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

Actually, it could be this. Still don't know what to do.

you can buy ladybirds Grouchy - my DD was looking them up as her rambling rose is absolutely covered. I went and tried to get rid of some today, but whether or not I have succeeded is another matter . Hers is a very new build house, so no real balance of wildlife yet . Not that I have seen too many ladybirds this year. If the plum has leaf curl aphid, it shouldn't cause too much damage , - dilute washing up liquid sprayed on is the usual non chemical suggestion.

I've got loads of woodlice if anyone wants the sides of their raised borders eaten . The balance of insect life does seem to be a bit skewed ATM, probably due to the weird spring weather.

Thanks books. I've ordered some, and a very cute Ladybird House, which I think the children will find fascinating.

Our house is a very new build too (we've been here for 2 years in a few days) so similar situation with lack of wildlife.

Thanks for the tip re washing up liquid.

Noooooooooo

Went to the plot tonight to admire the new polytunnel frame. Very good it looks too.

But but but

Something has eaten all the courgette and squash plants I planted last weekend! Every single one. I have some spare courgettes but no squash. It looks like a trip to the garden centre on Saturday.

Oh dear Gnome. I find car boot sales good for plants as well as people selling them from their drives and honesty boxes.

argh Gnome - that happened to me last year - dratted slugs ate all but two squashes ( only because I caught them on the second day of planting) - I had to use every runt insurance plant I had, and buy some. Bad luck .

Thank you for the kind words.

I dont think it was slugs, the ground around each plant looked like it had rootled through. I am thinking possibly pigeons or hedgehogs. whatever it was the next lot will go in with all possible protection.

Boo hiss

My courgettes plants always get eaten by the muncjac deer - they love them.

Re aphids and ladybirds. My roses are covered - the really annoying thing is there were absolutely loads of ladybirds in my garden a while ago, they seemed to have overwintered in the old hollyhock stems in our garden but they've all disappeared now. I dont know if it's the weather or if the ants have done away with them somehow. I also saw the ants actually carrying aphids into my house to put on the basil seedlings . Gnome - do hedgehogs eat plants? I always thought they were carnivorous but that's likely to be yet another misconception I've firmly held for decades... And if it's pigeons, I found the easiest way to keep the mahoosive pigeons of my seedlings was to feed them myself

MN was not letting me comment yesterday but working again now.

Gnome what a bugger! So disheartening. I hope you manage to get some replacements.

How is everyone finding car boot sales that sell plants? I don't know of any local car boots!

On the topic of aphids, remember the roses DP accidentally sprayed with Round Up? I digged them up and potted them up to see if they'd come back to life, and all eight of my still-planted roses are fine, but the aphids have covered the practically dead ones. Perhaps I should just leave them as bait!

I planted out some more lettuce yesterday and did some weeding. Everything is look good so far, but there are lots of tiny slugs out and about now...

I didn't know you could buy ladybirds I'm going to check that out.

I have just watered the whole plot with nematodes so I'm going to try that this year on the slugs as they do really get to everything. We have finally had some persistant rain yah!! I'm in SW and it had been So v.dry. I've attempted to sow some grass seed again and netted it against the resident wood pigeons in our garden. Every year I try and it just won't take very well, we are overrun with moss. I've raked, treated, left it 4wks, scattered soil with the grass seed and now wait again!

The rhubarb is looking a little happier after some watering and the strawberries are covered in green fruits so the kids can't wait for the first red ones. The gooseberry is also looking good this year.

Our cherry tree gets leaf curl aphids every year, it's too big to spray with fairy liquid so we put up with it, but I do put a grease band round it's trunk to stop the ants carrying them up, bought one in Homebase yesterday. I spray smaller plants with dilute fairy liquid if they get aphids, it's very effective.

Rain, rain and more rain so far this week, some of my baby lettuces have fallen prey to slugs, I am going to order nematodes today and get my beer traps out.

Morning all! We've had about 3 or 4 inches of rain here in the last couple of days, I'm scared to go and look at the weeds that will have appeared on the plot! Will have to go tomorrow, I'm out tonight so won't have time today.
Grouchy super cute baby!

Morning all. I was out all day yesterday and have come back this morning to 25 potato plants above ground! Its nice to see the green in the beds. I think I might have planted them to close together though? They're about 25cm apart along the row and then each row is about 35 cm apart. Should I just leave them now or do I need to move some?

I also think I went a bit crazy with the marigold seed. There are seedlings popping up everywhere. At least I'm hoping they're the marigolds. I might end up lovingly tending weeks for a few weeks..

Broccoli has gone floppy. Is it normal to have to stake it or were they perhaps not planted deeply enough? They're about 12-15cm tall.

Questions, questions, questions...

