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

Placemarking the new thread, thanks :)

I've not actually seen them but we must have some slugs here as I'm seeing the damage - an entire outdoor sowing of radishes munched.

Broad bean newsflash a bee (just the one) was spotted visiting the flowers this very morning. Will monitor the situation very closely .

Oh clara what a pain!

I had a total panic this morning when DP looked out the bedroom window at 5.30 and said the field was white - luckily I think it was a heavy dew rather than a frost, but I've never jumped out of bed so quick for the sake of a few tomato plants!

Annoyingly I don't think any of my pea seeds have germinated. I can't remember how long ago I put them in the ground, but I'm sure I should have seen something by now?! Will have to try and scavenge some more off MIL although I think that's the one plant she generally never has spares of.

Hello all, can I join in? I was a regular on some of the old threads a couple of years ago but sadly my gardening has gone to pot (ha ha) thanks to various factors. I've got a big garden and have grown a lot of veg in my time, but a combination of caring responsibilities, lack of time and annoying injuries have curtailed my ambitions.

I'm trying to ease back in this year. I've always grown tomatoes (in a greenhouse) and this year am also going for leeks, beans (the Greek gigante ones), bush beans and maybe some quick salad crops.

Nice to see everyone else's progress!

Hello again, Halsall and welcome back!
Ooh, gigantes beans - I've seen other people grow them, and they look delicious.

This new thread has moved fast! So, no gardening for me at weekend as I was away. But I am back now, and dismayed that I have missed talk of TOMATO ARMPITS. (Almost) Literally my favourite subject. And they do fruit, who said they did not? I find out you grow a good root, the Gen2 tomato grows and matures really quickly. They tend to fruit lower down the plant than the Gen1 plant, but that's fine.

Some people even keep tomatoes going over winter, by taking cutting after cutting. People were doing that with that blight-resistant Crimson Crush, rather than buy expensive seed or plants.

I didn't, I had enough trouble over wintering inca berries (fail), and chillies (2 survived).

I really need to pot on my tomato forest, and to set some free to friends and family, as I am running out of room, and the plants are in danger of getting a bit leggy and crowded.

Thank you Spotted, nice to see you still here

Funny you should mention tomato armpits (although I didn't know that's what they were called). I've been curious to try this. Do they catch up and get as big as the parent plants?

I'm growing Brandy Boy again this year, they were such a spectacular success last year. Absolutely massive fruit, and amazing flavour.

Gin, my peas took AGES to come up. Finally did, though a bit patchy.

Quick trip to the garden today to kill my knotweed (hopefully!) - it's going to be a while till it's dead and cleared and I can use the space but it's good to get the process under way.

While the weed man was injecting, I covered what will be my pumpkin and squash bed with inches of manure. I'm going to cover it with weed membrane and try no dig on this bed, with a view to extending into more of the plot for next year. Quite excited!

How big do my squash and pumpkin seedlings need to be to plant them out? And should I use the less leggy ones? A couple have had a really leggy spurt. Thank you!

Evening!
Been busy today with DGS, so no plot, just watering seedlings at home.All seem to be okay , and not much sign of slugs so far here either.
Welcome back Halsall - RL really does get in the way, but nice you are hoping to get back into growing.
I couldn't believe it when you weren't her for the armpits Spotted - just not fair!
tizwoz - you could sow carrots/beetroot direct, or in plugs to plant out later. Not too late to sow beans direct either in May -they will take a while to pop up and need some help. And Chuck always said squashes/courgettes will be fine planted out later - they just crop later until the frosts.
Gin - paranoia about temperatures! ( I am no better- seriously thinking I may bring my tomatoes back in tonight - its a tweak too cold for my liking for the next few nights )
goodenough - I usually plant mine out with 6- 8 leaves . ( I lost two last year to slugs when I put them out a bit young and tasty....) As they grow, they do get more leggy as they stretch out to cover ground

Does anyone want any slugs or snails? I will be happy to post them. I will be out again tonight with my phone torch, kitchen tongs and blue crate aka Stalag 14.
I planted out the first tomatoes and BN squash plant yesterday as well as some peas.
I am intrigued by the hot bed compost idea on GQT this week. I have some melons germinating and have made a sort of cold frame, if I use the hot compost as well do you think it might work? I'm a bit worried about overcooking them, it is south facing. It's on a raised bed in my garden filled with composting bark chippings

Porcupino, I had some gourd seeds that were similarly confused and had bums in the air. They were all a bunch of copy cats and once one went bums up the rest started to too so I pushed them in right way round. Silly billies.

Gin my peas are taking ages too. My French beans even longer. I gave up sowing them direct as the mice always get them but for me, germination has been slow for peas this year.

Hi Halsall, good to have another grower on board.

I spent a couple of hours at the plot today digging up my polythene greenhouse. I was really dreading it at some the soil looked like solid compacted clay but surprisingly, it was quite easy to dig. Quite crumbly and good textured underneath the surface. Lots of bits of ruble and glass in it though that I'm clearing away as I go along. I had sprayed it with weedkiller last year and it does look devoid of life. Hardly any insects and worms. I've since stopped using weedkiller and really regret using it that one time. I'm hoping to get some manure over it to bring back life but not sure when I'll get the chance to go pick some up.

I'm also thinking of planting my chillies, peppers, tomatoes and aubergines straight into the ground. I really can't afford lots of bags of compost. Would that be a good/bad idea?

I'm also wondering about crop rotation and what happens next year when I want to plant chillies, peppers and aubergines into the same soil again...

oh I'm glad it's not just me who's got no/slow peas! I did wonder about mice, but we have a pretty efficient hunter that I'm fairly confident would keep mice off the garden, and the ground around the peas hasn't been disturbed at all. I'll give them a while longer with fingers crossed!

