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

Oh, and also spotted some pretty orange and black/brown striped caterpillars all over a weed. Had no idea what they were, never seen anything like that before. So looked it up and they are Cinnabar moth caterpillars. The moths are a beautiful black and red and I've never seen one locally. Apparently the caterpillars eat ragwort so that's handy, they can do some weeding for me

Morning!
no plot today as out gadding
oh yes Cedar - the weeds they grow so quickly - darned sun/rain
I am pretty pleased with the potatoes - I am frantically trying to get them all dug up before they get decimated by slugs. I am starting to find a few more holes. They are all second earlies, and all have had the leaves dying down.I think the weather has been perfect growing for them this year -all from 3 x 2kg bags of seed potatoes. I still have 2 more rows to dig up . Wish I had thought to weigh them to see how many I got .
And how wonderful to get those moth caterpillars - wish some would come and munch on my weeds !

Hi Bella! [waves] I'm new and I also have two small children - 3 year old and 5 month old DDs - I mainly garden on Fridays when DD1 is at nursery and DD2 is happy to sit in the pram and be chatted to while I work.

I recently got an allotment but haven't done anything to it except lay weed membrane over 1/3 of it (as I ran out of weed membrane and haven't got round to buying any more). It's been 2 months now and I'm worried about the plot being taken away. I still want it, but have been so busy lately.

In the garden, we've been fairly productive - many trusses of green tomatoes, with 2-3 ripening every day. Planted out some sugarsnap pea seedlings and sowed a new batch of Swiss chard. Sunflowers are looking glorious.

So JW says aspirin spray once a season! Looks like I now have a complete oversuppy of aspirin..

Waves at Bella (I was a teacup once).

book
This was the weather yesterday!! A mix of clear sky and clouds today. (Maybe a good day to dig out that dead Conference tree.)

So JW says aspirin spray once a season! Looks like I now have a complete oversuppy of aspirin..

Waves at Bella (I was a teacup once).

book
This was the weather yesterday!! A mix of clear sky and clouds today. (Maybe a good day to dig out that dead Conference tree.)

Well how did that happen?

Well how did that happen?

I give up . . .

Recently learnt fact about cinnabar caterpillars is that they ingest ragwort to get the toxin into their bodies and make them toxic to predators. Very very wet and miserable here , I've got friends over for the girls doing a programme of baking and craft and currently face paint. Luckily they are old enough now that I just have to point them at things. Not much going on in the garden apart from ridiculous numbers of tomatoes , and some beans . Chillies are nearly there and the apples - although my trees look pretty miserable . I'm just not good at fruit trees. My parsley , coriander and spinach have bolted. Coriander I'm letting go to seed and I'll harvest those. I'm planning a regardless of weather gardening day tomorrow as there is so much to do in terms of weeding etc. Also I went out for milk and came back with a pink wheelbarrow yesterday so I need to use it lots and justify its existence ..

Cedar03. I'm sorry I don't know the lettuce variety they were some seedlings I bought from the carboot when the slugs to a shine to my first sowing. I've got iceberg coming on behind, on the instance of Ds2. The round lettuces are ok flavour-wise raw but even better in soup.

insistence

We have lots of cinnebar caterpillars around, lots of ragwort in the field opposite which is often more caterpillar than ragwort. Often see the moths too, or more accurately find them dead on windowsills

Hi, I'm new and quite new to growing too. We've got a large garden and finally got DH to build raised beds but started quite late this summer. I've got tomatoes on their way, picking sugar snaps, raspberries and rhubarb, onion and leeks fattening up. Got PS Broccoli seedling in, beetroot seeds and small chard growing. What should I be planting or sowing now for autumn and winter cropping?

Harvested potatoes from the raised bed this morning. Reasonable amount but some are quite scabby, guess that's down to the dry conditions we had earlier in the year though. Still perfectly edible, they just won't win any prizes for appearance.

A modest but tasty harvest this morning.

More courgette recipes at; www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/jul/29/courgette-recipes-cobbler-marinated-with-freekeh-pasta-yotam-ottolenghi The pappardelle and the cobbler both sound interesting.

Afternoon!
Well, dry today after another heavy load of rain last night .
Welcome PumpingRSI - whereabouts are you? you already have leeks and PSB for overwinter but maybe cauliflowers and spring greens perhaps?
Cath - hope the weather has stayed fair for you - a pink wheelbarrow? - I have a lilac one !
tiz and Elle -lovely harvests - they look good!
I managed to catch up with courgettes until today - only two < phew.> Then remembered the marrows I have managed to palm them off give them away
Just harvesting today - the first calabrese picked :)

Hi allotmenteers,

I need some advice please.

After a nine year wait I picked up my allotment key on Thursday.

I discovered, to mine and 9YO DS dismay that homeless drug users are using the shed on my plot.

I spoke to the council on Friday and they sent a team down to clear all the rubbish and the persons belongings away. We spent a lovely afternoon making plans for what we will do on our allotment.

Went back there today with our tools to start some clearance and for DS to plant some radishes only to discover the person/people had come back overnight. There were dirty clothes, rotting food and used needles scattered around. Obviously as it's the weekend there's no one at the council and when I spoke to the police on 101, although they were sympathetic there wasn't anything they could do.

Does anyone have any experience of this or ideas of what I could do? It's just so depressing and has spoiled so far what was supposed to be a really good experience for me and DS.

oh no, hound that's dreadful!

is putting up motion detector& lights possible or would they get nicked ?

Get another allotment.

Hound - that is really depressing to hear about.
I take it the site isn't secure ? You say you have a key - is that to the site , or your shed? It would be easy to put a new lock on, but unfortunately, they are very easy to break off a shed door. :( - and they have already messed it up again in a day/night , so it will need more deterrent I presume . Have you met any of the other plotholders yet?
mmmm - anyone got any ideas ? I will put my thinking cap on.

The site has a gate which is locked. It's about 7ft high. But I guess they climb over it.

I've met one other plot holder. It seems that the other plot holders just let them get on with it as it was happening on a vacant plot i.e. Not on their own plots, and the druggies don't come around until after it gets dark so they weren't bothering them during the day.

We live in a fairly rough area so I can see how it's been allowed to happen, but I am absolutely not giving up on my allotment when I've waited so long for it. The council wouldn't be allowing this to happen if it was happening in a kids playground.

I'm thinking the easiest thing to do might be just to smash the shed up and burn it. Then they won't have any reason to come here anymore. I can keep my tools at home or in one of those lock boxes instead.

In truth, you may be right to just get rid of the shed , but maybe try to reuse the wood/sell it. If it's not far, you can definitely carry tools there. But will they just move into someone else's? I would definitely be onto the council pronto on Monday, or even email if possible .

Hound - what a terrible shock :( I agree that the best solution would be to dismantle the shed (and use the wood elsewhere as bookbook suggests). Be careful not to get a needlestick injury while you clear up! On the bright side, you'll have lots more space on which to plant things :)

Thanks to you all for your replies.

I will speak to the council on Monday and get them to come and clear it again.

I've been looking online and I can use the pieces of wood from the shed to make raised beds, a compost container, all kinds of things!!

We planted some radish seeds at the opposite side of the plot from the Shed of Doom this afternoon and I'm still keeping positive about it, in spite of this rather grim setback.

I hope you don't mind, but I will continue to be all over this thread for help and advice - hopefully more about growing veg than evicting squatters though!!