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

Gin My local garden centre has some beautiful ones for £10 that I have my eye on. They'd also be about 1.5m tall so I'm not sure they're tall enough. Do you have a garden centre nearby you could check out?

Or would these suit you?

We have a load of scrap wood, so I've just been googling make your own obelisk plans and I think that's tomorrows project sorted.

Also got to sort out my gooseberries!

And need to start on getting rid of all the hedge woundwort again, which I hate because it's stinky

I did briefly consider getting DP to make one, but I have such a narrow time frame for his making skills, I have to prioritise what I want him to make most! (I'm no good at these things myself)

What height do I need? Is 1.5 too short? I have no idea! Both those links look like they'll do the job, though. I have a garden centre about 15 minutes walk away - maybe I will go and have a browse next week.

'Evening everyone. I am very tired but happy. I got 30 odd paving slabs off our local freecycle today and wheel-barrowed them 3 at a time to the plot from the car. I have created a path to the shed and will use the rest as a hard standing where the shed was to put some chairs on. I have removed another carrier bag full of bind weed and cleared another bit of a bed. I met some more plot neighbours today and one lady has offered me some 'Alicante' as my 'Gardener's Delight' are not germinating at all. They were out of date seeds to be honest. She planted 150 tomato seeds it made me think of some posters on here . On my last barrow run to the compost bin this evening I managed to turn the barrow over and I landed in an ungainly heap. No damage done just lots of stinging nettles so my legs are really tingley. During my barrow runs with the paving slabs I had lots of rests and did some pond gazing, I counted at least 5 newts at one point.

Inspiration aplenty from this thread, my potatoes went in today and I dug out loads of weeds from my soon to be flower area. I'm the only one there at eight on a Saturday morning but I popped again later on to show my husband my work to date and everyone was there. I think I'm missing a trick.

I've ordered some nemotodes for the slugs and will report back.

gin I was coming on to ask the same thing as I've got French beans germinating and nowhere easy to put them. Such lovely sunny days. Seeds coming up in the raised beds- spring onions, spinach, some calendula and rocket. Peas at doing ok but am nearly due next nematode applicatio . Have been distracted by shed palace project but we are nearly there now so I can get back to gardening . I did manage to pot on the last of the seedlings trapped in tiny pots but will need to pot the corgettes on again into final pots when I get some. Do they get upset by lot of moving about?

Managed to intercept a lot of wood on its way to a bonfire and now have modestly raised (or at least contained beds). Am knackered, far too much hammering and sawing. Everything is growing like mad, peas and broad beans hardening off and all sorts germinating.
Took the storm kettle to the plot and had our first cup of tea.
Plot inspections next week bound to be told off about the size of the shed.

Plot inspections? Is it like Plotsted? Do you get feedback and are you graded? We have a guy from the Council who just makes sure the plots are being used and no animals are being kept on the plot.

We have plot inspections! Every 3 months and i think if your plot isn't up to standard you get a letter - a bit like a written warning. Not sure how many of those you get before being told to go. Our site is quite strict because the waiting list is massive and they want to keep a little bit of movement especially with the quarter-plotters

Gosh, are you allowed a bit of grace if you have just taken over a plot? What if you are ill?
Pest I think your raised borders look amazing.

We have plot inspections monthly and they are strict - three strikes and you're out or something. I got a warning letter last year and was furious. However it comes on the back of a history of plots being abandoned for long periods and the council not reclaiming them despite very long waiting lists, when I took mine on there were quite a few in a terrible state, that doesn't happen so much now.

I will leave a plan of the allotment and objectives pinned to the shed.

Plot inspections here too - monthly from April to October , 3 warning letters and out. You have to get permission for sheds and polytunnels . If you get a shed, you have to harvest the rain too, though you do get a free IBC water butt. They do allow leeway for newbies though :)
elephant - - you may feel all of that work tomorrow - and you too Pest!
Climbing French beans - we use 8' canes , with about 1' in the ground if possible made into wigwams
Cath - I hope we get a photo of bling palace :) I think the disruption of potting up is less stress than them being restricted in too small pots tbh

Make sure you have an individual action plan for each and every plant and state that you always water the PP plants first .

that sounds remarkably like a teacher/ta talking there .....

