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

If you're too late to dig yours in then so are we We went halves on a trailerload from a local farmer just before DH got bronchitis so it's still spread over the plot and not properly dug in. I'm pretty sure you can add well rotted manure and other 'gentle' feeds in whenever the ground's got nothing planted in it though, as well as popping some into the bottom of things like potato trenches and holes for fruit bushes.

I ended up going back to the allotment today after all - someone offered me a 'small piece' of rhubarb from their allotment that turned out to be a wheelbarrow full, so I collected that, split it, dug it in with some manure and then, since my arms weren't completely ruined, gave one of our smaller raised beds a dig over.

Afternoon
Vanilla - is it in a bag, and all dark and crumbly, not pongy? If so, just dig it in - its already been rotted down.
and mum - if its already over the plot, its rotting down now - just dig in where necessary a bit at a time. I use my manure as a winter mulch, and just dig in as I go along to plant. I do tend to plant, rather than sow seeds, but that is because I am rubbish at tidy rows, and raked tilth. I grow then from seed at home first. Easy to do than spot what is seedling/what is weed in a straggly row....
That is a beautiful chunk of mature rhubarb. !

Well, I spent all of a beautiful day on Saturday test driving cars as my ancient 125,000 mile steed is sadly giving up the ghost. It was warm, sunny and gorgeous... and I was stuck in a metal box only getting the occasional glimpse of roadside daffodils. Then today, it has rained torrentially all day, and I am very, very fed up indoors. Bah. Bah. Bah. The only thing I've managed to do is to plan all my beds for the year.

goodenough - 320 square metres is a fantastic amount of space! And really enough to feed a family.

cath - I reckon you could harden those peas off ready to go in! They're tough, despite looking so delicate.

It's in a bag and I assume it's "well rotted manure" - if not, my neighbours are in for a treat 😷!

If it's quite light and friable and doesn't stink, it's fine to put on the garden! Pretty much everything bought from the garden centre is totally fine.

~sneaks in~

Hi everyone. Hope you're doing well. ~waves at new people~

I'm starting to get a bit anxious about my garden this year. Have got nothing done in preparation, and I STILL need to finish digging my new border garden. It's so hard to get stuff done with the baby, especially when she's clingy.

I figure I'll get some bags of compost from the garden centre and shove 'em on top of the garden then wait for a couple of rainy days to pass before lightly forking them over. That should be enough.

In happier news, my blackcurrant bushes and fruit trees are getting beautiful little buds all over them so life is starting to return. The raspberries are sending up new growth too. And I've had petunias in flower all Winter!

So if manure doesn't smell it's "well-rotted"? One of my allotment neighbours has horses so regularly dumps manure on the path for all-comers but I've never really known what "well-rotted" meant. It doesn't smell and looks quite dry.

If I covered my beds and dug it in in the next few weeks and months as I plant, would that be worth it?

horse is actually fine to use quite fresh ime.
but if in doubt put in on your compost heap.

grooooooouuuuuuuchy!! - glad you are OK. I think it's natural to feel anxious this time of year. It's just part of gardening - there isn't a single person I know who doesn't feel a tiny bit of it when the sap starts to rise! When other people are sowing away, it can feel like you ought to be going too. But we still have ages and ages before you've lost the planting/sowing window. And your plan with the compost is a good 'un - why make life more difficult than it needs to be when you have a young 'un who is desperate for your attention?

goodenough - from everything you've said, I'm pretty sure your manure can be used right now. Just shove it on the beds, and let it sit and suppress the weeds for you over the next few weeks.

Thinking of Zebra this evening.

Evening!
all good advice from shove - rain all day? :( - at least I got the morning dry, but I was working on the path thank goodness.
Grouchy - lovely to hear from you! - don't panic. You did a lot last year, and its a very new garden , so it will manage fine .
and yes - also hoping spotted is okay .

Dragged reluctant kids out to a local gardens and actually we had a lovely time- it was very sheltered so we could enjoy the sun - back home everything going sideways so leaving peas for another day. Started to get the raised bed ready - still pulling rapberry runners out of it- my own fault. Put up a niger seed feeder on the upright on the raised bed ( and having never ever seem a goldfinch in the garden -a few days later they turned up- bizarre how they do that) anyway now the area under it is full of niger seedlings . Again I feel I should have seen that coming ....

I just bung horse poo on everything and hope for the best . When I was rummaging in the raised bed today parts of it the soil was really lovely and crumbly and open and some of it was quite compact- odd as it doesnt ever get walked on- is it down to what's been growing in it? Crumbly bit had loads of rocket , close packed bit was peas.

Rain here too today.

Had a lovely trip to local garden centre with two of my kids.

Came home with a honeyberry and a raspberry plant plus seeds for all my veg. Can't wait to start seeding and planting out

Thanks for the manure advice, everyone. I'll have one more final go at weeding/clearing the beds and load the manure on - and then turn my attention to my seeds for a few weeks.