Newt I'm quite sure I'm tenderly caring for rather a lot of weeds at the moment I cant remember what seeds I've planted, so I thought I'll just wait and watch. Preparing for disappointment...

Good morning all. Everyone's plots seem to be coming on. As I said, we're up in the far north so things are a bit behind here. I bought some courgette and squash plants from the garden centre yesterday, so I will start hardening them off today. I planted eight courgette seeds last week of which precisely two germinated. Maybe they were too wet? The two plants that have resulted are very puny looking, so I don't hold out much hope for them either. I've also planted some cosmos and zinnia for my cutting garden, but nothing's happened yet.

I also managed to get my first new raised bed planted up yesterday, with the strawberry plants which I've had in pots up til now, supplemented with a few more from the garden centre. The kids are off school here today, so we're going to the park this morning, but this afternoon is set aside for getting the herb bed planted up and making a start on the bean wigwams, carrot fly fencing and the like.

Morning!
It's raining again, has been raining overnight too.
Gin - thats the way it is - but no car boots around you? There is one somewhere every Sunday around here.
Newt - Potatoes - the spacing are just about okay , but the rows are a bit close ,( especially if they are maincrop) , but in truth, I wouldn't try to do anything with them now. As long as you can draw up soil around the stalks, and maybe give them a bit of extra feed.
Broccoli I don't usually do anything with mine, just plant them out, no staking , so go and give them a good look over, is something getting at them? They do like a good deep , very solid planting .

Gnome how disappointing about the plants! I hate it when all that effort you've put in just disappears over night.

Newtsuitcase no idea re broccoli - I've not had much success trying to grow it so far.

I'm still none the wiser about what pinched a couple of my garlic plants. I reckon it must have been a bird which thought it might be able to use it as nesting material. Only two went, the rest are still there and nothing else was disturbed. Still a mystery though.

We had quite a lot of ladybirds around last year but I haven't seen any so far this year. I use diluted washing up liquid to get them off plants.

Rain here again yesterday so no chance to go and see how the plot was doing.

We put beer traps out and covered them over with bits of wood. Saw the wood had been removed, put back. Wood was removed again. I thought it might be the blackbirds searching around just tipping them off as the wood was lightweight. Put back and this time I put a couple of pieces of old tile on the top - so heavier. Something had still managed to remove this. Not drinking all the beer though. I thought possibly foxes but wouldn't they drink the beer as well?

Not the ladybirds off the plants, the aphids off the plants

There used to be a village car boot book but I think it stopped because not enough people went. I'll have to ask the other farmer if they've plans to start it up again.

It is miserable out there today. I've got two very wet, muddy dogs in the utility room. Such a difference to last week! Still, musn't complain. Of course, DP is now muttering that we've had too much rain for the crops now. It's all or nothing in this country!

I second fairy liquid for aphids - always works for me. No sign of any this year yet. Keep finding lots of ladybirds in our house garden though, so perhaps that is why. Lots of bees and wasps in our garden at the moment as well because I lured them with acquilegia

Morning all

Spent a couple of hours yesterday preparing beds ready for planting. And had my horse shit admired by Keith my plot ndn.

I was prouder than what is probably normal to have a trug of shit admired.

Bought a load of seeds to start off at home too and some of those decomposting pots to plant them straight out. And some bigger plastic pots to set some courgettes off.

And the best news is I have managed to get us a free shed! It's only one of those plastic ones but it's just to keep hand tools and bits and pieces in so will put us on. And it comes with the slabs for a base too so winning. It was on a local fb selling page but I was 3rd person to ask for it so didnt think I would get it but he needs it gone by monday and I think he has been let down.

So this weekend will be busy. Have the brush cutter hired and a shed to sort out. Plus a family party tomorrow and on sunday dp and the dcs are going to watch a charity football match at teatime.

Hello. Couldn't post yesterday when I needed to come on and say HAIL! So now I've calmed down I can say - we had a lot of hail yesterday . I've had not had time to get out but I've finished work for the week and just had a look now and all of the raised bed plants are covered in tiny circular pockmarks which I presume is the damage. In the plus side it's the end of the week, DH is due home tonight and I've just eaten my first pea pod- they rarely make it to adulthood here. A second set of peas are flowering from the real seed people with a lovely purple flower. I am currently oddly unscary to birds. Just had a thrush potter about under the bench I'm sitting on and I have a robin that follows me if I have a spade with me.

Hmm, Ive had a raised bed issue.

All three of the large raised beds are fully planted up but with a whole week of rain the soil has completely compacted and so now the soil level is about 3 inches below where it was previously sat. Guess its not a major problem and will simply mean I have more room once I have some space to add compost/manure etc to the top soil but its a bit irritating that I didn't think about it and water it in properly when we were piling in ton after ton of top soil.