Allotment/Veg patch thread 11 'We bid farewell to rainbow leaves but will keep plotting along'

[bookbook]

Well, nights are drawing in, leaves are starting to turn, harvesting carrying on
What a summer it has been!
Join in with the ups and downs of growing our own into autumn.
Last thread www.mumsnet.com/Talk/gardening/2951768-Allotment-Veg-Patch-Thread-10-Plotmenters-busy-into-summer-and-loving-James-Wong?msgid=71770088HERE

Hope everyone is hunkered down! Flurries all morning here in London but nothing really sticking yet. I’ve had blueberry, cranberry and lingonberry plants delivered to work today for my new ericaceous bed - they’re going to have to wait a bit to go in though!

My rhubarb is just peeking up - it’ll be dark by the time I’m home tonight but will try and pop up to the plot tomorrow before work to tuck it in!

I managed to replant my snowdrops yesterday - it was -10 here last night, so I wanted to get them in the ground.
I also have sympathies for those of you going through the menopause - I find gardening to be perfect mindfulness and really do feel that it has, through difficult patches, helped keep me relatively sane.

-10!!! Wowza!!!

Gardening is wonderful therapy. You're right Hounds, it's perfect mindful activity. Peace and quiet and messing around with earth, it's quite literally grounding, keeps you in touch with the basics of life doesn't it.

anyone sowing yet?
was planning to sow toms soon last weekend really
and maybe butternut squash. but don't know yet.
anyone has grown squash early? in a frame or under a cloche?

Snow! Lots of it! (Well about an inch or so which counts as 'lots' )

We managed a couple of hours shifting manure on Sunday morning when the sun was shining but it was freezing cold. DD was helping me and we had to stop when her feet were frozen through. I had my thermal socks on which were keeping my feet toasty. We got most of one bed covered in what is rather fresh horse manure. Which I'll dig in next time I can get over there.

Zebra I am only managing to dig soil that hasn't been dug before and therefore it doesn't matter if I tramp all over it as I go. I can't touch the parts that have been cultivated in previous years as soil is too damp.

I didn't do any prep work about the snow. I do push my pot plants up against the house though which will keep them a bit more sheltered. We'll see what happens when it thaws again. Actually I think the snow is OK because they are insulated underneath, it is the frost and the cold winds that do for many plants.

Not sowing until March here in East Yorkshire brown -
My rhubarb grows through snow here Serendipity , its tough
We have snow too - not nearly as much overnight as they forecast ..... ( what a surprise) , but regular showers coming through this morning. Barely an inch here, which is not much for us , but seems we may get more during the rest of the week.
No where like Hounds I bet !

I'm experimenting with no dig this year so I'll let the cold do its work on the compost I laid out on my veg beds. No turning over for me.

Loving my heated propagator!

gussy I've been no dig for 7 years now. It's brilliant!

Ooh, hello cucumber!

I’ve sown peppers, chillies & lettuce so far, indoors in propagators. Oh and sweet peas and replacement/spare broad beans (might need more if the frost does for my overwintered ones!).
Most things will wait until March or April for, mostly in propagators indoors or the greenhouse, will do a few things direct under cloches, but most direct sowings won’t be till end of April/May.

Not much snow here either but it's bitterly cold, not forecast to get above -2 all day and was -6 overnight.

Not going to be sowing anything for a while yet, our last frost date is fairly late here. Probably going to start thinking about getting things started mid March.

We have frost due for ages yet too. As well as the snow we have now. Just have to be patient. I know from experience that indoor planting is pointless for me at this time of year might give it a go anyway

I have sown sweet peas, tomatoes, aubergines, sweet peppers, chillies and globe artichokes but our last frost date is much earlier.
It is absolutely freezing here, but with bright blue skies and no snow, so it does actually feel as though Spring is just round the corner...

I wasn't expecting them to pop up so quickly - 5 days rather than 14-28. I had heard melons and peppers could take ages which was part of the reason for starting them so soon. Hopefully we will be able to keep them going until the weather warms up and the greenhouse is ready! No snow here

we have about 3" and blizzards at the moment.
All I have done is gone out to feed the birds, and break the ice in their water.
That is so impressive Una

I'm not sowing anything here yet as we don't have a greenhouse or much in the way of window sills to put plants on. I normally start sowing at the beginning of April. I'm in the South East. Oh and I don't sow tomatoes I normally get a couple of spare plants from my parents.

Hope everyone is staying warm! We've had several inches of snow and more forecast and I know it is worse further north today. It's the biting wind which is so horrible. Am glad that I am working from home so don't even have to stress about getting to work.

we have had about another 2" overnight, and it is still snowing along with a howling gale here in East Yorkshire- and we are not theoretically even in todays amber warning area .... ( a snow plough got stuck on an 'A' road about 5 miles away) goodness knows what it is like further North

Similar here bookbook (east midlands). Yesterday they weren't forecasting any more snow but a load came down overnight and it's still snowing now. My weather station read -7 when i went to bed and -5.6 this morning.

My veg containers :-)

Hi everyone!

Our overwintering veggies are hopefully surviving under their snow blanket!

Hope you are all staying safe

p.s. starting sowing some stuff on windowsill last weekend and it has all germinated (no doubt as cranked up the central heating this week!).

So far I have sown san marzano, red pointed peppers, aubergine, cabbage, celeriac as packets all said 'sow indoors from feb'.

I felt last year that I left aubergine too late so hoping the early sowing will mean more than 1 fruit (which was all I got from 4 plants last year!!!!!)

I’m awake with a poorly ddog, so putting some gardening YouTube on whilst I wait for daylight, will get down to the plot first thing to see what’s left after the snow! Fingers crossed the broad beans have made it and the bubble wrap kept the chitting potatoes safe!

I have some oca, and I had been planning to plant them direct at the same time as the potatoes, but then I was reading about starting them in pots in the greenhouse, before planting out later. Apparently they don’t need much space underground until quite late on. Has anyone tried them in (large) containers full stop?

Morning!
Hope everyone has survived safe and sound
Nope, not doing any sowing here yet

Serendipity - hope your ddog is okay .
The only person I know who grows oca is AlternativeTentacles and I haven't seen her on here for some while , so can't help
Well, it started raining this morning and a toasty 2º , so the snow is gradually going away - we did have more snow after the first 2" , ended up with about 3-4" in the end.
I have been down to the plot to check all is okay, seems to be , so dug some leeks, and found a few sprouts for tea. Sprouting broccoli is doing well, and the cauliflowers seem okay too . Now to wait for it not to be soggy .....!

temperatures pushing close to double figures, so I have uncovered the rhubarb.
sown toms indoors (black krim & green zebra) from self collected seeds. am curious how they will work out.

I have lost the thread from TIO, so am a bit behind and will try to catch up tomorrow. Just wanted to get back into the routine of posting now the green shoots of spring are here. Our snow, which was only on Thursday and Friday has pretty well gone again, and it was pleasantly mild today, so I managed an hour at the plot this afternoon, cutting back autumn raspberries and reclaiming a bit of soil that had been overrun with grass and weeds last autumn. I think this will be my 5th spring with the allotment and it is definitely in the best shape I've had it in yet at the start of the season. Leeks and PSB looking good (psb was the main reason for going up there today, I wanted to make sure netting was still in place following snow).

Hope you are all ok and that your plots/gardens/crops have survived the bad weather.