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

Oooh, I like that method. It feels scientific :)

Very impressed with the pictures of the apricots. I do like the idea of just being able to pick a fruit off the tree.

Had a quick trip to the allotment yesterday, just to have a look, no actual gardening. The first potatoes are through - just one or two and I missed seeing them at first. I think the blackbirds have been digging through the manure where I planted my peas so I'm not sure how many are going to survive that. I may do some in pots at home just in case. Anyway good news for the baby birds as the parents have been busy collecting the worms.
Overcast and showery here today. I'm working anyway so no gardening.

Hello all

Hope you don't mind me joining in.

We have a very small decked garden at home with various flowers in pots and baskets scattered around.

But yesterday I had a phonecall and I have been offered an allotment. Am a very giddy kipper. Can't see it until Thursday so don't know anything yet. It's about a 10 minute walk away or a 5 minute drive so ideal really.

I plan to have really useful things on there. Some rasperries and bkackberries possibly. Strawberries and maybe some small fruit trees if I am allowed.

And best of all half a dozen chickens and a couple of ducks!

Will have a look next week and probably be with a billionty questions. We had a huge wild garden which we successfully tamed at our old house and I had a couple of raised beds in there but it was hit and miss success wise. Had a fuckton on beetroot one year, strawberries did well and obviously tomatoes and peppers/chillis did well in growbags.

I would like to grow some french beans, have an asparagus bed, some sprouting broccoli possibly. And maybe some cucumbers and courgettes.

Welcome, frouby ! And how exciting! What a lovely time of the year to get it, when it's still possible to grow most things, and the weather is conducive to your being outside and getting on! Have you started sowing seed in anticipation? Book will ask, so I'll get in first - whereabouts (ish) are you?

(And Newtsuitcase did you say where-ish your magnificent pile is?)

Julia your fruity path looks beautiful. Do you cover/bring inside the apricot at all? And do you get fruit from your kiwi? I have a kiwi, 3 or 4 years old, but it has never fruited. I think it's now on its final warning. Or maybe I may relocate it and give it another chance.

I'm not at work today so i have a garden day. I need to pressure wash some garden furniture, erect my blowaway greenhouse and pot on a tomato forest. Good times.

Welcome Frouby, how exciting! Good tgat the allotments are so close to your home, mine is similar and it makes it a lot easier as I tend to be a little and often gardener. They all have different rules, we're allowed dwarf rootstock fruit trees with permission but not chickens etc - to be honest our plots aree too small anyway. Strict rules about sheds for us too, so that's worth asking about.

Off to the plot later, I haven't got round to sowing peas yet so I need to do that. Windy and not very warm here today but hoping it'll brighten up later.

Newt, your garden is amazing! I have serious envy I am also impressed by the strawberry! I keep checking our tiny patch at the allotment (and the few transplanted stragglers in pots) but no joy as yet.

My Hungarian squashes are thriving in their pots and are clearly keen to get out into the world, but they have to wait a while since I only nematoded the plot yesterday. Give the little wrigglers a chance to do their evil work the summer squashes are less keen, in notable contrast; maybe it's because the Hungarians are technically winter squashes and so prefer the colder weather.

Happily, the oca are showing signs of recovery from the slug/snail depradation and are fighting back; I have got two in pots that are begging to go out so we shall see if they are needed.... almost all the beetroot and swiss chard I've planted in seed trays has come up, yay. Does anyone else find that a single beetroot or swiss chard 'seed' gives multiples seedlings? I could have sworn that I was careful when sowing.....

Zebra we are between Barnsley and Rotherham in south yorkshire. The transpenine trail goes at the back of our house. The plot is up in the old village and from walking past on the school run the other year looked to be pretty decent sizes.

When I filled in the application form I had to say if I wanted to keep poultry and I know there is some on there already so should be ok.

Will definitely ask about fruit trees and stuff too.

Haven't started anything off yet as I don't know what state it will be in. We have a petrol strimmer dp is going to service this weekend and going to have a rummage in the shed to see what tools we have, then start making lists!

I might even have a wander up at the weekend and see if anyone is around and if they know the 2 plots that are available. There is another woman going too as 2 are free.

Ds is 3 and is very excited too. Dd at 12 is a bit meh about it all. Dp is worrying about his list but started talking about materials for raised beds and chicken house design lol. He is a builder so keeping an eye out at work for recyclable materials.

But it's a very good time to get it! We have ponies so have an endless supply of well rotted manure too. Will possibly just mulch a portion of it until next year depending on what it's like.

Morning!
Welcome frouby that sounds wonderful, being so close. - Spotted got in first - and I forgot to ask Newt about where you are !!! .
On our site, we can have chickens ( lots do) but you have to ask permission for a hen house/coup .
Its very sunny, but a real stiff breeze here. I have watered all my seedlings here at home , it is so drying out there.
LaContessa - plants are determined things, no doubting it. Beetroot seeds are mostly multigerm, though you can buy some monogerm varieties .
Not sure if I can get to the plot today, but if I do, I have started taking down the nets off my brassica cage, ready for it to move. One last picking of PSB , hopefully.

x post with frouby
That sounds brilliant. And the well rotted manure means whatever state you find it in, you can plant up and grow courgettes and squash .
If you get first pick ( :) )- take as close a look as possible - access to water/trees shading plot/amount of perennial weeds , that sort of thing.

