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

Can I join with a big quandary?

When to plant out?

I’m thinking next weekend (not this weekend). I’m SE, sunny rather than frosty pocket, south facing on two downward slopes, very well drained, chalky etc. Most plants will be in raised beds, a few in pots or border.

I’m thinking I’ll plant out the courgettes soon as they’re getting enormous. Plus some cobaea as taking over the house. And the dahlias. I’m thinking later for tomatoes & cosmos - and def later for zinnia & rudbeckia.

I hope to be able to plant out next week.
it's slug & snail central here, so seedlings need to be strong to survive the first few days in the soil.

I tend to look at the 10 day BBC forecast (as seems fairly accurate) and plant out as soon as the risk of overnight frost is over. I'm going to finish planting out my tomatoes today and then start on my chillies. I planted out my Cosmos a few weeks ago and would have covered with fleece if a frost was forecast (I was fairly confident it wouldn't be though). Runner and French beans were planted out last week. I'm going to let my courgette, squash and sweetcorn plants get a bit bigger, so that they can cope with the pesky snails!

Morning all, haven’t been around for a few weeks but just catching up now.
Managed to get parsnip seeds sown at the weekend, have cloched them so they don’t get washed away in this rain!
My munchkin pumpkins have finally made an appearance, was getting a bit worried as they were taking so long and you don’t get a lot of seeds for your money, but 3 out of 4 have poked through.

Our plot is starting to look like a proper plot now! We no longer stand out as the’newbies’. Been looking back at pictures of when we took it over and the transformation had me all I’d clearly forgotten how bad it was!

Morning
Chucking it down here , so no plot at all .
Taffeta - welcome! :) planting out is a bit seat of the pants, though depends on your last frost date . There is a nice sow/planting calendar on the gardenfocused website, where you can pop in your nearest town, and it alters all the info for your area. Worth a look. I think in truth you should be fine in terms of planting now - just be aware that they can sit in the ground and sulk a bit if its cold, thats all :)
I'm a netweather fan for a bit of longterm forecast myself

well, it stopped raining, so did a quick dash and pick of veg for tonight - perpetual spinach, the first picking of perennial cauliflower and some asparagus. I have one crown chucking up very thin spears , so I decimated it. Hope it sorts itself out, not totally sure why , it's the only one that does it.

The strawberries are coming into flower :)
I sowed my french/runner and borlotti beans this afternoon in the greenhouse. It was so warm , once the sun came out

I am sitting on the fence with my planting out - I've put several out but kept others in the greenhouse as insurance. Plants outside are more surviving than thriving but hopefully are establishing themselves ready to take off when the weather improves. One courgette got a few leaves frost damaged and one of my pumpkins has been devoured by slugs. Strawberries are covered in flowers which is encouraging. Apple trees are looking lovely though one only has a single cluster of flowers so looks like a poor year for that tree!

Perennial edibles bed is coming along nicely, planted two skirret crowns today and the lovage, sweet cicely, blackcurrant sage and artichokes will go out this weekend. Some of the shrubs (carolina allspice and feijoa) haven't come into bud yet but the stems are green when scraped so I'm hopeful they'll pull through. One chilean guava looks very dead but the other is doing nicely - may see if I can take a cutting from the live one as the berries are delicious :)

book - thank you for the gardenfocused tip!

We are equidistant two towns - one has last frost end of April, one end of March!

Sounds like we are pretty safe either way

I am sitting on the fence with my planting out I love this mental image Una. Are your legs dangling and do you have a super long trowel? A lovely pun!

Typical - sun outside ( though it was cold overnight) and I cannot get down to the plot today
I have just set up a new thread folks HERE

Sun! I have moved ridiculously small tomato seedlings into centre of greenhouse in full sun, given them a firm look and left them to it. Lots of sunning about after the kids today but have gardening plans from 3.30 on although so much to do I’m not sure where to start.

Cath - lovely to see you! - we have decamped to the new thread
----> HERE :)