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

no rain here, or forecast for about 2 weeks .
I went and watered this morning - nearly empty tanks now, so lugging cans from the pipes. Taking up a lot of time .
The potatoes ( second early Marfona ) were looking so sad and wilted, I actually dug one up to see what was happening - its sad underneath as well- 1 medium size, lots of marbles .
Picked courgettes - about to start making courgette and cheese muffins and courgette brownies :)

We have a yellow thunderstorm warning but it's apparently going to be patchy so may miss us entirely!

We're in the thunderstorm forecast area too but no sign yet. I bet if I go and water the plot this evening we'll get rain.

Watered and weeded today. Picked a load of radishes and pulled a few carrots. Everyone said don't bother with carrots! We can now see why... Caused some entertainment for a few minutes though.

Epic carrots! I love the one with arms. I have chanteray ones up, doesn't matter if they aren't big. I tied up all the toms in the greenhouse, it was so bloody hot in there. Filled all the trays with water and will water again before bed. We had lots of salad leaves with tea. No more lettuce buying here. Need to make another bed to start more off.

Collected another 19g of alpine strawberries - together with 353g of rasps.

Had two more small radishes from under the runner bean teepee. I'm planting radishes in all sorts of wee gaps as I love them even if dh and ds don't

My cucumber is now about 10cm long - it's grown about 2cm in 24 hours! Had its "sibling" (from the plants grown by the friend who gave me this plant as a greenhouse warming present) in a salsa last night. Very thick skin so it has to be peeled and quite seedy - but still tasty.

The purple podded peas are starting to fill out - but it will be a wee while before I can harvest them. I'm going to have to sow some more sugar snap peas as only 4 have come up

The broad beans around the potato raised bed are starting to form beans. The ones in the legume bed were planted much later, so are still at the early stage of flowering. Touch wood - no sign of black fly.

There are a few flowers on the runner beans - but they're still twining their way to the top of the teepee.

Here's today's harvest, first outdoor cucumber and many on their way, Dd is very happy about this, but she was somewhat disappointed that the 'watermelons' are in fact courgettes

No rain in the north west and moorland fires still blazing on the hills above us :-(. I had a text from United Utilities earlier today asking us to be careful with water - no hosepipes, showers not baths, the usual stuff, but no outright ban yet. Really need to get to our plot as I was working all weekend, and my allotment partner was away for the weekend on a family thing. Looks like it's watering cans for the foreseeable future - at least our site has running water on tap though. Saw a site last week and one of the tenants was lifting big water containers out of his car because their butts are empty.

So sorry to hear about the fires and water situation.

We had a tiny bit of rain as I went down earlier but it won't have done much. Was put with allotment friend earlier and she was saying she had been watering nearly day.

I hadn't been down since Wednesday so was worried about what I'd find but it was ok thankfully. Picked mange tout, broad beans, courgette, radish, spinach and some flowers which is definitely best harvest since I got the plot in March.

Morning all

Courgette glut is a go go here. Sigh. Have 2 green and 1 yellow in the fridge. 2 left on growing to marrow sized as requested by friends. Going to make a tortilla thing later which apparently uses up 2. Several on the plants will be big enough today or tomorrow. Courgette and lemon cake this week. Plus medaterian veg pasta sauce. Plus probably a bolognaise for ds with courgettes. Sigh.

Have a bolting butterhead the chickens can have. Loads of set tomatoes, runner beans here and growing daily.

Going to have a rumage in my first earlies this week too. Oh and have 2 tom thumb I think they are cucumbers in the fridge.

Weeding and watering daily too. I love this time of year. Harvests and everything in full bloom and growing well. Makes the cold hard slogs of early spring worth it.

Cucumber and courgette soup is good, and freezes well Frouby. if you like soups :)
I made chocolate courgette cake last night - it uses 450 gm of courgettes which is a good thing !

I want a courgette glut! It feels wrong that it's July and I don't have a single flower on my plants yet!

I'm following a HFLC way of eating, so a chocolate and courgette cake probably isn't suitable. Unless I can adapt it with erithrytol and ground almonds (Cocoa and high percentage cocoa chocolate is ok, but sugar and flor is not).

My yellow courgettes are up to 2cm long

The green one (Defender) looks like it is going to burst into masses of flowers any day. The 2nd yellow one is lagging - but there again, it was the weakling seedling which was supposed to have been sacrificed in the "2 seeds per pot" initial sowing, but I decided it looked strong enough to plant on.

Cucumber is getting close to being harvested. There are another 4 teeny tiny ones on it which I don't think will plump up until it's gone.

Picked another 157g of rasps today. Collecting them in the fridge and hoping to get to a 1-1.5kg so that I can make jam. Then I'll collect enough to make a summer pudding (although I have the makings of one from last year in the freezer). Redcurrants still aren't reddening, but I could probably selectively pick so e blackcurrants.

