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

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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

I have no idea how I managed such long carrots, as I've always had really misshapen ones before - I'm sure the raised beds helped but otherwise I think it's just luck!

In other news, we have bees!

tell us more about the buzzy ladies :)

They arrived last night, they are filling 5 frames and starting to draw comb on a 6th so we need to get them into the hive fairly soon (still in transfer box). Hoping that we have time to get them built up before the winter - will start feeding once they're into . They're buckfast bees and seem pretty chilled out which is encouraging. I'm loving seeing them pollinating the veg patch!

how lovely.
today lots of buzzy ladies with pollen trousers around.
I know the school nearby has a couple of hives and a restaurant a mile away also has some hives.
so I see a good mix of bumbles and honey bees around.
I like to keep a good variety of bee friendly plants, I love hearing the buzz.

strained my latest lot of comfrey juice.
but I'm out of comfrey for the next lot, so it will be an assorted weeds juice next.

I feel silly for watching my tomatoes so obsessively, but I'm very excited to have two that look like they'll be ripe soon!

Also, the sunflowers are looking lovely.

went to ikea yesterday. they have indoor growing shelves for salads etc.
are they any good?

Been away since last Monday and have come back to a few good courgettes but decidedly yellow looking leaves.

Now have to work out if it's too much water/too little water/something else.

Finally got a chilli on the way as well, up until now we've had plenty of flowers but they've been dropping off, despite my best efforts with a paint brush to ensure pollination.

Posted too soon,

Onions also coming along well, and going to be a great crop of blackberries in a few weeks.

My recently sown french beans are looking well, I've also got something else coming up but I've completely forgotten what i planted. I thought I'd only sewn carrots, spring onions and french beans recently and I know it's none of those. Any ideas, it's pictured top left.

Looks like it could be the start of some sort of squash but I have no recollection of planting squash and it wouldn't have been planned for this late on.

Cucumber? I had a delayed one, it's going great guns now.

Evening !
Lovely day here - sunny and warm
Went and did a bit at the plot this morning - a lot of people coming to chat though. As fruit picking has officially finished here got on with mostly hoeing /weeding and watering.
Did start digging up potatoes, and picked the courgette of course :)
Was given a nice bag of gooseberries from a plot neighbour too.
Last night, I picked my first 5 Sungold tomatoes - felt a bit guilty as DH had gone out, so had them with my tea :)
Looking like hot weather next few days .
tiz - certainly a curcubit of some sort .

Hi all,

Really sorry I dropped off the thread for a bit and need to put some time aside to catch up with everyone else's plots!
In other news....I have been offered a half plot today! Very exciting! I won't be taking it over for a while but I've accepted it & am waiting for the current tenant to get in touch for a handover (due to ill-health they're not immediately available). It is very very weedy. BUT - it has A SHED, which I've wanted for so long. And at least 4 or 5 beautiful raised beds under the weeds, and one whole bed full of healthy raspberry canes. The shed's on a bit of a tilt but I think DH and I can get it sorted easily. And the weeding looks no worse than the forest of dock which was on my quarter plot last summer.
Pictures are of the wonky shed, and the new plot viewed from the path (furthest from the shed, which is just about visible behind the weed forest)

Back on the quarter plot, something has absolutely savaged the broad beans. To the point of there being no more pods to harvest. French climbing beans are also being eaten almost as soon as they germinate. Strawbs have all but finished now but the rainbow chard & sweetcorn's are doing ok. And I have some lovely golden beetroot. Gladioli are just coming into flower as is a lovely musk mallow which I inherited. So the whole plot looks pretty nice for now I think. I'll have to start choosing what to take with me and what to leave behind.

oh, your new plot sounds great!

dc were very excited to discover caterpilars on the cauliflowers today.
will they eat the while thing? should I pick some off?

no cage, they are dotted around in the garden.

