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

Redcurrants picked today, only a handful really but still ridiculously pleased as it's 5 years since we planted it and this is the first year we've had anything at all.

Everything else coming along nicely, I think by the end of the weekend we will have courgettes, beans and peas to pick.

I've had to build a climbing frame for my pumpkin in a desperate effort to confine it to the 2x2m bed it's in.

Desperate for some rain though. I'm watering every night at the moment but the ground could really do with a proper soaking.

something sat on one of the courgette plants. hmpf. I assume it's neighbours fighting cats...

My courgettes and squash as still teeny tiny. The largest leaf is about the size of my hand. They are in a bed with lots of manure, good garden soil and compost mixed. What can I do to give them a boost?

We had mange tout and snap peas last night, enough for a veg side for 4 of us! So pleased. I also have a few sweet peas out.

My life has changed dramatically this week, going from a 16 year sahp to full time work. This will have a drastic effect on the amount of gardening I can do, but is obviously a huge bonus for us.

Afternoon!
Cedar - my peas are not doing so well either - they did germinate fine, but I don't think this dry spell is helping at all - the pods are looking very 'unfilled' and flat , even though I am watering as much as I can . Will see how they get on .
tiz - yay - once redcurrants start, you will be inundated in a couple of years, no doubt . ( I am bartering some of mine, as I still have a freezer full from the last couple of years!)
Lonely - maybe a foliar feed to give them a bit of a boost? Full time job + veg growing is hard, but I think yours is at least at home, so you can pop out when you have 5 minutes hopefully ( not that it is easy when you have been at work all day ) Hope the job goes well!
Lovely here, not quite as warm as yesterday. Spent all morning at the plot , watering , digging up bindweed and picking strawberries . Another couple of courgettes - a bit small, but they are getting going - lots are setting .
I bought an icecream maker last year ( one of those that you put the container in the freezer first , but an electric churning thing ) and have 'The Perfect Scoop' recipe book as recommended by Spotted , and all the family for a meal tomorrow. So I am going to try making strawberry icecream today Wish me luck !

1kg of blackcurrants :) First tomato has turned yellow and I have 2 nice cucumbers. 1 pumpkin and 1 courgette plant have been eaten to stumps but the others seem to be surviving and my bean plants seem to be trying to make up for lost time! Sadly the strawberries are over but the raspberries are starting and the blackberries won't be far behind.

Afternoon all.

Much excitement here this morning as we had 2 eggs laid by our girls!

Courgettes are ready, butterhead lettuce ready and me and ds snaffled a couple of rasperries that were ripe on the new canes.

My peas look a bit rubbish too. Lots of pods but still very flat. Was hoping to harvest soon so I could re sow another lot by the end of june. Am going to really water them this week in the hope of speeding things along.

Just bagged myself a free dalek composter and a large water butt from my lovely ndn. They were taking dalek to tip so I shoved it in back of my pickup. Then she mentioned she would like to get rid of the water butt so I have said I will take that too. Just need to get a cap to make sure her guttering doesn't leak. It's full at the moment so my dh going to use it to water our pots at home as ours is empty anyway.

Will fill it at the allotment with a hose from the tap but down the bottom of the plot as it's a bit of a trek up and down.

Dh built me another bed for climbing green beans. Am going to set them off at home in the greenhouse I think.

my peas look ok, but not enough quantity for a meal.
we like them as a snack though.
am amazed by the tom flowers on green zebra (the only flower so far)

My peas are looking rubbish. I swore I wouldn't do them this year but I saw two trays of seedlings at a carboot............I harvested my first radishes today and wow they are peppery. Blackcurrants to pick tomorrow, not many as it is only the second year for the bush, but enough to have over icecream. It will be the blackberry icecream I made last year. I'm trying very hard to clear out the freezer to make way for the new gluts.

just back in after watering the garden.
used dc's bathwater, so was able to give everything a good soak without worrying about the watermeter. even the lawn.
everything is so so dry.

