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

Yes - I use scaffolding net, which tends to keep the worst of them out. Enviromesh is even better, but £££.

I use butterfly netting - it needs to be about 7mm IIRC - though I did notice this year a few managed to get themselves inside. I had to go on caterpillar hunt and squeeze :)

Spotted so sorry to hear about your dad

Tomatoes always make me think of my grandma & grandad, they had a tiny garden which every summer was absolutely filled with growbags & tomatoes

Evening!

was out today, so no plot, but just time to pop and put the bench in the shed, ready for the wind and rain tomorrow. Hope everyone stays safe.
I did manage to pick up some more seed potatoes, but ended up buying too many, instead of one, as I dithered on varieties. I now have 'Kestrel' 'Marfona' and 'Wilja" . We shall see - I am just not good at potatoes. They are sunning themselves in my spare bedroom, chitting on egg trays now :)

SpottedZebra sorry to hear about your dad.

Its windy here today but I don't think we're getting the worst of it. We had our first visit to the plot for several weeks on Sunday. It was all still there One quite exciting thing is that we think we've found rhubarb in the new half of our plot. I had been told there was a row of rhubarb but also that the last but one plot holder had used weed killer on it and killed it all (this must be at least 4 years ago). I'm certain there was nothing growing there last year but as we were pulling some grass away we revealed the pinkish shoots of what I am fairly certain must be rhubarb. So spent some time pulling the grass away and managed to find the start of several plants. We'll have to see what happens.

We resisted getting more seed potatoes the other day when we walked past bags of them at B&Q. We're just sticking to charlotte for salads and sarpo mira for main crop after last year's blight. We'll see how they do this year.

I had butterfly netting over my cabbages and without doing very much in the way of covering them managed to keep the pigeons out. I think they were in next door's plot eating his much better cabbages then my weak and weedy efforts.

Urgh, it's absolutely 'orrible out there!! Batten down the hatches, folks!

I'm slightly concerned that my old, rotten shed may blow away to a land of tin men, lions and scarecrows. However, thanks to haveyouseenher I now have the pieces of a bargainous garden shed at my allotment, ready to put up as soon as I am able to wield a cordless drill.

(Actually, that is a lie. What will happen is that I will attempt to use said drill and then end up pretending it is really a gun and I am really in Mission Impossible, resulting in its confiscation by someone more adult and capable. Which is fine because I will be able to vent my energy on smashing up the old shed so I can take it to the tip. I'm definitely the grunt labour, while DH is the artisan.)

Thinking of you spotted.

Oh, and cross-post with cedar - YAY for rhubarb. It's amazing how resilient established plants can be.

Hello everyone, I was on this thread a long time ago, but lost my garden mojo last year after a series of miserable events.

Zebra I am so sorry for your loss. Look after yourself.

I'm quietly pondering the garden, trying to decide what to do. I don't want to try too much and have it all get out of hand again, so maybe just a few of the basics. We'll see.

Bella - waves enthusiastically!!

Sorry to hear you've had a bad time. It's quite right that gardening takes a back seat when life gets busy. The wonderful thing about nature is it's still waiting for you when you do have headspace. I'm sure that starting small is the way forward. Book always says to divide it into manageable chunks and do one at a time as and when you feel ready and I reckon that's some of the best gardening advice you can get.

Afternoon!
lucky you shove - a shed , not to be assembled until after the storm Doris ! ( On an asideThese linky things are really quite annoying - Cath and I did a doctor who one on another thread - weird.....)
Bella - lovely to hear from you - its still February , so loads of time to ponder, just do what you feel like, and don't make it into a chore - the garden won't be going anywhere :)
Its so deceiving - I found a picture I took on the 2nd March last year - my garden was covered in snow, so I am trying to remember that, and hang off sowing seeds :) I seem to be knitting and learning to crotchet much more than anything else at the moment!

it did it again !

Forgot to say - Cedar - good luck with the rhubarb! What sort of person weed killers rhubarb - surely just give it away .
My potatoes are all second earlies, in the faint hope of getting them before the blight strikes....!

book - you're so right about seeds. I have this need to think we're out of the woods right now, but of course we aren't!

It's awfully wild here. There are all kinds of clatterings and batterings and howlings and yowlings around the house. The rain is coming in big pulses, with periods of sunshine inbetween. I am hoping all the tiles are still on the roof...

I have sown sweet peas and broad beans though , and bought some dahlia tubers to pot up :)
I cant sit on hands and knit at the same time . But you need to - more recuperation I suspect before you are fit and healthy .

