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

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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

B&Q today, on the shelf of doom, about 10 very leggy broad bean plants for £2. Of course I bought them and will put them in to add to my rather pathetic 6 plants that germinated.

Overwinter so you have a head start - mine are almost ready to start harvesting now. I’ve got blackfly in the last few days, it seems inevitable, so pinched out all the tops - don’t need any more new growth now, they can concentrate on growing beans - and spraying every other day with diluted Castile soap to keep them at bay.

They’re annoying but if the plants are big & strong enough before they arrive then they’re not a death sentence

I've not had chance to post for a few days, but have been keeping up to date with what you're all up to!
With broad beans, I always pinch out the tops, but just ignore the blackfly. I don't even spray as I do often see the bluetits and sparrows picking them off and wouldn't want to do anything to upset them. I always get a decent harvest, so just don't worry about them any more.
In other wildlife related news, we have hedgehogs in the garden!

All i've got so far is tomatoes in grow bags, few strawberries, planted some sweetcorn plants and planted some potatoes
What else can I do?
I am going to try and construct some more no dig beds this week and think I will make the whole plot no dig, is that lazy

Not lazy. I hope. Try some spinach - young leaves are lovely onbutties.

lovemyboy we are completely no dig here! It's the future!

I hate to write this but it is almost too hot! My leek plants were seriously scorched in the greenhouse yesterday. I don't know if they'll survive (they are still very thin like chives). Am I too late to sow some contingency plants? They are winter varieties...

Everything seems to have appreciated the good soaking on Friday. I was worried it might have brought out the slugs whilst we were away over the weekend but most things look fine.

Plans for this week are to get the remaining things I've started planted out, thin out my Brussel sprouts and get my tomatoes and chillis into their final pots and set up some sort of self watering system as we're on holiday for a week.

I've had to squeeze some dwarf French beans into our flower planters. Our climbing varieties are a complete failure so far, the couple I managed to germinate got munched so will direct sow some.

Zebra, the strawberries haven't been covered - they're gariguette which is an early variety and we're on the south coast which obviously helps.

I managed to tie in my rampant tomatoes and sow some replacement seeds yesterday - courgettes, squash, carrots beans and peas though I've also got some plants ordered in so that I get at least a bit of a crop. And sone nematodes to give them a better chance of survival!

Talking of rampant plants, I'm beginning to think that planting 3 cucumber plants may not have been such a good idea...they are like the triffids and are covered with dozens of flowers.
Oh and treating my Corazon tomatoes as cordons doesn't seem to be doing them any harm as I have fruits forming!

You are all so ahead of me!! I will post some pics of my toms later to give you a laugh!

But just picked up 4 sacks of "please help yourself" horse manure. So thats the base of my new bed sorted.

Thank you for the advice about the broadies, I'm going to continue with the dilute spray. Next year I'll over winter a few in big pots in the greenhouse. Both Chairman Meow and I are scared of mice; if the naughty Tortie catches one and brings it to me as a 'present' I go to pieces and he hides up. Useless article.
My toms are flowering, have a variety in the greenhouse.
I wish it would rain. Every night they forecast heavy showers, but we've had no rain, and the ground is rock hard.
I'm still trying to clear the side bit of the big weeds and I can't get a spade in. Rampant bindweed, sulking cosmos, very little colour.

I'm mostly just hacking back weeds to the ground at the moment as the soil is too hard to have a hope of getting the roots out and at least it stops the thugs taking over and seeding everywhere. We have had a bit of rain but it's clay so takes a fair bit of rain to soften it. I do love weeding in winter as it's so satisfying when roots pull out properly!

Una on clay, there's that magical and fleeting time when weeds slide out easily, isn't there? Like they were planted in soft butter.

That time for me is now, as we have had such a dry period followed by so much rain.
The plot next to me is untended, again. There are loads of buttercups and dandelions that I know would ease out a treat if someone were to do it this week. But in a couple of weeks, it would be a battle. Once again, I am tempted...

Cary next year, dust the soil of your pots or modules with your broad bean seeds with chilli powder or cayenne. Mammals hate it so it will deter mice. Top it up every now and then.

Okay, so the random no label seeds that I put into the grow bag in the greenhouse. All germinated (seeds from 2015), and look very like some sort of radish. So, I trawled back through my emails, found the original order (Jungle seeds - for the more exotic stuff), and it turns out they are Radish Bora King!! So a diakon (sp) korean radish, should grow up to 2lb in weight, each. Holy cow. Am getting them out of the greenhouse asap!

However, I cannot work out what possessed me to buy these. If they take well to being transplanted to modules (have about 6 true leaves just now), I'll put half in a line up the side of my patch, and the other half in individual 8" pots (and put them wherever I can).

Whatever has been bothering my courgettes has stopped, I think the slug pellets drew in the rats. On balance, I'd rather pick off slugs than deal with rats. But, 2 mole hills appeared in the night. Do you think a sprinkle of chilli powder round the beds would help? None of my pet mammals can get into the veg.

