Allotment/Veg Patch Thread 9 - Spring is sprung, its getting really busy!

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Well, the last thread filled up quickly - maybe due to the horrid weather . Its time to battle slugs, snails and weeds !
Last Thread HERE

Hokeywe will check out Courtown eateries as well as Katy Daley's! Are you near there? We are just south of Poulshone.

tizwozliz No, I didn't design it myself, although I knew what I wanted. My house is on a rectangular plot but at an angle, and my veg plot is to one side of the house, which means it's not square. I got three or four landscapers to come and have a look and let me have designs and quotes. The range of pricing was quite different! The guy I went with basically said he was going to start at the back of the plot and we'd make it up as we went along, which was fine with me! He's about two thirds of the way through it so far and it's looking good.

I'm planting out my squash in a weed-matting covered bed of rotted manure this week too, so good to get tips and ideas. 4' or 5' between plants seems a lot! That only leaves me room for about 3 plants. My seed packet said 90cm.

Haven't had much time to work on the plot the last few days, but had a lovely afternoon there yesterday in the sun, with a bonfire and a BBQ.

Good to read about all your plots making progress - on holiday here so really hoping that the irrigation is keeping all my plants alive and well back home!

Frouby that's amazing progress! Looks lovely. Sunny here today, am going to plant out squash and beans.

If you can encourage squash upwards you can get away with less room between plants. I'm attempting to go vertical this year, but in previous years I've grown in raised beds but encouraged growth out and over the sides. These were grown in an area of soil approx. 50 x 50cm.

Self watering experiments have also been a success with some stuff germinating from seed with no watering required over 5-6 days and chilli pepper being drip fed over the same time and still looking healthy.

Afternoon!
It rained overnight, properly - joy! A rather busy morning - planted out my summer cabbages, celeriac and first lot of beetroot. The netting for the cabbages seem to take forever... . Also starting prepping bed for sweetcorn and spinach.
Spacing for squashes - mine are groundcover - autumn ones, bush would be about 90 cm ( thats 3' ) .

They look delicious Elephant!

Wow Frouby
*
Book* they look so healthy.

I got my asparagus crowns in the post yesterday, went and got them planted yesterday afternoon.
My seedlings that I have in the window sill is doing great, need to swap them over for the other. They will be planted out in summer. Haven't got a photo and have a sleeping baby on me.

We had proper rain overnight too book
The beans are still pretending to be traumatised but all the other stuff I planted out is thriving. Except one bed where the slugs had a rave.

I'm such a rubbish grower. I sow tomato, chilli and peppers too early and sweetcorn, courgette and beans far
seeds too late. I plant on too late so they end up either as tiddly plants or with mangled and intertwined roots that she hard to separate. And then I plant out far too early so even things that look okay are lost in the bad weather.

And top of that, the protection that I give the plants tends to blow off and ends up on next doors plot, my compost has been composting for 4 years and still looks mangy and to top it all off I broke the stems of a good number of the seedlings as I was transporting them to the plot.

What a terrible amount of spelling errors in that post. I do apologise. I didn't even get that right.

Oh Lulooo you don't usually come across as rubbish. You have a fan club based on palak curry and plant markers.
It is never too early for chilli best thing is to put a grow lamp in the airing cupboard and get them going in February. You may be mistaken for a weed grower but heyho.
The frosts were late this year and got most of us.
I managed to morally wound a pumpkin en-rout to the plot. You have company in your rubbishness.

I know I sound a little disheartened and self abasing but to be truthful, I know these things are part of growing and everyone has their own disasters and I am most of the time a happy grower. I do enjoy it still immensely and take great pleasure in seeing food emerge from the soil. But sometimes get fed up with it all going pear shaped.
Being a novice sandwiched between two neighbours who have 70 years growing experience between them sometimes makes me feel a little silly.

Thanks Pestilential. Yes, now that you mention it, I have to ensure I remember my successes too.

