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 - I think you should go with what you fancy , don't worry what others think- its you who is going to work in the garden, and look at it out of your window :)
IlPorcupino - rubbing it in now! I do have another asparagus plant or two showing promise, but thats all it is at the moment - promise!
Cath - they don't look pretty, but the first couple of years I grew tomatoes in pots with varying success - I had the most beautiful large terracotta ones -( vanity) , then realised that terracotta pots are very good at drawing water out of the compost, so i was on something of a hiding to nothing.... I also tried putting black plastic buckets with the bottom cut out into grow bags one year , also to help lengthen the root run, which sort of worked. But this was a suggestion on a garden blog, and it just seems to work for me - just a couple of holes poked in the bottom for a bit of drainage.

Thanks very much book - I don't think the one I "pruned" is the same but I'll inspect the surrounding canes with your photo and see if I can spot anything.

Cath yes good idea! I'm happy with access I think - I quite like the idea of rummaging through rather than sticking to edges for picking. Although I may regret that when it's pouring with rain and I want a potato!

I think, because it's the back garden, I'd like it to be more than just veg, and I feel this way it won't look quite so bare in the winter. I guess I can always change the layout if I hate it after a year?!

I like the idea of a bench in the corner! I'm going to get rid of the hedges along the back too, so hopefully that will feel more open and then maybe grow beans or peas maybe on the chicken wire fence.... we shall see!

Lots of edible flowers and companion flowers that could go in as well? It will be lovely- we have to have an 'after' photo at some point.

My broad beans have just started to come up. I sowed them outside a couple of weeks ago.

Are there any classic border perennials that work well with vegetables? I think the flowers I know of that are good companions (like marigold) are annuals, aren't they?

Morning. It is going to be a beautiful day down here in the sunny south east. I shall be inside working. Never mind.

I managed a few hours at the plot on Saturday. Like others upthread I was the only one there in spite of the lovely weather. I dug over some weedy parts from our first plot ready to plant something in them. Weeded round my transplanted raspberry canes which were part of my tiny fruit empire - now vastly expanded after I annexed the next door territory.

We are away next week so I have resisted the urge to plant any seeds this early. Potatoes could go in as they are doing well but no time so they can wait. I checked when I planted the last couple of years and didn't do anything until April anyway so not worrying about what other plot holders are up to. Fingers crossed the second week of April is nice so we can get potatoes and onions in and do some more clearing.

Morning!
Is everyone ready for todays heatwave?
I am holding out planting potatoes Cedar - next week I think . Have a lovely time away.
Gin - the things that come to mind are herbs such as rosemary, lavender etc. A bit off the wall - globe artichokes are lovely tall architectural plants you can eat :) and rhubarb can be a border plant too- just ask Cath

Morning all,

I haven't posted for ages, so I need to catch up with the thread. However I've got a day off work and the forecast is looking good, so hoping to get off to the plot later, DS is at home though so it depends what he wants to do too.

I have planted lots of seeds, but most of them were only yesterday. Leeks, PSB, sunflowers, cosmos, green beans, plus broad beans and sweet peas a week or so back, also sweetcorn are doing nicely. I haven't got my spuds in yet but they are chitting away nicely and I have onion sets in cells waiting to go in soon too.

At the plot I am gradually digging out all the grass that has grown round my raspberries. Some of you may remember the saga of my raspberries, when I took on the plot 3 years ago they looked dreadful and straggly (late summer) and were full of very long grass so we strimmered the lot. It has taken a couple of seasons for them to re-establish as it turned out they were autumn fruiting and that was totally the wrong time to cut them down. They did pretty well last autumn though,

So, a question. Yesterday Morrisons had some cheap fruit bushes, I bought a summer fruiting raspberry and a tayberry. Should I plant these well away from the autumn rasps and each other in case of cross pollination? Or can they go in adjoining the other fruits.

sweetcorn WhoKnows ? - - I haven't sown mine yet- yours germinated much better than mine last year I remember !
I don't think you need to worry on the tayberry -just give it plenty of room ( it is part bramble ! ) but I would put the summer raspberries far enough away so you don't mix up the pruning of the autumn and summer ones ( that happened when I had them next to each other - so never got any yellow ones until I realised DH was chopping them to the ground each February!)

I sowed the sweetcorn on the 15th, potted on at the weekend (I started them in newspaper tubes in an incubator) had 17/18 germinate and they are about 1.5" high.

Good point about keeping the summer rasp away for pruning purposes! I was thinking that I would need to use a solid, permanent label for it for that reason, putting it in a different spot would be a good idea.

