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

[bookbook]

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

Hello!
Thanks for the lovely welcome. Feeling pretty excited about our new project.

I said to another mum about a year ago that I'd love an allotment. Out of the blue last week she asked if I was still interested and hey presto!

Book we're in SW London/Surrey so it's a little oasis in the suburbs. Anyone close by?

Our plot hasn't been touched for a year but it's not too overgrown. The guy in charge told me that they get a bit water logged on the site in heavy rain so he recommended double digging.

I'm a teacher so have the whole summer holiday to get going and keep my boys busy!

Thanks both. There will be 'oomph' in my kitchen tomorrow night as it is growing so well.

Hello Lightpurple there a few teachers on this thread. I can't wait for the summer holidays but Easter being so late was useful for my plot. I only took mine on in the New Year, but yes it is very exciting and loads of support here.

so on clay probably at a guess *Light - mm - double digging sounds like hard work ...
there are a few who work clay, and boggy ground on here - they can all come and help with tips.
I'm on free draining chalk , so not much help!

Hi elephant. Good to know there are some fellow teachers on here. Probably helps to get away from the stress of the classroom!
Next year I am taking over the school garden to use with some SEN students. Hoping it will all tie in together.

Yes, you're right book. Heavy clay soil and double digging definitely sounds like hard work! My youngest son is very keen to help. Will have to persuade (bribe) my older one to lend a hand.

look up alternatives as well Light - you need as much aeration as possible, so as much organic matter, grit, mulch as you can lay your hands on to help break up the soil - every little helps! But very fertile if you can loosen the soil structure :)

bookbook I'm north west.
The soil is supposed to be a veg growing blend. There is nowhere near enough so I'll add some compost.
I don't have an allotment, just a garden. I've now got 3 6ft x 3ft raised beds, one was already there.
I can grow a lot of stuff in it, got 2 60 ft fences to grow peas and beans up, pots with beans, tomatoes and strawberries everywhere.

I'm trying to design it so it still looks like a pretty garden so putting flowering plants in between the veg. It is naturally sectioned off into areas so there's a sunny veg corner hidden from the house by a big hazel bush. I'm having some paving done to create some sitting areas.
It's a very slow process, I've cleared so much ivy and weeds.

Love looking at everyone's pictures.

Morning all

Welcome light and yourmywifenow. I am a new plotmenter too. Had ours 8 weeks and it was a massively overgrown mess when we started. We have about 20% of it planted up this season and are slowly getting the rest sorted out.

Off to the plot today to do some feeding and check things over. A local cat seems to have taken a shine to one of my beds so hoping it hasn't ravaged my newly planted peas too much. Am hoping for a few broad beans too to add to tea tonight.

And will no doubt end up swearing at the bindweed that will be 17inches long despite being pulled at the weekend.

Am hoping to see my ndbut1 plot neighbour too. He has been looking after his dds chickens while she recovers from having a baby and has a massive glut of rasperries and stawberries which he has said ds can help himself too. So taking a tub up just in case he is around. We are looking after his chickens at the end of the month while he is away and can have what we want then too so looking forward to that.

I found out why my rhubarb is not doing well.
it seems to be a cat's favourite place to curl up...

Morning. Lovely day here. Sat inside with the blind down to keep the sun off Am working from home today will probably pop up to the plot later. We harvested quite a bit of spinach yesterday and an allotment neighbour gave us a courgette so I made up some pasta sauce to freeze (has rather too much spinach in it I think!).

Lightpurple I garden on clay soil. It is hard work to dig - there seem to be about two weeks of the year when it isn't either too wet or too dry. With any luck you might find that although the plot hasn't been cultivated for a little while underneath the soil is OK. Otherwise incorporate as much compost, sand and manure as you can get your hands on to help break it up a bit and help with the drainage when it's wet. I've also used green manure during the winter and dug it back in in the spring which helps to improve the soil. On the plus side it is better at maintain nutrients, etc than some other types of soil (according to my gardening book).

Welcome yourmywifenow. i'm a fellow garden grower (no time for an allotment). I've attached a photo of our growing beds from about a month ago. I'm same as you - i want it to look neat and orderly if I'm going to be looking out at it from the house (which is off to the left on the picture).

My tip for freezing berries - freeze them on a tray (not too squashed together) then tip them into bags once frozen. Stops them clumping together into one giant superberrysmush

Lightpurple I put raised beds on my very clay allotment and do no dig gardening. Top them up with manure (free at my allotment which is a bonus), seaweed, home made compost and grass clippings - and bought in bulk mushroom compost if any of that falls short.

