year.

No actual gardening here over the weekend as it was snowing on Saturday and we were busy yesterday (and it was too damp to do anything sensible anyway).

Good Morning fro YORKSHIRE!!! - erm - its a bit breezy, and cold on the finger ends.
Hoping to get down to the plot after lunch when I am sorted out at home :)
Welcome taytopotato :)
Now while I've been away, lots of newbies have joined, so sorry I may not be up to speed with usernames .
I have a very nice walk around my garden - fed the birds and looked at everything carefully. So I will post my thug rhubarb , in the very cold, bright sun. ( Please ignore dead crocosmia leaves in background - I like to leave protection on everything until the frosts have gone...)

Thanks book, I also planted Sutton in the autumn so I may just plant them for my Spring sowing rather than a different variety. Will be interesting to compare autumn vs spring. other than garlic & onions, I've never planted in autumn before.

Envious of everyone starting to germinate their seeds for this season! We're in Scotland so don't start for another few weeks yet! It is my favourite part of growing veg (other than eating it!).

Return of the book! Hello. I'm back home too (about a week ago). Drove through some pretty disgusting weather.

Garden's a bit weather battered. Kale and green sprouting are now growing horizontally. No such problem with the two dozen or so chard - because the voles have completely demolished them. I should just be thankful they've left me my short row of lettuces.

Fruit trees have been pruned and when it stops raining again (Thurs) I'll tackle the raspberries.

At the end of last week a small tree at the front of the house had it's trunk snapped in two by the wind and ended up over the fence. A couple of other quite big trees have also come down locally.

Hello to even more new people.

How's the tooth now shove?

Back from the plot - it survived!
ig - glad you got home safely . The last night on holiday ( in Tenerife) there was not only a howling gale, but very heavy rain - it blew over to beautiful sun by 11 o clock. Strange goings on, and virtually unheard of.
Well, the plot looked in pretty good nick, I dug up a couple of leeks, picked sprouts, and sprouting broccoli - (along with the first white sprouting .) A feast tonight of brassicas :)
I will have to go and have a good look on Wednesday though - as I was eyeing up all the fleece tunnels , I noticed 2 little cauliflowers ( they were not there when I left) - but all brown looking , so need to get them up and see what has happened. With a bit of luck, can make them into soup.

Afternoon everyone. Reading through all the recent posts with interest. Lots of ideas to try. I haven't been well for the last 10 days or so (tonsillitis) & still barely able to get out of bed let alone check out my plot. I don't think much will be going on there as it's bitterly cold, but I'd like to see if any of my bulbs are up. A bit too early for starting any seeds off I think (I'm in the North West) but I do have some first early potatoes chitting on the windowsill, and I keep sorting through my shoebox of seeds

Afternoon!
well, just about getting back into the normal day to day ( apart from umpteen loads of washing and ironing....)
It was lovely first thing, then came over rather grey. I went down to the plot after lunch, and spent a good time looking over everything. Its very damp under foot. Better than frozen I guess!
The perennial cauliflowers are okay almost - the slugs have found them ....one a bit moth eaten , but the other two bearing up. Hands up- I have put a few slug pellets down, they were expensive plug plants :)
Garlic is looking good, and the shallots are well up too.
Brassica cage fine.
I went and had a good look at the cauliflowers - the winter Aalsmer are doing fine, just starting to get that curled in leaf thing that tells me curds are beginning to form. The brown ones I saw on Monday are badly frost damaged, so no good, had to compost them - I realised they were the autumn ones that didn't curd up, so I left them in to see , and you can tell they are not frost resistant !
I then came home and did a nice half hour in the greenhouse, sowing some broad beans as back up plants , though the ones under fleece at the plot are looking a good size and no damage so far .
Will have to be thinking of cutting down the autumn raspberries this weekend I think - its so mild ( relatively) they could start shooting soon

Hello. I joined this thread a few months ago when I took on a huge very overgrown allotment. I haven't been able to keep up with the chat here but I've been reading when I can.

I'm beginning to get to grips with bits of the garden and have dug out some beds ready for planting.

Since I'm spending a fair bit of money getting the plot cleared I'm looking to economise on plants and seeds. Has anyone bought fruit trees from Wilkinsons and have they been ok? I also noticed onion sets in the pound shop - is there any reason why they'd be any worse than more expensive sets?

Also, although I've cleared some beds, there's a lot of ground still to clear. There's a patch I'm probably going to cover with tarpaulin (it's currently a mix of brambles, mares tail and couch grass) - but it's very uneven and it's right where I come into the garden. So I was thinking about rotavating it to even it up, knowing that it's terrible for roots and weeds, but figuring that if I'm covering it anyway, I can deal with the rotavatef weeds down the line. What do people think?

Thanks!

poundshop: seeds I find are fine, but the bare root stock and bulbs are often bad quality, half dead/mouldy/too dry...
the 'shelf of doom' in the garden centre has a better success rate.
trees from a supermarket-check the labels. often jt is sparse wrt the rootstock used but for fruit bushes I have had good experiences.

