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

I have decided to move the strawberry bed next year actually the strawberries have They are sending runners everywhere. If I clear the strawberry bed I can get rid of the pink and white bindweed and the bloody cinquefoil. Ranting? Yes!

Wh0Kn0wsWhereTheTimeGoes we will be planting a new strawberry bed in autumn using bare rooted runners. Not decided on varieties yet but will probably go for 3 varieties to cover the full season.

Gnome - where are you getting them from? I only seem to see plants on sale in spring, can you buy them mail order?

Morning!
WhoKnows - I'm sure I have seen some offered in a seed catalogue that came through last week, just can't remember which one! ( It was one of the big ones). I didn't check though to see if they were for pre order. I always do my runners like you - pot up early autumn and plant out when they are rooted .
Off shortly to just water I think . I have some beetroot to plant out, but will leave it to later in the week when it gets a bit cooler.

Thompson and Morgan have Strawberry Just add cream 5 plugs for £4 - pink flowers and supposed to be delicious.

I'll start investigating. I don't use mail order much as we have several good garden centres locally so I'm not up to speed with what's on offer.

My first strawberries are just beginning to ripen. Everyone in the house is very keen to have them so they won't last long.

And the first of my blackcurrants so be ready in a few days. Lots of black ones on the bushes but I want them to be a bit softer before I harvest them. I'm very excited this year as every single branch is laden like this.

Broad beans and peas almost ready too. We've been eating baby spinach for ages, and at the weekend added spring onions, lettuce, nasturtium leaves and flowers and borage flowers to the mix. I love homegrown salad!

Marshalls are good for strawberry plants:
www.marshalls-seeds.co.uk/strawberry-plants-cid293.html

There's quite a choice. I can recommend Marshmallo and Vibrant, which are both prolific (and delicious!), but I'm sure there will be others in that list which are equally nice.

my strawberries aren't great this year either. i think its because there was a hard frost when most of the flowers were out. such as shame as there were loads of flowers so there would have been loads of fruit

Strawberries: James Wong recommends Mara des Bois, Marshmello, Honeoye, Malwina amongst others (in Grow for Flavour)

I went to the plot today, because I happened to be passing it on my way home - but goodness it was hot! I watered everything and then left, feeling roasted. Everything is doing quite well except the climbing beans which are being eaten off at ground level as soon as they pop through. The sweetcorn's looking a bit healthier and the strawberries are really good, i'm going back tomorrow early with a container to pick some. I cut all the runners back on Friday evening as i'm not intending to keep the same varieties if & when I move to a new plot. I quite fancy starting off with new plants from the James Wong list.

My raspberries are a little unhappy, they are a bit small & yellow-leaved almost as if they are too dry/underfed but they have been manured/mulched from day 1 and I have tried really hard to keep them watered - any ideas or tips to help them? Neighbouring plots all have enormous canes with green healthy leaves so it can't be the overall growing conditions...

Thank you for all the strawberry recommendations. I will investigate.

I have bought quite a lot of fruit treas and plants from:

www.ashridgetrees.co.uk/soft-fruit-bushes
www.chrisbowers.co.uk/
www.blackmoor.co.uk/

And been very happy with the results

Evening!
Picked broad beans this morning as well as watering, but too hot to do much else. First courgette doing nicely though :)
So, so hot today. I had to go out this afternoon, so at about 11 I went and watered in the greenhouse ( I have been doing it twice a day for the last few hot days) The tomatoes were already looking a little sad, so on a light bulb of inspiration I put a decorating dust sheet over the top and side of the greenhouse facing the sun for shade ( its really an old bed sheet!) worked a treat - just got home and all is well, and a bit cooler too.

Evening everyone. I can vouch for the Mara des Bois - to me the best strawberry there is as it's normal-sized but tastes of wild strawberries. I've got 16 plants and they're creating a ton of runners this year, so pinning a few down to extend my patch.

dreamingofsun good point about the late hard frost having impact.

We too are going to be starting a fresh new bed with all new plants. We grow a lot of strawberries as I use the fruit we dont eat fresh to make strawberry wine.

I have some honeyoye in my old strawberry plants and I'm not overwhelmed by it - I prefer Florence. My new plants are a mix of Mara des bois, gariguette and manille (got a collection of these three from Pomona and they established very well) and Malling centenary, and I've just ordered some Just add cream (inspired by a James Wong guardian article - that man is making me spend a fortune!). Plus we found lots of alpines already in the garden, so next year we should be in strawberry heaven!

I think honeyoye is a commercial variety so a big chunk of its breeding will have been for shelf life and appearance rather than flavour. Cambridge favourite is reliable but throws out runners which can be found three counties away from the parent plant!

Thanks for all the strawberry suggestions. Dreaming - mine got nipped by frost too, you can see which fruit were affected as they all have a little hard brown bit at the tip, which I've been cutting off.

I'm starting to think that a whole new bed for next year is a good idea. I might leave the current one in place while it establishes and then get rid, the fruit really aren't very tasty apart from in jam.

Gnome - Blackmoor is fairly local to us, in fact our cherry tree came from there, but a horrific incident occurred there due to H&S breaches a few years ago and I can't bring myself to support them any more.

