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

Are you sure there are none nearby lonely it's worth having a look on Google earth. Fields aren't always obvious from the ground. When I first enquired I was told the waiting list was 25 years. In fact I was offered a plot a few months later. There is quite a lot of turnover.

My first harvest of the season!

They look good enough to eat Elephant! Very envious.
Am I right in thinking that my strawbs won't produce fruit this year because I started them from seed in February? Nice little plants, got them in the greenhouse, do I just leave them to get on with it?
We had so much rain yesterday that the ground was soft enough to get weeding done this morning. Still pulling out new bramble shoots.
Gave the honeysuckle the Chelsea Chop because it is so invasive. Planted out the second run of sweet peas which I sowed early May, they're leggier than Kate Moss, but I'm sick of potting them on and they push roots through the pots so quickly.
Planted some dwarf sunflower seeds, cut the grass, stuffed more cosmos in gaps and potted on the honesty.
Am 'sausted!

Cary If your sweetpeas are still leggy, it's a good idea to pinch the tops out. I've done it back to the first pair of true leaves before.
My main job for today has been staking the sweetcorn plants as they were blown over by a storm the other night (I could have cried when I saw them in the morning!). Luckily, they haven't sustained any damage!

So happy when I took my parents to see the plot today my potatoes I planted last weekend have already sprouted ❤️ Dad was also impressed which is positive & he brought me some home made compost

Will do Hounds, just as soon as I can move myself off the sofa! Glad your sweetcorn survived the storms.

Afternoon all!
Fabulous pictures and harvests!
Welcome mikado , readit and The Springs - ask anything , someone will usually have an answer. I think all the questions have been sorted already ?
mikado - I don't support broad beans, so you should hopefully be okay if its not in a wind tunnel - if you have more than a couple , and they are taller varieties , you can put some canes in the corners around them, and put twine around the canes to form a cage, so they don't flop over if its a bit breezy. Pick the outside leaves of the rocket, leave the middle growing tip, and as soon as you start picking sow some more so you don't have a gap :)
Hounds - plants are tough, so hope they survive.
I haven't been to the plot today - but it finally rained yesterday afternoon, so I suspect weeds are going beserk as I think about it.

Literally just popped down today to check everything was okay after the storm - we went to OH's, mum's for tea tonight. The 6 Robin's eggs in her shed have all turned into fat fluffy chicks.

Pictures of strawberries (they look delicious) and baby chicks? Surely this is the best thread ever?!

Flying those chicks look very contented. Where was this storm that folks are mentioning?

We had torrential rain yesterday afternoon for a couple of hours - I'm rather impressed as my new water butt filled literally to the top. My MIL who lives just 6 miles away did not see any rain and was completely flabbergasted when she heard and saw my water butt!

I'm in the south east!

Cary I have a strawberry bed at the allotment, which I inherited and that is where today's strawberries came from. I am sure they are a very early cropping one. The strawberries in my garden were planted at least 10 years ago, basically for my DCs. They are nowhere near ripe yet and I was told not to allow any to fruit in the first year but how do you tell that to a toddler? So I let them fruit in the first year and they are still going strong.

My new veg plot. Somehow don’t think I’ll be getting much from it this summer. Where do I start?

Trethew Wow what a fantastic space. Start small.

Trethrew you can still start I've only really just made progress

If you're interested in raised beds search for no dig beds they can be ready in a hour for planting! Very easy I made 6 last weekend.

Have you got a strimmer? My first job was strimming all the weeds down

What would you like to grow?

I agree, great space Trethew.

When we had to break some new ground we hired a mini digger. It helped a lot with the ground which had not been cultivated for decades.

It is worth getting a field tape measure and plotting out your land to see how much you have and what shape it really is. Looking along the ground can give quite a distorted view.

I do quite a lot of my planning (daydreaming) using www.growveg.com

As PPs have said, start small.

wow Trethew - that looks amazing , and very fertile looking at the grass and buttercups. Can you get help? I think Gnomes advice is good, definitely on the measuring bit , so you can draw a plan up of where everything will ( eventually) go. Maybe hiring a brush cutter would be sufficient, though the petrol ones are big, heavy and cumbersome,, they usually have a harness and do a good job at chopping it all down. I'd field walk it, pick up all the rubbish/wood ( save the wood - looks useful!) and start at the entrance and cut down enough to do one bed - maybe about 1.5 m wide, and 3m long . See what it is like - is it just grass, or is it perennial weeds like dock and thistle . The wood is under a roof, so see if you can sort a plan to gutter it to harvest rainwater .
I managed an hour today, digging up bindweed , DH came along and did a bit too - he was sorting a leak in the shed mainly though {grin] . I picked 3 onions that had gone to seed, and the first 2 ripe strawberries, so one each! I don't know what happened to all the rain on Saturday - ground was dry and rock hard ...

Thanks so much those that gave info/advice - I had some of my own rocket leaves in my salad today. Delighted!

Afternoon!
well, its as dry as dust here, no rain , and none in the forecast.
Managed to get down this afternoon to water, and plant out those determined borlotti beans that managed to sprout. DH has finished mending the shed, and is now in the process of sorting out the manure bin. We acquired a cut down garage door in steel, which is replacing the two pallets at the back of the bin, which had given way a bit when the last load of manure was tipped in.
I'm trying very hard to keep on top of bindweed, but its not happening!
I still have kale to plant out, and a few bits here and there. But everything is looking healthy at least . At home, I have my first cucumbers growing - I may be overwhelmed in a week or so, they are growing a mile a minute !

book I have now harvested 3 very lovely cucumbers! The plants are becoming absolute monsters, though - they sprawl wherever they want, don't seem to want to be tamed and are growing at an alarming rate! if one day I am never heard from again, you know they have taken over
Mind you, it is very hot and humid here so everything seems to be growing like lightening!

yep, that's cucumbers for you Hound - I have them in pots on a shelf, and they are just strangling around every other pot , and heading down - last year they straggled all over the floor. The only problem I had was the cucumbers near the open door on a couple of cold nights. I had to chuck them away as the cold had stressed them out and made them very bitter.

Ooh! lucky you Hounds or maybe I should say well done on good plant husbandry. I went to the plot to water this evening and my outdoor cucumber plants have started their march across the bed.

Thanks Elephant, I shall just nurture my little strawby plants and see what happens. I grow various veg, but there's something about strawbs that's a bit special!

Cary strawberries again for pud tonight. Bah! none left picked for my breakfast tomorrow. There is one ripe strawberry in the garden now.....I better go and pick it, before the big hungry bear finds it. And no matter how I guard it, Dd the big hungry bear will probably discover it.

Things are shooting up on the velodrome plot, including the bindweed unfortunately. I think we need to accept that we are never going to be bindweed-free - there are too many oldies on our site that just let it go wandering about. Tonight I ate our first harvest - three French radishes! We only took it over in October, and it was a midden, so it made me happy.

We have had no rain for days and days, which is unheard of for Manchester. No more is forecast until the middle of next week, and then only for an hour or so one afternoon. We are lucky in that our site has running water and a tap on each plot, otherwise it would take ages to water. I have taken to pedalling over there in my bike kit after work and having a good go with the hosepipe before riding home. At least then the traffic has died down and I run less risk of being edged into the gutter.

Our plot is having a meeting on Saturday - I have been asked to take over the secretary role as the incumbent is hitting seventy and wants to take life a bit easier. Not sure I know what I am letting myself in for, but will give it a go. I can't actually make it, but for good reason - H and I are off to the Chatsworth flower show! I am so excited. I'm even going to buy one of those collapsible boxes that show pros wheel their purchases about in 😂