Allotment?Veg Patch Thread 13! Are we weathering the weather?

[bookbook]

well, we have got to August , had heatwaves and thunderstorms. Goodness knows what happens next!
All welcome to join in sharing the highs and lows , tips and experiences of growing your own :)
Previous thread HERE

Things ripening up nicely here. My climbing beans planted late are just starting to flower and my dwarf purple beans are flowering again.

One of my pumpkins has rotted :-( Not sure why, it's not sat on the ground.

My greenhouse is packed, too full really, I'm sure everything would do better with a bit more airflow.

Morning.

Name changer here, having participated in growing threads before.

Not gonna lie, it has been a rubbish year.

We've had major struggles with bindweed at the allotment, we are on a no topsoil plot so have spent 10 years adding organic matter of every description and it has beaten us. We had just moved a greenhouse up there in April as well...so we were going to just see out this season and give it up.

After some wrestling with options, including putting a tiny polytunnel in at home, and coming back to an allotment -hopefully one with actual soil on it- when we retire I sat back and had a think.

What would I have done if this was one of the school gardens that I used to work on?

I would have completely levelled it, and covered with weed fabric, and grown in raised beds.

So that is what we are doing.

The weed fabric is here, and I have bought 30 odd pallet collars off eBay, which I will fill with bought topsoil and, because all the clay currently has loads of wood chip over it, that will rot down, the weeds will eventually die off and in about 10 more years we can maybe have some decent soil under there. If not we can just carry on into he raised beds.

Sometimes you just got to accept that you have to do things in ways that you don't want to do things.

I will need tons more water butts though, for all the watering.

This season as all my tomatoes died off when we were away in April, I bought some tomato plants. We've been cropping off those for a few weeks now, and the ones I showed when we got back are just on the turn. Sometimes you just have to buy plants in! There is no shame in not growing everything from seed.

Some succeses.

My yard long beans are just starting to get taller than 6 inches high, and to flower and start to actually climb! Pics to follow.

My agretti/salsola is also about 6 inches high and we are cropping it in salads...previously I could not get the seed to even germinate.

Both the above I bought the seeds from a seller outside Florence train station as we left the city. The long red Florence onions I also bought have not got bigger than a spring onion though so better luck next year, I did show them too late though so no surprises there.

Yesterday's harvest: plums, potatoes, runner beans, a couple of courgettes and flowers. The plums are only just ripening enough to pick - there is going to be a humungous harvest (have already bought the gin )

Sounds like you have a plan Incredibly - hope it bears fruit. My main veg beds are in raised beds, mainly because although our back garden is South facing, the slope itself is North facing. It does mean that they warm up nicely - but can mean extra watering which I didn't always do

Pulled my onions today, been a very poor year for them after a promising start but better than nothing.

Tomatoes, squash and blackberries picked too. Plenty more to pick too.

Hello all

I fell off this thread a few weeks ago. Been so busy with ponies and dcs and the school holidays and the allotment.

I hope you have a good show book. we have a big town show in september and I am tempted to look at entering something.

The weather is still really dry here despite the odd shower and the rain a couple of weeks ago.

Tomatoes are well into glut stage with 1000s still to come. Courgettes were over I thought but 1 has started flowering again so leaving them to it. Especially as dd has gone veggie and finally like a roast tomato, courgette, peppers and chilli pasta bake concoction I invented.

Runners been rubbish, and french beans not brilliant but have a late crop of frenchies that look much better.

First earlies were lovely but my king edwards were the size of marbles. I pulled a couple of plants that had died back a few weeks ago. However have left the rest in as they were still healthy looking so hoping they carried on growing.

Apples all falling off the tree and covered in black mould type stuff. Picked the ones worth using as lots were starting to rot on the tree. Need to google and find out what the problem was.

Cucumbers romping away and have started avoiding eye contact with them 😂.

And my melons are small but looking good.

I have about 12 pumpkins that are massive, some have gone orange already but hoping they last til Halloween. And still growing new ones, ds is very proud of his pumkin triffids.

I also had a peep at my sweetcorn but don't think it's quite ready yet.

