Allotment/Veg Patch -Thread 8 - Its spring - time to get busy!

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Thought I had better get a new thread ready to roll!
It has been a long, soggy winter , but the clocks go back soon, we may see the sun , so it will be all go, go ,go
Everyone welcome, join us the celebrate and commiserate on the joys of vegetables
previous thread HERE

I feel your pain, I had to volterol my arms last night 😄

Can I just say 'bum'. The Rotavator has got Housemaid's Knee and needs a new gear box. DH showed me the evidence last night and even to my untutored eye it was done for!

Any road up, got the first rows of peas in: onward, Lincoln and sugar Ann. On the new plot no less! This afternoon it will be the old leek bed, harvesting rhubarb, and fleecing the newly planted beds. Happy, happy days.

My sympathies Viloot, looks like we will have to get digging.

Afternoon! - busy morning.
Cath - I tend to keep courgettes in the greenhouse until about 4-6 leaves, then harden off really well, then plant when totally sure there is no late frost, and they are good strong plants to counter slug attack...
Grouchy - love the little pond idea :)
user - cut and come salad, the tumbling tomatoes , herbs , strawberries all these would do well - just make sure you feed and water regularly :)
oh poor vloot , and Anon - hot baths and take it steady .
Darn it Gnome - once used to a rotavator its hard ( I have resisted the siren call, as I battle bindweed).
Well, it was truly lovely this morning , loads of people around. I finished prepping my potato bed. I planted out my hardened off broad beans, and sowed a first row of peas under a tunnel of fleece ( Hurst Greenshaft) - -snap Gnome :) I have a load germinated in pots at home , which I shall plant up in the next row in a bout a week or so .
I then picked a humungous amount of sprouting broccoli , and gave half of it away.. There is only so much you can eat in one sitting....But best of all - I picked my first cauliflower of the year ( Winter Aalsmer)
And reading on picking rhubarb - my DD made an amazing baked cheesecake on Friday - we have loads left, so will pull some rhubarb to poach to put on the side for pudding . Yes happy days :)

Thanks pest. I did three beds so only have the fruit cage to deal with and the large spud bed to rotavate. Although that depends on how busy dh is as I can't even push that monster six feet. I love reading this thread it reminds me what I have to be getting in!

Do I need a fruit cage? For my strawberries and raspberries?

Hello Growers!

I too have no been for a few power hours at the plot today. Weeding, and preparing my path, and weeding. Despite the oodles of manure, compost etc that I have put down, my soil is still very very heavy clay. Despite that, i sowed some things direct - just for fun really as probably none of it will grow. Beets and tatsoi. I've also some sown in modules, to transplant.

My grey broadies have not magically greened alas, but the next sowing are coming up healthy, so that's good. All my currants and goose gigs are getting flowers, apart from one blackcurrant - my oldest and 'best' which hasn't even popped leaf yet. I may check back on last year's threads to see if this happened before, and whether it is just a late one.

Oh, and I picked rhubarb and almost the last of the leeks.

And I still age plot envy. Y new neighbours (who rent the plot that I coveted) have done SO MUCH. It looks good. And sunny. And big.

Have not age.
My not Y.

1112 i don't have a cage. I probably lose a bit, but a) I like the wildlife, b) I'm too lazy and inept and mean to make or buy a cage, and c) I'd worry about a bird getting caught in the netting.

I'm lurking! I have a small raised bed in my garden and have blackberries, raspberries and rhubarb dotted around.
I have grown potatoes in bags. Think I will do this again this year.
Tried to grow beetroot last year but they didn't "fruit" I had a lovely little plant but nothing to eat
So hoping for tips from more experienced growers x
Love all the pics! I have a huge garden and if I can successfully grow out of bed I will be able to justify putting in more

Anon - I don't cage raspberries, but I do cover strawberries when in fruit with a rather Heath Robinson net suspended a bit over them - blackbirds adore them ....
oh Spotted - at least they are cultivating it....
Welshmamma welcome! :) now, you may not have got beet 'roots' , but the leaves are lovely in a salad. I had success last year by sowing in little pots and transplanting at the 6 leaf stage - maybe worth a go? ( I sow direct too though- not all my eggs in one basket sort of a grower !)

nothing nicer than sitting in the sun with a cuppa after a bit of backbreaking weeding.

have collected a bucket full of comfrey and alkanet for my famous comfrey juice. weeded the patio and pulled out the worst weeds out the flower beds.
moved the pinapple plant from living room outside as well.

beetroot: sow them quite deep, a couple of inches. or if planting out seedlings put them in deep so that all stalk is in the soil.