The next time I'm feeling a bit like a failure, I think I'll sit down and list everything that went right and whip it out the next time I walk past a tiddly seedling.

Mine are autumn squash but I still think I'd underestimated the space I'll need. Will have to see if I can find any more...

What sort of systems (posh or cobbled together) do people use for self watering? How many days do they tend to work for? Thank you!

Mortally wound a pumpkin, I am sure it's morals were also offended.
DS1 is my emergency watering system.

Ickle - which variety of asparagus did you go for? - nice speedy planting out too!
Lulooo - I am still learning from those around me, and every time something works, I try to remember, as well as the times I have things go wrong. Its called experience, and that is why we are all on here swapping tips and ideas.
I haven't managed to get my runner beans to germinate yet, there is loads of time , and Monty Don only sowed his sweetcorn this last week , so there is everything to look forward to. You are up in West Yorkshire, so never forget that sowing a bit late is not such a big deal - things will grow away a bit quicker in the warm . Don't forget to just ask your neighbours- most gardeners are only too happy to help with advice . Never, ever feel silly!

We had a sowing marathon yesterday. Second lot of carrots, parsnips, cucumber, peas, mangetout, courgettes, pumpkins and sweetcorn. I know our timing isn't quite right on everything but decided that whilst the DC were happy doing it I would let them get on with it. They're now all under glass.

In the raised beds the carrots and spring onions have perked up after looking decidedly ropey for a while. Parsnsips aren't showing any signs, second early potatoes are poking through and sweetcorn is looking very happy.

The rhubarb that the slugs had a feast on isn't going to make it this year. There are no leaves left at all. We've moved the crowns though and so hopefully next year they'll come back.

Planting out the rest of the herbs this afternoon. We have mint, rosemary and coriander in and the oregano, thyme and lemon thyme will be joining them later.

The second water butt hooked up yesterday and so hopefully that will have caught some of the downpour last night.

Afternoon all.

Am knackered and having a day off tomorrow after 3 days of hard graft. Plot looks a lot better and I can see it taking shape now. We measured it today. Its 28m by 16m so I wasn't far off with 30 x 15m as a guess.

Dp made 3 raised beds today and they are ready for some rotted manure going in down the week then some compost then will start planting next week. We have priced up timber and net fencing for the perimeters that need fencing. And had a huge row in the middle of B and M about it. Dp wanted that reed screening stuff. I want galvanised fencing. We are having galvanised fencing.

Am thinking of planting tomatoes, chillis, peppers and possibly sowing some lettuce out next weekend. Will have to buy the plants in as it's too late to start them off I think.

And ndn plot has some runner beans spare we can have.

Ds (3) is loving it but has fallen asleep on the sofa while I was in the shower. It's obviously hard work digging for bugs and spiders!

Progress pictures

Dont be downhearted Lulooo. Dont forget that those experienced growers were novices once. They will still make mistakes, nobody boasts about the failures they discretely consign to the compost bin.
You will soon be showing them a thing or two.

we worked on the sandpit today.
150l compost and some seedlings later here it is.

Great progress frouby!

Another weekend of planting. French beans are in as are courgettes and squash. Took the protection off the flowers.

I feel I have made progress this weekend, the wigwams are up and I have planted out french beans, runner beans and courgettes.
Lulooo that sounds impressive but I bought the plants at a carboot this morning. My french beans and courgettes totally failed to germinate, the courgette seeds were old but not the french beans. The runner beans I sowed with a Science class in jam jars and stupidly thought I would be left with some but they all wanted to take them home.
TBH the french beans were 10p a plant, runner beans 20p and the courgettes 50p. I reckon those are cost prices and I don't get left with seed that will go out of date eventually. I have no idea of the varieties though

Frouby not surprised you are knackered. Well done for catching up with everybody in three days flat. is a good muscle relaxant.
We only have a half plot and seem to have filled it up already.
I may have guerrilla planted a whole packet of out of date runners along the side of the site and new shiny fence.