Whoever it was with the tomato triffids, me too. Mine are outside. Ground been too hard to get extra stakes in so they have spread out in a million directions. I keep finding trusses of tomatoes and sighing.

Am going to make plenty of pasta sauce, and also some chutney this week.

Have sown spring cabbage, some more little gem lettuce and contemplating a very late additional beetroot crop.

I am also busy collecting horse poo. I planted some brassicas in a new unmanured bed, and some in a bed we manured last year. The ones in the manured bed are twice the size of the others despite being the scraggy seedlings I couldn't quite throw away.

Poo is definitely the future. It's pure poo from the field so no ammonia. Am going to dig it in where the spuds have been when I pull those then try the spring cabbage in there. If it doesn't work I wont be too upset as will just cover it and start again next year.

Phew. That was a long post!

Morning all!
well the veg show was good, but everyone and his dog had lovely sweetcorn and courgettes. I should have taken a punt on my beetroot, because I'm sure they were better than was on show. But a bit of fun, and fabulous to see what everyone else was growing - some lovely melons and grapes were there . ( It was interesting in that hardly anyone put in runner beans - mine are just starting to set at long, long last) . I made soup yesterday with courgette , lettuce and peas, with the lettuces I picked so having that for lunch today .
Incredibly - that sounds like you had to make a tough decision, but raised beds are definitely a good plan by sounds , so more power to your elbow.
Frouby - horse poo picker - at least the fire risk is lessened I hope, and your ponies are okay .
Saturday was at the show all day, so only got back to the plot yesterday morning. I watered , and started forking over/weeding the area for the winter caulis and cabbages . I only picked the few raspberries ( lots to come though - the rain last week helped) the last of the victoria plums , and the runners which I had missed . And just a few potatoes I had missed when digging them up . Had a good look around , and 2 of my autumn caulis had been chomped by caterpillars. I remembered the wind had blown the enviromesh covering them off when I had gone last week , so the cabbage whites had found them .- Weird as it was two in a row of 6 . Got given a cabbage by NDN too.
Today I have picked stuff for roasted veg pasta sauce - so tomatoes, aubergines , peppers and a big chunk of basil . I will be adding garlic and courgettes too.
I was given some pink fir potatoes to plant at the plot - they are still in the ground, but I put the last 3 tubers in a tub at home. I've just emptied that , and got this little bowlful - about 700 gm , but mostly small. It will be interesting to see what the ones in the ground are like . Not as good I suspect, as these at home were watered and fed regularly . I need to go today to water , pick courgettes and flowers .

Yes book, hopefully the fires have stopped. Had a couple more locally after our 2, 1 in a nature reserve further down the hill and one in a field across the road from us. But non anywhere for a fortnight now so hopefully it's ended.

Had an hour or so on the plot today with ds. Picked more tomatoes, a nice small courgette, a small lettuce as they have mainly bolted this year so may as well catch them before they go, and half a dozen snack and normal sized cucumbers.

Did some weeding around my melons. Am not sure what variety I planted or when they will be ready! We cut one a couple of weeks ago and it was still pretty hard and sour so leaving the rest until they look different.

Took a few photos before things start dying back, can sense the end of the season coming. I think I am going to pull my climbing french beans this week. They have more or lesa done, can't see anymore flowers and I have leeks underneath so they could do with some sun now.

Planted leeks under both the french and runner beans arches. They were spares and I have another full bed, so didn't have anything to lose. They surprisingly look ok. Smaller than the others as I expected but am hoping once the beans come down they catch up a bit.

good gracious - thats not plotmenter in chief is it? last picture was in wellies carry a spade I seem to think!

Fresh air and horse poo is a good growing medium for small boys too .

Today's crop: a cucumber, some of my small garlic cloves (to make tzatziki) and enough runner beans for the 3 of us. Not pictures are the two green chilis that I'd already picked (and used) from the chili plant my gardening friend had given me.