I top up over the winter and let the worms do their work.

I mulch over the summer as well to stop the sun drying it out.

Started with awful soil - now its full of worms and much easier to work.

That has taken 5 years though!

Hey!
What a crazy hot day! I'm melting away.
Thanks for the tips on soil improvement. There's unlimited manure at the side of our allotments courtesy of our local stables - bags of the stuff!
I'm liking the no dig gardening suggestion. Sounds almost too good to be true.
I have a couple of books on their way from Amazon so looking forward to reading up.

Quick post before I catch up on everything.

Harvested basically all of my blackcurrants today. I got just over 2kg, which seems pretty good for my 4 little bushes. I'm going to make muffins, juice and some sauces for ice cream.

Lovely Grouchy - they have done you proud through that bad weather !

Thanks, books. They have indeed.

Welcome, LightPurple and yourmywifenow. This is the best place for great advice. I'm learning loads.

If anyone would like me to post my mother's blackcurrant recipes I'd be happy to.

Oh, I meant to take a picture of my PSB. Some of them have little heads of broccoli growing, which look like purple versions of the tenderstem broccoli you get in supermarkets. What do I need to do to it? I'll get a pic when the rain stops.

Welcome to new plotmenters :) I would love some blackcurrant recipes, Grouchy - we don't have any (new bushes) but my parents have brought me loads from their garden. I was thinking of making blackcurrant ice cream but open to other ideas.

Light I'd definitely second putting in raised beds - digging clay is heartbreakingly hard!

Blackcurrant Concentrate

3lb blackcurrants

16 cups water OR fruit and water to cover

Boil until soft then strain through jelly bag - old pillow case, inside-out works.
Add 1 cup sugar to 1 cup juice (taste while adding sugar for flavour which suits).
Bring to boil and boil 10 minutes, add 1/3 to 1/2 cups of vinegar (never more than 1/2c) then pour into hot, clean bottles and store.
Dilute to taste with water, lemonade, tonic water.
Enjoy hot, warm or cold.

Blackcurrant Muffins

1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup (frozen) blackcurrants
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 grated apple
1 beaten egg
2/3 cup milk
3 tbsp oil or melted butter.
Sift dry ingredients into a bowl, mix. Add blackcurrants and apple, mixing well. Combine egg, milk and oil in a bowl, add to dry ingredients and fruit. Mix until just combined - do not over mix. Put spoonfuls into greased muffin tray and cook for 15-20 minutes at 180C. They do not rise much.
Serve hot with butter.

The muffins are definitely best made with frozen blackcurrants. I'm not sure why, but that's our experience.

n o rain as promised, just very hot and humid here.
have been to the garden centre to get more and longer canes for the sunflowers which have grown more than a ft since saturday!
they had lots of courgettes and tomatos and other small (just past seedling) plants, 3 for 1£ on the shelf of doom. some really healthy looking.

'shelf of doom' os great for new gardeners to get stuff in cheap. often the plants just need a good soak and repotting/planting out.

I'm a bit stuck with what to do with our lettuce! I remember reading you should be sowing more seeds when you are picking the first lot of plants, which is what I did. But now I have pots of little lettuce plants that need planting out, and all my big lettuce plants are still growing fine! How long does it typically last? I'm sure it's been in the ground two months now.

I guess we just had so far incredible good growing weather.
do you have space gin
can you trade salad for something else?

I can probably find the space, but I'm already adding lettuce to everything to try and eat it all I don't need any more! Maybe I will just shove it in the ground just in case the older stuff starts to bolt or finish.

I feel like we've been so lucky this year (our first year of growing) with the lack of rain (so no slugs) and lots of sunshine. I'm worried we will forever be disappointed with our crops after this year!

Find some space to put your lettuces in GinGeum. I suspect that the first lot might bolt quite soon if you are getting the heat as they don't like to get too hot and then the leaves turn nastily bitter anyway. I'm going to try and eat up our small row of lettuces this week for this reason.

We've got way too much perpetual spinach in our plot to possibly eat it all. We bought a small strip of seedlings in the spring and planted up two short rows. We're eating a lot of it but there's still more coming! It is a nice problem to have though, everything in general is doing so much better than last year.

I popped over yesterday at about 7pm to water and it was still really warm. Tried to give most things a good soak. My onions are starting to flop over - they're a real mixture of sizes from reasonably big to small. It's interesting to see how the same sets planted in the same bed respond differently.

sainsburysmagazine.co.uk/recipes/starters/veggie/item/crispy-spinach-chaat

Literally the best thing you can do with perpetual spinach