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

Glorious isn't it!!!!!

We had some spectacular thunderstorms last night but was a bit disappointed not to see the lunar eclipse & mars

Rain on and off all day, water butts all full Nearly lost the greenhouse in the wind though!

First radish today, blackberries, some slightly scabby Desiree potatoes (will be fine once peeled) and of course a courgette.

Have woken up and lying here listening to the rain, lovely! Away later today and was planning to go this morning and water and now I don’t have to, result!

Friend has taken some spinach, cucumbers, courgettes and runners off my hands, some of which were th3 surplus from another friend’s allotment. DD isn’t coming and can work her way through what’s still in the fridge which is a fair bit. She said she really impressed with it which was nice.

Shallots drying in greenhouse, been pretty successful unlike the onions and garlic.

Lying listening to the rain too, it was lovely to go to the plot yesterday and not have to water.

Post - other way round here, my onions are faring better than my shallots, the onions were from sets, the shallots from seed, they never really got going after planting out, so hot.

Harvested my first runners yesterday, did lots of weeding and had to stake a couple of sweetcorn which had blown over. Sunflowers are starting to flower despite only being about 2' tall.

Yay, I finally have both courgettes and rain, both things I feel I have been waiting for ages to see! I took two watering cans off the overflowing water butt to do the greenhouse plants and by the time I'd done that and a few other tasks it was overflowing again.

In my imagination I can hear all the plants slurping as they suck up all the water! Or maybe that's just the cracks in the ground...

Morning
and its raining again here too - what a lovely sound . ( and my shoulder and elbow sighing in relief! )
I actually went late yesterday to pick everything and make sure all was okay - quite a few people on our site lost glass from the greenhouses due to the weather. But mine was all okay , thank goodness .
Popped this morning in the rain, as I realised I hadn't checked the water butt at the far end to make sure the tap was closed. It was ( of course!) but a lovely sight of the butt filling up . Its just gone past the 300L mark on the side.
So lots of green and purple beans , a couple of lettuce and the inevitable courgettes . Plus loganberries and a couple of tiny Victoria plums which had fallen in the wind ,

My best sweet corn plant collapsed in the wind yesterday, I've propped it up again but not sure if it will survive. My tomatoes finally have some colour though

This was my harvest from the weekend

Not sure what to do with the redcurrants - still loads on the bush and I've already made 12.5 of beautifully clear, ruby coloured redcurrant and Cape Vintage (South African port) jelly.

I've moved the green courgette plant out onto the patio beside one of the yellow ones (which was the weaker/smaller one but is now romping away ) to givesome more space in the greenhouse for the tomatoes.

Lots of lovely rain over the weekend.

@prettybird - red currant jelly for Christmas presents as well as what you have already?

Already got a list of people who will be getting it in hampers, along with the plum jam and plum gin (We usually only go through about one jar a year ourselves )

I'm also going to make some redcurrant gin! [santa]

I've seen recipes for peach and red currant jelly etc. Maybe use it to pad out other stuff that you have a bit less of and want to preserve.
It's no comfort but my dh gave me a momentary "is that it?" look when I showed him what red currant jelly Bellini Acres had produced.

I've also been given some redcurrant muffins by my neighbour (made from redcurrants I'd given her) which were delicious. She's also given me a recipe for a blackcurrant cake which she thinks can be adapted.

I wonder if a redcurrant and courgette cake would work

Welcome torrent of rain here today. Collected up a small bunch of runner beans, peas, a courgette that was mushrooming into a marrow, sungolds, a chilli, and plucked a little gem for a lovely salad.

Does anyone use weed killer on their plot?

Evening!
love - I don't , but some do . I'm a digger out sort personally
tiz - argh - always the way - hope the sweetcorn survives
pretty - I have a lot some still in my freezer. They work very well in jam as a bit of a bulker -outer IYSWIM - a good setter, but no overwhelming flavour. So I mix almost anything in the currant/berry line so blackberries/raspberries/blackcurrants etc . So in 2lb of fruit, I will use about 6-8 oz of redcurrants .During winter , I chuck a frozen mix in a pan for a bit of compote , always with redcurrants somewhere ...
I had DGS with me tonight, dashing in to pick beans and courgettes. He basically sat on the soil and watched me ....Just missed a very heavy, short sharp shower , so I suspect a lot of weeding is going to be necessary later in the week.

