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

1.5 degrees here last night. There was frost on our shed roof but none on the ground. I'm hoping that's the last cool night until the Autumn.

I sowed my sweetcorn and replacement cucumbers yesterday. So late, but fingers crossed. If I have an area ready, it's suash, corn and beans? If they could all share that would be ace. Emptied and harvested the 10yr old plastic 'clip together' raised beds from the front (where nothing grows) so will raise a bed and sow carrots and beets direct at the weekend.

Was very very cold last night. The largest courgette which is outside survived though, so must not have been a ground frost. The fruit bushes I rescued from around the garden and planted in my newly built fruit cage have all set tonnes of fruit! And a bonus, a currant I didn't know I had has reached through into the top of the ferret pen, and has set fruit. They won't eat them, so I wait to see what it is (please be redcurrants).

My donut peach which I have had 4 years in the greenhouse has gone into the garden. Last two years no fruit, nothing this year, so it's sink or swim outside as I need the room.

The squash corn and beans thing works best with the non-sweet types of corn as these are more robust and faster growing so grow tall quickly enough to support the beans and not get swamped by the courgettes. I'm experimenting with sweetcorn and sweet potatoes this year, and will probably put in a few beans once the corn is tall enough, more for the nitrogen than in any expectation of a crop.

I'm growing sweetcorn in a half barrel pot with dwarf french beans this year.

Frouby - have a lovely day tomorrow !
Brassica cage is finished - apart from a few finishing touches ( securing the net around the bottom )
Cedar - we do have a lot of space ( DH and I have half an allotment each butting up - in reality a full, large allotment) so we have enough room to have a lot of winter veg without compromising what I want to grow through the rest of the year , and we love brassicas. There is a fair amount of planning, but it is nice ! :)

Is it tomorrow that Frouby is getting hitched? If so, have a great Frouby and Mr Frouby and don't forget to scrub those finger nails .
I am planning to spend most of the day at the plot tomorrow. Bean wigwams to do and planting out of beans, courgettes, cucumbers and artichokes.

Seconded! Frouby - all the best for tomorrow!

I snuck a couple of hours at the plot today. Bean wigwam#1 is up and beaned. Two more courgettes have been planted out, and more mange tout peas. And I did a bit more weeding, and a bit more path. And two people told me my plot was lovely, and I met a puppy. All good

I have planted up another hanging basket with tomatoes, and more tomatoes (and more courgettes) are hardening off, soon to be planted out.

I'm hoping the cold weather is over my insomniac neighbour said he saw a frost at 5am.

Have a lovely, lovely day Mr and Mrs Frouby !

Happy wedding day Frouby

have a glorious wedding day frouby

Very best wishes for the future to Mr and Mrs Frouby

Hope you are having a wonderful day Frouby

lemon balm is also nice as infusion, as iced 'tea' or warm.

planted out the courgettes and pumpkins today and the last of the tomatos.
dh wants 'normal red' ones, so we will go to an old fashioned garden centre tomorrow.

blue An extra trip to a garden centre can only be a good thing! 😀
I have harvested my first crop of the season today - mixed lettuce leaves to have with dinner. They were delicious!

Happy wedding day to you Frouby

I had an unplanned unexpectedly long session at the plot today. My it was hot! Everything was very very dry. My water butts were drained dry last week. We are allowed to use hoses to fill water butts from the few taps on the site but we're not allowed to water the plots with a hose (this rule is quite often ignored but I'm surrounded by committee members so have to watch my step!). I'm about as far away as I could possibly be from a tap, but the site was very quiet today so I thought I'd take the opportunity to commandeer the tap for a while and fill my water butts. This became quite complicated as I had to rig up a connection between 5 different hosepipes then crawl all over my plot trying to lay the hose up the side of it and around the back of the shed. Then it took ages to fill the butts only to use half the water up again when watering the plot! On the plus side the plants all look good and seem to be coping with the very hot weather. I planted some more squash - climbing ones this time, Red Kuri, with a trellis in place for them to grow up. Also used up some of my old out of date flower seeds - scabious, aquilegia, sweet pea and dwarf sunflower. If these germinate it's a bonus but if they don't grow I haven't lost out. I also pulled up loads of bindweed, this grows so fast doesn't it?!
I think I'll have a rest day tomorrow but probably need to go back on Monday and Tuesday to get my bean wigwam set up and hopefully sow the beans by Tuesday and give everything a good water, there is no rain forecast to fall here for at least the next 10 days...

Tomatoes planted in the greenhouse today and put crown prince squashes and pumpkins in the ground at the allotment. My butternut squash and cucumbers are not looking great - one had its stem eaten, so they are not plants planted out yet. Not risked the climbing or runner beans out either but they will have to go out next weekend.

I just cannot seem to get any lettuce to germinate this year. All of one plant!!!

12hr shifts this weekend for me, half day Monday so I'll hopefully put in some time at the plot. Congrats to frouby - coworker has given me some pea seedlings that his dad had set away, so I'll need to set up some canes for those very soon.

I cannot get lettuce to germinate either this year. Sown three times, and used shiny new seeds. Will. Not. Grow.

Bailed and bought a healthy passandra cue in b&q today, and 2 outdoor tomatoes. Beans sown direct and dd3 and I almost filled the moved old plastic raised bed with soil and compost. Beets/carrots/illusive lettuce to go in there.

I have just found the cat chewing away at my sweetcorn seedlings which had been doing quite well on the windowsill...I think he thought they were cat grass! 2 seedlings are fairly shredded I had been keeping them indoors thinking they'd be better off, but I may plant them out now to save them from the cat!

Afternoon!
A hot day again.
Hounds - delicious, and you remind me to sow some - lost in all the kerfuffle
Germination has been weird this year, no doubting. I have resown french beans - same seed, second lot are up no problem, thank goodness. As there is no sign of the Borlotti beans , I have put some more in a plastic box with very damp kitchen towel on the window sill, to see if that brings any joy.
Busy morning for me - planted out first succession leeks, sprouts, calabrese and brokali . Didn't have time to do the broccoli, so will do those later in the week. Started digging out all the old perpetual spinach which has bolted . The ground is starting to dry out somewhat, so it was a bit of a tug of war, even with a good fork . Forgot to soak my next lot of peas ready to sow , so that will be later on in the week too.
Did get a fair bit done yesterday afternoon. Netted the strawberries, DH and I finished netting/sorting the brassica cage ( hence planting today :) ) and finally got posts and wire in for my tidgy little tayberry that has been struggling amongst a thug rosemary . DH managed to snap one of the main stems ....ah well, maybe next year . It was a £1 special last year , so I will just have to be patient. Going to spend a quiet half an hour sowing my basil, salad leaves , and a few sweetheart cabbages when its a bit cooler in the greenhouse .

i cant get lettuce to germinate either - seems its not just me then. and beans are looking fed up, plus beetroot is a bit iffy germination wise. its been an odd year for me on the south coast. strawberry's are looking hopeful though

Was out all day yesterday and a couple of seedlings got frazzled in the greenhouse. Nothing too important fortunately.

Hello all.

Had an amazing day yesterday. It was so beautiful and everyone seemed to have a really fantastic time.

Loved every minute, back tomorrow for a proper catch.