Shirley and Gardener's Delight tomatoes are ripening nicely. One of the tomatoes in my supposedly yellow Peardrop tomatoes has started to change colour. I suspect that it is not going to be yellow as it's already very definitely not Peardrop shaped

....this would add to the "Romanesco cauliflower" that was bought at the same time at Dobbies and is still "hearting" beautifully No sign whatsoever of a flower My gardening friend says it looks suspiciously like a green cabbage - which would make me very pissed off as I'd bought trays of brussels, Savoy cabbage, curly kale and Romanesco cauliflower plants because I wanted and have nurtured all summer brussels, Savoy cabbage, curly kale and Romanesco cauliflower crops

Afternoon
Hot today again...
pretty - they all look just the same, its a nightmare!
So I spent another hour forking over the new bed this morning, then back this afternoon for watering . Yesterday afternoon I went and picked flowers , another couple of courgettes, and some overlooked beans which are too big, but I can use the beans inside. Today I picked just one courgette , and a lot of calabrese which is sprouting a bit and trying to flower. I was offered the run of a bramble too, so picked some - I am in two minds whether to freeze them, make jam , or make a crumble , which we love, but really shouldn't be eating

Those blackberries look lovely Book. After comparing foraged blackberries to grown blackberries last week I think I am going to pop some canes in over winter. They can run along the bottom fence and will hopefully be contained down there by the compost bins on 1 side and the shed in front.

I think we are going to have to start watering again. Sigh. We were forecast rain today but it's skirted around us now.

Plans for the weekend include pulling potatoes and digging manure into those beds ready for spring cabbage. Picking my second lot of french beans and removing the old plants. And weeding around the rasperry canes.

Has anyone made runner bean chutney? Have a bag full that are borderline being nice to eat. Slightly too good for the compost bin, but the more I look at them the less I want to faff and cook them.

But equally I don't want to faff and make a chutney and it not be nice 😂.

Did a Mary Berry one I made last year the other night and while stashing it away to mature found 2 jars at the back of the cupboard I had missed. Happy days. I didn't make it until mid September last year so it's less than a year old, was made in oven sterilised (new) jars and the top is still sunk in. We won't die will we?

Anyone want to join in the sweepstake about the colour that these tomatoes will end up? Methinks it won't be the one that they were sold as

Also, does anyone think that these "cauliflowers" are ever going to flower?

Hi there!

name changed, but I have posted sporadically in the gardening threads in the past. I do read the allotment thread religiously though, you lot are so inspiring!

It's been such a good year for us at the allotment with hot weather crops such as tomatoes, peppers and basil a massive success... cucurbits pretty good but not as good as last year due to lack of water I presume...

I am currently looking to buy 3 x blueberry bushes to extend the fruit patch... would anybody be able to recommend the best/tastiest varieties around? Thinking of buying through Unwins, unless people have some recommendations for a particularly good source too?

Frouby I have an amazing runner bean chutney recipe that I've made for the past few years. I'll try to remember to photograph it and post it for you. Also requires red peppers in case you have any of them ripening (ours were still green when the runner beans were ready).

Looks like a label mishap pretty! But hopefully tasty! I remember trying a yellow variety a few years ago and they were really disappointing - dry and no flavour. So hopefully you haven't missed out on much!

I think those tomatoes might go purple/maroon prettybird

Another namechanger here, I've been on the threads on and off for the last couple of years. Who knows who I might be?

I have been a bit neglectful of my plot since getting back off holiday 10 days ago, but did a good load of weeding at the weekend and am glad there has been plenty of rain now so no more dustbowl soil hopefully. Courgettes are doing well, autumn raspberries are starting to fruit, I need to lift my potatoes and that's a bout it at the moment.

Incredibly - well done for not giving up, your plot would have defeated most of us by the sounds of things. I am in a losing battle with bindweed both at home and at the plot, it drives me mad.

Tizwozliz - possibly . My gardener friend wondered first if it was a Gardener's Delight (but I pointed out that its "green bits" don't know the proper name are much longer and more "flying" than the Gardener's Delight). He's now wondering if it will be pinky like a Rosella.

This is today's harvest (along with some cut dahlias, cosmos and cornflowers). Pears are from the ancient tree and drop from a great height (this is the the 4th raking of the windfalls that he's done! ). Dh is sorting those that are beyond redemption and those (into water) that he's going going to try to make perry/sparkling perry from. The next picture is today's plum harvest (stopped after I'd filled 2 large bowls) and the third shows the first batch of plum gin I've made, together with some of last year's plum gin, with some of the macerated plums that we were going to have with our plum gin cocktails (made with Cava) and some of the chopped plums ready to make plum jam.

