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

I have a feeling Una that you’re south coast as well? My greenhouse wasn’t finished until a few weeks ago which is why it’s all behind in there. However on plot I have no gooseberries and I think today’s raspberries will be pretty much it. My dwarf beans have produced but runners only just flowering.

Peas worked, carrots failed, courgette and squash pretty good. Onions okish, shallots not bad, garlic failed. As you said, interesting the differences.

This is by far my best year for pretty much everything. I'm sure that has a lot to do with me being unemployed since January though and thus having a lot more time to spend on gardening than for any other reason.

Back to work next week, but everything is pretty much established now. Only worry is the tomatoes in the greenhouse if it carries on being very sunny as it's hard work ensuring they don't dry out or overheat.

I’m getting on quite well with these in greenhouse. One of the tomatoes doesn’t have one and is noticeably smaller than the rest. Just decided to get some more as going away.

Also have them in watering a couple of large Photinia in pots and they do well with that.

The middle one been withour

Sorry, the middle one has been without a spike .

Jealous of all your space, I need a bigger greenhouse

Yes, south coast here too. Greenhouse was finished sometime in March I think. I forgot to mention I had my best year ever for garlic!

I'm South coast too (well, 25 miles inland). I haven't got any greenhouse crops this year, and agree that everything in the ground is struggling. My sweetcorn have flowered (or whatever it is they do) despite only being 12-18" high. Sunflowers similar they look healthy and about to flower but only 18" high. However my stunted courgette plants have finally set some fruit, my runner beans are just starting to form and my Cosmos is suddenly covered in buds.

I only watered tonight. Tomorrow night I really need to blitz the weeds.

no plot for me today, but need to get up and water tomorrow.
I am slightly fretting about my sweetcorn though. It looks lovely and healthy, but the male flowers are coming out, up at the top , but with not much sign of the tassels down the stem for making cobs. I am hoping all will be well, but quite a few on our site are saying the same .And a lot of stuff is just not growing away- sprouts and kale particularly, and calabrese and even chard are trying to bolt

My sweetcorn looks a bit iffy too book. As you say small but forming tassles but nothing else.

My runners are storming and french beans finally setting some beans but I only have about 15 plants. Spotted the first ripening tomato too. Have 100s set!

The seedlings I planted over the weekend are doing well, brassicas and some lettuce.

Am really hoping this second sowing of beetroot does something. First lot failed miserably.

And really desperate for some rain now. We had to evacuate the ponies last night as there was a fire on the grassland at the side of our grazing/stables. Fire brigade got it under control but it's a massive worry especially as the schools break up this week and we get teenagers lurking around the area. Most are good kids and would let us know if there was a problem but you only need 1 idiot to start a fire. Or a careless dog walker with a fag.

The fire started about half a mile down the hill and was at our treeline about 200 meters from our grazing within about 40 minutes despite the fire service being there.

Eeek that sounds scary Frouby

We've got a bit of blossom end rot on some of our tomatoes as we're finding it difficult to keep the watering consistent with the hot weather (and no shading on our greenhouse...). That watering system looks interesting Post!

I'm growing parnsips for the first time this year (in containers rather than in the ground) and had a feel about the containers last night and could feel the tops, yay! Sort of the size of a chatenay carrot at the moment! Hopefuly they make it as I've pretty much left them alone so would be an easy thing to grow in future years.

Evenng !
Frouby - hope it stays away for you, everything is tinder dry.
Cooler ( well only 24º ) and fresher today, a .bit cloudier , but still no rain
Went this afternoon to water everything .
Courgettes still going beserk , a few squashes nicely set and growing . I dug up some more sad potatoes for tonights meal. I then went to cut the sweetpeas - it took ages - I have planted far too many , and its a bit of a chore. DH picked a few loganberries, a few more hidden redcurrants and french beans. ( and the first 2 purple beans ) I had 2 cucumbers forced on me gifted too - NDN is overrun with them , so courgette and cucumber soup will be made tomorrow :)

Thank you so much for the welcomes. I received my agreement through the post today which is exciting. I am in the South West of England. I already grow courgettes, runner beans, strawberries and rhubarb at home but had run out of growing room so the allotment has come at the right time. Will have a look at the no dig method as haven't come across this before.