Book - I've been having to water greenhouse plants (tomatoes, cucumbers and some seedlings) twice a day too, mine is in shade for a lot of the day and all the doors and vents wide open but still very hot in there.

I went up to the plot to water at 6.30 last night, the plot is just in shade by then so it was nice and relaxing. Sweet peas and runner beans that I put in last week are struggling, but broad beans, pumpkins, courgettes and sweetcorn all looking good.

Oooo! my £5 seeds arrived today. I shall be planting some directly this weekend. I went to the plot to water and have picked swiss chard and spinach to go in the curry later. The bindweed jar attack is showing good sign of working and I have removed another load of roots. The beans are twirling and flowering, I have green tomatoes and flowers on the courgettes and cucumbers. I am feeling quite satisfied.

Hello all

My £5 seeds arrived today too! Exciting stuff. I have another couple of raised beds to do so need to decide what to plant out.

I sowed some more seeds nearly a fornight ago. Some mange tout, some spring onions and some more peas but nothing is happening yet. Am wondering if it's been too warm for them.

We finally have the bonfire bigger than the burning pile! Yay. It took a good couple of hours of hot sweaty graft on monday but its getting there. Will have a bonfire this weekend.

Will be harvesting some more lettuce later and ds has been eating rasperries straight from the bush.

Its all very exciting. Tomatoes, courgettes and chillis coming. Potatoes looking well as is the sweetcorn I sowed. Sweet peppers look a bit pathetic so had a stern word with them.

I need to sort out some winter beds too I think. I might do some cabbage and cauliflower in pots for now ready to go into beds as I harvest stuff.

Morning!
well, had DGS yesterday so no plot. Today, I went out to look at my seedlings and one pot of my winter cauliflowers are down to the bare little stumps. I was due to prick them out today - will have to get some more sown. I think snails rather than slugs - its climbed up the house wall, and across the wire shelf to get to them ( hasn't touched the other variety I sowed though)

Did a stint this morning - a lot cooler toady thank goodness. Watered everything as its now looking as if we will not get the rain I hoped for today . Planted out some beetroot and spinach . Picked loads of strawberries - next strawberry bed is starting up now, and noticed a few raspberries nearly ready too.
Who was asking about raspberries looking sad? It may be worth giving them a feed of sequestered iron - they like a slightly acid soil, so it gives them a boost.

Hello everyone, finally posting on the new thread (I was on holiday last week and missed 150 posts!! Eek). I've enjoyed reading through your updates especially some fabulous photos of plots and produce.

Interesting to hear about strawberry harvests. We ate our first strawberry last night. They are all going to ripen in next couple of weeks I think, but they are rather small, and the plants aren't chucking out anywhere near the number of runners that it did last year. I wonder what's wrong...

I meant to upload pic from start of June but forgot, so have attached it now although it is already very out of date as its much more green now. I always worry that things aren't going to grow then 'woosh!'.

We've been getting steady crops of broadbeans for the past 2 weeks - example attached - and plenty more still to pick.

Our salads, radishes and kales are all good for regular picking as well and I've been keeping on top of successional planting for the radishes, beetroots etc.

I think this year's tomato harvest is going to be good. The plants all look healthy and lots and lots of flowers and some green toms too).

All in all, I'm a happy plotmenter!

Very hot faffy day at work. Came home to lots of peas. Finally looked up the varieties i planted and it turns out the enormous pods are huge mange tout and completely delicious raw so the kids and I fell on those like locusts. Lovely. Have attached photo of the variety - will definitely get them again

Morning! It has been HOT here. Harvested a lot of raspberries yesterday and watered. It was 8 pm by the time I'd finished but I was still all hot and bothered. Bit cooler today with a breeze. DH thought there might be rain but no sign of it so far.

Everything seems to be doing OK. Harvested my first little lettuce - hoping that they've not to too hot in the weather and won't bolt. Also harvesting a few mange tout and my first normal pea pod. More peas are coming. And so are the weeds but it was too hot to think about actually weeding anything

I have taken notes of the different strawberry varieties - thank you. We have a few plants kindly given to me by our plot neighbour and we now have the room to make a proper strawberry bed so I will be investing in some new plants.

Frouby - we had a bonfire a few weeks ago. As a warning the dried grass in it caught really quickly and we had to dampen down the ground round it to make sure that it didn't spread. (The wind also changed direction and we accidentally smoked out some other allotmenters and picnickers in the neighbouring park ) It was good to get rid of the rubbish though.

book it was me asking for advice about poorly raspberries. I'll try the sequestered iron feed, thanks!

Haven't been to the plot for the last couple of days as I haven't been feeling well. We were forecast rain yesterday but it turned out to be one of those very brief showers with huge raindrops which hardly wet the surface as the ground is still so warm. More rain forecast tomorrow & I'm crossing my fingers for it as not really feeling up to lugging watering cans around.

My broad beans are not far off being ready but I'm now envious of all the peas and mangetout on here! I do love fresh peas but didn't bother to plant any this year as space is a bit tight.

Just thought I would mention it but GW appears to be on tonight to give way for the Glastonbury coverage.