Hi everyone. My first ever veggies went in at the weekend (after shifting 10 tonnes of topsoil all day saturday). We've probably done everything wrong but at least there will be signs of life this year. We have three large 4foot by 8 foot planters and three that are 2 foot square. The space is right outside my kitchen window so easy to monitor.

So far I have three rhubarb plants in the ground. Two are doing fine but one has been completely decimated by something (probably slugs I suspect). Odd that they've not attacked the other plants. They obviously prefer that particular variety. I also bought another very cheap rhubarb reject at the garden centre last week which consists of one leaf and a tall flower stem so that probably won't do much? Ive removed the flower stem (hope that was right) but the leaf is growing out of the circular stem if that makes sense rather than growing out of the ground. Should I take that off too?

Bed number one is full of my sweetcorn seedlings. Im hoping these haven't gone out too early but I don't have a greenhouse and they look happy at the moment.

Bed number 2 is full of potatoes

Bed number three has spring onions (not taken kindly to being moved - I suspect I did it too soon), carrots (some looking perky, others very bedraggled), parsnip seeds and broccoli.

Square bed number 1 will have peas and beans sown directly this weekend
Square bed number 2 will have courgettes eventually
Square bed number 3 I was saving for fruit (not too optimistic that any will last in our garden with the wildlife and the shade). I have some strawberries in pots and want eventually to transplant the raspberry canes that are growing rampant in the woods.

I also need to get my potted rosemary in the ground.

Any major flaws in my plans? I fully expect to lose a lot of it but I'm hoping that since its a very modest space I will at least have the time to care for it.

Everything has been slow for me this year. The potatoes have been frosted in the last 2 weeks (we're in East Anglia for goodness sake!), peas and beans in the greenhouse are barely germinating, and I only got a few tomatoes to pop up after sewing an entire packet. It's may and I haven't directly planted anything yet !

did our potatoes are showing absolutely no signs of life either! It's like that frost last week has sent them all into hibernation!

Gin so not just me eh ? Yet at my plot the dandelions are flourishing. I was talking to an old boy up there last week and asking how come his soil is brown whereas mine is grey dust. 15 years of being retired and having a plot by the path so he can (a) get the free muck which the muck fairies bring once a year (mid week and you need insider's knowledge!) and (b) two trailers of soil improver from the council every year (dumped on his pitch).

My dandelions would be AMAZING if they had that kind of soil !

my courgette seeds have not come up yet :(

just over a week.
will it be fine?

Morning!
gorgeous here, and itching to get to the plot, but have to wait in for tradesman first ....
Welcome Newtsuitcase :) - that is sounding like a good plan. I would leave the rhubarb leaf on - they sort of come out of the thick stem in the middle of the crown ( but you were right to take off the flower) - they love lots of feed and water.
Lulooo - nice to hear that the ground isn't as bad as you thought. Lots of people grow tomatoes and such direct into the ground inside greenhouses ( my NDN at the plot does) , but they remove and replace the soil every year , so as not to concentrate any diseases that may linger. Could that be a possibility for you?
Had the first sighting of the DGS' carefully ( ! ) planted potatoes yesterday in the tub, and I had one poking its head out at the plot on Sunday.
Germination has yet again this year been a bit weird. I was a bit short of courgettes ( only 2 out of 4 germinated) so I sowed 2 more. They are just showing signs if popping up today - only 3 days! , but of course, the others have come out now. I think here it is still relatively cold , particularly overnight, so I have been stuffing as many things as possible on my south facing windows , rather than the greenhouse and that has helped. But I don't yet have any sign of runner beans , sown at the same time as the french beans, which are all up ...
Maybe we are all very impatient to get growing !

My new raised beds. Not a great deal going on yet but good to know I did the right thing with the rhubarb!

Very nice newt - your garden looks amazing!

Can I plant out my runner beans yet?
In my mind I had June as the time to plant them out, but surely if I've put tomatoes out, runners can go out too?!

Hello all, quick signing in before I head off for coffee and cake with my neighbour.

I will try harder to post this time! I have e questions about nematodes, watermelons and kiwi fruit. I'll be back later!

Oh I spoke too soon about the peas! Look! Let's hope the rest come out or else there will be a fight for the small harvest

I've also found a box of 'bee friendly' annual flower seeds that I must have bought in the 10p seed sale last Autumn, so I've sprinkled those in a patch on the edge of the veg patch in front of a rotten old shed that we really ought to rip out...

elephantoverthehill

We do a sort of poor man's version of the hot bed system. Each year we nominate one bed on the plot as the compost bed. Throughout that year all the allotment waste goes onto that bed instead of into a compost bin

Early in the next season we cover that bed with heavyduty weed proof fabric which has planting holes (we made the holes, it isnt a special fabric). When courgette planting time comes around I put a bit of potting compost in each hole to give the plants something to grip onto but otherwise they just get planted direct.

At the end of the season/start of the next we take the cover off and are left with really nice soil which we rotavate ready for planting and the cycle starts again.

The combination of the warmth from the black plastic and the richness and warmth from the rotting vegetation really seems to give the courgettes a boost.

We have been doing this for a few years and you can see in the soil which beds have benefited from the treatment and which havent yet.

Welcome back Halsall!

Love the raised beds Newts.

An absolute beautiful day here. Have been to the plot yesterday morning and this morning. Everything that can be planted is planted. Now just awaiting the seedlings to grow up.

Waiting impatiently for my asparagus plants to arrive and my seeds to start sprouting.

Saw a beautiful big queen bee today.

Also had to water again this morning as it's so dry.