Morning all. I had the day from hell yesterday starting a meeting at 8am and finishing it at 9pm. Only one short half hour break all day and I am frazzled today. Woke up this morning to find that the DC had very kindly watered the raised beds for me last night....

with the jet wash hose!

As a result I have lots of very bedraggled baby plants and I suspect not many are going to make it . Ah well at least I have well intentioned boys.

We are in Nottinghamshire. Very lucky to be in the former grounds of a stately home hence the posh looking garden. Large sections of the grounds were sold off after the war and so we have a rather ugly 1950s house built on a very large and pretty plot. Its very much more land than house and so not as grand as it appears from the garden photos but it is a beautiful place to live.

A jet wash hose Newt?! Oh no! I am starting to learn that 'help' from others in the household isn't really very helpful at all unless under strict direction

I've sowed some lettuce seed today and found a few more pea seeds in the envelope from MIL, so I've stuck those in as well. It's a lovely day, but there's not a lot I can do out there today! Apart from sit and watch things grow...

I'm so impatient to get those hedges cut down that I tried to thin them out with the loppers today. Complete waste of time but at least now I know I definitely have to wait for DP to have a spare day

Oh my goodness newt! . Did you say thanks through gritted teeth interleaved with a few quick lessons in basic horticulture?

frouby the allotment offer sounds absolutely ideal, and you have ponies for an endless supply of manure! Couldn't be better, really, could it?

flop, yes, my veg seedlings are certainly well-travelled. Thing is, I'd be happy leaving them for a couple of days, no problem, but 4-5 seems just a bit too much for comfort. I'd be gutted to come back and find a tray full of withered corpses - after all the effort of getting them to a reasonably healthy point. So for now they get to have a lovely holiday....

bookbook, is the lady delivering the horse manure quite local to you? I'm wondering if I can ask her to deliver some to me in West Yorkshire. Or would that be too far?

I shall definitely be giving plant watering lesson this evening when they're back from school!

Just had some guys out to quote to relay our patio. I'll be very impressed with myself if we get to the end of the summer with some vegetables and a useable patio. I've been aiming for that for the past 8 years since we moved in!

Does anyone know how long chicken manure takes to rot down? We lost ours to foxes a few months back and haven't yet replaced them. I thought the DC had cleaned out the back section of the coop but it transpires they didn't and its full of muck. I know it can't go down immediately because it could scorch the plants but will it be ok having sat there since before Christmas or does it need longer?

since christmas - I would risk it, the worms have done their magic since then.

Might have nipped up to the allotments this afternoon for a nosey. A very nice man pointed out 1 vacant patch and thought that another down the bottom was empty. The one I saw was very overgrown but it looked to be mainly brambles and top, nothing major. There was a variety of sheds, polytunnels and greenhouses and lean toos so anything goes really!

And lots of chucks.

Am ridiculously excited.

How exciting Frouby!

We are hoping to get chickens next year. If we ever get round to clearing a space for them.

Dh is going to look at a second hand potting shed for our new allotment tomorrow as we have use of a van. I am intending to get down for a couple of hours at least as ds is in respite
Saturday. Site doesn't allow glass so we will have to replace windows with Perspex. Hope ds will find having shed more settling although we will need to sort base out before we can put it up

Hello all. Just sitting down with a cup of tea and a thread catch up before I have to plonk myself infront of the computer. So much work to do this weekend - mood not helped by a quick turn round the garden when I got home. It's blowing a gale out there and one pea has completely snapped off , several are very damaged and some of the large courgettd leaves have had it as well. Wasn't the best timing to have just planted out the French beans. Any road, see what tomorrow brings. Exciting new allotment news- can we see a picture when you get it to join the before pictures?!

Evening!
no plot at all, been out all day, enjoying myself :)
Lulooo - I think the fuel cost may be a bit too much - I am well over in East Yorkshire .
Frouby - its hard to resist, isn't it!
tibni - sounds like a plan for DS
Cath - :( - this wind is truly horrid - hopefully your plants will survive .

Very windy here today too, but it turned nice and sunny this afternoons, so I did about 90 minutes at the plot and half an hour at home, I am re-doing all the herb pots on my patio as they had got leggy, pot bound and full of woody stems/not many leaves. The plot is starting to look good, I am finally feeling confident that I will get rid of the grassy strip down the middle which has eluded me for so long. Didn't get my peas planted though.

I feel like some of my tomatoes don't look very happy - what do you think? I can't work out if I'm watering them too much/not enough or whether it's the wind that's bothering them - the ones in a different area in a more sheltered spot seem a bit happier. Any wise advice?

Watch Gardeners World Gin. Probably the wind/weather. Monty says they need stable temperatures.

Welcome Frouby.

The wind is so frustrating. We've had beautiful sunshine but the wind has been cutting cold and I'm so tired of it.

On the positive side, a lot of tiny little seedlings are now making an appearance in the garden. I'm sure some are weeds but I'll have to leave them a few weeks so I can work out what they are!