I would like to be a digger however currently have tendonitis so can't dig & hubby out of action feeling like I might just give the allotment back first year has been a total flop & all I have for my hard work is some potatoes & courgettes

I try not to use weedkiller but I have got a roundup gel dabber that I occasionally use on stubborn dandelions. I don't dig as such, but loosen the soil with a fork then dig all the weeds out with a handfork while sitting/kneeling. I'm lucky in that I live close to my plot and can go up there often, so I do short bursts and it doesn't get too tedious/hard. There is at least one point every year when I want to hand it back (usually late May when I'm behind with planting out and the weeds are running riot) then I hit a sweet spot and remember how good it can be.

We’re not allowed to use weed killer, though the site manager does on some of the plots that got out of hand.

Sorry to hear you’re struggling lovemyboys. This year has been very difficult with the weather and I wouldn’t make any decisions based on it. Are you allowed to cover up the ground? If so I’d cover a fair bit for now . Then on another section see if you can recruit a couple of people for a few hours if you can, chuck cardboard down, water well
then cover with mix of compost and top soil. Hopefully there are still some leek plants in garden centre, put some of those in so you have something for the winter .

Then start a couple of lasagna beds for next year, gradually building up the layers. The bit doing the best in my allotment I took over in March is my pumpkin patch. It was the grassy section and I ran out of time and energy. Wasn’t allowed to use cardboard which made it harder work but flipped the turf so grass side down, got a load of horse manure free from Gumtree which was much ti fresh really but only thing available, then topped with compost. My pumpkin loves it and I had a nearly orange pumpkin when I left last week.

My plot gets very waterlogged over winter so I’m going upwards and have set up a series of beds that aren’t walked on. They aren’t edged, just piled up for now as wanted to see how it worked and have flexibility to change.

Sometimes I think there is a place for weed killer though and if it is going to be the difference between you having a shot at another year or giving it I’d use it. Have you any pictures of your plot you’d be happy to share?

I have done lasagna beds,I only got my plot late last year.
Weeds have come through in places in the beds and I struggled to have enough soil to fill them :( once i've dug my potatoes I will put aload more horse manure in and cover them up until the spring.

I have strimmed the whole plot more than once but its just riot with crouch grass.

Not much help at the moment but once the soil is properly soaked again, you can get rid of a lot of couch grass just through a concentrated "pulling it out roots and all".

Although I don't have an allotment, I had one corner of my garden and a bank which had a mares/horse trail infestation (which doesn't respond well to weed killer) . It's taken about 10 years but I've now almost got rid of it, just be pulling any bits out as soon as they appear (and destroying them/putting them into the general waste bin rather than the garden waste bin). There are now only a few tiny bits that appear - although it does seem to have a Doctor Who style "perception filter" which means that a couple of them will get quite tall before I see them

Yes can see that getting enough stuff to put on is a problem. That sounds like a plan after the spuds. I’m chucking veg waste in mine at home and in winter will stick bags of leaves on and going to see if I can scrounge some old chicken bedding .

Another thought, if it’s feeling a bit much is there anyone you could share with maybe? They are really hard work at the start but once they gradually get set up much easier as once on top of it , Inuit getting there can be a bit shit. Or have you got a group of friends you could press gang into helping for a session in return for feeding or something to help you on a small bit?

One of my plot neighbour’s had her first ever plot last year and was saying it was a total roller coaster of emotions but definitely finding year 2 better.

Blackberries really ripening up fast now, 500g today to start on my freezer stash.

The sweet corn seems to have recovered luckily and I'm enjoying only having the greenhouse to water.

The courgettes have slowed down a bit, first one of the week and I think it'll be at least the weekend before there's another!

Evening
no plot today as was full on babysitting
love - ooh, that sounds so hard, and rather dispiriting, but if you can grit your teeth, I would try to keep going. It definitely gets easier in following years. I would suggest covering - either cardboard if allowed, or some cheap weed membrane . You will find the couch will be much easier to get out next year when you peel it back . You can plant through weed membrane too - pumpkins/squashes , strawberries , fruit bushes - they all will do well if you can plant them through a hole in the weed membrane, until such time you can do more of a job weeding.
tiz - I am so jealous of those blackberries - they look amazing.!

Blackberries are by far our best value crop - expensive to buy but require next to no time and effort to cultivate!