Oh, and clearing the brambles on the rest of the plot

Afternoon!
no plot today, as I have been out and about, and no plot tomorrow as I will have DGS.
But -very mundane, my washing properly dried outside today. The broad beans I sowed in pots are just starting to show the little sprout loop, and the first tiny signs of sweet peas too. Spring is round the corner :)
I happened into Wilkos today - they have their own brand veg seeds at 50p a packet, conference pears at £5 , and fruit bushes at £2- 3 depending on variety. I was tempted, - and I do not need another fruit bush !

book - admirable restraint there!! Glad you've been enjoying some sun - it's been lovely here today! I went and sat in my greenhouse for a bit to destress and close my eyes and pretend it was June!

It was lovely. I try not to feel guilty that I should be at the plot, - I mustn't let it take over the rest of my life :).
Oh and sitting in the greenhouse sounds wonderful. I have to stand! - no room in there for a seat! I forgot to ask - how did the car trialling go? I hope you have got in mind a bootliner for those trips to the stables

book - ahem. Well I have no room either, so I sit on a bag of compost. Usually unopened, I hasten to add. It is nice and warm and soft in the sun.

After a nightmare of a weekend - who would enjoy being stuck in a metal box when you can be outdoors in the garden, it was AWFUL - I bought a Skoda car! This means I do not need to go car shopping for the next 15 years (this is the age of my Polo). It is still too often.

Hah! - I had a Skoda fabia for a while - there are lots of Yeti's around now too. ( and after all its still a VW!)
I know the problems of car sorting - poor DH had a company car for 30 years and it got changed every 2 years ( he had to choose) - it was a nightmare

That is the one I got- the fabia one! I am getting it in green as then it will blend into the background at the allotment.

I cannot imagine going through this trauma every 2 years! It is horrible having to drive with someone else in the car and I was really shaking throughout (I am not good at driving). Then they kept asking when my cycle of changing the car was and telling me I could get a new one in 3 years. I wanted to say that if I never, ever had to go into a dealership again it would be cause for celebration and that there was no way I would be back for at least a decade if I had any choice in the matter. But that would have been rude so I just kept eating those very nice biscuits they serve with the coffee as the box was right next to me and by the end I had consumed well over two dozen of them and felt really ill.

One of the places did not want my old Polo and I felt cross that they did not know its value, and the other gave me £350 part exchange, and then I cried when I signed the form because I felt like I was betraying such a faithful machine.

In short, I just came across as completely mental because the whole thing terrified me so much.

Shove I gave up my faithful 14 year old Polo two years ago but knew the buyer. He sent me a picture of it at the scrap yard last week - stripped of any resaleable parts. I cried most of the night.

Allotment wise-not much doing. Garlic in and trying to get beds ready for my first early potatoes. This weekend I'm going to fashion a compost box out of posts, chicken wire and cardboard.

Hello lovely plotters, and hello Newbies!
Thanks for kind words, and thinking of me. Funeral is now done, and normal life must now resume. So as such, guess where I went today...? My plot, obvs, for a bit of therapy.

I've not been in weeks. And the ground is too wet to do anything at all, bit I did plant out a big loganberry that was embarrassingly pot bound. It just couldn't wait any longer - it's starting to bud, and I didn't want to knock off any buds in the trip there. The canes were over 3 long! It's tied into an arch now. To plant it out, I had to move a gooseberry, which meant digging over a bit reclaimed from path, that was thick with tree root.

I've not plotted, I've not sown a single seed, and I've also missed Aldi and Lidl's gardening weeks . goodenough I am jealous of your cutty things from Lidl, as i really rate them and have almost the whole set.

My dad (sniff) always said that he sowed tomatoes on my mum's birthday (or as near to as poss) - which is next week, so I had better get cracking...

Oh, I also didn't take on that neighbouring plot in the end, but it still looks empty...

Spotted - it's early, plenty of time. I am nearest my Dad when grubbing around with plants.
Oh - and around here - Aldi has a lot of gardening stuff in this week - seeds, compost, all those sort of things .

Hello spotted wishing you much healing allotment time.

I basically SKIPPED into the garden centre this morning having worked until really late last night to get the time. It was empty , I was child free, it was brilliant. Bought 4 parsley for the raised bed, some new mint types for making tea and some rhubarb . Have completed phase one of stealth rhubarb planting with one in by compost heap ( uncontroversial). Phase 2 will go in a flower bed by similarly big leaved plant for decoy cover and contemplating as phase 3 a small annexe of an area by my blackberry which currently has a couple of paving slabs on so not technical lawn as such... DH is away but may be back this weekend so need to do the deed by Thursday. Just stepping away from the computer as also bought a pear tree to espalier - it's 2 different pears on dwarf root stock which apparently pollinate each other .

It's this one! Pondering if it's too gimmicky