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

[bookbook]

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

Raining here too. Which is good for our water butt at home and the flowers. But no plot today. Though me and ds did clean our guinea pigs out earlier.

Have found a cheap way of getting rid of the rest of the 5ft high nettles and brambles on the plot. Local tool hire place does brush cutters so enquired about cost. Will be about £30 for the weekend so definitely going to hire that. The top half wasnt so bad as there was membrane down with bark. It had overgrown but nothing major.

The bottom half is much worse but still quite 'fluffy' so hoping the brush cutter goes through it all easily. Will get it as short as possible then we can see what we are left with. Will still be a lot of work but easier than doing it with shears and a spade! DP will be pleased.

Also got half of it fenced off last night. Still need a couple more posts to make a gateway and probably another roll of netting. But the allotment site is pretty secure so no rush. Hopefully get it done this weekend. And start planting a few bits out.

Have to watch DP though. He is very impatient and very spendy when it comes to projects. And throws money at problems rather than time. He wants to go to B and Q or the big expensive garden centre for plants. I want to go to a car boot as I know they are much cheaper. But he hates car boots. Sigh.

Next year I will hopefully be able to grow from seeds so we don't have this issue.

Hello hello everyone! Rain at last!!!! Our waterbutt was completely empty so the rain is welcome.

We've not made much progress with planting etc recently as I was ill, but hoping to catch up on stuff at the weekend, in particular getting our tomatoes, tomatillos, aubergine (1 measly plant germinated out of an entire packet), peppers & chillis into their final position in greenhouse. We're going to try tomatillos outdoors as well this year.

I'm loving all of the progress photos. Gnome every time I see your plot I sight with envy. The space!!!!

Frouby re your plant ID question, if you look at the underside of the leaf and the colour is very silvery-grey, then its probably a raspberry.

Also meant to add to the conversation about our fav books relating to fruit and veg growing:

• rhs pruning and training book (for our fruit trees and bushes)
• carol klein grow your own veg
• mel bartholomew square foot gardening

Too much rain! Our 2 x 100l water butts that were only installed this weekend are now overflowing. With them only filling off the cabin roof I'd optimistically thought that we wouldn't need to worry about overflow or where the excess water needs to go! The water butts off the main house haven't been anywhere near full for months.

Oh, and our raised beds are only 2.4m x 0.6m and normally manage to get crops of 2 different veg from each. Admittedly we only had peas for one meal, but that was mostly because they were too tempting to snack on straight from the plant.

Well, the new veg patch is finished! Unfortunately I have to work tomorrow, so I'm not going to be able to do anything with it until Friday. It's meant to rain here tomorrow, so that's probably a good thing anyway. I'm irrationally pleased and excited with it!

That looks great GardenGert, quite jealous

Gert! That looks bloody amazing! What an exciting blank canvas.

Wow gert! I'm feeling the need for more beds after seeing that lot!

That looks great Gert!

No rain here today, just grey humidity. I spent the whole day (well 9-2.30) at the plot- planting brassicas out, weeding and pottering. Oh, and planning edits for my writing- there's a desk and chair in the big polytunnel!

I did feel a bit guilty eating cheese pastries and brownies from the local shop when I was surrounded with veg, but I can't just eat salad

Thanks All. It was so badly laid out before that I've got masses more growing space now. One bed will be for strawberries, and one for herbs. I will probably use one of the bigger ones for cutting flowers. So that will leave four for veg. There is room for a small greenhouse in the back right corner, but that will have to wait until next year. What fun!

'Looks great Gert.

Gardencert that truly is amazing. It looks pretty perfect.
Gnome, your plot also looks amazing. Very tidy and organised. Mine is quite ramshackle with edges made up of lots of odd, old bits of timber. Some off cuts lined up and some old beams. Every patch is a different size and shape and quite haphazard. But I didn't spend on it as I'm on a budget so quite happy with I've put together.

And a belated welcome and wave to Frouby.

I managed a couple of hours at the plot today. Was raining but it didn't bother me too much, although I could do with some mini wipers on my specs.

