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

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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

Yup, that sounds like most allotments.

The first year, don't try and do too much growing if it is bad! Just aim to keep the weeds at bay and get it how you want it.

Thank you. If I manage to get even one thing grown this year, I will be pleased!!

Dear me - what a week of weather.
The wind has been dreadful , and really bad today.
I have run down to the plot to pick stuff, as I hadn't been since Sunday.
Most of the cauliflowers have gone over , so soup it is

All I have done this week is sown a few summer cauliflower and cabbages in the greenhouse, and the first of some beetroot for a succession. I planted some out before Christmas, and they seem to be coming along for an early pick .
Stay safe everyone

Nnnn one really good way to get growing is to roughly clear an area, cover with weed resistant membrane and bark chips, then plant fruit bushes in holes. I did this with a patch that was infested with brambles, bindweed and ivy and it worked a treat. The great thing is that once fruit bushes are in they will go on getting more and more productive, the produce is delicious and expensive to buy, and you don't have to dig it all up again year on year and disturb the weed protection.

All a bit windswept here too - have started some more seeds in the propagator and will start a few more in the greenhouse later on. Hoping the weather settles down a bit soon!

Ok so now I'm really sick of this wind.

Can you piss right off please.

Thanks in advance.

I feel much the same Sack. I have had a mini greenhouse disaster. Came to find all my newly planted seeds on the decking. I managed to salvage some broad bean and sweet pea plants. Another job for the weekend.

Same here - its solid rain, here atm with gales this afternoon added on . Getting very grumpy now .

I've had to retrieve my cold frame from the path and my composter from a neighbour's plot, a half covered piece of cardboard stayed put due to the rock on it but is in tatters and woody prunings have blown out of the compost cage and are scattered everywhere. Yeah, Storm Gareth can indeed kindly piss off now.

Dry here but very windy, next weeks looking dry but a bit windy. I’m off to buy some canes for my beans and peas today, my patch and raised beds are dug out, just a waiting game for better weather.

Suns out and the weather for the week is looking good in the south. What can I put outside? I have a cover for one of my raised beds (kind of poly tunnel), my window sills are full of things but I what will be ok in the poly tunnel? I have peas, lettuce (these are only tiny), peppers, spring onions and tomatoes, the tomatoes will be going in pots eventually. I want to free up some window space.

Seed potatoes bought today. I've ended up with 3 - mainly because they were on 3 for 2! I thought i'd bought Rocket, Charlotte & Desiree but coming home i seem to have Maris Piper in place of the Desiree. The rocket and charlotte will go in bags and the Maris Piper will go in a bed. They've gone into the pantry to chit.

Also going to start of some other bits inside, tomatoes and courgettes probably. I have some greenhouse space and some cloche protection so don't have to worry so much about things getting too big before the last frost as in previous years. Might do some beans but will see how much room i have, less important to get those in at a specific time as i'll sow throughout the season.

The rhubarb is sprouting nicely in the garden and the garlic seems to be faring better than last year as well - i.e. it's not been eaten yet!

Morning!
Its dry today ( but still bowing a fair bit) and quite a bit cooler .
I hope everyone survived - sorry to hear about the mini greenhouse elephant - that happened to me a couple of years ago, when everything had just nicely germinated .
I have had an hour down at the plot this morning. Much too wet to go on the land after yesterdays rain, but I did manage to do 3 barrowloads of manure from the path onto a bed , which was at least something done and out of the way. I picked sprouting broccoli , and then the last 2 cauliflowers - almost gone, but good enough for cauliflower cheese .
The first few leeks I sowed the other day are just starting to peep out of the compost . And I still have 3 crown prince squashes in good nick , so I still have a bit of variety going .

I had a lovely afternoon at the plot. I planted out the broad beans that survived the mini greenhouse disaster, did some more to the last path and a bit of general weeding. I picked my first PSB and refilled the bird feeders, lots of bluetits about and the robin who always appears if I have done any path clearing for the worms.

Hello old friends - and new too!
I used to be on previous threads, but I fell off when the watering during last year's heat became all-encompassing!

My 1/2 plot is in the middle of the country, I'm on extreme clay and I love tomatoes - rather a lot.

This year, I'm growing the same old stuff - mainly tomatoes, courgettes, poss squash, and beans. I've lots of fruit and herbs in too. I've not actually sewn a single seed yet - I'm biding my time as I don't have a greenhouse. Oh, and I'm getting more into cut flowers also.

