Allotment/Veg Patch Thread 12! Plotmenters hoping for better weather

[bookbook]

Well, previous thread is nearly full, and I am busy the next couple of days, so thought I had better get this up and ready.
Thanks for the plot title Una
Everyone welcome to join in and share their experiences, tips, the woes and joys of growing their own .
Summer and harvests here we come ( and we''ll do our best to beat the pests)
Previous thread HERE

Afternoon !
glorious, sunny but very breezy again here
mm elephant are you planning on building up the edges up to the gravel board? That may work, but will take some doing. If its hummocky , can you perhaps borrow a lawnmower with a roller on the back ( these tend to be more expensive in truth, so are a bit rarer ) - it may help level it out in time ... . I don't understand the edging thing at all, the paths as you say get narrower and narrower - our NDN did this for years, and I'm sure we lost about 6" on his side of the path !
Been at the plot this morning - planted out Purple french beans, but decided to leave the green ones and the butternut squash at home - will let them get a bit bigger yet . Still forking over the last years brassica area - nearly there now , and will be ready for second succession leeks and beetroot. Watered courgettes and squashes - they survived with the help of organic slug pellets :)
Picked asparagus - nearly done now, will probably do one more pick at the end of the week, and then that will be it for this year. I have gifted away spare aubergines and cucumbers, and received some broad bean plants in exchange, which I'm rather grateful for - mine are a not doing so well at the moment , not sure why .
Did anyone get the storms last night - they looked spectacular . Still no rain here ...

gosh Lonely - something eats slug pellets sounds like a right problem vandal - how incredibly annoying . I hope you keep us up to speed with your sweet potatoes do - I have never grown them , do they need a greenhouse/polytunnel ? I listened to Bob Flowerdew saying you may as well buy sweet potatoes from the supermarket and chit those, as the slips often arrive too late in the season to get a crop.

I loved the lightshow last night.
haven't seen anything like that for ages.
we had a good downpour as well. and a nice refreshing sunny morning.
but now it's getting muggy again.

This is my third go at sweet potatoes. I've tried chitting them, but all shop ones (even organic ones) are treated so they won't sprout. As they grow so readily I assume it's so the crop doesn't spoil in transport. Didn't get my slips in time last year, and my tiny vines got eaten by rats.

This year I ordered early, large slips came, and I've followed the instructions and have my fingers crossed. Next doors duck have had 3 away though as I put the pots too close to the fence! But we might be getting some ducklings from them soon...

I’m trying sweet potatoes for the first time. Managed to get a shop one to sprout but it took months. 2 currently removed from potato growing roots in water with another two still attached. Would like to grow in greenhouse but it needs plastic over the frame for it to be a greenhouse!

Only got to plot once this week so preparing to go down this afternoon. Hope it has been mollusc bistro extrodinaire and I’m giving up bird feeder after Mr Rat’s appearance this week. Planting out runners my neighbour kindly gave me plus a courgette and maybe a pumpkin or two, depending on how many slug pellets I have left.

anyone got a clue why one of my toms is behind?

same pot, same compost, sown and repotted at the same time...

Got my pots sown in a space behind the poly today & a row sown at the side of what will be our new path. We've also set away 2x pot bags so we shall see what takes I guess. Plot is starting to really take shape and I'm looking at 'pretty' vs functional at this stage too. I'd like a nice little chill out spot we can enjoy vs purely functional, considering a few rolls of astro turf to make a little patio area or possibly old concrete slabs not sure 🤔

Got down the allotment twice this weekend ❤️
It's just so peaceful there & I go in the evenings when it's quiet.
Managed to repair the hosepipe I inherited so that's good.

Made 2 Mo dig beds, hopefully they will work. I put cardboard, grass clippings, compost, nettles, compost.
Then planted some sweetcorn plants & some potatoes.

I've attempted to dig but it's very hard so for now & working on finding stuff to cover & kill the thick grass

blue - was it the same as the others when you repotted? I find you often have 'runts' , but the leaves look very yellow at the top - so could you have watered at the same rate as with the bigger ones so it could be a bit waterlogged? Could you give it a foliar feed/tonic . May just be worth a repot and see whats happening with the roots .
Flying - lots on our site do sitting areas, with a bit of a flower/herb garden feel around it.
look after that shoulder love - can you see if local shops have cardboard ?

I met a lovely lady at my allotment who had a car full of cardboard & she gave me loads ❤️ think I have enough to make all my raised beds.
It's compost/ soil I need now so will get some from my dad at some point.
Happy with what I've done for now & will just keep strimming & covering weeds

Ok, so in relation to my leaf nipping/digging up, I think rats. We have them, and see them (both dp and the neighbour (a ghillie) shoot them). I put down mouse traps, which had snapped and moved, so bigger ones needed! Plus my 'test pile' of slug pellets were gone. All plants left, probably as I'd not put the pellets round them. I'm loathe to poison them as we have cats and raptors around here.

lovemy you do meet the most generous and helpful of folks on allotments, don't you.

