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

Tried the cafe this morning, not interested. Did get the local shed association to sell some last week and have done a pamphlet of recipes. I appear to be a sucker for local community stuff.
I've got really into courgettes for breakfast.

Afternoon all

No plot for me since Saturday. Ds ia still poorly and off nursery. I asked him today if he fancied going up to pick some rasperries and he didnt want so he must be poorly.

Just been browsing round tesco clubcard website and you can get a £15 Thompson and Morgan voucher for £5 of tesco clubcard vouchers. I have nearly £30 of vouchers so that would be an awful lot of seeds! Going to have a look to see if they have fruit canes as that is the next thing we will need.

I am down to 1 large round courgette and 1 small one after a mammoth harvest on Saturday. Eaten them every day since and gave some to neighbours. Think my lovely ndn was a bit perplexed by them as they were huge lol.

Due storms here overnight so could really do with nipping up to check nothing is going to get blown around. Hoping dp not in late so I can nip up.

elephantoverthehill - no, they were not washed, just hastily wiped on my top Many things DD eats in the garden are not washed, though I sometimes remember to bring the hose with me while we harvest so that things could get rinsed.

UnaOfStormhold - very true about that. DD loves peas and tomatoes anyway, so it's not a surprise she ate some from the garden. However she doesn't normally eat leaf vegetables, but she does eat chard from the garden! There's something special about seeing things grow day by day, that captures their imagination, isn't there?

GnomeDePlume - thanks! We're in the south west and the spot is particularly sunny. I've also put them in a newly created bed full of well-rotted manure and other good things, so they're spoilt. Next year they're going somewhere less hospitable as I've discovered they'll grow anywhere (found one growing out of a concrete crack in the public park).

tiz I am so jealous of your gooseberries. I got 2! I'm going with new bushes so they just need to settle in....

I definitely want to do some yellow courgettes next year. Does anyone have a recommendation for a variety?

Tizwoz How strange you should post that just as I was making 'ribbons' out of some yellow courgettes a plot neighbour gave me. I was thinking that yellow courgettes are much smoother for salads. I'm sorry I don't know the variety but they have 'cute little light green bottoms' as Dd described them. I think I will do yellow ones next year as well.

I'm growing Parador here - very nice flavour. But I would suggest you don't grow more than 2 plants as it's very productive.

I got 0 gooseberries .

I had a yellow one last year. don't know the variety, just that it came from real seeds.
it wasn't very productive but I find that only having one doesn't give good results. and if you have 2 you might get too many

I got tristar a mixed bag, they are prolific but tasty, seven germinated out of eight seeds four yellow, three light and no dark ones . Light ones are the creamiest tasting.

I had about 6 corgettes off two plants and now they both look horrid- mangled, half eaten and silver grey- like zombie corgettes . I keep thinking I should go an dump them on the compost but I don't even want to go near them!

Cathpot can you post a photograph a zombie courgette please? I am agog.

clarabellski I confess I may have over-planted - we have 8 courgette plants!

Frouby the T&M deal is useful. You can use up to £15 of Tesco vouchers (ie £45 of T&M vouchers). You do need to be careful as you use them as a voucher so cant use one of their offers and pay for it from Tesco T&M vouchers.

Evening!
Had DGS today so no plot , but he did harvest the potatoes we planted at home in a pot .
I grew Atena Polka yellow courgettes a couple of years ago , and they were prolific.
Tomatoes were picked for lunch, along with a cucumber , so they have started at last.
My gooseberries didn't do too well either - I got a pound or so, but a lot more were mildewed.
Cath - :( zombie eh?
Pest - thats what happens when you have seven courgette plants
The courgette pistachio and lemon drizzle cake was a big success - if anyone wants the recipe, I will write it out ( I got a photo copy) I don't think I will bother with using pistachios again -I will either just leave out, or use hazelnuts. The cake didn't really need them

Gnome I love you, finally someone has more plants than me.

just posted and realised no shove to see the potatoes - we had a laugh at his planting technique.. Hope she is okay - and haven't seen Gin recently either ...

hahaha! Gnome and Pest

I will take a photo- but it's dark now and they scare me....

Love the idea of zombie courgettes though glad there aren't any in my patch (to my knowledge, eeek!)

Last night's storm was amazing, loved watching the lightning but was really worried about the bees and new seedlings getting squashed flat by the rain/hail. Had a quick check this morning and everything seems to be fine though there are rose petals everywhere! So much nicer now it's less muggy. How are things looking where you are?

we had thunderstorms, but it is even more muggy than yesterday.
I tied up the sunflowers some more, they are getting too tall for their canes. clever me planted them next to a bush so I can tie them to that.
ghost courgette: like dried up slugs?

a really nice breeze cooled everything down last night, but no rain or thunderstorms here - just a bit of a chance of some rain later today, but still breezy . Could really do with some rain now.
Busy gadding today, so no plot , but if I don't get rain, I really must find the time to go and water .

We used the courgette griller mix from Marshalls this year which are all round fruit varieties in various colours. 4 out of the 5 seeds germinated. Gave 1 away and kept 3 (which were 1 yellow and 2 light green). The plants are quite compact, and appear to be setting lots of fruit. I would consider buying this mix again but also I'd be interested in a mix that included long fruits as well as round fruits. The tristar looks to be all long fruits...

Morning all

No storms here tho it has just started raining thank goodness.

Managed to get to the plot for a couple of hours this morning.

We planted some more lettuce seeds as the last lot I put in (on tape) didn't do anything at all which annoyed me. We also had a spare bed so have shoved about 70 dwarf french bean seeds in. They might not grow on enough before the frosts but they will make nice compost if nothing else.

Tied some tomato plants up. Picked some more bloody courgettes, runner beans and a portion of french beans. And half a small tub of rasperries.

We also saw our allotment council man who stopped to see how we were getting on. He seemed very impressed with what we have done so far which I am relieved about as we are only actually cultivating about 1/5th of it at the moment but have only had it about 12 weeks.

Gave him 3 courgettes which he was chuffed to bits with then talked him into agreeing to a skip for the rubbish we have pulled off. So that was a very productive morning.

Poor ds is struggling again tho. Don't think he will be at school tomorrow bless him. He will miss saying goodbye to his little friend who is off to big school in September so am going to see how he is for the rest of today.

I see we went from 'ohh courgettes' to 'bloody courgette' within 2 weeks :o

I think 'zombie' may be too lively an adjective in this case