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

Ahem. What I meant to say was - my gooseberries have blown off the bush! It was a new bush and only had 4 to start with. And a branch has snapped. It's quite windy- had a long drive home from work as I was behind the highway maintenance people heroically leaping out and hurling big branches off the road. Pfft. Cup of tea and not looking outside for me now.

Just checking in for a quick wave and hello. I'm stillaway from home on holiday and have about 3 weeks before I return but love reading your updates and feeling very jealous that I couldn't fold my allotment into a suitcase and take it with me. I have a friend whose looking after it for me though (watering and popping in every now and then) who seems to be really enjoying it and taking much pleasure from it. She's sent a few videos on WhatsApp that I've eagerly watched a few times, pausing every 2 seconds. Tomatoes in the greenhouse are looking lush but I realise now the they're planted too close together. Courgettes and squash look miserable and dormant. Everything else looks a little slow. Peas are romping up the poles though and beans also seem to be coming along nicely. I threw some fenugreek seeds in an empty patch on the last day before I left and they've also germinated well and will be ready to harvest by the time I get home.

Lulooo it sounds like a great holiday, enjoy.
I went to the plot for a quick recce this evening. The water butt and guttering is working, but I did not fully turn of the tap! One tomato plant lost to the wind so not too bad really.

*off

Evening!
a long day with DGS - rain all day - my little digital readout - 24.5mm of rain today - just about an inch in old money!
Luloo - at least you don't need to worry about watering this week :)
clara - may go and check min broad beans tomorrow if it stays fine .
so - 1st recipe for courgettes

Chocolate Courgette Cake
120 gm softened butter
125 ml sunflower oil
100 gm caster sugar
200 gm soft brown sugar
3 large eggs, beaten
130 ml milk
350 gm plain flour
2 tsps baking powder
4 tbsps cocoa
450 gm courgettes, peeled and grated finely
1 tsp vanilla essence

Line a 20 x 35 cm baking tray. Heat oven to 190/ fan 170

Mix the butter, oil and both sugars together until light and fluffy. Gradually add the eggs, one at a time and then the milk until mixed thoroughly.

Sift the dry ingredients together and fold into the mixture. Stir in the grated courgettes and vanilla essence.

Spoon into tin. bake for 35-45 minutes
Cut into squares while still warm .

Another big favourite recipe here ( I do more cheese and leave out the red pepper as one of my DD's is allergic to capiscum )
Multi veg muffins

Mmmm, sounds tasty! Can't wait for the courgettes to ripen so I can give that a try. Might even get my 2yo eating courgette (he's not bad for a toddler, loves broccoli and sweetcorn, but courgette is generally ignored!)

Continuing on the veggie muffin theme, we make these a lot and freeze them. They are super easy and we switch up whatever veg we have a glut of (but courgettes are especially nice and gooey):

www.netmums.com/recipes/carrot-and-courgette-savoury-muffins-my-daddy-cooks

Sorry recipe is from the Other Site....

Morning!
Dry here , but very breezy.
Had a quick trip down to the plot, checked everything over . All well, but the slugs have realised there are brassicas growing - not too bad overall , but annoying. Got the fruit cage weeded, hoed the brassica cage and picked my very first strawberries - somewhat muddy ...summer is coming :)

I'm jealous of everybody's strawberries. We have one that is just starting to turn red, and DP has declared I must wait for him to get home from work on the day it ripens, so we can half it and share it

On another note, we still haven't had any slug damage, but we have had some rabbit damage. Remember I said GinCat and GinDog managed to catch a huge one? Since then, the cat has been bringing in younger rabbits most mornings. I think the huge rabbit was a mum and had babies under our shed. I noticed a few lettuce leaves have been chomped off, and a few leaves off a young rose, but I suppose that's a small amount if you consider the amount of them that have obviously been hopping around!

It's typical. We left the bottom of the shed open deliberately as a possible habitat for hedgehogs (to eat the slugs) and have instead accidentally created a lovely habitat for a family of rabbits!

Its been extremely windy here for the past 24 hours (although died down now). It took out a few sticks of rhubarb and I now have leaning broccoli but in the main things have survived thank goodness. My strawberries are still completely green. I can't believe you lot are picking already!

Popped to the plot this evening to finish off the water butts, linking them and putting in a knee joint on the down pipe. Unfortunately my melon hot bed seems to have suffered due to the wind, but I hope the plants will recover. I picked some young spinach leaves to chuck on a pizza tonight and pulled some overwintered garlic (inherited) and it looks pretty good. Should I hang it to dry? I brought it home to wash it and inspect it but now I think I should swill the rest at the plot and hang it in the now upright shed. I love the longer evenings so I can just go to the plot for 40 mins or so.

very impressed by garlic elephant. I havent got myself organised for early garlic and onions before. If that is the result I will give them a go.

