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

I''m not sure how much difference the age of seeds makes - I'm guilty of over ordering so haven't brought any new this year and I'm trying to clear out the tins. So far I've had patchy germination but always got some coming through.

Sweetcorn - half have popped up and half are no shows.

Tomatoes - first time with seeds and they are looking OK. Chillis - only one out of 6 - but it was old seed.

I sowed a lot of peas directly this weekend - not holding my breath though as its so cold.

Asparagus are perkily popping up which is always nice to see.

I completely failed the other year to get any sweetcorn to germinate even with brand new seeds. In fact after that we've just bought plug plants as the seeds were relatively expensive. I'm not sure we're going to bother this year as the mice have been at the cobs the last couple of years which was annoying. But we'll see. That's what I said last year and I still found myself picking up some plants in May

Hello! Back from our few days away so I'm checking in. The rampant runner bean seems very happy in its larger pot (thank you @bookbook ) and is now about 1m high! Still too early to plant out though so goodness knows how big it will be by the time it does get planted. I also have no idea whether it's good for it to get so big indoors but hey, it's all an experiment!

Started hardening off today (first time ever) and sowed two more runners after the others failed to germinate so fingers crossed these will do and the huge runner will have some company. I think I had the soil too wet with the last ones.

And a couple of the peas DD and I sowed outside are popping up, along with the first signs of the carrots. Which has made me very happy 🥕

did someone call? - glad its happy jelly
I had a truly awful year last year with germinating- I managed abut a 20% rate on sweetcorn, and about 40% on squashes and cucumbers. The courgettes did okay, then got slugged as did the squashes .So I usually oversow for most things , thenI can always gift them.
After seeing WhoKnows did well with sweetcorn in a heated incubator, I decided my greenhouse just wasn't warm enough. They have germinated pretty well in a covered tray , on my hottest windowsill, so they obviously need more heat than I gave them last year. Am doing the same with my squashes etc, to see if that helps with them too.
I always think rule of thumb with age of seeds , is that the bigger the seed, the longer it will store, but brassica seeds tend to buck that!
I have started hardening off too, but next weeks weather looks cold...

On the subject of sweetcorn, I copied a technique mentioned on a Facebook allotment page of putting them on some damp tissue and covering with cling film. I had already sowed my sweetcorn but my plot neighbours bought a bag full of sweetcorn seed so she dipped her hand in and gave me a fistful of them.
She sowed the normal way and hasn't got any sprouted yet. I did the damp tissue method and almost all have germinated.
In the pic attached I've picked them all up and placed them in an aluminium tray to plant into pots.
I'll definitely do it this way in future.

That's just 7 days on my kitchen windowsill btw. Some shoots are about 3 inches long.

Hello all: a potato question. I have bought a bag of sad-looking potatoes for a pound, because they were a pound. I haven't grown them before but know they should be sown direct; however I can't get to the allotment until Sunday. Can I just pot them up for now?!

Also: I am giving these interesting things a go this year. They are called oca - a type of tuberous plant from NZ. Bit straggly!

Wow Luloo, that's impressive, must give that a try! I tried the James Wong soak in camomile tea/aspirin, but fundamentally I think the problem is that the windowsill isn't warm enough. I used to use the airing cupboard to get them started but our new one is really warm and would toast them!

I realised I've joined the thread without introducing myself, very rude! We have just moved into a new house with a big but rather neglected garden. We have put in 4 big raised beds for veg etc; so far we have rhubarb, asparagus, garlic, kale and leeks all growing nicely, just waiting for it to get a bit warmer before planting up the last other two beds with seedlings (french and runner beans, squash, hopefully sweetcorn, tomatoes, peas, calabrese). Apologies for off topic tulips post earlier, meant that for another thread!

We've been gardening for about 7-8 years but the old garden had rubbish soil (clay/stones) and a real slug problem so we didn't have much success, so hoping (like every spring!) for much better harvests this year.

Evening!
Lulooo - great tip - will have a go at that next year.
LaContessa - as long as the chitted stalks aren't too tangled, I would leave them well alone, and plant on Sunday. I think ( I may be wrong though) that shove has grown oca - she will be back soon from her holiday hopefully :)
Una - a new garden opens up all sorts of possibilities - raised beds lets you get them nice and enriched too ! Slugs, sadly never seem to go away though.....

I didn't know that sweetcorn were tricky to germinate. Oddly, mine haven't been. And my this year corn has popped up quite happily, grown in loo roll tubes, filled with MPC, in an unheated growhouse. I'd say 90% is up so far...

Yet I struggle with beetroot and radish. The very things that are recommended for kiddies to grow as they are so failsafe.

luloo I do my chillies and tomatoes like that as well after a friend showed me- much less faff potting them up as well I think . Was going to try the cucumbers but then the packet said dark germinate so I didn't risk it.

Thanks book!

Another one surprised at sweetcorn as mine germinated in 2 days last year! Mind you I have a sort of permanent cold-frame (extension room with a plastic roof; freezing in winter but heats rapidly on a sunny day) and grew them in there initially so maybe the initial high blast of heat is what did it.

I suspect the trick to root veg is to not have soil that's rocky/clumpy AF. I am contemplating buying an actual sieve this year in order to test the theory; laziness is no excuse as I've seen a fellow allotmenteer carefully sieving his soil on a patch at least 3m x 1 m long

Welcome to the thread Una. How lovely to have a nice big garden.

Lulooo I am impressed by your germination rates. I suspect that my corn just didn't get warm enough to germinate properly. Not sure what the solution is for the mice though!