Oooo useful tip about beetroot RedBugMug, I have started some sugarbeet in the greenhouse. This year I have set my self the challenge of making a cake where all ingredients have come from the allotment field. I have a bed of wheat, sugarbeet to plant out when ready, eggs from a fellow allotmenteer, soft fruit a plenty. No fat, the plan is for it to be a Swiss Roll type sponge.

Ooh thanks ladies xx hate waste so will use the leaves! Will try again planting my beetroots deeper

The gooseberries have burst into leaf. Shallots are looking lush. Onions are progressing well. Leeks still look like sad grass.
Have been putting up structures today. Shelves and hooks in the shed. An arch across the lawn entrance to grow climbing french beans. A pylon type support for the tayberry. Also a couple of tripods that will house beans, cucumbers or squash. Have to keep reminding myself to use vertical space.
Did some guerilla weeding of the elderly neighbours plot and found several rows of shallots resprouting. Rumour has it he is too poorly to return, but you never know. If he does return, it would be nice if it had not all gone to ruin.

Also nice new fence has gone up.

I love that you're helping out your elderly neighbour, pest.

I am out of charity with DH today, despite his hard work. Yesterday he crushed one of my lovely hostas that was just beginning to poke its head above the soil. I forgave that because he did all the hard digging for me. But today he strimmed to the ground my newly-emerging hydrangea and I doubt it's going to make it. If it dies I'll have no hydrangeas after the slugs consumed my other one last year.

Vegetable garden is all prepared for some sowing tomorrow. And the lawns have been mown so it's all looking beautifully tidy out there.

It is amazing how much difference a bit of mowing makes in the tidiness stakes but that is a shame about the hydrangea. I confess I did similar to a grapevine once. It is so easily done.

Lots of good work there Pest !
Grouchy - keep your fingers crossed -
In late winter or early spring, these shrubs can be cut all the way back to the ground. Smooth hydrangeas will produce much larger blooms if pruned hard like this each year, but many gardeners opt for smaller blooms on sturdier stems - you never know ....

Managed a couple of hours at the plot today, sowed rainbow chard, golden beetroot, rainbow radishes. Added an autumn raspberry (All Gold - from Aldi) to the now crowded soft fruit section. Somehow found a few little spaces to squeeze in some gladioli bulbs - not usually my favourite flower but other plots have them and they do look striking as a border plant. And they were only £1 for 20 so have to be worth a try.
Assembled my Poundworld cloche tunnels, one's over the beetroot and the other is warming the soil for the broad beans which are germinating at home. They are fairly flimsy as would be expected for £1 so hopefully they'll last long enough. The currant bushes are still small but all putting out new growth as are the raspberries. Excited to see if any of this produces any growth!

What does chard taste like please?

chard is mild, similar to spinach but not fuzzy on the teeth iyswim

Chard leaves are a bit spinach like. The stems are a bit like a cross between green pepper and carrot.
Separate the stems and leaves before cooking, as the cooking times are so different.

Oh no Grouchy! DP came home unexpectedly while it was still light last night, and mowed the lawn. I pretended to weed a few areas so I could keep an eye on him after potentially killing a load of my roses recently!

I'm going to plant some raspberry canes today in the new veg area - a bit late as they've got some growth on them now, but never mind! They will be the first thing to go in....

I've decided to do some tumbling tomatoes from baskets so I planted some seeds a few weeks ago and they seem to be popping up now. Will be glad when I can start moving all these plants out of the kitchen and into the garden. I need a greenhouse!

Hello! Can I join you? I don't have an allotment sadly, but I have 2 small raised beds in the front garden. We sowed some peas and rainbow carrots and lettuce and rocket yesterday, and I have runner beans, dwarf beans, broccoli and baby corn in little pots on the kitchen windowsill. It looks like only one of the runners is going to make it so I'll do some more I think.

I'm a very inexperienced gardener - I've had the beds for a couple of years but generally just put stuff in and hope for the best! So any tips or advice very welcome - reading this thread has already been so helpful. The things I have on the window sill are growing nicely (except the runners!) and the pots are very small. Is it too early or can I plant them out in the next week or so? Or do I need to move them to larger pots first??

Ultimately I'd like to turn the whole front garden into a veg patch so I have more space and can have fruit bushes and things like that. But first I need to prove to DH that it won't just become a weed-covered waste land - and find a way to keep the cats off it!!