I planted out my sweetcorn in two separate patches. I have two different varieties. Three actually... so have tried to keep them away from each other and separate as I read somewhere that you're not supposed to mix varieties of sweetcorn.

Also finished planting out the last of my aubergines and chillis in the greenhouse. They're all still quite tiny but I'm hoping they'll catch up soon. Then gave the whole greenhouse an absolute thorough watering to try and catch it up to outside.

The rain seems to have truly revived the whole plot. What looked like cracked, baked clay a few days ago now looks like dark and crumbly clods of soil. There's a million new weed seedlings sprouted up and even some fully grown weeds that seem to have grown in 3 days.

I also planted my tomatoes outside and covered them with a mini greenhouse. Planted my squash and bottle gourd out too with the intention of covering it with a makeshift cloche but now realise that I forgot and left it exposed.

Gert That is so fabulous.

The rain has made loads of growth here too. I don't actually know what are weeds and what I've sown! Does anyone know a good website where I can look up what seedlings look like for various plants? I know most of the vegetables; it's the flower plants I don't know.

I didn't get anything done yesterday as I'd planned to so did it today instead. Vegetable patch is beautifully weeded (until the next 6 million borage seedlings appear) and I finally made the obelisks I bought. I love them. I've included a couple of pics of the structures I've put in the garden. I think they make it feel more complete. (And you get a bonus pic of GrouchyBaby because she wouldn't move out the way.)

Courgettes still haven't germinated so I planted my last three seeds today out of desperation. These are yellow ones. I have two, maybe three, good normal courgette plants, though they're growing VERY slowly.

Carrots haven't germinated either. It has been at least four weeks so I figure I need to give up on those. I have some purple carrot seeds that I can sow so will do those tomorrow.

I want to sprinkle some grass seed all over the lawn. I thought about mixing it with compost/loam. Would that be sensible?

Evening!
Just catching up on here - no plot, but pricked out seedlings of savoy cabbage and some more PSB in the dry of the greenhouse.
Frouby - local markets are good for veg plants if you have a plant stall too - you are going great guns there.
clara - hope you are better now, you can soon catch up once better.- Last year I didn't get an aubergine seed to germinate . This year I sowed nine, for safety, and all nine came up - sods law !
GardenGert - lovely , looks great!
Lulooo - my plot is full of heath robinson structures too, made up of what we have :)
Grouchy - I don't have help on the seedling identification sadly. I mostly get it wrong and just leave in the ones I am sure about. ! Carrots have taken forever here too , first lot okay in plugs, second succession no sign as yet. I did notice my second succession sowing of beetroot just starting to pop up though.
Grass seed is beloved by birds, so it may help to mix up with some compost

Our slightly obsessive bed organisation stemmed from experience of trying to keep paths under control when they didnt line up. DH is in charge of building works, mowing and weeding (he likes weeding!). He likes the beds to line up to make the mowing easier!

One thing we have learned is that it is easier to put a path in than it is to take one out! When we first started we had lots of small beds. These have now been turned into larger beds but even now some years later I can still tell where the old paths were when rotavating!

Much rain here thank goodness!

My polytunnel has arrived!

Everyone's allotments/gardens look so neat. I love the angle on the closest raised bed Gert. I want to take a picture of mine but want to tidy it first... I managed to kill almost all my courgette plants by putting the. Out far to early but there is one survivor, so I also planted some cucumber (which has just germinated) and some very old butternut squash seeds (which may or may not appear). And it's been scorching where we are. My tomatoe plants which were hardening of outside were looking very sorry for themselves when I came back from work today. It was too cold for them before. They are hard to please.

Oh and I looked out of the upstairs window to see next doors ball had gone over and the boy that lives there just climbing over the fence, hovering over my raised bed with the beans and carrots. I swear I have never moved so fast, managed to make it downstairs, into the garden, go "here's your ball" and lob it over before any damage was done. Gardening is really stressful.

Oh and mini grouchy is very sweet.