Back from holiday to a lovely new thread. Good harvest pictures.
Well our plot definitely benefited from some rain while we were away.
French beans were ready for picking and the runners have a second flush of flowers so hopefully will get a crop from these as the first crop was rubbish.

Pumpkins and squashes are doing well. Lots of fruits forming. This year they were in a bed which had been manured winter before last and then we grew beans on it last year and it seems to have really boosted the plants.

We harvested lettuces, spinach, beetroot and, very excited, the first broccoli heads. Which were not bad. This is the first time I've grown broccoli so had no idea how it was going to go. It's done well so I'll definitely be growing it again next year.

I think we're aiming to dig up our main crop potatoes this weekend. We've also got some DIY to do at home - exciting bank holiday weekend awaits!

Rain rain rain we've had rain.

Will empty all the trugs at the allotment later into the waterbutts.

Yellow tomatoes? If you want a top one try Yellow Perfection. My seeds were originally saved from one sampled (officially) at Ryton Gardens.

Book book - we used to converse on older threads...I am an organic hort teacher on the side of my day job.

We dug all our potatoes up last week, couldn't bear to watch them suffer any more and it gave me the impetus to take all the soil flat ready for the weed fabric going down next week.

Afternoon!
well, we had a bit of rain overnight - enough to not need to water at least, thank goodness
pretty - I am not taking any bets on the tomatoes - i will be wrong! But I would keep fingers crossed on the romanesco cauliflower - there is a good possibility it will come good - eventually, the centre is just incurving a tweak. they come all of a sudden too - one minute not there, next minute there ( along with all the rest , at the same time )
Incredibly - ah yes - and still teaching horticulture -( I think you changed job last year ?) ) you are a big potato grower too, I seem to remember , so it has been a heartbreaking year . In fact all this year has been tough in truth , and it may have put a fair few off, no doubt .
MeetOnTheLedge fairly confident I know - the bindweed gives it away!
I have done a bit more forking /weeding this morning and nearly finished doing the winter brassica bed. I just want a load of rain next week, so I can chuck on the manure . Its so dry, its in clumps, so hard to work in, and I don't want to mulch and lock the dry in either . I have another week -10 days before I need to plant out.
The raspberries haven't quite got going yet, but picked a few, and the runners have started to set ( only had 3 plants this year) took off shoots from the calabrese and picked a couple of sweetcorn for tonights tea. And the inevitable courgette ...

Incredibly - is that a cherry tomato? Gardening Friend (I'd call him GF but the acronym GF has a different meaning on MN ) and I were talking last night (over the plum gin cocktails that dh had made) about what we want to grow from seed next year for our respective greenhouses and we both wanted a selection of colours for our cherry tomatoes but are ok with just red for standard sized tomatoes. So I'll be looking for even more recommendations

Here's a gratuitous picture of said plum gin and cava cocktails, served with the gin macerated plums. At least it has the greenhouse in the background

Gardening can be very civilised

No, not cherry. Medium size.

I've tried loads of different tomatoes over the years, I once had over 125 different heritage varieties.

My top picks are:
Piglet Willie's French Black. You can't buy these but get hold of some if you ever can.
Yellow Perfection - it does what it says on the tin.
Sungold - the only F1 hybrid I grow.
Peacevine Cherry - the only cherry I grow

Apart from that I usually try a different variety each year but those above I come back to time and time again.

Yes Book - I changed jobs but still keep my hand in teaching once or twice every few months. Keeps the brain active!

Don't know if anyone remembers me asking if anyone puts a cross in the stalks after harvesting spring greens. Well, I did and they grew on pretty well and we had some greens for dinner tonight. Also a giant patty pan squash that i must have missed at some point. Think that's going into a soup at the weekend.

I do remember , and have seen it works too on another plot tiz :)

I forgot < old brain> to welcome back helloitsme84 - I can't help on the blueberries, as I don't grow them myself . I've not bought from Unwins either, so totally unhelpful!