Was a lovely day here too, but my DC are all home from uni this weekend and it's been ages since everyone was together so most time was spent at home with family cooking, eating, talking and lazing about in the garden. I did take a couple of hours to go to the plot in the evening though and DS came along and finished putting the fence up which has been half finished since last year.

book, you're right about the lack of light getting into my new greenhouse. I'm also worried it's too dark. The roof is made of polycarbonate sheeting but the sides seem to darken it a lot. I think I'll have to remove some of the wood.

Grouchy, your day sounds busy. So much done. It all sounds so serene and relaxing too. Allotmenting bliss.

elephant, lucky you. I've been looking for some free slabs too. And your raised beds look lovely. I have planks of wood that mark off borders rather than increase depth of the bed. But not as pretty as yours.

timtam I've also sown my sweetcorn. I'm in Yorkshire. Some I sowed about 2 weeks ago and I sowed more yesterday. Two different varieties so I'll plant them far away from each other. I saw someone on Facebook sprout all his sweetcorn on damp tissue and he got 100% germination so I'm trying my second batch that way.

And lastly, tiz I'm also planning on going vertical with my butternut squash. I saw a lovely frame on pintrest using one side of an old cot. There's some other lovely ideas on there too.

Cath the main danger of potting up courgettes is the buggers snap if you are not careful. Only bought my seed today, but have loads of gherkins. We have a big pile of well matured alpaca poo for doing gourds.

Lulooo Thank you, but I can't take credit for those raised borders, they belong to Pestilentialone

Whoops.
Pestilentialone, credit to you for your borders. I just had another look at your pic and can't believe such lovely logs were going to be burnt.

Luloo they were part of an old farm shelter that is being replaced. The bottoms were all rotted, nothing a lot of sawing couldn't cure. All it took was a polite ask and a donation to charity.

What height do I need? Is 1.5 too short? I have no idea!

After much pinterest research I'm going for this sort of height for my courgettes

I love that, tiz. I have a broken rocking chair in the garage. Maybe I can rig up a sort of ladder for my courgettes to climb.

Morning!
utterly gorgeous here today. I went a bit earlier than normal , as first its going to be hot, and second, I am also hoping to get out to a NGS garden this afternoon.:)
I managed to get all the potatoes planted bar 3 little ones , so I am going to plant them in a tub at home with hopefully a little help from DGS on Tuesday. Dug up a bed of bolted kale and gone over broccoli, weeded and ready to go. And picked tea! We will be on a cauliflower eating mission for the next week or so - I have another 4 not much smaller....:)
Luloo - I think if you can get rid of the fence around the bottom, that may well be enough , as long as its not holding up the roof!
I do like a bit of recycling Grouchy - DH used the slats of an old bed to make two gates at the plot. Not quite up cycling, more down cycling....
Be careful out there folks - a bit late for Spotted and Grouchy - I tend to think the sunblock gives you a sense of security...I'm a cover up, hat on ,sort myself, but even my face is somewhat beetroot looking now.
And turning cooler tomorrow , though we could do with a bit of rain here - soil is turning to dust

Another in the Yorkshire Wolds here!

Should have read bookbook's warning though. All my plants were out in the (plastic) greenhouse and are looking worse for wear with white leaves this morning, so I assume they've been gotten by the frost yesterday morning.

I spent the glorious day yesterday weeding out the flower beds. Got about a third done, so I'm hoping the weather stays reasonable next week so I can finish them. I was brutal and dug out everything except the bulbs. And some leggy pansies, I felt rather sorry for them. And found half a dead mouse... I also found over 100 slugs, some really big fat ones as well, we'll over 2 inches long. Yuck. They've gone in the garden recycling bin!

Went to the local car boot this morning and picked up some more tomato plants in case mine can't be salvaged, some sweetheart cabbages and a young pot of rhubarb. I also had a lovely chat with the stallholders about where I went wrong last year with my sweetcorn and cucumber.

Provided they recover...

Next step next week is to put up a fence in the front garden to separate it from the street then get some raised beds ready for planting all my seedlings out once they've hardened off!