Book I never thought of the local market. We have quite a big outdoors one on a Tuesday and a bric a brac one on a Wednesday so I bet I can get loads from there. And don't have to drag mardy arse dp either as he will be at work.
Grouchy I used to overseed my old lawn. It works better if you stab your lawn first. I know that's not the technical term but I can't spell 'ariate' and spell check has no idea what I am talking about. Anyway stab it a bit and chuck a load of grass seed down. I used to buy it loose from Wilkos. The hardest bit is trying not to walk on it for a good week.

I never managed to keep off it but it was always a bit better afterwards with a good weed and feed product. Maybe do half at a time so you can still use half?

Sun is out here! Will be getting a few trugs of manure from the yard today. And might get a couple of hours on the plot later.

Am half tempted to rescue some of the membrane from the burning pile and cut it up and save.

Well first proper rain yesterday for weeks and weeks and everything feels so much fresher today. Hope to pop over to the plot later on just to see how things have fared. Fingers crossed the slugs haven't found my runner beans!

Very impressed with the pictures of the very neat plots. Mine definitely wouldn't win a 'most tidy allotment' prize. The currant bushes in the new part we took on last autumn appear to be redcurrants but have only a few measly fruit at the very tops of the stems. I may give them a proper prune later in the year now I know what they are and feed and see what happens. They are really big plants and long term I can probably think of something else to put in the soil if they've got too old to be producing properly. Also will need to do something with the rhubarb which grew a bit and then went into a sulk. It has lots of grass growing all round it and through it. I think I may need to dig it all up and clear the ground and put it back. I've covered round it with black plastic in the hope that that helps with the grass but it won't kill all of it. That will be a project for the autumn I think.

Lulooo I do like the more relaxed look but as DH does the building works I just let him crack on!

Sun is shining here. DH is planning to start putting up the polytunnel frame this morning. To start with it is going to be covered in butterfly netting to protect the brassica plants. It will only have it's poly cover for late winter and early spring.

I checked my gherkins in the propagater 20 have germinated!

I love my DH! He planted out all of our tomato plants in their final position in the greenhouse last night. One less thing for me to do at the weekend!

kiwi I've not had great germination success with my courgettes this season either, and I have been using new seeds. I had to start off another round. The seedlings I do have are not looking particularly vigorous...

My leeks initially looked like I was going to get a poor germination rate but every other day another one comes up. Clearly some are just being lazy.

Some stuff is just not germinating at all for me this year, after a second attempt - celeriac, turnips, beetroots all come to mind. I'm using year old seeds so I wonder if that's a factor. However my bean seeds are around 5 years old and they still work!

Afternoon!
I was looking after DGS this morning, got home after a late lunch. Had a sit, and then DH and I went off to do a bit more of the brassica cage. Its nearly done - it all went well, and the net went over fairly easily , and pinned down nicely too, thank goodness. I had an old net to do the end, which we have put up, but it needs a bit of a mend,. Just the door nets to sort and its good to go. Glad its done and out of the way - the seedlings at home have shot along with the rain, and are ready to plant out.
Gnome - enjoy the polytunnel :)
good on your DH clara it takes off a bit of the strain!
But yes, germination has been very odd this year. The purple french beans germinated in 5 days. 4 out of 12 green ones germinated, and no runners. So I have resowed the green french beans a, and the runners, and they are popping up nicely now, and yes the leeks have been all over the place - I succession sow 3 pots worth , the first and third are fine, the second has been very patchy.
and the joy of an allotment - home made pasta sauce made in autumn from roasted tomatoes , peppers and shallots , will add some perpetual spinach I have just picked , and then some berry compote for pudding :)

Thanks clara and books. It's somehow comforting to know that I'm not the only one having germination issues.

I've just spent a good 10 minutes spraying my three roses with very diluted vinegar to get rid of aphids. On some of the rosebuds I could see the greenflies from inside the house - a good 10 metres away - there were so many. I desperately need ladybirds.

My small plum tree is looking VERY unhappy. The leaves are almost all curled over and/or stunted and some of them have white fungus or something on them. What do I do? The RHS doesn't describe this issue so I don't know what it is. I'm worried the poor tree is doomed.