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Gardening

Find tips and tricks to make your garden or allotment flourish on our Gardening forum.

Allotment?Veg Patch Thread 10 - Plotmenters busy into summer ! and loving James Wong

993 replies

bookbook · 11/06/2017 09:11

Last thread has filled up so quickly! Thought I had better get one up and running before I get off to the plot.
Busy, busy people, just waiting for the harvests to start, fighting the bugs, slugs and weather :)
Last thread here
THREAD 9

OP posts:
Thread gallery
194
Wh0Kn0wsWhereTheTimeGoes · 11/06/2017 09:16

I was just thinking we need a new thread, thanks Book.

Cathpot · 11/06/2017 09:37

Glad chicken pox is on the way out- it's such a medieval disease , horrible. Not raining here but no sunshine. I tried 3 sisters and I'm not sure if I used the wrong beans but they strangled the corn and I had to pull them out

UnaOfStormhold · 11/06/2017 09:54

Good work Book, these threads fill up so quickly!

GinGeum · 11/06/2017 10:18

Good memory for the thread title requests book Wink

Hoping shove is able to join us for this one too!

GrouchyKiwi · 11/06/2017 10:31

Thanks for new thread, books.

IckleWicklePumperNickle · 11/06/2017 11:19

Thank you for the new thread Book

No rain so far here Hmm it was suppose to bucket it down.

Sowed some red cabbage to fill up holes in my bracicass patch. May is the last sowing, but as we're at least 2 weeks behind down south, it should be alright.

My pak choi did not survive or got eaten with all the slugs that's come out in the rain. Will fill the space with carrot.

In my summer holidays, I'm going to sarken and felt the big sheds roof and then put old windows around and it will become a potting shed and for courgettes and cucumbers and so on. Very excited!!

Pestilentialone · 11/06/2017 11:35

Ickle my munched pak choi is regrowing from the masticated root, so is the perpetual spinach. Chard is so tasty, the slugs ate the roots as well.

elephantoverthehill · 11/06/2017 12:06

Una I think you are right about the cinquefoil. I will cover when I have lifted my spuds. Went to the car boot sale again today, nice tray of lettuce seedlings to go in, but I think I might be reaching for the slug pellets to guard them. I bought far too many flowering plants for the garden as well Blush.

GrouchyKiwi · 11/06/2017 12:49

With all the rain we've had lately my spinach has bolted. Will be making some spinach & cheese muffins, I think.

Dolceandgabbana14 · 11/06/2017 12:52

Novice. Struggling. Growing weeds well, but that's about it. Sad

I've got a half plot and finding out so hard to keep up. I've got potatoes in, a few broad beans, runner beans, a couple of butternut squash, three pumpkins and some sweetcorn. The one strawberry I had has been eaten by birds and I expect the raspberries will go the same way. I need to make some sort of cover with netting for the fruit. But if I take my eye of the wrong for five minutes, I come back to a carpet of green weeds - the only thing that seems to be growing successfully!!

I've been so busy preparing the beds that I haven't put any seeds in yet - is it too late? If it makes any difference I'm in the South East. I've just about got the soil ready, so can I put the seeds straight into the ground now? I've got lettuce, carrots,spring onions, radishes, parsnips, peas, broccoli, beetroot and leeks.

Can I plant my tomatoes out in the open our do they need to be in a greenhouse or covered? I've got some seedlings at home, but I don't know where to grow them next!

Sorry for the long moany post. I spend hours here and I'm getting a bit despondent. It was supposed to be something we did together as a family but when DH comes up with DC (7 and 3) he gets cross with them, so I've ended up doing it all by myself. This isn't how I thought it would be!!

elephantoverthehill · 11/06/2017 13:20

Hi Dolce I go to plot to escape my DCs sometimesSmile. I am sure your tomatoes will be fine outside, that's where I grow mine as I don't have a big greenhouse and you say you are in the SE. If you have a greenhouse why don't you try half and half? If sow directly you will probably need to defend against slugs and snails.

bookbook · 11/06/2017 14:10

Afternoon!
right , managed a sit down and a quick read of the last of the posts on the other thread . :)
Welcome Dolce - oh dear, that sounds hard . Some things definitely can go in as seeds now - off your list - lettuce, carrots,spring onions, radishes, peas, beetroot are all good to go.
Mulch and cover the empty ground - either bark, cardboard or weed matting , it will make life easier for you. Can you perhaps give a little corner for the DC and just let them get on with it? Raspberries I find that the birds don't much bother - only if they can reach them easily, so I don't net mine , though I do virtually everything else! I do net anything that pigeons or cabbage white butterflies like too.
I haven't actually tried the three sisters, but it makes sense that its a different type of corn, and that it needs lots of sun.
Gnome - can't help on strawberry varieties - mine are all what were already in, and the rest were runners given to me by an old allotmenter ( they don't look much , but taste lovely!)
Need - I have saved that recipe, just looks my sort of thing - I love couscous.
Seed storage - way up on an earlier thread we had a chat about it :)
I spent the princely sum of £1.49 in a charity shop on a wooden bread bin.- - one with the lift off lid. DH put a bit of hardboard in, down the middle and I made cards for each months sowing ( That is not quite working, as I do a lot of little and often succession sowing, but hey...) before that it was an old quality street tin .
I managed a good go at the plot - planted the gifted cauliflowers, sowed the peas and hoed all around. Picked broad beans and strawberries. I have some lovely baby spinach too, but as I have 7 for tea, I decided that it wouldn't go far, so thats left for another day.

