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

Afternoon!
well, we had a thunderstorm and rain last night, so everything got watered very well, done the world of good :)
This morning I went and got a lot of hoeing done, and tidying. Picked a cabbage and some potatoes for tea. Went and had a look at my big strawberry bed and picked some there - still loads to pick, but ran out of time as had visitors coming for lunch .
clara - that looks a good recipe!
Gin - the lettuces will all bolt at once I suspect - , i would plant up the extras if it were me.

I use Swiss chard in everything I would use spinach in. On its own it us a bit dull though.

The chat recipe looks fab.

www.ottolenghi.co.uk/swiss-chard-fritters-shop Is v good. www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/jan/10/new-vegetarian-yotam-ottolenghi Is lovely.

Thanks Paradoxical for the recipe ideas. I cut more this evening and put it in hot and sour soup. I left to cook for longer (stems first and then leaves) It was much better. I bunged in broad beans, peas and spring onion as well.

It's turned into another lovely day. Could really use some rain though, places close by got downpours on Thursday evening but we had literally a minute, barely enough to damp the soil.

I planted some late runner beans last week but they've not germinated. They're old seeds so i'm probably going to take a trip to the garden centre later on, to try and get some more or some young plants.

Also planning on making some sort of vertical planter for lettuce and such like . This sort of thing. We've got a blank brick wall which is the side of the neighbours extension which forms our boundary and I want something to break it up a bit. It gets the sun early in the morning but is in shade most of the day so think should be ok for lettuce.

Checking in...

I've 'sort of got a garden' - it's a complex relationship with the council and my flat but it seems to be mine for exclusive use but I don't own it..

So far - it's potatoes. And rhubarb, But got plans for raspberries, strawberries and asparagus.

Has anyone grown grapes? I've got a south facing wall and grapes appeal to me

Afternoon all

Beautiful day here. Nipped to the plot this morning to do a quick water and had another 3 courgettes ready. So that is 4 in the fridge. Need to do some meal planning using them up. We are having tapas tonight so might look for a recipe using them.

Also got a half bowl of rasperries which the dcs picked.

My onions are very annoying. Some days they look very dead. All floppy stems and going brown. Other days they are very perky and lively. Have decided they are just mardy.

I really need to spend an hour removing some leaves from my tomato plants. They are like triffids and I cant even see where the fruit is!

Afternoon!
Welcome Orlatina - we have a couple of grape growers on here - Gnome has a vineyard, and Alternative has vine(s) too , so I am sure they will be able to help .
Frouby - I grew onions for the first time this year - the advice was to harvest when half of the crop has leaves bending over to the ground
tiz - its only 7 days- poor beans, give them a chance! Sounds like a good idea for the lettuce
Gosh , its another hot day here. - I managed a quick trip this morning, and planted up the first batch of winter cauliflowers - better in the ground under enviromesh, then drying out in plugs attracting cabbage
white butterflies. Managed some more hoeing too. Have been busy the rest of the day, but popped to a local auction and picked up a bargain- a brand new border fork, and pair of Wilkinson Sword long handled grass shears , along with a pair of loppers - all for £22 . Didn't think we would get them , but all will be useful at the plot, and save me having to cart stuff there and back. ( The wheelbarrow I wanted went for a fortune !)
Picking lots of summer raspberries at home - they are very large this year, and a good flavour - that sun has really helped this year

.

Just about keeping up ! (Will write a proper post anon).

Yes - south facing walls are great for grapes.

you will need wires to train them to; decide on what shape before you buy it and try and buy one that will easily be trained to that shape. Mine is one main stem up to about a metre, and two long stems coming off that both sides and trained into wires. The stems that then grow vertically off the horizontal stems grow the grapes. I cut back everything above the grapes that are growing, and everything that isn't growing grapes. I have to keep it neat [just off now actually to trim it back again]. Towards the ripening time, I take off leaves so that the grapes get the sun, and then once they are ripe, leave the grapes on there for another 4 weeks to really get nice and sweet.

The stems that then grow vertically off the horizontal stems grow the grapes

Sounds like a diagram is needed

Looking forward to it. I know that patience is needed but I'm not planning on moving house anytime soon

You were right bookbook I should have been more patient, I can see one seedling is just emerging this evening

Hello. How giff to find some fellow very growers
I have a strawberry query. Strawberries have always been quite straight forward for me before. This year I made a new bed where it used to be lawn, and got a few varieties from Marshalls, including the gigantic one at the kids request. Manured, watered, several months later, still very little growth and only a few strawbs.
Am I missing something?

PS my predictive text comes up with dysentery when I type strawberry.....

oh
many of us didn't have a lot of strawberries this year. possibly due to the weather.
there was a late nasty cold spell and it has been very dry for many of us.