Contessa I have a garden sieve which I mostly use for sieving through compost before spreading it on the garden to get rid of the bits that need to go back for more composting. We did very well the year before last with carrots grown in an area of bought compost - the real soil is clay so they're never going to thrive. Last year I tried to put them where I had put some sand in but although some germinated I think the slugs got the lot. One positive thing about having a dry spell is that it slows up the slugs which were a real pest last year.

I made a quick trip to the allotment yesterday and gave a bit of a watering to things. Some of my onions are starting to grow. Just impatiently waiting for the potatoes to make an appearance. We seem to have quite a few gooseberries starting on our inherited bush which will please DH and DD (not me I hate them!). There are also currants coming on the inherited currant bushes. My mum suggested they might be red currants because the bushes don't smell strongly of currant. We shall wait and see. I need to work out how to net them off so the birds don't get them.

Morning!
grey here this morning. Just a quick trip today to harvest ( didn't get there yesterday for my spinach pah )
Germination rates are so weird aren't they? I am up in Yorkshire , and I wonder if its more due to variation /drop in night temperatures. The sweetcorn definitely benefited from having a minimum overnight temperature I think.
Root veg works pretty well for me - relatively loose/stony soil. The champion veg grower who wins awards on our site has deep raised beds , inside a cold greenhouse, and the soil looks like sand , very finely sieved . Life is too short for me - as long as its weed free, I'm happy!

x post ! - I can take a pic of the red currant flowers if you like Cedar - they are like tassells . As a stop gap, I bought an enormous old net curtain from the charity shop to chuck over the currants before I got a cage. It now does service on the jostaberry at home :)

Ah, so I don't need to be a martyr to sieving. That's a relief

I agree wrt lack of rain slowing the slugs down - compared to last year this is marvellous!

Good morning gardeneers and allotmenteers!

I've had a minor SNAFU with propagation. I did the bulk of it over the Easter weekend but didn't realise that the pen I was using wasn't permanent, so all of my tags are now unreadable due to condensation wiping the pen off! Ooops. So I will now have to play a guessing game of what seedling is what. Some will be obvious but some won't. Eeeek!!!

Net curtain is a good idea bookbook. I have googled red currant flowers and now need to compare with the bushes in the allotment.

Clarabellski you can probably google seedlings and find images to help you match up (the wonders of the internet!). Except for things which are very similar of course, it may not help with those.

Last year our entire carrot harvest consisted of one measly little carrot which didn't even really qualify as 'thinning' standard. Will attempt to do better this year!

clara Seedling surprise! I got one of my classes to plant a variety of seeds at the end of term and the pen was permanent but the UV has faded it so I'm hoping, but not desperately confident, they will remember what they put in! I've also had birds flinging seeds about in the raised bed so I'm not entirely sure what are weeds as various things are sprouting out of line.

I'm still technically on holiday but I have given in and started properly working today - so clearly I should be planning not mumsnetting/ pondering if I should go out and water raised bed .
Rashly bought 3 fruit trees for a bare patch alongside a beech hedge- its sunny which is good - although it might be dry. Ordered 2 plums one gage. On the hunt for a morello cherry as mr Wong tells me they tolerate shade and I've got a spot that might do.

I had a nightmare last night about pigeons eating pea seeds the minute I put them in the garden is taking over my mind!

Afternoon!
well, quick trip to the plot, and met up with a (new) fellow plotter who took my spare tomatoes, and then I dug up a great big load of escaped strawberry plants for her too. Picked the spinach, and dug up nearly of all it- its a row from last year, and starting to bolt - I do have another row for this year, and this row needs to be out for when my brassicas go in. Came home, and have repotted my remaining tomatoes into bigger pots. As its looking cold next wee, I'd rather be able to bring them in still on a night.
clara - oh no! - most are okay to recognise , but brassicas all look exactly the same , don't they! ( Mind you, even without a SNAFU , I managed a purple sprouting in amongst my cauliflower row this year.......)
Cath - you will eventually have a fruit and veg garden , won't you -I had a brave self seeded gooseberry right underneath one of the trunks of my beech hedge - it was a trier! But nothing nicer than a ripe gage. I think plenty of mulch, and water will get them settled for future years.
Gin - nightmares? hahaha! just wait for the slug and cabbage whites :)

did some lawn mowing and clematis pulling today. so satisfying pulling and pulling :o

plans for the weekend: sifting the first batch of comfrey juice (hope neighbours don't have a bbq planned) and planting out the first tomatos.

also need to courgettes and pumpkin seeds in, will see if my self collected seeds will germinate.

RedBug are you planting your tomatoes outside or in the greenhouse? I have been feeling that the weather is warm enough to harden off and plant outside but the on-line guide for my area says 2nd week in May. Perhaps I will wait until the old hands at the allotments start putting theirs in.
I mowed my postage stamp sized lawn and it looks very parched. I didn't get to plot today as I have been doing jobs ready to go back to work on Monday. In between times I have been hunting down slugs and snails in the garden.

I'm in the se, so have been frost free for a while.
the tomatos will go outside (don't have a greenhouse), some in the veg bed, some on the patio. colder but sunnier area vs warmer but shadier to spread the harvest.

it rained snails when I pulled out the clematis. a couple of sparrows helped themselves to some for dinner :)

Thanks Redbug I am on the Isle of Wight so probably have similar conditions to you. Good tip about spreading the harvest, I have gone for different varieties for this reason. I had earmarked one bed for tomatoes, cucumbers and courgettes but you have got me thinking about putting some of those in another bed as well which is partially shaded by the fruit trees from the neighbouring plot.