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

That was in frog spawning season. Just as well we have plenty though as the two boy cats like catching them

unlike the mice, we do rescue squealing frogs and tell the cats off

I have picked redcurrants! 325g from 2 very old bushes found and moved to my fruit cage. A few blackcurrants (rest not fully ripe) and about a dozen strawbs. So pleased.

And I finally have courgettes coming! Yay. Plus two toms are very nearly ripe, from the plant I bought, so way ahead of the ones grown from seed.

Don't know if I've done the right thing, but I pulled up the beetroots and replanted at nice gaps. The sodding things came up in clumps, when I spent ages planting each seed carefully. Well watered in (in the shade at the time) so hopefully they will be ok??? Is a beetroot seed thing more than one seed? I swear I was very careful with them.

I love the courgette sentry! I always used to worry about the frogs in our garden as we had such gigantic slugs...

Beetroot seeds are clusters - you're supposed to pull out the weaker ones when they appear alongside each other (if more than one comes up).

Iirc, Swiss chard is the same (but I'm still waiting got mine to come up).

Afternoon all.

Its so bloodt hot! Had a rummage in my potatoes yesterday. Its so dry despite watering regularly. Was a spade deep and it was still dry. First earlies are well grown but with a bit of slug or wire worm damage. The 2nd earlies are still tiny but no slugs.

Courgettes are stacking up in the fridge and on the plot. Runners will be about a week before starting to pick I reckon. My butterhead lettuce isnt forming heads, just going fluffy then bolting.

My beetroot seeds haven't really done much either. Going to give them until next week then resow in the gaps.

Beetroot, French beans and a courgette today.

My courgette plants look to have the start of powdery mildew :-( Going to try and treat with a bicarb solution this evening.

And just discovered my first patty pan squash is ready - so beautiful. This one's about 3 inches in diameter.

Dug out a new bed and transplanted 10 corn in it. Our missinv tom plants had been kindly housed in next door plotters spare green house (he hadn't seen us to say - msg was related through another holder). Picked our first onion today.

Tizwoz I've had some success with James Wong's camomile and milk spray for mildew.

I'd read some stuff about milk treatment but we only have filtered milk and wasn't sure if the essential ingredient might be filtered out.

I haven't found mildew to be a problem for courgettes tbh.

Glad your toms turned up not stolen monkeys that was kind of the guy who's housing them for you.

Gave a chard plant and another bag of mange tout and snap peas to my parents.

More cucumbers today, currently 5 in the fridge, broad beans and a few raspberries. I read the posts about powdery mildew, I have some on my courgettes too and started to Google. Thanks Blue.

Hello! I'm loving reading through this thread and seeing all your pictures I posted on a thread last year under a different username and got lots of great advice.

I've got two raised beds for vegetables in the garden, about 2.5m x 1m each. They were only finished a few weeks ago so everything went in a bit late - the climbing beans are on their way, and I've also got tomato plants, beetroot, carrots and lettuce planted. The peas haven't germinated - too late and too hot and dry I think.

I've also got some other spaces around the garden so I'm planning to plant a small herb garden and some rhubarb, and maybe a fruit tree in a pot on the patio (I've already got a blueberry in a pot as well)

I'd love to grow something like raspberries or loganberries but I don't have much space - are there compact varieties I could grow in a border somehow? In the past I've always grown veg over the summer and then lost enthusiasm when it gets cold I'd like to get more use from my new beds all year round - any tips on what and how to grow over winter?

Can you try starting the peas off again on a small piece of guttering inside and then dig a trench in your bed and slide them into it?

I sowed some sugar snap peas (think about 15 or so) couple of weeks ago and only 4 came up, so I in-filled sowed earlier this week and watered well. We'll see. I'm now watering the legume bed more than I was, so hopefully that will help.

I'm a bit the same as you in that I'm a fair weather gardener. I'm hoping that the new (old) greenhouse will help maintain my enthusiasm (that and prepping for our own supplies in the even of a hard Brexit )

My gardening enthusiast friend has said that pak choi is good for going into winter. I'm also going to try sowing some leeks and winter cabbage in the greenhouse, to put into the beds over the winter.

When I first put my raised beds in, they were also only finished in the summer, so I put in autumn onion sets and winter cabbage (bought as plug plants from the garden centre), so they really romped away in the spring.

Just remembered your question about raspberries. A couple of autumn (late summer) fruiting raspberry canes might work in a large patio pot (provided you can keep them well watered). They don't spread in the same way as (early) summer fruiting raspberries. They're easy to look after as you just cut all the canes at the end of the summer and they'll fruit on the new growth the next year (unlike early summer raspberries which fruit on the previous year's canes).

Morning!
Purple - you may be better off with a loganberry , as you can train it against a wall/fence so basically vertical growing . I haven't heard of amy raspberries in truth , they are thugs, so will soon take over their space, and anything around them you let them get away with . What I am toying with is a blackberry you can grow in a hanging basket - there is now one available . You could try maincrop peas - I have done them before , something like Ambassador perhaps for a late crop before the cold weather . They are more likely to get mildew though . For overwintering maybe try chard, and garlic goes in October/November too. Leeks are in the ground quite a long time , thats the only problem. I still have some to plant for a late harvest, but in truth they should have been planted about 2 weeks ago, but the ground is too hard .
Hot one here , so went early to start picking blackcurrants. Done another 3 branches worth, well over a kilo. More courgettes , sweet peas and a few broad beans and peas to make up a melange veg dish tonight . Watering obviously .....
I have an almost orange tomato !

I have a cascading raspberry and blackberry - haven't had fruit yet from either which is a little disappointing in year 2, but it may be that they're just a bit slower growing. My Glen Coe raspberry seems quite well contained so far, and has some delicious berries. Tayberries are nice too.

Oriental greens are good for winter - I have some tsai tai and pak choi seedlings, and will put in some chop suey greens when the weather cools down a bit. Chard and leeks are going OK - you can buy bareroot leeks which can help you catch up. I'll put garlic in sometime in september.

my american giant eating pumpkin is growing up over the 6ft fence towards the neighbours.
unless I cut it I can't get it back down...
I hope the fruit sets on my side.

Harvested the last of the charlottes today as the plants were pretty much dead and I wanted the space for something else. Also took a look at some of the Desiree potatoes, some are a decent size but a bit a scabby. Had the same issue last year.

And of course another courgette and a patty pan squash.

My pumpkin is largely ignoring it's climbing frame and spreading sideways.

potatoes, can I cut back some of the foliage? it's difficult to get to the plants behind them.

blue sorry I read that wrongly at first. I pictured a giant American in your garden eating pumkin, but then I thought if he's only six foot he's not really a giant at all. It must be the sun! Dd has harvested a row of potatoes today and gathered another 4 cucumbers whilst I watered. She does get a little bit overly keen, she did the same with pulling rhubarb earlier in the year. So cucumbers will be taken to work to be given away tomorrow.

elephant I had a good :o at the giant american in my garden

I think it was an 'Eats shoots and leaves' moment!

No harvest pictures but my pumpkin Wednesday and today. Dug some potatoes, picked more mange tout and pretty much the end of the broad beans, couple of spring onions and a courgette. My plot is well behind some, their sweetcorn is massive compared to mine.

Went up the school allotment which was a bit depressing. The squash hadn’t grown at all, the tomatoes looked knackered and there’s no water left. The spuds and beans looked ok though, sunflowers about 3 inches high. It was always a bit of a trial year but will have to think carefully how we manage for next year and put some work in over autumn.