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

yay! Firefly - I have been totally out on a limb here by myself :)
and If I had know, I have spare tomato plants.
There are a lot of well grown veg plants already for sale - my brassicas are barely out of the seedling leaf stage....!

Do any of you grow tomatoes outside? And if so, how do you protect them from blight? I have some tumbling tomatoes in baskets growing, but NDN said she has some spare tomato plants for us - I think they grow theirs in the greenhouse though, and we don't have that option.

What a weekend! Beautiful blue skies here, and sooooo hot! I weeded the plot, and did a marathon seed-sowing session so I think I'm (nearly) caught up. Also spent ages cutting hedges in my garden - having a couple of hundred feet of privet is quite literally a pain. I now have a green waste collection, and it's loads easier just being able to bung it in the bin instead of having to run all the privet clippings to the tip at the end. I think I've nearly moved everything out of the top of the garden for the building work, too - though the latest on that is that the bloody builder's final quote just for the shell has come in 40% higher than his 'ballpark' for the exact same designs. I feel a bit like I've been walked down a primrose path...

shove - that sounds very well deserved!

What building work are you having done? (I feel like I already know, but I can't remember...)

I think DP is wishing he went to work today - it would have been less tiring! I think we've both had a bit too much sun. Our plan for a couple of gravel paths hasn't quite gone to plan, after lots of digging/swearing/sweating and looking after the extra dog, DP lost the will to live and just poured two lines of gravel straight onto the mud! We will just go for the 'natural' look then

shove I think I've seen you mention to somebody else about the plastic bit edging that sits sort of level or just above ground level to separate grass and borders... do you know the one I mean? What was it called?

Ditto collapsing into a chair with a G&T. I have dug over another 1/2 a bed, filled another 1/2 carrier bag with bindweed and composted 2 barrow loads . I have also almost moved the entire mountain of scrap wood. Unsurprisingly there were lots of people at the plot today and I was amazed at how many people I know, even my next door neighbour in my street. I was given a lovely bag of onions and a butternut squash plant. Happy days, but I may have to give my back a rest tomorrow.
Gin I have always grown tomatoes outside and only had blight once. It only affected one plant as I spotted it quickly and get rid of the plant.

*got

shove - maybe he doesn't want the job perhaps? I can understand a bit of exaggeration inflation, but 40% - have you got the time to get more quotes?
Gin - we are the other way - sweeping up and bagging gravel preparing for a new drive being laid . DH started today, its me too tomorrow . Not looking forward to it....
Tomatoes in greenhouse here .
I have sown more spinach today , along with pottering in the greenhouse. Was going out, but after a busy morning, and sorting stuff, I really couldn't find the energy.

Such a glorious day yet I neither went to the allotment nor ended up catching up on my seed sowing and potting up at home.

Too hot for the allotment today. Spent a pleasant day talking to my broad beans and sowing more seeds.
Sorted out the compost tumbler, I think I overfilled it, it is heavier than me and was like wrestling a seesaw. The compost is good though, and full of worms.
Only ache a bit after all that raised bed building yesterday, one more to go. Will sort it tomorrow when I plant out the broad beans and the first of the peas.
Tomatoes will be living recklessly and planted out on allotment this year.

this stuff? Gin , so cool, it is bendy.

I am sitting down with a cherryade (the colour matches my face!). The allotment field still isn't busy which is a shame.

We have grown tomatoes outside in a sheltered bed with walls made of old double glazing panes but no top. A kind of open topped greenhouse! Pretty good results.

Potatoes are all now in. Possibly a little soon for maincrop but needs must when time is short. The courgette bed is covered it now needs to rot down for a while.

Here are the latest photos.

Ah yes, that's the stuff! It looks so neat

Spent a lovely day in the garden. Made two hexagonal planters, and a ladder/obelisk. Ones got courgettes in, and I've repurposed some cloche hoops to provide a climbing frame, and ones got beans in and will be used with the ladder.

Really pleased with the planters, and I've still got enough wood to make a third. Need to get the plant ladder painted next weekend.

Really need to stop making things and get on with weeding though

Tiz you are very talented I may be a little jealous , those hexagonal planters are wonderful.

Came home from a lovely afternoon out to this couldn't even find half of my seedlings! I may no longer have cucumber, butternut squash, pepper or most of my tomatoes. The seeds are scattered everywhere, I'll have to see how the rest recover. Think I'll be growing spring onions in my flower beds...

I've always grown my tomatoes outside (4 years) as I haven't had a greenhouse, and I've never had any problems.

Firefly you need gin

Hello. Can I join please?

I feel like a bit of a fraud-DH is a gardener. But he is so busy doing other people's that we've never got going on our veg. We have a large garden that was razed to he ground when we bought the house because of how overgrown it was and needing to get the boundaries sorted. So we've started from scratch with the whole thing. We're also on a tight budget.

But this year the veg patch is my project (for various reasons I had to give up work in the new year). We have had the house for five years and as soon as we could put lots of permanent stuff in: strawberries, apple, plum, apricot, kiwi, walnut, asparagus, fig, globe artichoke, cob nuts, peach (in the green house), raspberries and blueberries, and wild garlic.

So far I've sowed pumpkins, cauliflower, kale, tomatoes, cucumber, aubergine, lollo rosso, radish, peas, beans, spring onions, mizuna, mixed salad leaves, garlic.

And I have broad beans, Brussel sprouts and cabbage on the go.

I still have masses to do!

Pricking out is a faff (nearly 150 cauliflowers!!!!). I'll take some photos if you like?

Oh no firefly!

Good to know tomatoes can survive outside. I think I will plant them in a bed we have at the side of the house, which has very good drainage and they can be planted without being crowded by all the other plants in the main bed.

We've planted potatoes and garlic today, and I've sown lettuce, broad beans, chives and some flower seeds today, and will plant them out once they're big enough for GinCat to avoid them!

Julia are you going to eat 150 cauliflowers?
DH is a gardener also. It has taken years to persuade him that there is no need to plant a whole packet of seeds.

tizwozliz love the planters and obelisks, very impressed!

FireflyGirl oh know! was it the high winds that did it? We are midlands and it has been very windy here as well as sunny.

DoItTooJulia you are the cobbler's child! It sounds like you are on the case. We are going to be trying a peach and a nectarine on the plot.

Welcome Julia. That all sounds amazing. Photos are always well received.

Wow, tiz, those are fantastic!

Gnome That looks so tidy and organised.

Oh no Firefly! Hope you're able to sort it out without too much trouble.

Well we do like cauliflower! And we have space that I'll be damned if we don't fill this year.

And we're hoping to swap some plants-we live next door to a big allotment!

Photos won't load for some reason. I'll try again.

Thanks for the warm welcome and firefly what a bugger. All that work.

This is the main plot

And some of the green house. I'm a bit behind really-there's always so much to do!

Welcome DoItToo - 150 caulis - , we had cauli on Thursday , and cauliflower cheese tonight , and I need to pick another for Tuesday, and I am getting the look from DH already . Caulis always seem to come at once . I only planted 8!
Firefly - hope you can salvage? The wind has picked up now, hasn't it. I haven't even sown my curcubits! I grew some spare tomatoes outside a couple of years ago - they did fine, but I never got a fruit - the were nabbed before I got the chance - slugs/snails/birds or something, so I didn't try again.
Tomatoes will be living recklessly
I have brought i my tomatoes as the rest of the week looks a bit iffy on overnight temperatures, particularly Thursday.
tiz - how talented - they are great !