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

just back in from pottering in the garden.
sown peas, hopefully the protection is enough to stop cats/foxes/squirrels digging it up again.

started on the first 'comfrey juice' (well comfrey and mixed weeds) so it's ready once the veg need a feed.

first tulips are out!

Wow, thanks for all the tips Frouby, Serendipity and bookbook. I have no idea how big my plot will be but they do all look fairly large. The advice to start small and work up definitely sounds like a good idea. I'm lucky that I have just gone part time to four days a week so I will have one clear day a week as well as some time at evenings and weekends. I will post a before photo as soon as I see my plot!

I think soft fruit is a great place to start - great results for minimum effort and of course because they're perennials the sooner you start them the better. Get some sort of weed barrier down (check what your allotment allows) and it makes life easier.

Hello! Can I join you too? This will be my fourth season with my allotment, I started off all dedicated and have tapered off a bit in the last couple of years so I'm really keen to get back to it properly this year.
I've strimmed it and planted six little blackcurrant shrubs. I've just ordered some mini vegetable plants/plugs as I don't have a greenhouse and tend to find my seedlings get a bit long and leggy (and weak).
So excited that the lighter evenings are here.

Welcome wasnot - join the growing band :) . Its very easy to lose heart and determination when life gets in the way. You have to carve out time for it , no doubt . so - whereabouts are you ( I'm just nosey!) - North/South/East or West
Frouby - you have such a lot on your plate this year. Hope the wedding plans are on track
I have a windowsill of sown peppers and tomatoes - I gave in and sowed them yesterday . I couldn't resist it was such a lovely day . Just need to move them out of the way as I have DGS for the day tomorrow. ( Not that he is bad, just likes running his cars along the windowsill :) )

book my kitchen windowsill is the only one ds (4) can't reach. He likes to line his figures up or get his toilet step out and binoculars and look for dinosaurs so I doubt they would last long anywhere but the kitchen window.

Wedding more or less organised. Be glad when it's all done with so I have more time for allotmenting and ponies! I say it's organised but the reality is I have a list in my head of what needs doing. I keep adding to the list instead of ticking stuff off tho.

Have had an idea for my little greenhouse. When we had the bad snow and beast from the east I bought 2 heat pads for the guinea pigs. You microwave them and they release heat slowly over 8 hours. They get hot enough to be uncomfortable to hold without the fleece cover on.

If I start off some seeds in my greenhouse and we are due cold weather or frost am going to put the heat pads in the greenhouse and I think they should be enough to keep the frost at bay.

When we had the minus 7s and 8s the guinea pigs house was lovely and snug every morning with a combination of their covers and heat pads. Their water bottle wasn't freezing up at all so above freezing.

Do you lot think that would work?

Heat pads sounds like a good idea. I’m waiting for the mini freeze next weekend to be over so I can start using the greenhouse and prune the cornus etc which is overdue.

Thanks bookbook I'm in the South East so my main challenges, (apart from bum off sofa levitation), are really heavy clay soil and couch grass. Particularly the couch grass which I haven't found any way of dealing with apart from trying to dig it out of the beds and annoying it with the strimmer on the paths.
Also slugs, I thought living in perpetual winter would've got rid of them all but I was amazed by how many of them there were on the lottie last week. I'm thinking of trying nematodes this year has anyone had any experience of using them?

wasnot I had loads of couch grass in my last garden and I absolutely hated the stuff. It's almost impossible to get rid of isn't it? I even double dug the bottom of my raised beds, picked out every single piece of root that I could find...and still it kept on growing! Aarrrghhh!
The weather has taken a definite turn for the better here, so I've started hardening off my less tender seedlings.
Serendipity How are all your chilli seedlings looking? I decided to give mine a half strength dose of tomato feed - it seems to have perked them up a bit!

Lovely to see the pace picking up and new people joining as we get into spring .

Wasnot we used to use nematodes with mixed results (sometimes worked a treat, other times did nothing - I did read somewhere that they was affected by weather and in dry conditions would be less effective. We have mostly given up as it was getting expensive for the results we were getting.

Interesting idea on warm mats for the greenhouse as I'm not entirely sure how to get the best out of my new greenhouse - if we do get this repeat cold snap I may have to give warm mats a try. Not that there's much out there that's really sensitive at the moment - the melons/peppers etc are all still inside.