Hello all- just looking up from my 'day off ' firmly wedged in front of the computer, pfft. DH has been out in very changeable weather doing fancy pants curving decking for a scruffy bit at the end of the garden. Not ideal weather for power tools. I casually said last night - so do you like pears? Yes he says. Shall I get a pear tree then? Hmm ok he says.

So - pear tree recommends?? I think I'm going to dig up a disappointing blackberry and espalier a pear next to the almonds- any thoughts? Are they easy or do they get sick easily? I don't want to go down the spraying route so I need robustness.

Lots of tomatoes sprouting on the window sill on kitchen roll and no time to rescue and pot them up unless I do it tomorrow by head torch after work! Anyway , back to the computer, hope everyone is having a good day.

Doris has stolen my greenhouse! There is a pile of broken glass and mangled metal where it once stood

Allotment wise I'm afraid I haven't really done much these last few weeks, hoping for the weather to pick up soon so I can get out there and get on with things.

Hope everyone else survived Doris.

Night. I live in the south so Doris hasn't really got into her stride around here. My only casualty has been some bamboo, the empty bins have gone marching and then laid down for a rest so I am leaving them put. I am quite pleased my new makeshift cold frame survived.

Oh no night! Doris had a go at our trampoline but my lovely neighbour came and rescued it. Incidentally, my grandmother was called Doris and iirc she would have been 100 this year.

Cedar when we moved to this house there was a huge rhubarb plant, but DH piled loads of wood on it and left it there for THREE YEARS. He eventually took the wood away and the following year we had a bumper crop of rhubarb. They are tough little cookies.

oh no night - thats dreadful , and all that broken glass to clear :(
Not been too bad here, but haven't actually been out . Popping down to the plot in the morning to check it out, and do some harvesting.

Oh night - that's such bad luck!

It was super-fierce here yesterday. I didn't like it at all. cath - I'm amazed your DH was outside through it! That's some commitment to your decking there!

Nightshade what a shame about your greenhouse. I don't think we had it as bad down here in the South. Some neighbours up the street were having trees cut back yesterday - I didn't envy the tree surgeon climbing up on his ladder. We've managed to acquire someone else's newspaper bin. Someone had popped it over our front gate presumably because it had blown along the pavement to outside our house and they assumed it was ours. I've put it back in the street and hopefully someone will claim it.

I don't think the previous plot holder meant to kill the rhubarb I think she thought she could spray around it, or she didn't realise it was there and thought she was killing weeds. Bellagoth amazing how yours managed to survive with a load of wood on top. In terms of what gardening you do this year you can keep it simple - just hoiking out the weeds can make a garden look better and you can always put a few things into pots for a quick cheering up of a space.

Cathpot growing an espalier pear sounds like a lovely idea. I know nothing about growing them so have no recommendations but I'm sure someone else will know more.

The sun is shining today, wind has dropped, the crocuses, snowdrops, primroses and first daffodils are in bloom. It starting to feel a little bit spring like out there.

Evening!
Cath - well, I'm pretty sure espalier pears work well as afar as they get sun, and planted a little away from wall/fence. I love my conference pear. Pick and leave for about 3 days- and Its self fertile. - Chuck will disagree :)
I don't like the gritty texture ones . The other variety I like to eat is Concorde, but haven't grown it. I like this site for good advise HELP HERE

Hiya, can I join. I have a half plot down my local allotment. So far I've got onions in (last year) and this weekend my garlic is going into a bed I prepared last weekend.

I don't have a shed or greenhouse down there so the storm didn't do too much damage.

I've got potatoes chitting at home and plenty of seeds just waiting for March.

Good evening. I have spent a lovely couple of hours on the plot today with DD. We have finished digging the first bed ready for her seed potatoes, as we are on the IOW we might put a few in before the end of March and go for a gamble. I have also gone through my seeds and am trying a few really out date ones in my new cold frame, if nothing sprouts, never mind I will try again with some newer ones.
Cathpot Tesco have in again their 2 for £10 fruit trees, Conference pears available. The other fruit trees are Victoria plum, Johnathan Gold apples and a cherry. I chickened out as I have not yet met the plot renters on either side of me and they might not be too keen on any trees shading them.

Hello- conference pear it is then- thank you for advice. It's to go along wires between old fence posts so not against a wall - bit windy possibly but the almonds cope ok on the same run of posts.
That is serious wind to lose a greenhouse- what a nightmare - hopefully you can get it sorted out quickly. It's windy here (southwest) but not damagingly windy so far.
Hoping for an hour or two to pot up some tomatoes after lunch. Ive said yes to some tutoring on Saturdays which I shouldn't really but I like the family and I am generally a soft touch but it cuts into my faffing about in the garden time.