There is no such thing as too many sweet peas Unfortunately I sowed mine late, so they suffered with the dry and heat, so are still tiny and not flowering.

This is today's harvest: about 20 small garlics (10 more to harvest), raspberries (definitely slowing down: only about 250g over 2 days), some blackcurrants (not many left), redcurrants (loads left), purple podded peas and a few new potatoes (haven't actually lifted the shaws yet - just what I could riddle from the Arran Pilots).

The green and yellow courgettes have loads of courgettes but still too small to crop. Have evicted one of the yellow courgette plants onto the patio as they were taking over the greenhouse.

I had to pull up our sweetpeas as they bolted with the heat and I couldn't revive them....Boo!

Replaced with some petunia 'nightsky' which are really cool - they look exactly like the description! Got them in aldi if anyone interested.

Does anyone know why our squash plants might not have set fruit? They are absolute thugs rambling all over the greenhouse with lots of flowers (presumably male). I planted 2 plants next to each other. We leave the doors open almost all the time so plenty of flies/bees in there and all other plants in the greenhouse have fruited no problem....

My butternut have not set any yet - they always seem to be a bit later for me . The crown prince and autumn crown have set some . And they are all in the same (outdoor) bed. They have not got going really well yet either.
Sweet peas- I do love them too , but what with the time I need to spend on watering everything , and picking them, the plot is looking rather less than tidy :)

Ah well Book...maybe I need some more patience! But if nothing happens this year that is it! No more squash!

My squash have only just started producing female flowers - last week there were only male ones, but this week some females ones have finally appeared. I think I was being impatient. They really got going about a week or so ago.

Welcome to the thread Cheekybiscuit. We took on our plot at this time of year and mostly covered it up and just dug out the worst offenders - there were a lot of perennial weeds as the plot hadn't been cultivated for a few years beforehand. Then I really attacked it in the autumn. We did have quite a dry autumn that year and I did have to water the ground to get the fork in - the joys of gardening on clay!

Our runners are just getting started. They've been attacked by black fly quite a bit which is annoying. I've spotted some ladybirds on them so I'm hopeful that they'll help to restore the balance.

When do the heads start appearing on broccoli? Mine are growing well, lots of leaves but nothing that looks like the start of a broccoli head.

We had petunia nightsky last year. I saved the seed and grew some from scratch this year. All the flowers are pink or purple

My tomato plants have little green tomatoes all over them. Hooray! I doubt any will be ready by the time we go to NZ next week but hopefully they'll still be producing when we're back. A friend is going to come every now and then to water the garden and eat the produce!

lol @ Liz - I won't bother trying that then!!!

Cedar I spied a head on one of our brocoli plants the other day (about size of a golf ball). Others yet to develop a head. So I'd say imminently! But I guess it depends on teh variety.I can't remember what variety name we planted this year...

Evening!
lovely warm day, not so humid at east.
Grouchy - yay to tomatoes, but maybe a bit sad leaving them behind , but enjoy your trip !
Cedar - blackfly on a couple of my runners too - I think they just moved from the broad beans ( which I grubbed up) . I have sprayed with dilute washing up liquid, and at least it seems to have got rid of a lot . Calabrese ( broccoli heads ) started about a week or so ago, depending on variety. I have picked a couple of small ones, but theya re trying hard to bolt.
I went to water tonight - a really quick trip , and noticed 2 tiny cauliflower heads trying to bolt too . And yet another 2 courgettes .. ( pic shows my dead lovely grass there)
I also watered in the greenhouse , please start to ripen tomatoes !!! But my aubergines - I may have a look at picking one tomorrow. It is full of them looking very edible !

Well tomato salad is not on the menu for the end of term bash but cucumber and dill is. Two cherry tomatoes will be ready to pick tomorrow from the garden and a couple of massive ones on the plot will ripen over the weekend. Also on the menu is wine berry pavlova.

Aubergines look great bookbook I think mine was sown too late, it's not even a foot high.

My nasturtiums are doing a great job of being sacrificial plants, covered in black fly and caterpillars but beans alongside are fine.

Still picking courgettes, patty pan and a few blackberries. I've a couple of courgettes that I've missed and are on the way to marrows.

Lots of chillis set now, pleased about that as last year we had a grand total of 2 from multiple plants. Tomatoes still stubbornly green.

@tizwozliz - my nasturtium doing the exact same job.