Fancy flower on your tomatoes bluerunningshoes.
I'm currently lurking in the house to keep out of the heat. DH popped over the plot this morning to harvest our garlic which is not bad. Some of the bulbs are a good size.

I've made a summer pudding with rhubarb, strawberries, red currants and black currants all from the plot and loganberries from the back garden. We shall be going over in a bit to water everything.

I use blood, fish and bone meal as a top dressing for my squashes and pumpkins. Scattter some of it near the roots and water in. I'm hoping it helps them. They have taken a few weeks to perk up after transferring into the ground. Monty Don on GW said you should use some soil from the garden proper rather than just sterile compost in pots to stop the plants suffering too much shock when they are trasferred but that's not very practical for me.

8 out of our 12 tomato plants have 'disappeared'... we really can't decide if other plot holders have taken pity on us since poly-gate, and rehoused them in their tunnels. Or if someone's been frankly desperate enough to scale the fencing and steal our £2 vines? 😮 it's frankly a bit of a mystery?! Especially as tools were exposed and the value is way more. Weird! - ended up doing extra hours at work this weekend to provide holiday cover, but day off tomorrow so will be spending some time at the plot.

Afternoon !
well, I'm glad that its not just my peas that are rubbish - though signs today of plumping out a bit .
Una - lovely blackcurrants. My main one is still a week off ripening at a guess .
Frouby - chickens have settled in well then :)
Flying - I would definitely ask around , they may be being helpful, but not seen you to let you know - fingers crossed .
Cedar - I'm with you at lurking out of the sun, but its so hard when there are things to be done.
Absolutely scorching here today. I picked our first decent amount of raspberries yesterday .
DH and I went this morning. I picked the rest of the redcurrants, strawberries ( just taken the net off them - the birds can have the rest - not only sick of picking them, but eating them as well ! ) sweet peas , harvested courgettes - plenty set too , and a few broad beans . DH manfully again watered just about everything. Hoping to go back late afternoon as I really must get cabbages and lettuces planted out, as well as leeks . Hoping that dousing them in late afternoon will give them a chance to settle in, but will have to water every time I go up I suspect . Its not something I normally do , but we don't seem to have any rain forecast for a week or more. Its just baking to dust.

I’m hiding inside at the moment as a tad hot. Can’t face the idea of going to the plot , pumping water and narrowing it some distance so they’ll have to make do - I hope..

Having a go at growing things with the kids for the first time. My late husband did all that. The rhubarb has gone completely crazy!! 23kg bags chopped and washed and in the freezer. I’ll be sharing with all my friends and neighbours!

The carrot and cauliflower seeds did nothing and raspberries not looking great after years of getting loads, but dwarf French beans, sweetcorn, peas and my son’s pumpkin from Cubs are all doing well.

So many bags!!

Wow, that's a lot of rhubarb.

First courgette harvested and eaten as veggie kebab on the bbq yesterday. Quite a few more set as well so hopefully I'll get my glut.

Also just enough strawberries for strawberries and cream for dessert. Plenty more still to ripen and first raspberries just about ready too.

Going to mow the lawn later and use clippings as mulch to try and keep the moisture in the soil a bit more. I've been watering fairly frequently but soil still really dusty.

Blimey, booky #plotgoals

My (beloved) blackcurrants are ripening in dribs and drabs. I have about 750g picked thus far, frozen and stashed away. And some more that I have eaten as I pick. I love blackcurrants so much that I can't bear to see the branches broken off. So I root them to make more plants. 6 so far this year...

My home tayberries have gone mad however, and I am getting so many. I'm in berry heaven. So are my blackbirds.

research have you a special freezer for your harvests?!

Monkeys what an odd and horrid thing to happen. Surely even the nicest of plotters wouldn't dig up a plant? Unless they were in pots, in which case maybe. But also easier to steal. I hope they're safe and well and growing somewhere for you.

So (prepares for a moan).

There is this bloke at the allotment. He is awful. Letchy and mansplainy but recently has taken to telling other people that 'I'm not very friendly' and 'not very nice' to him. Hmm. We now pointedly ignore each other, and this is a very positive thing IMHO.

