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

Very hot here too. I melted on the plot earlier and even ds was grumpy.

We had 6!!!! eggs today. Hopefully will continue like that now. So that is all the girls laying I think. Omelettes and quiche and frittatas all round 😁.

Courgettes are appearing on a daily basis. Sigh. 2 in the fridge already. And so it begins. I feel Mediterranean veg pasta sauce coming on. And courgette and lemon drizzle cake. And frittata with courgette in it. And in spag bol and as DH says courgettes in bleeding everything.

I miss them when it's over though. And refuse to buy them as I have so many over summer. The yellow ones are slow to come though. Been baby ones on for longer than the green ones and had 3 good sized green ones already.

I chucked a packet of kale seeds in my empty bed this afternoon. Forgot I had it, and the bed is vile. Full of glass and rocks and it looks like potato roots. It's one of the new ones we have just opened up this week. I was going to do more french climbing beans but think the bed is too rough and needs a lot of sifting out first and it's just too bloody hot. So thought set the kale off and then put them somewhere else and tackle the bed at a later date. It might end up as a brassica bed for overwintering if I get that organised.

Have been watering every day. It's so bloody hot.

Frouby - :) a 2 courgette back log here too - they are going into a risotto tomorrow, after having some saute'd with broad beans for tea tonight, and added to soup the day before :) . I do put a lot in tomato sauces for pasta, but the tomatoes haven't got going yet :)

Greenhouse stuff is doing very well - DS ate our first tomato at the weekend, I picked a delicious cucumber tonight (they do taste so different!) and the peppers are swelling nicely. Outside not so good, seem to have finally got plants growing to replace the slugged ones but they are still a long way behind.

Peas are finally fattening up, taking much longer than expected.

First tiny tomato formed on one of my plants, the rest are still flowering, miles off having any tomatoes to eat.

I think my brussels have cabbage whitefly, giving them a good dousing every night to try and stave them off.

I've also set off some rocket and lambs lettuce under my pumpkin climbing frame.

Can I join in?

My purple podded peas (grown from seeds collected from last year, after I got and grew some seeds from the Heritage Library at Gardening Scotland) are now forming purple pods!

I've had my first serving of kale from the brassica bed but generally we're much further behind than you lot seem to be (I'm in Glasgow). A short row of radishes under the runner bean teepee is just about ready.

We've just put up an old greenhouse (used to belong to dh's dad) and I've populated it with cordon tomatoes and a cucumber (from a friend), two hanging bush tomatoes (one red cherry and one pear drop yellow) and three young courgette plants (2 yellow, one green) - planted about 6 weeks ago - unfortunately I forgot to log the date).

Picked the first 4 raspberries yesterday but it'll be a few days before I can begin harvesting properly. Had to sacrifice quite a few raspberry canes to put in the greenhouse (transplanted them further down but obviously lost this year's crop)

Fantastic redcurrant and blackcurrant harvests expected - will need to try using nets to stop the many pigeons (although our 2 young Siamese boy cats are turning into being good birders )

Also have an old Victoria plum tree which is groaning under the harvest. It's a weird tree as it crops well every year (In 19 years, it's only ever "not" cropped one year! ) I really need to do some more pruning on it - but I realise I'm leaving it late.

I have 6 raised beds (South facing garden but North facing slope): 4 on a standard rotation, one a cutting flower bed (including in the rotation) and one an asparagus bed (which if let get overgrown so I dug it out and depopulated it with new crowns this year).

The greenhouse is to the left of the patio, just out of shot.

Hi Prettybird - I dip in and out of the thread and it's a very helpful, welcoming place. I'm behind with everything despite living in SE England because I abandon my plot every October when the evenings get dark until about March when they start getting light again and then have so much weed clearing that I end up planting out late. Also I'm in a late frost pocket so it is a good idea to plant out quite late anyway.

I am not getting much done at the moment because every time I go up to the site there are lots of other people to chat to. I have had a great crop of strawberries, a reasonable crop of redcurrants despite losing an awful lot of green ones to torrential rain about a month ago and raspberries are just starting. No courgettes or beans yet.

Sadly, we have had a bereavement in the family in the last week (DMIL) so gardening is taking a bit of a back seat at the moment. She was a keen gardener and I used to love talking about it with her . I am having to water a lot though, it's scorching here.

Morning !
welcome prettybird :) - that looks an impressive set up - quite jealous that its your garden - much easier to pop out to do a bit ! Definitely net the red and black currants - they will be gone in a flash otherwise. You can use old net curtains if the look doesn't offend, and is pretty effective. I suspect you will be about 10-14 days behind on most, but you have kale ready ? - mine is no where near as its one of my winter stalwarts :) . I know Monty rates the purple Blauschokker peas - I may have to try them.( I do love my purple French beans - a lovely flavour )
I need to get my jostaberry at home covered today - they are just turning colour ( I covered the monster at the plot a few days ago,)
Just watering and courgette picking today - ground is too hard now for anything to do with breaking any ground .
And yes - we maybe need to arrange a collective rain dance

x post WhoKnows - so sorry to hear about your DMIL , it hits hard

How much of the rhubarb can actually be harvested? Wondering whether I'm being too cautious with mine? I'm leaving a fair amount on (second year plants).