My corn says to sow in May! I've got "Painted Mountain" which is bred for cooler climates

Thanks for the insights on tomato growing

I spoke too soon re the broad beans. i spied one poking through the compost this morning on my way out to work! Hurrah! I'm going to go home and look out for roots too! Never knew that!

I love seeing the shoots poking through! Had two this morning, four this evening so they are on their way, this is my third batch - one in pits, one sown outside and now another batch. Might keep us going a couple of weeks longer. Borlottis and sweetcorn not doing anything, I might put them in the airing cupboard for a couple of days. Will be eating one more spear of asparagus this weekend - the luxury!!

Does anyone know anything about gages please? We have an Oullins Golden Gage which refuses to fruit. It has produced about two fruits in 5 years and has no sign of blossom again this year. It is a healthy looking tree. Is it just a late developer?

In other news I have planted some ginger in the greenhouse.

mm - tricky Gnome - I have just planted a plum and a gage early last year- they didn't have any blossom ( 2 year olds!) but this year ( having just moved them) they are showing signs. I think they need a few years to settle, but 5 years ? I did hear on GQT a few seasons ago that bullfinches adore nipping off the blossom on plums and gages . Ginger? wow!
I had an hour at the plot this afternoon - so warm- DH cut the grass, thank goodness, and I started preparing the ground for potatoes - just a gentle fork over to incorporate the manure mulch I put on in autumn. The soil was heaving with worms :)

My raspberry canes and strawberry plants have arrived

Thanks for replying bookbook I dont think it is bird damage. We have another gage next to the golden gage which has plenty of blossom.

Allegedly ginger is easy to grow. It is in my heated propagator so we shall see!

mm , interesting Gnome - RHS says self fertile, reliable cropper , so something seems to be going on. I can't remember whereabouts you are - mine , here in Yorkshire , haven't broken bud yet, but could that sharp cold night have got yours?

Belated thank you to Shove and book for replying to concerns about my strawberry plants. I am reassured.

I spent today pricking out some of my tomato seedlings today. They're still a tad on the small side but I did all my seed sowing in one day and by the time I got to this pack of tomatoes I couldn't be asked and just threw them all into a seed tray and left them. I think they nearly all germinated and we're getting cramped so I decided to pot them on now and I have now ended up with about 100 seedlings! They're cherry tomatoes, which I've never grown before, and I already feel overwhelmed by what to do with them and where to put them all.

The crazy thing is I've also sown 3 more varieties of tomatoes.

I'm such a person of extremes. Last year I ended up buying tomatoes plants and now this!

100 tomato plants!! You and Zebra will be able to go into business as commercial tomato producers!!

I'm doing 6!

Am in Brighton this weekend - it's way warmer down here than in Sheffield. People are wandering around in T-shirts and drinking outside of pubs in the fresh air, in March. Trees and plants are further on too.

Morning!
pricked out some ...... 100 tomatoes wow! - I am going to be doing 8 - 2 of each of the 4 varieties.
You will beable to have a plant sale with those. Cherry tomatoes are my favourite :)
Enjoy Brighton shove - mind you it was warm here yesterday too- today its raining.....

Last year so few of my tomatoes germinated so I threw the whole pack in this time. And then when they all popped up, it seemed such a shame to only use some and bin the rest. So yes, I'll definitely be selling a few off or giving a whole load away. I work for a Muslim supplementary school so will pop some on the window sills in view of passing parents and ask passer bys to help themselves and make a donation of any amount towards the kids end of year prizes. And I'll give some away to the neighbours around the school too.
I'll do that once they're a little established.

I do wish I had a bigger plot though. Greedy me kind of wants to sometimes keep them all for myself and a have a whole field of tomato plants. We actually use tomatoes in cooking, most days of the week.

That's a lovely idea luloo!

We're going to germinate our tomatoes this weekend (we're a bit behind with everything this year!). We're aiming for 12 plants in total (4 varieties).

2 more broad bean seedlings this morning, we're on a roll!

My autumn sown broad beans are showing some signs of slug damage though. Grrr....I've been saving pistachio shells over winter to try them as a slug barrier, so will get on that this weekend too.

I read that ginger is easy to grow on the windowsill gnome, it will be interesting to see how yours develops!

Afternoon everyone. Had a good long day on the allotment today. I prepared my asparagus beds and planted 3 - realised I'd previously planted them upside down 😂😂

Otherwise I mostly cleared junk - glass, pots, seed trays, litter, rope and much more (see photo). I uprooted (pretty much literally) a builders bag full of soil and weeds and found a load of mares' tail roots underneath (other photo) - the bag has been there for at least 3 years, probably more like 4 or 5, and some of the roots were still showing signs of life 😱