Allotment/Veg Patch - Thread 7 - The Harvesters Arms

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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

ah! I see what you mean - being a kiwi and all, its all back to front!
still - its important you eat what you like as the first imperative.
this site is pretty good - you select what fruit and veg you want to grow, and they sort a calendar for you ( you need to input where you live too)
Personal Calendar

We need to get ours pulling its weight a bit more during the winter. We did have some perpetual spinach and also leeks but not enough to really keep us going. We are still eating our way through the onions harvested last summer. They weren't necessarily great sizes but they have stored well this year. I did sow beetroot in succession but the last ones didn't grow very much so we didn't get much of a crop beyond the early autumn.

Hoping to get over to the plot this weekend and chop up my green manure and also do a bit more clearing up.

Hello all. Managed to nip out and get the nematode slug treatment on the raised bed as really hoping to plant the peas this weekend. It said 'best done in the rain' - no problem there unfortunately , although to be fair it feels a lot warmer today. I keep a sort of diary of things I've done in the garden as I'm a beginner so it's good to write things down- checked - and the last year time I tried i lost 3 direct sowings of peas - so I'm really hoping planting them as robust plants will help. We have a healthy wood pigeon population whom I suspect got them. There were 5 very fat ones waffling about ripping the heads of my snowdrops this morning - this is the reason to have children as I could point DD1 at them and watch her running about from the kitchen window.

Evening!
Cath - pigeons are absolute pests .. I had a lot of problems with peas last year, some of it I put down to mice. I ended up sowing quite a few in pots, but its nice to get a thick sowing of them - can I borrow your DD ?
No plot today, but had a nice time in the greenhouse - broad beans all through, and signs of the small sowings of cabbage and cauliflower popping out. I potted up all my overwintering geraniums and dahlias , so they are a bit tidier , and easier to move around, once some serious sowing gets going... I had the greenhouse window open , it was s o warm, but hear we are due a bit of a a frost tonight -

Afternoon!
well, my day was due to be - busy this morning, plot this afternoon...
It started raining about 12.30 and continued with bursts of intermittent drizzle until about 2.30. So had to chuck that out as it would be far too wet. I did go and dig up some sprout plants - mostly all the sprouts have been picked off the stalk ( a few still in amongst the leaves), but sprout tops are truly delicious .That and some leeks to make soup. That was enough because my DH passed on his head cold to me - .
Out tomorrow, and Sunday is looking dodgy - the joys of the British weather.... ( its not stopping the weeds either !)

Do you think peas that are over 10cm are pigeon safe? They are thuggishly roaming about in a pack at the moment . I've got netting so I could net them for a bit. Lovely garden helper girl is coming Sunday so we can start planting out , and DH is on his way home for the weekend so all is good here.

No peas are safe, regardless of size Cath - everyone at our site has some Heath Robinson contraption for stopping the blighters. I use bamboo canes made into a rectangle, wrapped around with chicken wire . It supports the peas while also being inside a box, - the pigeons will still peck a bit though if they poke out. Others use pretty hazel twigs and netting ..
Have a lovely weekend! :)
I have a lovely head cold < see previous post with DH and head cold....>, so I will be snivelling

Morning everyone. Hoping to get down to the garden with my daughter this morning to plant some strawberries in "her" bit of the garden. She wants peas too, but I still haven't even done my seeds yet - need to get onto that.

I had a few hours there on Thursday and had a huge and satisfying bonfire 🔥 but then promptly cut down loads more brambles and hawthorn to create another pile for burning.

In the next few weeks, I'm going to dig up bramble roots in a section I'm going to turf and order the turf, get some seeds going in the garage (by the sunny windows), get a skip to clear the accumulated glass, rubbish, random junk etc from the plot, cut down the last few overgrown patches and put tarpaulin down to hide them away for a bit, and finally clear a place for a shed.

That seems like a lot, doesn't it!?

A friend came to the garden this week having not seen it since before Christmas and she was very impressed by my progress

My new gardening book arrived (thanks elephant for the recommendation). I'm feeling rubbish and DH is out all day today so have decided to let the television look after the children while I work out my garden plans for the year using my books.

I haven't done any seeds yet either, goodenough. I want to get some seedling compost then the girls can help me get them sorted next week.

beautiful day today.
sitting in the garden with a cuppa.
washing flapping on the line.
bracing myself to start digging. have already cut back the currant bushes (they smell amazing).

So we had rain that wasn't forecast but we still managed to plant my DD's strawberries and got some rhubarb crowns from allotment friends, which we planted too. And we managed a picnic lunch with them too

So it was a good visit despite the rain.

Afternoon!

Grouchy - not one parent could hold hand on heart and say they don't do that - so take care, hope you feel better soon
RedBug - currants do smell amazing , don't they :)
weather forecaster are just guessers , no two ways about it. I am hoping they are wrong about tomorrow too, so its not too wet!
no plot, as have been out, but- tomato seeds sown last Saturday have started popping out today :)

Minecraft gives me my weekend lie in!
DH has spotted a stealth rhubarb planting and it turns out its right where a pipe needs to be dug up. We have negotiated another little area, he is so happy to be home this weekend he will say yes to anything. So dank here that tomatoes seedlings on windowsill have come to a halt.