Afternoon!
Welcome Ohyesiam - I think it has been very hit and miss for lots this year with strawberries , particularly ones that have not been established long -so as Yellow says, its the combination of odd weather I suspect. I have been lucky in that my strawberry beda are well established , and still cropped plenty, but certainly not in the quantities of last year. Hope they get going for you.
tiz - patience is a virtue !
This morning was glorious again. Did lots of weeding/hoeing/watering. Trying to hand weed in wafting asparagus is trying, to say the least. Then started to look at harvesting and found my first missed courgette ....:) picked some sad rabbit affected peas, and pulled the few broad beans I had left, then pulled out the plants too. So definitely enough veg for a melange for tea :) Trying now to keep on top of dead heading and cutting flowers too - they are just about all flowering now, apart from asters.
I do just feel that everything is a bit behind hand from last year , but maybe thats just me.

This year I have had one [one] picking - I go to the plot and there are none there.

Alternatively my alpine ones, which I am ripping out because they are too much and too fiddly, have been fruiting like billy-o because of the nematodes have killed all the slugs.

I've bought some fresh new strawb plants and once all the alpine strawbs are out will be putting the new ones in for future strawberry happiness.

There was a late frost which killed off a fair few flowers, you can tell this because the flower has a black dot in the middle and so you may as well pick those off when you see them, then don't go on to develop..

Sounds like a diagram is needed

My pleasure...grapes need patience as you can see from the [not my] lovely diagram.

I'm busy finally netting my brassicas today. The nasturtium obviously aren't tempting enough for the cabbage whites I see hovering about

Managed about 45 mins at the plot this morning but it was so hot I packed up after that, I was dripping with sweat. It's been like it here for the last few days, so all I've done is watering and a bit of hoeing, I decided to handweed round my strawberries this morning as things got bad while they were under netting, but the ground is too hard to get the weeds out without dislodging the strawberry plants too.

The weather seems to be breaking this afternoon though, it's gone much cloudier and cooled down, so maybe we will get the much needed rain soon.

Hi all. I've been lurking on this thread for a while, dreaming of an allotment. Well, we've got one now! It's fairly overgrown. The only thing I've done with it is to lay some weed suppressing membrane over the nearest 1/3. Looking forward to spending the rest of this year clearing it of weeds and preparing the soil for next year.

Meanwhile, the patch in the garden has been growing:

• Sugar snap peas (very productive, though the harvest is starting to tail off now - I've just sown some more in pots ready to replace the old ones)
• Swiss chard (had a good harvest, then had a glut of vegetables from my parents' allotment so neglected to pick enough and they all went to seed)
• Tomatoes (lots of green fruit appearing, none ripe yet)
• Blueberries (we have three bushes, all less than one year old, and only one of them has grown any fruit this year)
• Strawberries (plants seem healthy but the fruit disappear soon after turning pink - I blame birds)
• Plum tree is full of green plums, so looking forward to them ripening later. Though we had a lot infested with plum moth last year, so I'm keeping my expectations realistic.
• I was given two courgette seedlings by my grandmother-in-law. It's a little late in the year, but I've repotted them and will see how they go.

This is our first year in a house with a garden, and my first year gardening! It's been so much fun already, and I'm already learning loads and making notes for improvement next year.

Hello to the newbies, although I regard myself as one. 'Recent thread joiners' sound like it should have a guild . Like Wh0kn0ws it has been very hot here too. DD had a friend to stay, we went to the plot basically so they could have a hose fight and water some bits. I harvested some beans and peas, tried to weed but couldn't keep it up for long. I went this evening and just managed to save a courgette before it ran away to become a marrow. I harvested my first lettuce, and more peas. Question, my butternut squash is galloping on. I have about 12 immature fruits should I pinch out the growing point now?

'New plotment posters' is better.

Evening!
Welcome ElleDubloo - that looks like its going to need a bit of hard work - much like Frouby's . Only one year gardening but perhaps by sounds , a lot of knowledge from parents - always helpful, especially if they are near, so similar conditions. Whereabouts are you - we are scattered over the four corners, so its always nice to know :) ( and I'm nosey!)
elephant - twelve squashes set - on how many plants? Just one? It really depends on whether you want lots of small squashes, or fewer ,larger ones. We tend to stop runners once two fruit have set, and are growing well -( you may find the plant itself sorts a bit of that if you don't - too many fruit, and the plant starts to let some rot.)

It really has been hot today - I was there for about an hour and a half this morning, slathered in suncream. DH and I went back this afternoon to cut grass and tidy edges -( a horrible job, but necessary,) and it was boiling - 27º here , and no sign of rain either .

Sat in the garden having a BBQ and eating freshly dug potatoes.

Fantastic

Just on one Book . So I think I will pinch out the growing tip.