Afternoon!
Hot and sunny here all day - only went to the plot this afternoon to harvest ready for a big family meal tomorrow - so a thug of a cabbage , some lovely beetroot ( which are almost hidden by the cabbage .... and a courgette ) On a more annoying note, one of my courgettes seems to have succumbed to a mosaic virus, so that is going to be whipped out pronto when I go back, and my tools washed in Jeyes.
timtam - how wonderful - room to grow and spread. Its good you know, so you can start planning!
Yellow - the caterpillars will strip the leave in no time flat, so get picking them off. There are definitely signs of more cabbage whites around this week
So hot, back to watering twice a day in the greenhouse ..
Just made another variation of cake - courgette, pistachio and lemon drizzle. Smells amazing, but not due to be eaten until tomorrow . Will report back :)

Too many gooseberries!

Think I'll have to find room in the freezer for these. We've already had gooseberry fool 5 or 6 times this summer and I've made jam already

It's amazing how the gooseberry bush has taken off compared to the other fruits we bought at the same time (redcurrant and raspberry). The raspberry only lasted a year, the redcurrant is still hanging in there but normally produces a single string of redcurrants which are taken by the birds as soon as they appear.

Congratulations on the new plot, timtam.

Those gooseberries look lovely, tiz.

My plants are very sluggish at the moment, despite plenty of rain and warm air. I don't know what's going on. Still, we managed to get a full meal of peas tonight, so that's something.

We had two ripe tomatoes in the garden today! Couldn't take a photo in time as the toddler scoffed them as soon as she picked them.

Congratulations on the tomatoes Elle not only for having ripe ones but also for the toddler scoffing them. Although should I be a MN judgy pants and ask if they were washed first? . DD picked blackberries at the plot yesterday. It was a case of 'one for me, one for the pot'.

Tizwoz I have a lovely recipe for gooseberry and elderflower ice cream if you're interested?

That's great news on the new plot Timtam - is it a lot bigger than your current space?

Congratulations on the tomatoes Elle, most jealous! It does seem that stuff grown in the garden seems much more enticing to toddlers - our last year in the old garden he absolutely stuffed himself on redcurrants, raspberries and grapes. Unfortunately our new bushes/vines are less productive this year which means there's not really anything left for us, but I have hopes for better harvests next year.

In compensation the annual veg is doing vastly better than the old place - in previous years my runner beans were eaten before they reached knee height and I now have tons of flowers (full of bees!) and some baby beans!

Elephant that sounds like a good ratio!

I keep having to release cabbage whites from inside one of my brassica cages - it's so easy to leave a small gap!

Loving the photos of harvest home. Congratulations on the new 1/2 plot timtam23, very exciting!

We are courgette a go go at the moment. Eating them practically everyday plus taking bags of them into work - people are starting to hide under their desks!

Broad beans are nearly done now. Starting to get a little leathery.

French beans are doing well. We are going to try and dry some beans to store for later use.

I am envious of your sunflowers ElleDubloo, mine are nowhere near that stage.

This week's photos.

my sunflowers are very tall (over 6ft now) but don't show a head yet.
I wonder how tall they will get.
last year they were in smallish pots and still reached 2m.

Hi everyone! What a lovely weekend here weather wise (finally!)

Our sunflowers are almost about to flower and are only about a metre tall but I intentionally planted 3 in the one pot as an experiment to keep them smaller. I'm definitely going to up the numbers next year so I can cut them for indoors (and maybe investigate the multi-flower variety). After daffodils I think sunflowers are my second favourite flower.

Impressive courgette glut gnome. How many plants to do you have? We only have 3 plants this year and only ate our first ones yesterday (griddled then mixed into spaghetti with lemon, olive oil, pepper and tons of parmesan)! I don't think we'll be giving any away.

Eleven pounds of courgettes today. They are wonderfully healthy plants. I've already made the chocolate courgette cake and am onto a souffle.
DH and I reckon we are producing 50% of what we eat and 50% of that is courgette

pest do you have a cafe nearby that would take some off you?
soup kitchen?
I only have 2 plants and they just got started. I love them but not with every meal