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

Sorry to hear about the pony Frouby. . There is a Rosamunde rose, but I don't know anything about its needs.

V sorry to hear about your pony, Froub It's awful when you have yo say goodbye to a loved one, however many legs they have.

What about rosemary - traditionally used for remembrance? We put rosemary from his garden in my dad's funeral flowers a few months ago - and now we're trying to keep alive cuttings from that bush...

oh no frouby that's not a very nice thing to go through. pets eh, steal your heart and your sanity and leave a great big hole when they pass.

so. big trough is filled with cheap coconut fibre compost and my seedlings, hoping that that will keep them happy for a few days. weather looks like it will be not quite as hot and sunny the next few days.

Sorry about your lovely pony, Frouby. Rosa Mundi is very pretty, the info says it's tough and reliable so it's probably happy in most positions. It's not a climbing rose, though.

Have done nothing in the garden today. Was far, far too hot. The children had a great time playing in water so at least the lawn has had a good watering.

It's meant to get back to 12C on Monday so I'll need to get weeding then.

rose - a rosa rugosa?

Evening.
clara - perverse wildlife !
so sorry to hear about your pony Frouby - having seen what others have suggested, that about covers what I would have said too- Rosemary and Rosa Mundi ( gallica rose) - there are good climbing roses for north facing walls, if you want to use the generic rose name - Sarah Raven gives a good , small selection.
Grouchy - how are the ladybirds doing - settling in and munching I hope? ( I forgot to say Happy Birthday to Baby Grouchy - no way is she one )
Managed to get back to the plot this afternoon with DH. We have sorted the fruit cage, all holes mended, and the door put on- the red currants have the merest tinge of ink, so nicely in time. DH cut the grass, and I started netting the strawberries - one patch done, other tomorrow.

Morning all

Thanks for the suggestions. We already have rosemary at home and the spot where it will go has trellis and is at the side of our garden furniture. I will have a look when I feel a bit less raw. We had her 12 years so yesterday was pretty tough.

I did get a bargain chicken coop though. It's only small, probably have 4 hens comfortably when dp has built an additional run for it. It was £40 on a local fb selling page and they only ever used it for their kitten for a month. It's one of those with a little run built into it. I don't think it's big enough for a proper run but dp will be able to build a fox proof run around it pretty easily and they can use the bottom run for a shady area etc.

And all 5 of the sweercorn I planted have come up! They are only about an inch high so will have to wait a while to put them out I think. But at least they have started.

We are supposed to be at a bbq later so a day off the plotment but hopefully can spend a few hours tomorrow and Monday.

Heavens have just opened here which is very annoying since I wanted to finish the new raised beds. We've used old pallets and they will then be wrapped with willow screening to make them look a bit prettier.

Most of the seeds we planted a fortnight ago are now up. spinach peas mange tout and pumpkins going great guns and courgettes are racing up behind. carrots are slow but now showing signs of life. Asparagus and runner beans are very grumpy and staying in bed. Id expected the asparagus to be tricky but thought the runner beans would be fairly easy.

My sweetcorn which is planted out already doesn't seem to be doing much any more after its initial spell of looking happy. Its grown a bit in the past few weeks but not much

Morning!
Just back from a couple of hours at the plot - squash/courgette bed all ready to go. Planted up the last of the flower bed too.
The rain has started just this minute - forecast for thunderstorms this afternoon. Good timing for once!
Newt - yes the sweetcorn seems to not grow. Don't look at it, and hopefully it will behind your back.

Frouby sorry about your pony.

We have had extraordinarily hot weather up here for the last few days which has been lovely since we so rarely get it! I took the DCs to the beach yesterday after school and they went swimming in the sea, which they loved.

The weather has set my plot off to great start. Everything is germinating away. All four of the courgette seeds I planted to replace the faliures have germinated, which means that I might well end up with 7 courgette plants - might be a touch excessive for a family of four! I'll see how they get on for a few more days and maybe give a couple away. The three I got from the garden centre all have several teeny-tiny fruit on them which is exciting. I also managed to get a pot of leeks from the garden centre today, so I will get those in. They'll be the last things to go in, so it'll be maintenance, weeding and watering from now on until harvesting can start.

After the heatwave we had storms last night and weather warning for heavy rain in place for tomorrow through to Monday. My DD is away camping with the scouts but I am sure they will survive. I feel sorry for the people who have come over from the mainland for the bank holiday. Anyway with the forecast in mind I went to the plot and to harvest a few strawberries.

Morning all

Much cooler here today. A few showers yesterday but nothing major.

Have put my courgette and sweetcorn plants outside to start toughening them up a bit. The courgettes are looking a bit tall tok so hopefully will slow them down a bit. Going to bring them in overnight though.

I need to make a to do list I think. Have so much I want to get done on the plot. I have to get some more raised beds in pretty soon to house the seedlings I am growing on at home. I need to do some bean wigwams, finish clearing the bottom bit, start burning some of the piles of weeds and brambles we have, build the little shed up etc etc etc.

Have had tough week at home with dpony tho so haven't been as focused. Feel slightly less sad this morning so will hopefully enjoy a few hours up there.

