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!
Lovely morning, and a good long go at the plot- just about all was weeding/hoeing. Nice and soft as it rained over night , so I didn't need to water.
Yellow - unless its a small variety ( something like snowball) they will get bigger, quite quickly. I would pick , as very soon , every cauliflower will need picking at once .
Had a nice harvest - some more purple and green french beans. Ripped out all the sad rabbit and pigeon chewed peas , ( but managed to salvage some!) , cut flowers. I am also going to start to harvest potatoes as quickly as possible now - 2 or 3 plants a visit so far , as I noticed a little bit of slug damage/holes in one the other day. So as it has been raining, I bet they are out there in vast armies , heading for my potatoes ....:)

Silly question about onions, I presume you can use straight from the ground? And all the info about harvesting and drying is just if you're going to store them?

I love the purple french beans bookbook, they're on my list alongside the yellow courgettes.

the variety is 'white excel' according to the label

I want to do purple mangetout next year - I keep finding green ones that have gone to pod because I didn't spot them!

In other news I have a yellow tomato - it's ildi so that's the colour it's meant to be, but I think it probably needs a bit more ripening. Come on sun, my vegetables and my bees need you!

I so know where you are coming from Una.
I pick the mangetout first, then weed, pick the mangetout again (from a different angle) pick the other stuff and then back to mangetout. Still miss some.
Only concern with the purple ones is they seem to a dark sludge green when cooked.

Tiz onions are great straight from the ground. Use the ones that look like they won't store so well.

The soup was lovely, thanks for the idea Book. If anyone is interested I used this one. I added spinach as well. I managed to get to the plot in between the rain storms, hoed one bed and picked another 2 cucumbers. The first tomatoes are getting there if we have some sunshine.

The purple french beans are Cosse Violette tiz - they are so tender, my favourite :)
Yellow - looking at description it says 'large head' so suspect they will grow a bit yet. . You can soon tell if they are due to bolt - the florets start to get elongated stems, and eventually the curd opens up like a bunch of flowers
Una - and me - the sungold are just starting to ripen - just enough for a few each for lunch, but the other varieties seem to be stubbornly green .
Glad you liked it elephant - that does look like the basic recipe I used, I swapped spinach for the lettuce, and added courgette . Mind you I add courgette to most things at the moment

thanks book the head is still nice and tight, so I will leave it for now

Evening all. Had family over for lunch. French onion soup followed by chicken with 40 cloves of garlic. We have eaten our own bodyweight in allotment veg! Thankfully got tomorrow off work!

Sunflowers are starting. This week's pictures.

Yellow - forgot to say - it starts to go a bit bumpy when its getting ready - loses its even roundness IYSWIM , so cut quickly then ..
I love chicken with 40 cloves of garlic !

It was lovely book!

Things are a bit slow on the allotment front - I still haven't had the chance to weed the place I hope I get round to it before the inspection in September.

In the garden, I've pulled down most of the sugarsnap peas (only leaving 2-3 plants that are still productive) and planted out a few new seedlings in their place. Hope there's still time for the mum to crop before the first frosts.

Tomatoes are ripening, about 2 per day. Toddler scoffs them straight from the plant (after I give them a little rub on my top).

Pak choi have ALL been eaten by slugs. Will sow another batch after dosing the garden with nematodes.

Sowed a batch of chard on Friday in a long container.

Beautiful sunflowers gnome! And book those mahogany dahlias (are they dahlias?) are gorgeous.

Could anyone give me ideas for what to sow late July that'll do well in some large tubs? I had some early courgettes that are just going over (I've been picking between 1-3 a day for about 2 months!) and want ideas for what to replace them with! Thinking maybe kale in one, but not sure what else?

Also would it be an idea to bung a layer of fresh compost onto the stuff in the tubs, thinking it's probably a bit depleted after powering courgettes?

Think I'm losing my sugar snaps to the caterpillars, I've found a few on there and am removing but the leaves are just decimated

Morning!
well, grey , damp and windy here - went and shut the greenhouse door!
May go and sow some spring greens .
rose - you could sow salads, carrots, turnips ( not swede- the little white ones) pak choi , spinach . I would definitely enrich the compost after courgettes , so mix in fresh compost, maybe some organic chicken pellets even.
The dahlias are nice - I am a recent convert . I was gifted one by a fellow plotter as he was digging it up, and then used up the last of a garden voucher to buy a couple more. The one I bought is Arabian night , the gifted one is very, very similar . In the photo, the Arabian Night is the one on the right. I could make bigger flowers by cutting off other buds, but I am growing for cutting, not the show bench :)

Lovely photos everyone. Especially those tomatoes. Like a little family .