But at the weekend I was there, pottering about quietly. And he was there - bare chested and pink and fat, like a cross between Bungle and George. Radio on, bbq on... Yes, he's that guy.

And then he strapped on his backpack sprayer and sprayed 3 other allotments. Ones that were not his. It was genuinely like he was pissing all over his territory. Weedkiller I assume. I told him to stop, he ignored me then told me to fuck off. I filmed him. He roared a bit. I did too. I've called the allotment person but not yet heard back.

I'm still furious.

Unbelievable Zebra. He was actually spraying other people's plots? I'm just waiting for to cool down a bit before I go and water. If this weather continues I wonder if we will be in for a hosepipe ban in August.

Loving all the harvests. We have strawberries going ok and a few peas but nothing I’d take a photo of! I popped in to ask the cucumber flower question as I’ve got 4 which I thought were all from the same packet , two of which are only female flowers and covered in mini cucumbers and the other 2 only making male flowers and no fruit at all. I’ve been pulling off the male flowers but I’m worried I’ve some how planted two varieties and should be leaving them on. Essentially I don’t really know what I’m doing with them

And I’ve just read outrageous pink sprayer man post and feel glad I only have my own ineptitude to worry about. That’s properly odd behaviour

That is properly out of order! Are the plots he is spraying cultivated as well? I would go all kinds of apeshit if anyone went on mine to even spray the odd weed.

The majority of our fellow plotmenters are lovely. They have all said nice things to us, asked about our chickens and admired them and ds has been made a fuss of and gifted all kinds of little tools that have been left by their children or grandchildren.

But there is one angry looking miserable bugger. He will occasionally speak to DH but never me. He is self appointed gate master and is forever locking the gate on folks even if he can clearly see you unloading the car. He locked dh out the other week when he went to the car to get something out. If he had been there alone and left his keys on the plot he would have had to wait until someone else turned up and let him in.

Had an hour today with a sicky ds. Did the chooks who were very hot and bothered. Have had 2 eggs a day now since Saturday!

Then we watered everything, renetted my psb, resowed the failed french climbing beans, picked a courgette and scoffed a couple of rasperries each. Was too hot to do anything else.

My lovely ndn is having a war with a mole. I shouldn't laugh but it's very funny listening to him rage about it. He has some sonar things that he says has made it worse. Have suggested he pee down the molehills in an effort to deter them. He said his prostrate is buggered and he would be stood dribbling into the hill for an hour to even dampen it down. 😂😂. He is seventy odd and a bit of a character. Ds loves him.

Had the first picked broad beans with tonight's dinner. Amazingly they didn't taste of fairy liquid! Amazing because they've been sprayed with diluted copious amounts of it for weeks.

Can we all do a collective rain dance? I love this weather but I can't keep up with watering, and the big butt (not mine!) is dry...

Lovely photos as always.

Aw Frouby, if only my dear departed ginger tom was still around. He loved a good mole hill to stalk and intimidate. He would spend hours, still as a statue watching ours. Then he would pounce, in the dead of night. And the rest, as they say, is history ...

Evening !
Spotted - hope you got that pink bare chested one back in his box. What goes through their heads ( not sure I want to know actually!)
I'm incredibly lucky that all the plotters around me are lovely .( apart from the odd grumpy old man :) )
research - thats a lot of rhubarb!
Cath - I have no idea on cucumbers , I've not had much experience, but courgettes often produce male flowers when under stress and squashes tend to produce male flowers when early into flower , maybe one of those reasons ?
Well, I popped back to the plot late afternoon yesterday and planted out swede, lettuce , cabbages and some back up insurance leeks in the holes that didn't take from last planting ( probably due to being too dry) .
So today , it was really just watering everything , but picked a few more raspberries and some courgettes . Just too hot for me , and the water tanks are rapidly emptying .
I have some germinated savoys to prick out tomorrow , and need to sow some more cauliflowers - not many germinated on the last sowing, just too hot for them I think .