My real Seeds "gardener's delight" have SPROUTED. Indoors, obviously with this Northern cold.
Just wanted to share.
As you were.

Yay for sprouting seeds! I do get a little rush every time I see a new little green shoot peeking out of the compost.

Hounds I never did get round to feeding my chillies maybe I should though if it’s helping! I have 8 survivors from the first round propagator massacre - 4 chillies which are either cherry bomb or padron, and 4 peppers which are either purple beauty or an orange one. We shall see! They’re mostly looking alright now, keeping them warm, they’ve all grown a few true leaves and starting to look like little plants. Have some Thai chillies and long red maconi sweet peppers germinating nicely from a second batch. Just don’t know how long it will take for them to get to anywhere near a useful size! Definitely an earlier start next year. And more care!

I finish work lunchtime tomorrow for the Easter break, unfortunately it looks like we’ll have a lot of rain! I’m itching to get my spuds in. Perhaps Sunday/Monday.

Quick aside - with pot measurements - are they referring to the diameter of the rim or the base? Thinking of investing in some terracotta pots from www.wmpot.co.uk but can’t seem to get my head around what sizes look like.

my tom are just starting on the first true leaves.
left is black krim from self collected seed. will be interesting to see how true they come up. the others are green zebra from old seeds. they took a bit longer to germinate but are getting there.

I've been have a tricky couple of days and seeing these little sprouts really made me smile. In a row next to them are some seeds I saved from what I have expertly called a " heritage purple tomato" that I bought from a farmers market place. I can see they are starting too. And next to that an "orange heritage tomato" from the same place. And next to that seeds saved from a "Dorothy" tomato from Aldi - more of an experiment.
I really am having a crappy couple of days

Afternoon!
It is gorgeous here today ( was yesterday too - 2 days on the trot ! )
gussy - it lifts the heart doesn't it . I have just been and had a look at everything in the greenhouse , and the broad beans I sowed are just bursting through, the cauliflowers have germinated, and the first variety of leeks are just peeping too ( sown last Friday ) . I love this time of year :)
I have had a good hour at the plot this morning too - prepped up the potato bed ready , forked out a few weeds and put a wheelbarrow of manure on some bare patches. Dug up the last of the leeks in one of the beds - just a few left in another bed.

Serendipity - forgot to say - its the diameter at the top usually :)

It's raining heavily today, again
So no gardening for me over easter - the ground is beyond sodden.

I'm lagging a bit - I've not even sown my beloved tomatoes, and I'd normally have done that a few weeks ago at ago at the latest. It's just too darn cold! And grey. Even my sweet peas are looking a bit sickly - I'm sure they're not normally so thin.

gussy hope you're doing ok and glad you're finding solace in your seeds. I do too - they're literally hope in miniature for me!

Same here Spotted my mojo has returned I just want to crack on now!

Just a bit of sun and I think my mojo would be right back...
For now through, I'm just avidly watching buds appear on the trees.

COME ON, SPRING!

not rained here , but no plot either until Sunday . But its gone cold ....
I have one aubergine, and 4 tomatoes juuuuust germinated , no sign of any peppers yet though .
Here is my little pot of cauliflowers though - sown 6 days ago - tough little things, brassicas :)

6 days? ? That is quick

cold greenhouse Spotted , and a little plastic bag cover until they popped out. I always think brassicas are eager

Funny to think they germinate so quickly then have to sit in the ground for eons before they can fulfil their destiny and be eaten.

I had to fix an electric garden tool today. I dismantled it, cleared the blockage. And put it back together before the rain came.
I ROCK!!!!
Ps: I've never done that before. And I just wanted to tell the world.

I had a glorious few hours at the llotmwnt yesterdy with my children - so much easier now I have a toddler rather than a baby I found. Last year I did not achieve much. Managed to clear 2/3 of the area that has just been weeks and got it ready for planting. Also weeded a strawberry bed.

Bookbook those leeks are amazing. Mine are destroyed by small slugs - how do yours avoid them? And I used enviromesh on them.

Last year it was obvious we had thieves - most of the strawberries were taken, all of the red gooseberries, all but one pear, many of the raspberries. No idea what to do about that. We thought we had a lack of strawberries the previous year but last year I got more fruit from the 5 plants at home than the 100odd at the allotment! Other people had losses but we grow the most fruit and are the first plot people come to usually.