Morning
lordy Lonely - molehills ? gah, I'm not sure anyone has a good way of dissuading moles . I think once courgettes and squashes get going , the slugs tend to leave them alone - the leaves are more prickly and tough. Daikon - is that the white big radish that you can eat raw or cooked? Think echt grows them?
clara - poor leeks - I think you have time for sowing more - I have some pots just sprouting now, which will be my overwinter/spring crop .
tiz - looks lovely!
Hounds -3 cucumbers is a bit like 4-5 courgettes, they keep coming, and coming .( I have 2 ) . Cucumber , spinach and mint makes a nice soup
No plot yesterday, as I had DGS, but Monday afternoon the greenhouse was all sorted. No rain here yet, but its quite chilly here this morning, with a hint of damp in the air. So I have messed up the clean and tidy greenhouse by potting into bigger pots the peppers, aubergines, and one of the cucumbers. Lots of flowers on everything but the aubergines, so all go :)
Hoping to get to the plot this afternoon for a quick go, dependant on forecast rain. I too need to hack back weeds before they flower . Really need to water courgettes and squashes, and check over everything, and give away some spare plants I have.

I love reading about everyone else's plots, amazing to see those strawberries looking so big and juicy already!
The DCs are off school this week so not much spare time for me - but I managed to grab an hour or two at the plot on Sunday and again yesterday. There are so many weeds popping up! Mostly fat hen, I'm leaving them to get slightly bigger so I can be sure all the roots are gone. But bindweed is popping up literally overnight. It was all through the raspberries last summer and it's back again - I don't think I can eradicate it without sacrificing the entire raspberry bed (which is a definite No!). I'm pulling up as many roots as I can but there's always a bit left somewhere.

My peas are starting to germinate which is great as I wasn't sure if I'd prepared the bed carefully enough for them. All my sweetcorn's looking good (still under bottle cloches) and the squash germination rate is ok (1 out of 2 crown prince, 4 out of 5 red kukri). The strawbs have started putting out runners so hopefully I'll be able to fill in the gaps where some plants died over the winter. My overwintered broad beans have definitely had a massive headstart on the ones I sowed this spring and I'm hoping they avoid the blackfly a& tattered leaves I ended up with last year. No sign of courgette or French beans yet but I only sowed them a week ago...
All water butts are now filled from the tap and there's a bit of rain due today so hopefully everything will do a bit of growing over the next few days. I have a sub-plot at home as well now - 2 Sungold tomatoes and a lemon cucumber in the front garden which is hopefully the sunniest spot - I tried lemon cucumber last year but it didn't do well (mosaic virus + slugs) so I'd love to get at least one cucumber this year!

well, I managed an hour - no rain, just damp in the air. Forking over where the flowers will be planted out at the weekend. Planted out the butternut squashes. they are slow, but may as well have them planted out. Did a little circle of slug pellets , so fingers crossed.
Picked the last asparagus of the year, and some spring cabbage.

Thanks for the tip Zebra, I'll try the chilli next year.
Hope you've all had a great day, we had run overnight but it is very muggy.
My lavender is flowering, the few sprigs that survived the beast from the East that took the majority of it, so I'm happy. And my runner beans are starting to flower along with the sweet peas.

update on the 'sickly' tomato.
have given it a feed with tomato feed and it seems to have perked up.
another one got deheaded by a frisby (kids going wild during half term) - hope for good side shoots to take over from the main one...

Popped up for an hour before work today. We've stripped all the weeds out from the onion plot, and added some extra stakes to the runner bean frame. The sweetcorn and little gems I started in the house less than a week ago are flying up. Although I fear the sweetcorn may not come to much as it's probably too late now. However we've only set away 6 out of a pack of 25, so there's always next year I guess.

Went to the water my greenhouse tonight & found a big fat slug in the grow bag!

Sweetcorn has shot up since I planted it

It's just so peaceful at the allotment feels nice to be there

Hello everybody. I don’t have an allotment or even much of a veggie garden YET, but I’m working on it. So far, Ive got a corner of a field with weedy pasture and very stony. My plan is to clear and level enough space for raised beds, and any advice on starting off would be very welcome

Morning and welcome Trethew : )

Exciting first steps! First rule is - its a sprint, not a marathon.
Quick thoughts - Is it a field that has been left uncultivated , so not been turned/weeded etc? If so , levelling will be interesting . I would probably do a basic eyeing up with a couple of flat planks if you have them , to see how uneven it is. Then rough levelling from high to low, with a spade, where the raised beds will go . Very stony so on chalk? you may find the top layer is not so deep ( I am on chalk/flint ) so try to source some manure if possible to help fill the beds. Do you have easy access? Work out how to get water there - water harvesting off a roof is easiest if no mains nearby.
I am sure everyone else has ideas too - am due out, but will have a think!

I'm stupidly excited inside because today I am borrowing my works van to bring home some pallet collars to complete my raised beds
also hoping to get some compost from my dads large heap & tarpaulins to cover all the weeds on the bits I don't have time to tend too

Hi Trethew
Have a watch of some of the Charles Dowding videos on Youtube - he has used the no dig method to create beds on weedy pasture. Apart from anything else, his market garden is my absolute dream and he seems like such a happy soul. I think I love him!