Well these were lovely to come home to! Mixed picture as usual in the garden. Tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, melons, soft fruit, garlic, onions and rhubarb all doing very well. Goji, mulberry, skirret, peas, beans, courgettes, squash and sweetcorn all badly slug damaged so will aee if I can get some replacements!

Afternoon all.

Those strawberries look lovely Una. We had 1 ripe one over the weekend but when I turned it over something had munched the inside.

Had a very busy few days. Planted out 12 tomato, 20 runner beans, 16 french beams with a seed at the other side of the cane as had a poor germination rate, half a dozen pathetic looking butterhead lettuce, a full bed of leeks plus a few dotted under the A frames for the beans, 2 cucumber and 1 lemon cucumber and 3 pumpkins! Also made 2 more beds and prepared 2 more beds ready for the sweetcorn.

Need to sow beetroot and spinach, have 3 melons waiting to go out and a couple of spare cucumbers.

My brassicas need potting on. Have cauli, sprouts and cabbage but they are going in a huge bed once the first early spuds are out so hoping to contain them in pots until then.

The final lot of blueberry plants I bought have some set fruit, the rasperry canes that we inherited have flowers and even a couple of the new ones planted feb have a few flowers forming. Apple tree is groaning with baby apples and even a couple of the tomatoes have flowers.

Think this is the calm before the storm. 80% of stuff is in and it will go very bonkers very soon. Courgettegate will be happening soon on a plot near you!

Oh and we also ordered chicken wire and a chicken coop and did a bit of work on the chicken run.

I LOVE reading what you all are up to. Even though we're plotmenting under different climates and conditions etc, it makes me feel like I'm on the right track - or that I could be if I get a wriggle on.

Una those strawbs DO look delicious! Were they under cover? Mine are a while off, I should think.
Frouby you sound like you've been really busy. I ought to emulate you as I have things that really need planting now.

So, we've not had rain for a bit. Then we had it all last night. This morning was spent clearing up the mess - our house isn't flooded, but some neighbours are. The garden is such a mess though! Debris everywhere, the water rose quite high. We also had violent hail, with shredded quite a few plants, including -gulp- my queue of tomatoes awaiting planting - out! Some may recover. Courgettes also hammered. I've not made it up to the plot yet to see what the damage is there. I may need all my spares, yet. I did rehome a few yesterday to a visitor, and a plot pal wants some.

And a neighbour gave me some edamame plants too, which was nice. She did remind me to boil well, so I don't rink she's trying to kill me. Has anyone else grown them?

Ooh, and suddenly the germination fairy smiled upon me, and many many runners have hatched.

I've got some spotted they're very clearly a different sort of bean as they are hairy! We've dubbed them the "poison beans" they've put on 2" since I planted them out on saturday.

Had a lovely quiet afternoon making a raised bed. Using a mix of last years crap quickly made bed (in totally the wrong place), and bits from the jungle gym (alas my dc are all to big, so we took the chainsaw to it). Now I need to fill it with soil/manure/compost. It's for the sqashkins, pumpkins, extra beans and my sweetcorn : 18/20 have germinated!

Evening!
another hot, rainless day here.
So at the plot, all I did was plant out basically - some gifted broad beans, french beans, runner beans and water. One good thing - no sign so far of slug damage on squashes and courgettes, so I think the one application of pellets I did will be enough now they are getting going
This afternoon has been busy. I have sorted out my greenhouse properly . We picked up some free lab bench bases , and DH has made lovely staging using spare wire shelves from lots of dilapidated mini greenhouses. So I had to take just about everything out, cleaned it all and put in the new tables, then tried to decide what to put back in. Its very tidy ( just for now .. ) . I have so many plant pots and those plug trays .
I have been offered some Trail of Tears beans , so hope they come soon,
will be interesting to see what they are like

Spotted - hope not too much damage from the rain - it looked bad

So my lovely broad bean flowers have little black ant type things. My Dad said to spray with a dilute of washing up liquid, which I did yesterday and today and there is some improvement, but they're still there. How long should I continue and what should I use instead. TIA.

absolutely normal sadly Cary - thats why I try to get some early ones going to miss the worst. if they are full on flowering, its a good idea to nip the growing tip out,.

thanks bookbook.

you can squish them with your fingers, and try and wipe them off too . Watch out for ants too - they often 'harvest' them

Dad over winters his broad beans because he says it stops them See, I really should have listened to him! Do you think wiping them with baby wipes would harm them? They are absolutely packed with flowers and I'd hate to damage them. Thanks.

I'm with your Dad - I overwinter mine too, but the mice got mine this year so had to put in more early on. mmm never thought about baby wipes. I would be more tempted to keep up with spraying with dilute washing up liquid