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

Loving all the photos.

Gosh there is some very strict plots. Ours are private and one guy has run it for many years.

4 easy rules:
Keep it looked after
Not to grow anything against the fence if you have it (just the fence around the whole plot)
No chickens
No bees ( would have liked a hive though)

I have half a plot at the cost of £10 a year.

Catch - we could not keep our first two rhubarbs alive. They had all sorts of this. Third time was lucky with a bit from DH grandma.

It's funny how people's experience with rhubarb varies. In our garden it grows like a weed. Anytime I try and deal with it, it just comes back in the same place and in the compost heap!

We have 'forced' rhubarb coming up under the cabin now!

Nasturtiums are edible, the leaves have a nice peppery flavour. They used to self seed in my garden but have vanished now, however I kept lots of seeds and might resow some. I've always sown them directly.

Our rules are quite strict - plots must be tidy, weeds not allowed to seed and evidence of cultivation by early summer. Sheds only by permission, no bright colours, small, must not cast shade on another's plot, basically they must be functional and unobtrusive, not the pretty summerhouse type.

does rhubarb need alkaline soil?
have quite acidic soil and rhubarb is growing but small.

oh, regarding self seeding plants: have just removed aconit from my mums herb patch. that's definitly not the place for that!

Hi

Not been here for a while.

I've got a council plot, the whole thing was brand new eight years ago, with lots of rules.

Must be cutivated, sheds in certain place, no livestock, no polytunnels, no fruit trees.

Council have rAther lost control as only one enforcement person who does this as a v small part of his job, looking after about 50 allotments.

The only rule that is stuck to is where the sheds are and no livestock. ! There's bee hives, fruit trees and polytunnels.

They have real trouble evicting people not cultivating plots.

But it mostly works.

Busy week non gardening here-just got down to the green house to find all of my aubergine seedlings have disappeared. they were coming on so well too.

Everything else is ok though and looks like a good day weather wise, so hoping for a full day at it today.

We are an allotment and smallholding society so all types of livestock are allowed.

I can understand restrictions on bee keeping. I was talking with a former bee-keeper and he had some horror stories about bees swarming and being aggravated by all sorts of normal things like the colour blue, strimmers, hairspray.

Afternoon !
a cold, lazy wind today.
jelly we are all like that I bet!
Red - I am on chalk, and the rhubarb plants are thugs, so possibly.They are in full sun, even though they work in the shade. You can also take Geoff Smiths old advice on rhubarb , as being the one plant you should water even while its raining :)
I went and planted out my peas ,the forecast is for rain overnight and tomorrow morning,. I decided that although they were well hardened, the howling gale was not a good thing, I have rigged up some fleece as a windbreak for them ( poor brave soldiers!) Started prepping the new brassica patch , and brought home leeks to make leek and potato soup. Not too many leeks left now - maybe another 3, possibly 4 harvests left. And picked asparagus too.
I am on an old established plot. It is owned by the town council, but managed by an allotment association. As I have explained before , it is big, and like a shanty town There are sheds, old brick buildings, polytunnels, every building type known to man. There are bee keepers, loads of chickens, and theoretically you can even keep pigeons!-( there are a lot of reused pigeon lofts.)

I'm on acid soil so I would like to blame that, but might be my ineptitude. I've got 2 looking happy- 3 looking resigned and then these two specimens ..

Also while I'm being disappointed with plants these French beans have come up lookimg ropey too

I bought this slate sign in Poundland today, it made me laugh and i thought it was worth spending the £1. I'll find a spot for it on the plot.
I also found packs of lily of the valley corms, 2 corms for £1. So I bought them too!

Thanks for the tip book i think I'll put some preservative on the trellis.

Cath - the stalk one I think may well be slug/snail damage. Other one does look a bit like rust. It looks about 10% of the surface area guessing, so I would leave them on and just keep a sharp eye on them- you don't want to let it spread too much, but let the plant have a go first at getting some strength in the roots. So I wouldn't feed with anything nitrogen wise for example as that will just cause nice soft leafy growth . The french beans look stressed to me - Are they in a greenhouse or indoors? I would probably sow some more , to be on the safe side, and then all the laws of gardening tell me you will have too many!
timtam - love the sign :)

Thanks book. There is horse poo in the bed but I won't put anything else on. Beans are in the greenhouse- it's been quite hot last week I suppose if that would worry them?

Cath - it was hot during the day, but we had a couple of really sharp nights - if you did, thats probably the cause. They don't like the cold. ( But who does? )

and a weather warning for cold tonight, and even colder tomorrow night!

bookbook our allotment field is more of an elephant's graveyard - where old swings and climbing frames go to die!

It looks like we are going to have a frost Monday & Tuesday. Should I fleece my plum trees?

Weather doesnt look great tomorrow, I shall pop up to the plot in the morning to put grass seed on the paths then I think I will mostly be in the greenhouse. Sunflowers, french beans, courgettes, outdoor cucumbers and squash are on the agenda.

good point Gnome - my new plum and gage have just flowered . RHS suggest frost protection for blossom , and to protect new fruits , so I think I will . Luckily mine are only little .

Harvested the compost heap this evening

Need to start digging out the rhubarb recipes, this is just a fraction of what I have

looks fab.
we like rhubarb cake. or just stewed with custard. or as crumble.

snap tizwoz - I am making rhubarb crumble tray bake tomorrow , then next week rhubarb chutney ,and then maybe some rhubarb and vanilla jam .....

I think I still have chutney from last year!

for my birtday in mid may I usually make a crumble cake with rhubarb. a brioche bass stewed rhubarb and crumble topping

My mouth is watering at that rhubarb! I like to just crunch on it raw...

We got back from Norfolk today (already!) as I'm not feeling great. I did manage to collect the rest of the bricks and a rhubarb plant from PIL's though, so will get on with the path again tomorrow. And we finally had our curry tonight after fancying it since Wednesday!

GinAndOnIt I hope you are feeling better soon.

rhubarb & ginger jam. I make a batch each year but it's all mine as no one like it but me!