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

[bookbook]

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

Thank you RedBugMug and Pestilentialone, for some reason I had it in my head it was an aniseed flavour which had put me off.

Morning!
Welcome jelly - we have a nice collective experience on here, so ask away ! - are you North/South?east or West? and what sort of soil do you garden on?
One thing about veg growing - the amount of love care and work you put into the soil, will repay you many times over . So try to get the soil in as good a condition you can .I will just warn you - runner beans and dwarf beans ( I'm assuming French?) are not frost tolerant , they really don't like the cold. So try to get then to a nice size inside, in a bigger pot , or with protection until all chance of a cold snap has gone . Here in East Yorkshire, our last frost date is the 2nd week of May , but you may be further south.
Gnome - I grow perpetual spinach rather than chard - very useful over winter as a slightly tougher spinach ( think cooking for 3-4 minutes rather than 1-2). I don't use the stalk though.
Gin - poor DH, is he going to live it down ( I saw on the other thread about your poor roses.....) and yes - greenhouse is next!
Did I see we have a warning of a frost later in the week, or was I dreaming?

book I'm not sure he will live it down it came about a week after I'd had a frustrated rant about him always having to rush jobs at home because he's never here, and the rushed jobs always ending up making more work for me later. Not the best timing for him poor thing.

I had a frost THIS MORNING booky - an unexpected one at that, as I'd left my seedlings in the conservatory where the temps do dip quite low if it's cold outside. Definitely below 10, and I think hats enough to check the growth of (yes) tomatoes. Zut alors.

Welcome jelly if you do want fruit bushes, and of course you must have them, why not buy cheap ones now from Morrisons or Lidl/Aldi if they still have some in, although you may just have missed them, and keep them in pots for now. Then you will be a year ahead! And you will save money. Sort of. Win win really.

Hi everyone, sounds like we all had a busy weekend. It was gloriously sunny where we are yesterday (I have a red nose to prove it

inspired by the plot photos I've decided to take a photo of our veg garden at the start of every month, to chart the progression over the season. I attach yesterday's photo. We had just removed the hoops & fleece from the middle row and reinstalled arches (in a different position to last year as we try to rotate our planting).

I grow perpetual spinach and chard. Both v similar I think, but chard is prettiest. I use the stems too, just cook them longer if you want it to be yielding, but less time for a bit of crunch. They take flavour really well (herbs, garlicky, Chinese style, curry) but he colours do tend to go murky if you give the coloured chard a long cook.

I think mine have crossed and made an odd curly and bitter-tasting baby, so I have had to pull all that up yesterday.

Blimey, Clara that is beautiful! I love your arches. I have 2 at home, 2 at the plot, but may get more. ..

What's going on the arches this year? Beans?

gosh clara - that is lovely !
Spotted - I have just checked my tomatoes - fingers crossed, as it was under 7º this morning - (bound to be a bit more in the greenhouse ) - I normally always bring them in if forecast is for below 10º, but didn't check last night .

Yes it looks lovely on a sunny day not so much on the rainy days we get a lot of here

On 2 of the arches I'll be doing mix of climbing french and runner beans and on the additional 2 arches that I bought this year I'm going to try and train up squashes rather than them trailing along the ground and taking up space I could be using for planting other items! I'm going to alternate the squashes with some sweet peas for interest/cut flowers. I doubt the squashes will make it all the way up and over the arches but the beans and sweet peas will. The arches don't block out too much light in the middle rows until quite late on in the season, so I'll be able to get a few crops out of those middle rows before its too shady (radish, lettuces, pak choi)

Thank you Book and Zebra. I'm east Midlands so I'll definitely keep the beans in for a while. And I love the idea of getting some fruit bushes in pots (as long as I don't kill them!) If I start filling up the path with pots that might help persuade DH we should make more room in the garden for them

I had a root around in the runner bean pots from which nothing had appeared yet and the seeds were showing no sign of doing anything so I'll sow some more tomorrow. And go shopping for fruit bushes!

And Clara your veg garden is beautiful! Is it an allotment or at home?

That does look lovely clarabellski. Also, deeply envious of your greenhouse!

Good news on the rotavator front. DH has been able to source a new gearbox so hopefully we will be back in business in a couple of days.

Sorry, forgot to say. Thank you for all the helpful comments about chard. No idea where I got the aniseed flavour idea from!

Not had the most productive day here as GinDog is poorly, but have managed to put in the raspberry canes, and some rosemary. I also stuck a rose in....because why not?! I went to IL's to rummage in their sheds for some paving slabs, and found a huge pile of bricks. Am wondering whether to do a little brick path through the kitchen garden instead of a grass path... hmmm.

I really fancied having some strawberry plants tumbling down the wall, but I'm put off now with the whole netting thing.

I've got a chard question too. I left my rainbow plants in over winter assuming they would die but they haven't, the leaves are big and tough now. I was wondering if I cut away the big leaves will they regrow from stumps or should I start again with new plants.