Hoping for a weather forecast fail tomorrow as I'd like to dig out another bed on my new plot but we're forecast rain all day and the ground is sodden already.

May I ask for a recommendation for my garden? I have a small, sloped, shady bit behind my garage. I'm on clay so the whole garden is sloppy but the grass grows well on the main bit. Behind the garage, the grass is now dead but several varieties of weeds appear to be thriving-hence is there something I can grow there be it flower or veg. If it can sustain weeds maybe I could use it for something else (poppies, bulbs??)

Morning!
well, just a short trip to the plot this morning . It rained over night , so it's very soggy, and I am coughing like a seal, so I just wanted a bit of fresh air and exercise. I dug over a new area near to the loganberry and shed - weeded and took out some grass, ready to plant a red gooseberry I bought last year . ( I actually bought two, but plans at the plot have changed a bit) . That can be done tomorrow or Wednesday. I still have to work out where the other one goes just yet....mmmm. Also picked a nice big tray of perennial spinach for tea.It was so warm !
Cath - not quite such a stealth rhubarb then and yes - it is very dank and grey here, just not actually raining .
Anon - mmm shady, north facing, clay - we need shove . Does it get any sun at all? Things that spring to mind are the woodland things - blackberry/loganberry/tayberry/raspberry but they do need a bit of sun to sweeten the fruit, and you also need to keep them in check. Rhubarb may well do if you get some sun too. Remember, if its very heavy clay and wet, try to lighten it by loads of grit, mulch a much as possible too, to break up and allow some air pockets.

Hello all- such a lovely day in the sun planting up the raised bed with nice gardening teenager . We've put in and netted the peas seedlings, sowed nasturtiums, candula, cornflowers, lettuce, rocket, spring onions, spinach , raddish . In the greenhouse more marigolds, cucumber , courgette and basil. Off to the beach in a bit- very happy!

Thanks for the suggestions, it's east facing but blocked by high boundary fences. It does get some sun but not a lot and I think you're right in that fruit would struggle to ripen. I'll lighten out the soil as you suggested. I've asked an allotment friend today and he's suggested lily of the valley and wood cranesbill.

I made it down to the plot as the rain just about held off. Garlic has already sprouted and I've dug out and de-weeded another bed, ready for peas later on.

Hello all! Weekend of really heavy lifting in our household. We took 3 carloads of garden waste to the tip on Saturday (a rotten shed plus just tons of non-compostable woody waste). We aren't allowed fires on our plot and there's no skip or any other way of disposing of things. Every single time we got there they closed the tip for 15 minutes to bang all the waste down with a JCB.. Then moved a huge fatsia today, which was a wrestling match and a half. I massacred the roots moving it - have pruned and will water carefully and hope it survives.

anonymous - you say you're on clay. The huge question is: is it wet shade or dry shade? (This is usually a question about whether there is something close by - a building or tree - that prevents rain falling on that patch or soaks up available moisture). Wet shade is really claggy all year round and loads of plants will thrive in it - woodland ones if you're a kind of intermediate wet, bog plants if it's absolutely sodden. Dry shade is a bit more specialist - there are still loads of things you can grow, but the range is perhaps smaller.

Hi there, its definitely wet shade. It's like a bog most of the year.

Perfect! I am relieved, because I like wet shade plants the best!

I made a thread for shade garden suggestions here: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/gardening/2441728-Shady-characters-a-permanent-home-for-shade-garden-suggestions

But things off the top of my head (just looking out of my window!): rodgersia pinniata, darmera peltata, fatsia japonica, ligularia 'the rocket', kirengeshoma, ferns, Jeffersonia, candelabra primulas....

shove do you do dry shady AND windy? Really tricky little bed which is unfortunately to the right of the front door so very visible. It's got some struggling grasses in it at the moment and looks a mess. I'm nearly at the point of taking everything out and gravelling it.

Thank you so so much for the suggestions. I honestly thought I might be asking for something that doesn't exist. I was initially thinking of something low maintenance just to stop me wailing when I turn the corner in the garden at the grass-less, soggy patch. I didn't realise that there would be so much choice. It seems that I can actually make it into a nice little area which hopefully may attract some wildlife I am happy.

A busy day shove, and a few aching muscles no doubt ( did you put all that stuff in your lovely new car?)
Cath - that definitely sounds like a tricky thing. I was going to suggest looking at coastal stuff, and then realised that it is shady, not just dry and windy.......

I may give up on it to be honest. There is sun further up the side of the house so was wondering about planting something like a Virginia creeper to go up and round the window it's underneath and then just gravel.

Evening. I spent a couple of hours clearing random junk from my allotment - doors, glass, lumps of concrete, unidentifiable metal objects, chicken wire, foil cat food packets (!) and all sorts of other rubbish. There's tonnes more to uncover and remove - and I haven't got a skip yet to actually get rid of it all - but it felt like a good start.

I don't really understand why there's so much random rubbish - it seems like the previous owner treated the garden with so little respect somehow, though I know how much it meant to him and his family. It's like they gave up on it and just no longer cared. It makes me very sad.