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

This is on my recipe list to try with my gooseberries this year. We only have 1 bush which we planted when we moved in just over 6 years ago but we get about 3kg of gooseberries each year.

www.deliaonline.com/recipes/collections/ice-cream/gooseberry-and-elderflower-ice-cream

I do enjoy these lighter evenings when I can get out in the garden after doing bedtime - so peaceful! I managed to get my peas (oregon sugar pod) and beans (moonlight runners and blauhilde french) sown, plus a few extra sweetcorn too. After that I had a bit of a mooch around and took the chance to see how things are getting on. Pluot, blueberries, blackcurrants and strawberries are flowering or budding which is good to see, raspberries and blackberries shooting up nicely.

I was a bit surprised that Monty was suggesting moving citrus trees outside as it seemed very early - any thoughts?

Agree with you Uma, it still seems very unpredictable and I wouldn’t risk it personally. One thing seed sowing when seed are cheap but another whole thing with expensive plants,

I guess it depend where you are.

my pineapple went out last weekend. it shouldn't have less than 5 degrees. sheltered spot and a fleece in case it gets cold again.

Would love to join. Just taken over a large plot and am an enthusiastic novice. Was up there this morning with the kids. Dig over the artichoke bed, DH mowed a bit then sowed some sunflower seeds and a few plants I'd started off at home. I'm a bit daunted about how much work it might be but really excited too. Is a lovely spot and looking forward to pick

Sorry posted too soon...
Looking forward to picking up some good advice here!

Morning !
Welcome Korner :) just take it steady ( its a marathon, not a sprint ) grow what you like to eat , and do what you can . Is it in a reasonable state , or are you going to have to do a lot of clearing. Oh, and in the interests in fairness - whereabouts are you - North/South/East or West ?
Ask away - there are plenty of us, and a lot of community experience
Una - agree on the Monty thing - I was a bit 'errr' ??

I sowed some carrots yesterday in a pot here at home after a lovely warm day - then it went and absolutely belted it down last night, so whats the guessing the seeds will all be washed into the edges now ?
I have put my tomatoes in the greenhouse today - they were all pricked out last week, and have been sunbathing on my south facing windowsill. But, I'm starting the process of easing them out . Will bring them back indoors for overnight for a while yet.
Which then leaves windowsill space to sow sweetcorn and curcubits tomorrow . Its like one of those Chinese puzzles

We have some lovely chunky asparagus spears poking up!

We're south coast so are fairly unlikely to get frost now (though May last year did catch me out!) I guess we can always bring the citrus trees in again if the weather turns colder but it does seem a bit risky if we have an unexpected chill. That said, our citrus trees (we have a lime, two lemons and an orange) have a bit of sooty mould so getting them out in the fresh air would probably be good for them, plus they're starting to put out little leaves and it might be better to get them into cooler air before they go too far putting out nice tender growth that gets damaged when they do go out. Not sure!

Welcome Korner.

Recommend you take a look at Liz Zorab on YouTube. She's planting an asparagus bed. She seems like a good laugh too - Uk based.

Does anyone else loathe hardening off? It seems like such a lot of pointless effort for no visible results. I know it needs to be done but it's so tedious hoiking everything out only to take it back in again!

I'm not taking hardening off too seriously.
I put seedlings out in a sheltered spot (usually in an empty balcony box).
but i'm in the se, so it's not too cold.

I'm probably the victim of my own eagerness as I started lots of plants off early - we're going away in May so I like to get plants well established so they can cope on their own while we're away. They've gone from heated propagator to greenhouse so I want to give them a bit of toughening up time before I put them out properly. Hopefully will get them out this weekend so nearly there!

I do like to harden off here -I am on a big open site , so they need to be toughened up from the wind as much as the cold. I have two hardening off regimes, depending on what plants they are .
Greenhouse -> outdoor sheltered -> outdoor

house -> greenhouse -> outdoor
and yes, very tedious Una - I have a dining table full of tomatoes which came in last night from the greenhouse, and due back out shortly .
But- I'm a lot further north!

I kind of skipped the hardening off without meaning to! This week it looks like we won’t go below 10 degrees in the SE so they’ll stay out and we’ll see what happens I think.

*stay out in the greenhouse
I forgot that bit!

Hmm, maybe I'm cosseting them too much (south coast) - but the seedlings have enough to deal with from the slugs without being shocked by the cold!

Hi all, can I join in? Got a largish allotment plot in the North East of England. Part of it seems to be twinned with Atlantis at the moment but I finally managed to get some potatoes and parsnips in at the weekend. I've got seedlings on every windowsill in the house waiting for everything to dry out

Hi Paintingtheroses and welcome. I think a few on our site would identify with twinned with Atlantis.

I’m a bit crap with hardening off but we get a fair old wind on the site so will have to try to. Digging is knackering isn’t it but burns off stacks of calories which is very helpful when trying to lose weight.

Had a happy moment when the pile of leaves I thought were still leaves turned out to be leaf mold underneath. Took 6 bags of manure and 3 large sacks of leaf mold to put on squash bed, moved a compost bin, planted up my recycled little sink and started digging a new bed. Am now in bed!

One of my water butts is leaking so was thinking I could drill holes in base or remove it entirely and use as a compost bin, hope it works.

Welcome Painting :) a bit further north than me ( Yorkshire ) - it is all starting to dry out here, I'm glad to say , but I am on chalk, thank goodness!
Today, DH and I went to start putting up a new cage made with fine engineering precision ( DH on back of envelope after watching youtube ) with heavy duty HDPE pipe . Suffice to say - it was windy ( always is when we attempt these things) - things did not go well. Watch this space

Post, I hope you're not in the bed you dug?

Welcome Painting.

If it's a plastic water butt you can repair it with a plastic milk carton and a heat gun. I've successfully repaired one of mine this way.

Thanks for the welcome. Book am in London. Am very lucky as plot is in good condition. Lots there from previous owner including rhubarb, asparagus, artichokes and berries. Have put potatoes in and bought loads of some seeds yesterday (me and the kids got a bit excited in the garden centre!)
Already I'm getting worried for my potential seedlings in case they get munched! How do you deal with the trauma if things get eaten/frozen/ blown away??

How do you deal with the trauma if things get eaten/frozen/ blown away??

badly the first year until you get the first glut

but what I really struggle with is getting rid of surplus seedlings. we resort to guerilla gardening and plant swaps to avoid it.

Thanks for the welcome all. Quick question, does anyone have a view on using sheets of cardboard as a mulch? Was thinking about it for the brassicas this year to save weeding. This is year 2 of allotmenting for DH and I so we are still in trial and error but I'd like to do a bit less weeding this year if I can get away with it