To be fair, I bought all the brassicas the kale as plug plants from Dobbies

I've just picked the bottom leaves - hoping to keep them going that way (have never grown kale before). I also have brussels, Savoy cabbage and romanesco cauliflower.

Chicken wire is to protect the beetroot seedlings and the "bright salad leaves mix" that is coming up from the cats who make a bee-line for bare earth

cloud - I would be cautious as they are only 2 years old, let the crowns build up and gradually pick more each year. Mine are thugs, but I let them be after the middle of June to build up for next year.
pretty - ah , I leave my kale to get a bit bigger, then pick the smaller tender leaves nearer the top, and leave the tough leaves to feed the plant. Be ready for white cabbage butterflies- they can make a right mess , and then the pigeons . Everything likes brassicas . Both sprouts and kale get quite tall, so you may need some sort of structure to net them - you don't want the net touching the plants - the pests can get to them otherwise

The raspberry canes had always been ok without being netted as I don't tie them into anything (although that makes picking them quite a back hurting physical exercise) but the big fat pigeons (who can't land on the canes) have got wise to this and seem to be learning how to feed on the wing

We do have some old raspberry nets somewhere that belonged to a friend that I'll need to find to throw over the redcurrants and blackcurrants.

My romanesco was enormous (tallest about 4 foot high) and has been decimated by caterpillars (luckily after I'd harvested most of the heads). I think mine were planted a little too closely together since the outside plants produce massive heads but the inside plants with less space only produced mid sized heads.

It also cross pollinated with the other brassicas and so whilst my very early heads had the lovely bright green geometric heads, the later ones looked a bit ugly.

We've now discovered that the DC are not so keen and so I won't bother with them again. Back to bog standard broccoli for us. I'm using it in 'cauliflower' cheese though

Has anybody grown mooli?

I've just ordered some seeds and wondered if anyone has had any success?

I've grown mooli ( daikon), here in Melbourne, where it can be grown all year round. What I have found is it often develops black rings inside which means it gets chopped up and put in the wormery. Never seen an explanation of this. The leaves are very nice stir-fried. Grow in loos soils with full sun.

@echt thanks! I wonder if it is a similar thing I have seen in carrots somewhere? Where they almost have a sort of inner layer.....

I shall give them a go anyway!

We don't force our rhubarb so I find as long as the plants are reasonably robust and I leave lots of leaves on, it's OK to keep picking until it dies back in the autumn. I did this with first year plants last year because they were doing so well and they're doing even better this year.

I've tried mooli but they didn't seem happy for some reason.

Welcome prettybird, I am growing purple mangetout (shiraz) and beans (blauhilde) this year - I did the beans last year and it definitely made picking easier!

We have patches of cracked earth in the lawn and our poor birch tree is looking a bit sad. It's in its second year so I was hoping it would be Ok but it was bought as a mature tree (10-12cm girth) and obviously hasn't developed the roots it needs yet. Excuse me, I need to do some watering...

Afternoon!
another scorcher, but at least it was a bit overcast this morning.
pretty - I don't net raspberries either , though the blackbirds do have quite good attempts at eating anything within beak distance :)
NotMary - welcome! - not grown mooli myself , I know a couple of plots away did a couple of years ago, grew some quite nice ones in raised beds. I wonder if the black rings are similar to the black under the skin on potatoes when they have been stored too cold , so maybe a sign of stress of one form or another.
Once again, just a trip to water today, but obviously cutting courgettes and sweet peas . Picked the few raspberries - these new raspberry canes have loads of tiny fruit to ripen - not nearly enough water , and as they are only a year old, they haven't got themselves really established yet, but the ones at home are just coming in to ripen , so I will have enough hopefully.

The broad beans are a bit of a disappointment this year , again too dry I think. Just enough picking to add to something else , and I'm battling with the blackfly too .
Otherwise, all looking good, even the stuff that only got planted the other day - they seem to have settled. I should have beetroot ready soon , looking forward to those, I love beetroot .

Any tips for judging when beetroot is ready bookbook ? This is the first year I've grown it

Just enough to supplement dinner with.

Tomorrow's task is to get the Brussel sprouts caged/protected. Not much cabbage butterfly activity but just caught a pigeon feasting on them.

tiz - its a bit hit and miss, and I am always impatient :) . The leaves get big and wider ( they look like smallish chard leaves) , and the root top shows out of the soil . I check by scraping around the root top, its fairly easy to see if they have swelled I usually pick them about 2"-3" big - they can can grow very big, but go a bit woody and hard . Don't forget the leaves ( particular;y the smaller ones) make good salad leaves

x post - they look ace ! - well ahead of mine

Despite all the beans being planted and then transplanted at the same time, there's a real range in how far along they are.

Just watched in wonder as I cooked them and they turned green - amazing!

Just had a message from Severn Trent though advising that water demand is outstripping the pace at which they can treat it and asking not to use hosepipes and sprinklers. I've not got much water left in the water butts.

Thanks @bookbook