Some more Charlotte potatoes, lots of peas and a few purple beans today.

Noticed a couple of fruits set on the pumpkins and the patty pan squash today so my watering efforts must be enough.

Climbing beans I direct sowed a week ago have also emerged, wasn't sure if the ground had been kept damp enough for them.

It's funny isn't it how some of us have gluts already and some are struggling. My green beans have been rubbish. Lettuce and courgettes amazing already. Loads of pumpkins already set and a few tennis ball sized. Runner beans looking really healthy and lush with some 6in beans just fattening up now. Peas nearly ready to harvest.

Even on our plot I can see a big difference in crops and we all started planting out at a similar time. My plot hasnt been worked for 4 years, 5 in some of the beds we have used this year. And all beds had a good amount of 10 year old horse manure dumped in them at least once in the last 12 months apart from a few beds at the bottom which aren't doing as well.

I will definetly be manuring every bed this November. Even the old lads on our plot keep asking what I am doing to my stuff. It's either beginners luck or the manure and the fact the ground has been so well rested that is doing it I think.

Had one of the cucumbers tonight. Was lovely and actually tasted of cucumber. Said to dh though that the supermarkets must spray them with alsorts. We only picked them on saturday and the straight i to fridge and they were already slightly floppy. Had a full 1 I bought last week that hasn't even gone slightly soft or floppy.

It's the wrapping in plastic that keeps shop bought cucumbers fresh

"a wrapped cucumber lasts more than three times as long as an unwrapped one. It will also lose just 1.5 per cent of its weight through evaporation after 14 days, compared with 3.5 per cent in just three days for an exposed cucumber."

Definitely the slugs to blame here - they devoured my first courgette plants and so I had to resow.

Evening!
those Charlotte potatoes look gorgeous tiz
well, another hour or so with DH at the plot, watering . Absolutely no sign of rain for the next week or more it seems.
Lots of sweet peas , some peas and and broad beans. The 1st lot of broad beans have been less than fruitful. I have another lot coming along, but this dry spell isn't helping .
I picked a beetroot - I was hanging on to get a couple about the same size, but all the others are a bit too small- not really sure why .
And so on to courgettes . I have given 2 away , and now have 6 in the fridge , so going to make soup tomorrow with those and the spare cucumbers, which are jus beginning to get ahead of me - ( and they are the little ones, so we eat one every day at lunch !)
Raspberries are a bit small, but delicious .
Need to sort out ready to harvest blackcurrants in the next couple of days, but the jostaberries are still a bit unripe as of yet.
Had to water in the greenhouse 3 times today. I am starting to think I may put an old cotton sheet over it during the height of the day , for a bit of shade. I just wish the tomatoes would ripen - they are laden , but all green .

My cucumber - think I'm going to pick it soon to allow the others to swell.

Also a picture of my teeny tiny yellow courgettes. My green courgette plant is full of promise but no actual courgettes yet.

Lovely pictures of harvests. I have not yet worked out how to upload photos!
Picked the last of the strawberries today, some blueberries, raspberries and blackcurrants. More courgettes picked and the first cucumber. Need to dig up some Charlotte potatoes at the weekend.

I am not able to get to the plot to water every day with work so it is doing well to survive this prolonged heatwave/no rain.

Nothing harvested today. Instead I've sown some more carrots where the charlotte potatoes were and started some more beetroot and radish elsewhere.

Also had to wipe a load of cabbage white eggs from my brussel sprouts and repair the netting to close the gap where the butterflies had got in.

I love seeing the harvests.

This is my first lot of blackcurrants: 2.3kg. And I also picked our first ever raspberries!

I can't get spinach to grow this year. Maybe it's too warm? It just keeps bolting.

Oops. Forgot the photos.

I love seeing the harvests too!

Mine are still a bit slow getting going though. I've one courgette plant producing well, and the other ones just have teeny fruits that seem not to be growing much. I think I'll pick all the teenies and see if that kick starts glutdom.

My blackcurrants are doing ok, but not as well as Kiwi with her ancestral blackcurrant knowledge. What will you make wih them? I've been stashing mine in the freezer, but I think jam is on the horizon.

My tayberries have been the highlight. I've had loads, and they are delicious. But thorny. Much nicer than loganberries, which are doing ok.

But jostaberries, I've had a couple and more are ripening. Do I pick them when they're fully dark? What do I do with them? I have waited 2 or 3 years for fruit, but Tbh, I'm not utterly convinced about the taste thus far. Maybe the ones I've tried weren't quite ripe.

But I'm over the watering. It's become a chore. We have to use cans and and a dip tank - no hoses allowed.

Hello, I am a returner. I took on my totally overgrown couch ridden plot 3 year ago. Look at her now!

Still have about one third to dig, but had to stop as the ground is so hard.

One question, I think I have wasps setting up home in my shed. What can I do?