We were at a bbq yesterday and dp is feeling a bit worse for wear. I drove so feel quite bright eyed and bushy tailed so I can see us having different agendas for today.

Morning all. I was thinking about you on Friday Frouby

We've just got back from a quick trip to Norfolk and the garden has changed so much while we've been gone. Back to it now though - DP mowing the lawn and doing other odd jobs I can't manage. I've planted a couple more courgette plants and have a few more runner beans to make supports for. Then I think I will pop to PIL's for a swim and water their garden (they're still in Norfolk)

Afternoon!
Lovely and sunny, but definitely fresher here today.
Gert - I find 3/4 courgettes are sufficient, and we like them a lot!
elephant - wow, what a haul!
Frouby - tough week indeed. There is always a longer list of what I have to do, than what I have done .
Gin - great timing on the break!
I planted out squashes and courgettes, weeded and netted over the second strawberry bed. It took ages - I am useless with nets !
We had the most immense downpour yesterday afternoon, so at least I didn't need to water.

Good afternoon, just back from the plot and having lunch.

elephant wow! just wow! My strawberries are nowhere near that stage.

I am hoping for third time lucky with courgette and squash. I am afraid we have had to resort to slug pellets. Also put in a melon.

Planted out the sunflowers this morning. Going back this afternoon to tie them to their supports.

Not much left to plant now. Gherkins will be a couple of weeks.

frouby sorry about your pony , that's very sad news.

Finally got put into the garden properly today and it's all gone a bit bonkers. The greenhouse was like a scene from sleeping beauty with all the tomatoes triffid-like and growing into each other. I pruned lots of leaves out- possibly too many. Don't really know what I'm doing so I may well have over done it. Then got to the raised bed- the rocket had bolted, weeds all over the place and rogue raspberries etc, so did battle with that. More excitingly just harvested 3 little corgettes and had one is a salad made with lots of parsley and mint and a lone raddish, all from the garden. Steady rain now so I've come in.

our holiday is cancelled due to the ba thing...
at least it means we don'tneed to worry about watering. will still go to the coast for a couple of days though to have a dip in the sea.

are cauliflower leaves edible? have to thin mine out.

Sorry about your holiday, RedBug.

books Ladybirds have mostly disappeared. I see one every now and then so I hope they're still all ok! This year has gone far too quickly, I can't believe my baby is 1.

Garden is being left to its own devices at the moment. We're all sick here with cold/flu. It is amazing how much things have grown in this heat. Everything is just shooting up.

I always eat them Redbug, just pull out the thick veins. They add colour to a cauliflower cheese I think. sorry to hear about your holiday.

I've never thought about eating cauliflower leaves. What other leaves are edible? I quite like beetroot leaves, and apparently nasturtium leaves are good (according to MasterChef they're this year's big ingredient).

Afternoon
Gnome - fingers crossed - I have plante mine today and done a very thin defensive ring around each one, but well away. Once they get going, they have been fine .
Cath - tomatoes do that- I spent yesterday afternoon tying mine to their canes so they are not flopping everywhere. And courgettes already :) You have rain?
Red - thats so annoying - sorry to hear that. Hopefully the weather here is nice for you. I always cook the tender inside leaves of cauliflower
Grouchy - was chatting to a near neighbour at the plot covering the fruit cage which has a cherry tree in it. Every stem had quite bad leaf curl ,but - it was crawling with ladybirds. Hopefully you just can't see yours - ninja ladybirds...... get better soon too - all the children poorly too? You will be exhausted.
I think most vegetable leaves are edible if you want /need to -( not so sure on flowers mind) if you are fancy, they are called micro greens aren't they? . I'm never sure about picking pea shoots tbh - I'd rather have a pea!

So the two new raised beds are finished and one even has soil in! I'm quite pleased with them for £12. Although they are on a south facing wall they are mainly in the shade unless I can get permission to take down an annoying sycamore. They probably get about 3 hours of sunshine a day. Any thoughts about what would be best in there given the location? They are 3 foot square.

Still in pots I have pumpkins, butternut squash and courgettes (I'm assuming these all like sun - although Hagrid seems to have great luck with pumpkins and its rarely sunny at Hogwarts), peas and mangetout, runner beans if they ever do anything, carrots and spinach.

Frouby, sorry to hear about your pony.

We had our first strawberries from the garden today - only three but they were very nice. Some salad yesterday too and we have a few sugarsnap peas nearly ready to pick too so starting to feel that we may actually be getting a productive garden! Must net the cherry tree as a few fruit are starting to turn pink. On the downside the weeds are also racing away - managed a few hours of weeding today and rescued my redcurrant plant from rampaging greenery but feel I've barely scraped the surface of what there is to do.

Newt could you put something reflective on the wall to reflect a bit more light down onto your plants? Maybe hang up a survival blanket?

Sounds like it has been a mixed bag for weather round. We have had quite a lot of sun but are promised rain overnight and into tomorrow morning.

Attached are this week's photos. Lots of weeding done this weekend. Joy of joys the courgettes, squash and melon survived the night!