OP posts:
Frouby · 11/06/2017 16:28

Hello all

Have been lurking on the old thread but weather has been rubbish here so not much plotmenting happened last week.

Spent the morning up there tho. Everything we planted is growing really well. Lost the odd tiny cucumber and a couple of french beans I bought as plugs that didn't look brilliant anyway and everything else seems to be doing ok. Will upload a few pics as seperate posts as they take ages to.load.

Today I have planted another 18 sweetcorn out, and set some mange tout, more peas and spring onions off at home. I am too novice to know whether stuff coming through is friend or foe so using those biodegradable pots in a seed tray with a plastic lid on for the first few days.

We also moved a load of stuff down the bottom for a bonfire, probably on tuesday after dp has done work.

I think we are going to have to resort to some weedkiller on the bottom half. It's not been worked for 4 years and some of the weeds are as thick as my wrist. We won't be growing on it this year anyway. So plan is to strim again, then apply weedkiller directly to the worst of the brambles and nettles, then cover. The far bottom will be the chicken run so no doubt they will maintain it anyway.

And I think some lettuce plugs I bought are almost ready! Very excited.

Things on my to do list include building a brassica cage for late autumn/winter veg, building a little run to attach to baby chicken house so we can have a few chooks, finishing burning all the inherited weeds and getting our strimmer serviced.

Plus building the shed and a compost bin.

I also need to sit down and work out how many more raised beds I will need and where they will go. Atm they have just been put in anywhere we could get them as we had stuff ready to go in and a limited amount of plot ready to work.

I need to be careful not to tie up beds with winter stuff if they aren't in the right place.

But am very happy with our 4 weeks work!

Frouby · 11/06/2017 16:49

Try again with pics

Allotment?Veg Patch Thread 10 - Plotmenters  busy into summer ! and loving James Wong
Frouby · 11/06/2017 16:52

Lettuce

Allotment?Veg Patch Thread 10 - Plotmenters  busy into summer ! and loving James Wong
Frouby · 11/06/2017 16:54

Few beds

Allotment?Veg Patch Thread 10 - Plotmenters  busy into summer ! and loving James Wong
Frouby · 11/06/2017 16:56

Bottom bit and burning pile

Allotment?Veg Patch Thread 10 - Plotmenters  busy into summer ! and loving James Wong
GnomeDePlume · 11/06/2017 17:02

Dolceandgabbana14 everyone will tell you that an allotment is a marathon not a sprint. It took a while for me to really get to grips with what to grow and how to keep on top of the weeds.

My DCs have shown no interest in the allotment except the day when we hired a small digger to break the ground on a new plot!

tizwozliz · 11/06/2017 17:04

The mention of organising seeds earlier prompted me to sort mine out a bit and I've discovered that after making a lovely climbing obelisk for my french beans I've actually planted a dwarf variety Grin

Currently researching gooseberry recipes, I still have chutney left over from last year, so that's out.

Frouby · 11/06/2017 17:09

Dolce I meant to say how we are doing ours.

We cleared enough space to get a dozen 1.2m x 1.2m beds in. Bought tomato, pepper and chilli plants. And lettuce and french bean plugs. Were given some stuff from other plotmenters and have concentrated on them to give us a crop this year. The rest we will clear and cover until we are ready.

It's no good trying to do everything this year. Just have a think about what you misy want to grow and focus on that for now.

elephantoverthehill · 11/06/2017 17:17

Very impressive Frouby the lettuce looks lovely. I hope the seedlings I planted out today will look as good in a few weeks.

AlternativeTentacle · 11/06/2017 17:27

OOh a fresh thread. I totally missed on the previous one and have had a name change since the one before.

Anyway. The allotment is now totally covered in woodchip. We had another load a few weeks ago now and managed to cover everything.

Our actual garden is crazy, I have dug up a few big plants, and am in the process of making decisions about which trees to keep and which to get rid of. A plum that we had is starting to really show off now so the Szechwan pepper next to it, which I do get a good crop from, is far too space hungry though to wash its face so it is going. I also have a couple of quinces that I have grown from seed, meanwhile I have another two that I bought, so I am going to get rid of the smaller ones and concentrate on the big ones. I am going to donate all my spare seed sown trees to a local community garden as I am running out of space.

I have decided to renew my greenhouse for my birthday present as well, the glass just snaps in mine and I want a new one that is more fully fitted so that I don't have to keep replacing it. It drives me crackers...

Anonymous1112 · 11/06/2017 18:41

I lost you all but have just found you in active 😀

Anonymous1112 · 11/06/2017 18:46

dolce I'm a solo newby too with a plot so badly full of weeds I got the loppers out last weekend and chopped the whole lot down to the ground (I have a disgusting infected thumb blister to prove it). I have some spuds, raspberries and strawberries, bolting onions 😪 and flowers but little else yet. It looks like a war zone right now but I have faith. Every weekend the weeds are back, it's a fight but I've been told it gets easier 😀😀

Newtssuitcase · 11/06/2017 18:49

Not done much this weekend but place marking on the new thread. I do now have a lovely smart new gardening storage box and a new trowel and fork (birthday presents). They'll look much smarter than the current collection of old tools. Until now I've been using a bricklaying trowel and an old fork that DS1 (12) had when he was about 2, complete with a yellow duck head handle! Also got £150 of garden centre vouchers which I suspect it won't take me long to spend...