I was defeated by heavy showers on Saturday so I only managed home gardening ducking in and out of the house, cut back masses of brambles, cleared dead stems from perennials and cleared out a small raised bed for salad veg. Got a couple of hours at the allotment yesterday, put in 18 new strawberries and cleared more grass from round my raspberries. Got yet another new plot neighbour (4th in 5 years on the same plot). Also strimmered all the edges as plot inspection is due later in the week and I'm still paranoid after getting a warning letter last year.

Grouchy - sympathy over DH and the over enthusiastic strimmering. Last year mine managed to strimmer all the stems of one of my favourite clematis, I was so upset. However during my bramble clearing session on Saturday I found it was starting to regrow from the cut off stems (I left it totally alone). I'm hoping for a full recovery.

Hello everyone. I got my DD's swing and slide up at the weekend so now have something to entertain her while I garden I got quite a lot of other work done too - sorted my potato bed, prepared my bed for peas (all going in later this week).

I had an bonfire this evening, whilst a friend and I drank wine. Very nice!

It got me thinking - as I think I've mentioned I have Japanese knotweed on my plot which I'm going to deal with professionally soon, but I wondered if I could burn the old brown, dry stems. I'm assuming they're not going to spread the knotweed, if I just cut them and burn them - they're not live stems or rhizomes or flowers, just dead stems. Does anyone know anything about knotweed? Would burning them be ok? I'm going to ring the knotweed eradication man soon, but thought I check the collective wisdom here first. Thank you!

Dry knotweed stems burn well. Do not burn any green stuff, the smell is thick and noxious.

Thanks pestilential

Cheapest compost - can anyone recommend some?

I lurk on the thread and pick up lots of tips!

This year I am on a mission to grow loads of vegetables to be as self sufficient as possible. I normally grow a few but want to up my game this year. To that end, I've just bought seed potatoes (£6) and ordered 10 potato planters (£15) but have just realised how much compost I'll need to get in for them all. As this is all a cost cutting exercise in general can anyone recommend good budget compost? I do have 5 daleks on the go, but unfortunately the home made compost is not going to be ready for a while.

WhoKnows yep it should regrow. It'll probably bolt this year, but actually I've cut that down again too and it's regrown .

But am sure for best gardening practice we should start new chard off now and use that to replace the bolted ones/last year's later on.

Through spuds use LOADS of compost! I like the big 125 L bales from B+Q and that usually works out among the cheapest. I tried Adli and lidl but they were awful. Although maybe buying cheap but adding nutrients might be a cunning plan? I actually don't think they're worth doing for £ reasons - maybe for fun or interest or taste.

Thanks Zebra. I have done potatoes in the ground before but got fed up with stray unfound left over potatoes erupting through my neat rows of new veg sowings the following year, so I've had a couple of years off. Hmm, maybe I'll start off with some shop bought compost and hope that my home grown stuff will be ready for earthing up.

Thanks jelly, its our garden at home. Our nearest allotment is around a mile away and we just don't have the time with work and family commitments to do one justice. Its something I'd look into towards retirement though, as I love growing things!

The greenhouse is very special to us gnome, when DH's grandfather died a few years ago he left him some money and we just knew it would be the best way to use it, given that DH's grandfather instilled a love of growing things in DH. He was the type of man to carry a plastic bag in his pocket when going out for a walk just in case he came across some fresh horse manure on the roads!

whoknows, from experience, chard and perpetual spinach do regrow but not as well as a new plant. We tend to dig ours up around now and start again, given how easy they are to grow.

Thick when we first set up our raised beds we bought bulk bags (1000litres) of compost. May be worth seeing if there are any landscape companies etc near you that deliver bulk bags. Worked out around £90 per bag from memory. We bought 3 bulk bags - multi-purpose, mushroom compost and manure. Yummy....

Al, bonfire and wine sounds delightful. We've been saving random offcuts of wood with a plan to buy a chiminea (sp?) to use in the summer evenings. Need to get on with that plan!

have given my tomato seedlings their first aspirin shower.

weather forcast is a bit iffy the next few days, thinking of how to leave the seedlings when we are away for easter (and funeral ). risk them outside or take them inside?
they are sheltered next to a wall that gets quite warm in the sun. protected from wind inside balcony boxes...

Evening!
DGS has left for home

Gin - hope dog is okay.
goodenough - yay to swing and slide :)
ThroughThick - Wilkos do quite cheap compost, but not in very big bags , but could you mix with garden soil to make it go further? They are greedy, so plenty of feed too !
WhoKnows - I tend to re sow each year on chard/leef beet - though I tend to pick the inner leaves anyway, and let the big outer ones take the brunt of the weather over winter ( and I remember the strimming incident!)
RedBug - I am still bringing mine indoors at night , but I think I am further north, and colder than you?
As an aside - after listening to GQT on Sunday - who is

1. going to try Crimson Crush next year - if seeds are available
2. brushing their veg leaves well, I sowed sunflowers with DGS last Tuesday - they have all popped out :) on the other hand , leaf celery and good king henry are showing not a sign , and they have been sown much longer ....