Hello again, all. I have been catching up with the thread when I can, but v busy and have lost my gardening mojo over Winter almost completely. Hasn't it been a grey, dull, particularly depressing couple of months?

I am feeling excited now that there is a sniff of Spring around the corner!

I have most of next week off work, and am planning on a big tidy- up in the garden on days when they are otherwise engaged. Quite a few days off work in the next 6 weeks and most of Easter holidays too... these are designated gardening days in peace for me.

Lovely to read of how you are all getting on, and welcome back to Zebra and iG. Shove and Book, you have really kept me going with plans afoot for the produce planned - thank you. Year of fruit 2017 sounds great. I eventually had a bumper harvest from my beloved quince tree last autumn, still have the most amazing quince jelly to finish off, and made quince liqueur with some of the jelly and infused vodka. Hoping for more this year!

I have had great success with pound shop seeds and fruit bushes, as long as you grab the latter whilst they are fresh.

"They" meaning the children!

Hello all- so good to get some sun today. Took the kids out to a local beach and saw a seal about 5m offshore. Much excitement. Then came home and DH unexpectedly conceded to my raspberry annexe of a bit of lawn and helped me board in an extension so I have somewhere to non-stealth plant rhubarb. I have two small rhubarbs coming up in a bed they aren't happy in- can I move them now or do I need to wait until they are dormant again?

quince2fig can I ask how you know if a quince bush is edible? I've inherited one which produces some fruit but I'm not sure if I can do anything with them or if the whole thing is ornamental.

Evening!

• I have had DGS today and he is staying overnight , so no plot today. Mind you. it has rained on and off most of the day . goodenough hello! - sounds like are fighting your way through it. To be honest, I would hesitate to rotavate any ground that has mares tail and couch - it just chops it up into smaller pieces, which then regenerate themselves. even more so. But I would cover, definitely. Others have been pretty successful with cardboard and mulch. Could you sort of even the ground a bit that way- thicker mulch in places? Wilkinsons does some pretty good fruit bushes. Seeds are fine from almost anywhere - they have to be of a certain standard I seem to recall Chuck saying way back. Only difference may be the number of them in the packet, or lack of the variety you want . Onion sets- well you can usually feel them through the net, so make sure they are not soft, mouldy , or have any sign of rot , then you should be okay :) quince - lovely to hear you have pulled through this most depressing weather! Glad our ramblings have helped :) And you sound as if you have a bit of time to relax and enjoy it outside - lets hope for good weather - It is so mild, I am itching to get on. Cath - sun? - If the rhubarb is only just emerging, and its unhappy, I think I would risk moving it - just make sure to try and dig a great big clump of soil around the root, and give them a a load of mulch to cover them. Its early yet. Or you could leave one in, and move one, to be on the safe side. So your DH caved in - did you promise raspberry jam ?

Rhubarb crumble! I will try and move them thanks- they won't be any good where they are any way

Thank you for the responses, everyone. I will stock up on cheap seeds and fruit bushes and save the money for things like rhubarb and asparagus crowns

And I will take the advice not to rotavate - I think I knew that it would be a bad idea.

We're finally completing on the allotment next week (it's a private plot which we're buying) - it's taken ages to get this far for various reasons, even though I've had the keys and been working on the plot for months. Now we're actually completing I feel like I really can spend some money! I don't even have a wheelbarrow yet - that's going to be my first purchase, not least so that I don't have to keep carrying my tools to the garden. A shed is going to be a necessary purchase soon too...

good that private purchased allotment sounds intriguing! Are there restrictions on what you can do with it? Maybe someone there will be dividing up their rhubarb and you can scrounge a bit?

I was in Lidl this week, and their seed range is in now - dirt cheap and quite broad. I mostly buy cheap, and have had good results (adjusting for time, weather, life getting in the way, and my ineptitude of course). I've had quite a few fruit bushes from Lidl and Aldi and I really rate them for the pricen (although quite young plants sometimes) -and also Morrisons has been good.

It was a beautiful day here, but no gardening for me today as my dad has just died. Not entirely unexpected but still quite a shock, and it's been a bit of a week. Also my dad was really who I got my love of nature/outside/gardening from - ESPECIALLY TOMATOES - so any thoughts of the garden are all a bit too much for me at the moment. But no doubt a comfort in many ways, in time.

Cath v jealous of your seal! All true quince are technically edible, those in the genus Cydonia. There are also 'false quince', and also Japanese Quince /Japonica (chaenomeles). These are also edible I believe, but take yet more cooking.

The Japanese Quince is v v often used as a ornamental. They're mostly spiny I think. Have you seen it in flower or fruit?

I didn't do much with my (true) quince this last season. Sorry (quince fig!) Your liqueur sounds interesting though... I say didn't do much, I did pick them, and had them in a bowl, then I chucked them. So they got to scent the house, at least. I've also killed my fig, so you probably hate me