The plants are responding in very contrary fashion to the recent weather. The onions have started to bolt a bit. Do heat treated sets work?

Quite a lot of wind damage amongst the hotbed curcurbits. The allotment god is determined that I shall be having shop bought courgettes this year!

On the plu side I had my first teeny, tiny bowl of strawberries. DH opted for a tiny bowl of broad beans.

Finally stopped raining and I had to stand in a gale to try and put lady bird larvae on my apple tree. Lots of things battered by wind , particularly the dwarf peas which were less supported. Leaving it all the to weekend. Had first strawberry to myself in guilty quiet moment alone.

Can I ask a question to greenhouse gardeners- how much should I be pruning tomatoes as we go along? It is a bit of a thicket in there so Ive been thinning it out but not sure I'm supposed to or if I am going about it the right way

The baby has chicken pox so all allotment activities have been replaced by getting covered in calamine lotion .

Need . It's horrible isn't it? But at least over and done with. I am still amazed at what you and others with little people have achieved. I have only taken on the allotment since my DCs are independent. All I could do before was grow a few courgettes, beans and tomatoes in a very small raised bed in the garden. About 7 years ago I put in some sprouting supermarket potatoes, for the DCs to see how they grow. There is one brave potato still going. Dd1 was adamant that I put in potatoes on the plot 'as it is such fun digging them up'.

Hope your little spotty one feels better soon Need. I heard virasoothe is better than calamine (had chicken pox myself as an adult and calamine seemed to make the itching worse!)

I suspect DS of having green fingers - I'd bought 8 herb plants and had neglected to water or plant them quickly enough. One was looking so droopy that I'd given up, but he watched me planting the others and insisted on planting and watering "his" plant - it has survived! I'm fitting everything into the odd snatched moment of nipping out and get a bit of gardening done while he's napping, or playing with his car/bike/climbing frame. Don't think I could manage if it was any further away than my back garden though!

Oh no Need! Hugs to Baby Need.

Oats in a cotton bag and bath water run in through it helped ours with chicken pox. They were in the bath for hours.

good morning.
so the weather has meant small losses in my garden, mainly beans that escaped their ties.

can I grow ginger?
I have a small 1inch piece that has sprouted a stem.
can I just put it in compost? pot or bed?

Morning!
Was busy yesterday - (long day presiding in a polling station)
Hoping to get to the plot later, and check over everything. It was supposed to rain all day yesterday, but was a few miles away where it didn't rain much at all.
Chicken pox - poor baby Need . I used bicarb of soda in a warm bath for itching with mine.
gnome - I have had the best results on overwintering garlic and shallots - mine are not quite ready for lifting yet.
Cath - I don't prune my tomatoes , just take out the 'armpits' - I will let the plants make about 6/7 trusses each, then nip the growing tips out. (its already a jungle in there with the cucumbers, peppers and aubergines all going beserk :) ) And you have grown that strawberry - its gardeners perks!

Hello hello! Busy at mo, but I did manage to make it to the plot the day before yesterday, quickly. The weather wasn't kind to me, alas. My 'climbing' beans are pretty much done for I think - ripped apart and very yellow. And really not climbing. I think I'll resow but it is poss too late . My broadies are now horizontal. I've staked them up a bit but will not worry too much much as I have others at home.

My summer raspberries took took a took a right battering and I've lost quite and few bits off that. Ditto blackcurrants ( ) and my wineberry, although that's young so wouldn't have done much anyway.

And my tomatoes are really illing! The ones at the plot really suffered from the wind, but I hope wih some sun and warmth (? ) they may yet rally. But my beloved hanging basket toms got smashed about and mashed into the wall and they're all broken. I don't really know what to do about them actually.

Dammit.

My bindweed is looking healthy however.

And I have this afternoon to garden. I need to tidy my own garden also - it's covered in bits of tree that have been blown down, and my tall grasses are a right old mess too.

Sympathies re chicken pox, Need !

Hope the chicken pox clears off very soon Need

Zebra that's annoying about the tomatoes, the wind has been so fierce! Your climbing beans may recover yet if the growing stem is still there.

YellowLawn I seem to remember my mum growing ginger in a pot. Not sure it came to anything much but it was interesting. Worth giving a go. An indoor plant I think.

I popped over the plot yesterday after voting and managed to rescue a couple of beans which had become detached from the support canes. Some of the leaves have been blown off the borlotti that I planted out last weekend but the plants are still alive. It absolutely poured down last night again and it is windy today.
Harvested a few strawberries and there were a couple of tiny ripe raspberries which was exciting.

Oh dear Zebra - so disheartening. Hope you manage to salvage some things.

Does anyone have any broad bean recipes? We don't actually like broad beans that much, I only really grew them for the soil I think I remember Alys Fowler making some falafels with them maybe. Will have to try and google that.

On the plus side, our carrot seeds have germinated