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

welcome IlPorcupino - we all just strive :) - whereabouts are you - North/south /east west? big or little plot ? ( just me being incredibly nosey!)
Anon when did you plant them - last year in spring? Did you have growth then . Just asking as shove had problems with some new crowns a few years ago - duds I think. If they grew last year , its still too early for them to be shooting yet - - I will go and have a quick look to see when mine showed last year.

Book Mr Fothergills autumn planting asparagus, went in last Sept. no growth has occurred. I think it's my fault though - I rushed my ridge and should have dug deeper and put more compost in (according to the web). I'm quite new to all this and I think I was too eager with a tricky veg. I'm okay with flowers but need serious veg training

Sexy potatoes though

I have just checked Anon - mine didn't show until near the end of April last year . Just leave them in peace!
Nice potatoes - you have them tucked up nice - mine are on egg trays, drunkenly leaning on one another

Placemarking to write a proper message later. Babies wake up at irritating times!

What's happening there with the potatoes? should I be doing it?

I'm chitting them on polystyrene bits that I had to hand. I usually do it in egg trays too but I thought I'd try this this year and they've come on really well.

Are they supermarket potatoes that you're growing on?

You need seed potatoes really Gin - still loads about to buy - even Aldi have a few :) But you can grow on ordinary ones too - they are just not certified disease freee

I have so much to learn! I'm keen to get going, but I need DP to have a day off to rotovate the ground, which will probably not happen until next winter knowing my luck!

Here is my 'before' and 'work in progress' photos of the veg-patch-to-be though!

Thanks book striving is the right word! I'm in Sunny (though not today, cold and drizzly) Berkshire so quite mild usually, and have a half plot two mins up the lane from my house, so it's handy. I inherited two crowns of asparagus in a raised bed and a lot of nettles and dock, though its pretty orderly now with not very deep raised beds. Photo attached! The blue shed is on the next plot.

Wow gin, how lucky you are to back onto fields by the look of it! Great work on clearing the grass. Its a back breaking job...

Just as an experiment a couple of years back I grew supermarket potatoes (king edward) in a big planter sack (well away from anything else so no disease spread). The yield was about the same as for seed potatoes, but obviously the soil had to get tossed afterwards.

I personally don't bother with potatoes of any kind any more. I got no joy out of it!

Lovely photos, everyone!

I think I may have to do a bit more work on my asparagus - not too late, I hope. I think I have some more coming from Mr Fothergill but I can't remember exactly what I ordered

My fruit bed is now complete with inherited blackcurrant and redcurrant bushes, six raspberry canes (2 x 3 varieties for a long season), lots of rhubarb, new and transplanted gooseberries (red and green), and three varieties of strawberries. Bring on the harvest!

These are my chitting potatoes - some Anya earlies and some Kerr's Pinks (an Irish family favourite). I've also got some Sharpe's Progress which were delivered by mistake so I got them free! But I don't seems to have a photo of them (which is weird as I'm taking photos of everything garden-related at the moment, much to the dismay of my friends and family!)

anonymous - it's early for asparagus to appear, so don't give up hope yet! Traditionally, the season doesn't start until St George's day.

Everybody has done so much work! Plots looking brilliant!

The photos of plots are all lovely!

books Re courgettes: I started them late last year and didn't really get that much out of them so have decided to try earlier this year. Have some yellow ones I'll direct sow in late April or early May.

The seeds we planted last week are already germinating. Have some beautiful spinach seedlings (sown on Thursday, little green shoots appeared on Monday) and the red brussels are showing already too after I only sowed them on Saturday!

Weather here is atrocious but should clear soon so hopefully I'll be able to get back into the garden later in the week. Need to add soil to my new border garden, shifts some things like salvia, astrantia and a large wallflower and then get the vegetable beds ready for sowing. Should probably purchase a rake this year!

Grouch our courgettes weren't as good last year either (not terrible though) and our crown prince squashes failed completely, but then I saw on Gardener's World that Monty's squash crops also performed poorly and he said it was because we had quite a wet summer last year.

Ooh - look at the shiny new thread!

Er, not much plot news from me. I've still not really cracked on. I did get all the seed trays and gubbins out of the shed, and gave it all a good scrub yesterday, but it's belting it down with rain today and I've not yet been to get the compost. I wasn't going to get seed compost this year, and just instead use MPC for everything, but I've changed my mind already!

Ooh, I also emailed about that adjacent allotment, but not yet heard back. Hmmm...

One asparagus spear is up about 5 inches here, and another an inch high - no sign of the other crown yet though.

Afternoon!
Just got back from being busy, and it is hurling down. I was going to sow stuff. Mmm - maybe a cup of tea and a chocolate biscuit may help :)
Lovely plot you have there IlPocupino , and asparagus already? ) and Gin - empty, and ready to go !
Grouchy - my courgette seed didn't even want to germinate last year - in fact all my curcubits were shocking tbh - sowed everything twice , ended up having to buy a couple of plants ...( didn't help that the slugs decided butternut squash plants were delicious either).
ooh Spotted - fingers crossed eh ? - You can

Just the one spear so far though!!

Nice to see a shiny new thread! Nothing to report gardening wise here as we were away at the weekend. Might go and have a quick peek later on at the plot and see what's happening. I may manage a bit on Saturday - depending on the weather - but otherwise won't have a chance. Still haven't got around to getting any potting compost which is preventing me from putting any seeds in. But then we're away the first week of April anyway. Will gear up after that I think.
It's been cold the last few evenings as well - just when you think it's warming up everything gets cold again and reminds us it's really only March

Like everyone's before pictures. They are a handy reminder later in the season when you actually have things growing how far you've come.

Dammit. That other plot has just been let. Once again, I hesitated too long!
Fingers crossed for new plot neighbours then!

Right, despite the fact that I now know I won't have any extra room this year, I am off to start off some seeds...