Off to the plot later. Have a spinach question. We sowed some about 3 weeks ago and the leaves are big enough now to pick. If I pick the leaves will the little plants produce more or do I need to sow more?

Have to meet our ndn but 1 allotment neighbour later. They are away on their holidays and I have agreed to look after their chickens! There are only 4 of them but obviously need doing every day. It will be good for us to make sure that chickens of our own aren't going to be too much of a tie.

Ds is very excited about collecting the eggs, and they also have masses of soft fruit that is ready and needs picking too. They come back the day we go away so are going to water ours if necessary and keep an eye on things. And they lovr courgettes so have told them to take as many as they can while we are away. #winning

Does anyone have a recycling bin at home for composting stuff? I have one of those 3 bin caddys and was going to line one with newspaper for veg peelings etc then take it to the plot a couple of times a week. DP is convinced it will smell and go yucky really quickly but I don't think it will. Was thinking just veg/fruit waste and the odd teabag/coffee grounds.

Thank you Rose. This year we have half a bed of sunflowers but are thinking that next year we will go the whole hog and have a complete bed. They are my favourite flower for cutting.

Good morning. I am with you Gnome when I took on the plot I said I would do flowers as well and all the plotters sunflowers have made me quite joyful. I was going to plant dahlias and gladioli as well, but one step at a time I suppose. Frouby thank you for being complimentary about my first tomatoes. If they are a 'family' the parents are co-joined twins and the babies are seriously prem!

Afternoon!
All morning at the plot today - coolish, overcast but dry thank goodness.
Have dug over and weeded where the peas came out, and have started lifting potatoes - not so many yet . Also harvested a cabbage , a few beans ,and the missed giant courgette! ( Courgette cake baking later. !) Had a quick look at my stumpy carrots, pulled a couple to see how they are doing

I am dithering over whether to sow green manure or mulch with manure as the potatoes are lifted. Just seems a bit early for over winter.
A plot neighbour came over for a chat - he has club root , and was asking how mine was doing. But - he asked if I wanted to pick some of his peas - he's sick of picking - a trug full yesterday it seems !
So this afternoon, DH and I are going to cut the grass, pick some peas, and start a necessary job. The site has started to once again get a lot of rabbits. We are mostly all chicken wire defences, but it was suggested we rabbit proof underneath sheds too. As both the sheds are outside the wire fencing, thats the next job ... just to deter them from thinking my plot is their pantry .... Should be good fun .. not

book it is so easy to miss one then suddenly you find a comedy courgette about the size of a barrage balloon!

Potatoes look good, which variety are they please?

Evening all, been offline for a few days but we had a good haul on Sunday. First lot of potatoes resulted in great excitement. You'd not think that at 12 and 10 they'd be that interested but it was like they were digging for treasure. We then also have a broccoli mountain and the courgette plants are like triffids although still not producing particularly well.

The tassles are out on the first of the sweetcorn plants too which is exciting. I have 12 so I'm hoping they self pollinate but Ive been watching youtube clips about how to pollinate them by hand if necessary. Might do it as a back up just in case.

Then my rhubarb has gone crazy which is great since it's our favourite.

With the strawberry runners do I leave them where they are for now? At what point to I detach them from the main plant? As soon as they've put down roots?

DH has agreed that the sloped piece of grass next to our raised beds can be planted up for next year. I have lots of things in pots and nowhere to put them which is a shame. The patio is finally going to be done at the end of august and I might get the landscaping guys to add some proper beds in. I'd get three levels in if I terraced that area.

Gnome - two varieties there , both second earlies - on the left my favourite Marfona ( make good baking potatoes) on the right Wilja , which I haven't grown before - a slightly smaller potato, but a few more of them IYSWIM?
You wouldn't think they could hide themselves so well, would you! :)
Newt - you can do it a few ways. For me, I train the runners to where I want them to root, and leave them to it, just dig up the ones I don't want. I let the strawberry bed flow along over the years - dig up the oldest at one end of the bed, and let the new ones take root at the other end. Or, when you want to move the whole bed ( which I do about every 3/4 years, I let the runners root properly first, then cut off the joining stem, have the new bed ready, and just replant straight away. If I am giving them away, I plonk the runner into a little pot, hold down the runner with a little stone , then cut the joining stem off when its roots are established in the pot. Hope that makes sense?

I tend to wait until the runner has rooted (either in a pot or its final location) before I trim them. Have managed to replace a couple of plants that didn't establish but otherwise I'm cutting mine off as soon as I spot them.

Yes to stealth marrows - you'd think it would be easy to spot a giant bright yellow vegetable but I've missed a few!

How frequently is everyone aspirin spraying their toms? I’m doing it every two weeks for some reason, but I don’t know how I came to decide on that frequency. So far everything doing well and no blight.