Hello Spotted - lovely to 'see' you ! The watering nearly killed me last year too - I swear my arms are 2" longer ...

Checked my rhubarb today and it’s sprouted quite a bit over the last week or so. Moved some of my seedlings outside under my mini poly tunnel/greenhouse thing, my window sills now look empty, I might have to plant some flower seeds.

Hi Spotted, welcome back. I'm not sure if I was called this name when you were here previously, I used to be variations on Who Knows.

I nipped out to pick some chard after dark last night and the poor things were covered in little slugs and a few caterpillars. Must order some nematodes!

Elephant I have had mini greenhouses falling over so have great sympathy for the frustration it causes.

I have eventually learned that it's not the air temperature but the soil temperature that matters for planting out - still too cold even on the south coast for anything that isn't really cold tolerant. Rhubarb is doing very well though - about a foot high so might be harvesting in a fortnight or so if it carries on at this rate. DS is getting impatient for rhubarb pie and ran down the garden in his wellies to check this morning. He's also impatient for tomatoes but I have explained that they will be a while yet!

Yes, we can't safely plant out tender plants here (25miles inland from S.coast) till late May, we often get late frosts.

No sign of my rhubarb yet, it is a late variety and every year tricks me into thinking it's died but it bursts into life eventually.

~waves Hi to Spotted~

I potted up some little seedlings today (tomatoes and brussels sprouts mostly, plus am trialling lettuce and spinach), and whacked a whole lot of lettuce seedlings into the ground. The lettuce seeds I planted ages ago are only just coming up. We're forecast lovely warm weather for a week or two so hopefully they'll do some good growing then.

The pea seeds I planted outside have finally sprouted too. And today I got around to weeding the sections of my garden that are for broad beans this year so they've gone in the ground too.

My plum and greengage trees are nearly in blossom - another couple of days on those, I think - and the apple trees are doing well. I've worked out what fruiting spurs look like now so first chance I get I'll be giving the rest a good prune.

I had a lovely day today - I had a day's leave, i found a fantastic new local coffee shop, i went to the allotment and my sown outside carrots have germinated [get in], I planted out the overspill onions into a new shallow bed, I took out some not happy spinach and put in it's place some Rose De Roscoff and Long Red Florence onions [in the greenhouse to grow inbetween the tomatoes and chillis] and all my mixed salad seedlings are getting bigger and more recognisable.

Then went home, and repotted all my tomatoes and chillis; and even ones that were sown ages ago are still popping up so a steady rise up through the plant pot sizes is working well as they are all at different sizes.

I also dug out my comfrey bed, it is at the top of the plot and I usually mow the comfrey rather than cut it but now that we have weed fabric down, I won't be mowing so I needed to dig out a load of weeds and rake off the bits of hawthorn that had fallen onto the bed over the years.

i think I even caught the sun.

What a great day.

Glorious day today, and managed an hour at the plot.
Got a fair bit of tidying done, and started prepping up a bed for the potatoes - they are chitting nicely .
Dug leeks , chard and a swede .
Will be sowing tomatoes , peppers and aubergines at the weekend

Any tips on keeping the cat out of my raised beds? He’s not your average cat, tried water bottles and lemon in the past. He’s loving the freshly dug soil which has now become his dirt box.

My peas have survived being outside.

I've used netting in the past to keep my cat off newly dug soil. But the netting has to be quite high with sticks strategically placed in the middle otherwise she'd just try to sit on top of it and push the whole lot down.

In the allotment I'm using some of last year's old thorny blackberry canes to deter a local cat. It seems to work enough - and lets face it, there are plenty of other spaces for it go instead.

Hoping the weather will be nice on Sunday as might plant onions and potatoes. It has been quite warm here in the SE at night the last few days so they ought to be OK. The beds are prepped and just waiting.

Spent time last weekend trying to tidy out round the fruit bushes - still tackling the ramshackle area we inherited. Have realised there is a massive blackberry growing among the gooseberry bushes. I'll just hack back this summer but come next autumn I think I'll try lifting them and removing the blackberry then putting them back.

Poised to start off some seeds at home, but waiting just a bit longer (plus we're off on a week's holiday in April so don't want to start too soon).

I have planted lavender and cat-shoo both of which are supposed to be deterrents for some cats. I have also put down the wire mesh shelves from my old plastic greenhouse over newly dug earth Between these the problem seems better.