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

In the greenhouse pulling weeds out of the gravel and realised some of them were tomatoes that had germinated presumably from a dropped tomato. So I rescued them and potted them up which was hugely pleasing as I didn’t get my act together To get any tomatoes started this year and had just decided I’d need to buy some plants. Also pulled some rhubarb - the stems seem very thin- is that just because it’s early in the season?

~tries to post for the 4th time~

Hi all.

I've finally got everything sown, either inside or in the garden. It feels good to have that job done!

The first of my broad beans have popped their heads above the soil, and I have some lovely looking pea, lettuce and spinach plants. Now I just need to find an effective way to keep the puppy's massive feet from crushing everything.

I have done:

• spinach
• lettuce - "Lakeland" and "reine des glaces"
• yellow and green courgettes
• climbing green beans and dwarf purple beans
• broad beans
• rainbow beetroot
• spring onions
• "Latah" tomatoes
• semi-dwarf peas
• and various herbs and edible flowers. I'm trying Summer Savory this year.

My strawberry patch is nice and full and there are lots of flowers already. The puppy ate branches off my blackcurrant bushes so I don't think we'll get as much of those this year, and she also "pruned" my Summer raspberries for me in the Winter so I doubt we'll get many of those either!

I've got some blackberry, tayberry and loganberry plants arriving any day now, so they'll be interesting this year.

Had to resize the photos I took of my neat vegetable beds (with a few extra bits of grass). Hopefully they have worked.

That' looking very organised and neat Grouchy. I planted out some cosmos and californian poppies at the plot today and continued the never ending struggle with bindweed and cinque foil. IT WILL NOT WIN.

cathpot my rhubarb isn’t doing that great yet, I have a few thick stems but they are pretty short, sign that more new stalks are sprouting, I think mine isn’t a early variety, I’m getting desperate to make a crumble.

Only a few of my runner beans have germinated, I think I’m going to have to buy more seeds as I think this batch wasn’t great, I’m not going to get far with the 4 that have germinated, runner beans are my favourite so I want a good crop.

Those beds look lovely.

I'm still digging over the new allotment. I found two enormous pieces of metal sunk deep in the ground today. No idea what they were for, and they were well below ground level. Couldn't get them out. I'll try again tomorrow with the aid of a pickaxe and/or sledgehammer. I'm not allotmenteering, I'm in bloody Time Team.

Sound be careful, they might UXB.

What is UXB?

If you mean unexploded bomb...eek

Hello dreaming ! A quick google informs me that Magentaspreen and mexican tree spinach are the same thing. Who Knew?! Well you of course and probably sackrifice Does it taste nice? Do people exclaim in wonder when you show off your glittery leaves? I presume the pink disappears with cooking.

cath I think the thin stalks are due to a newly-established plant, or if the plant is a bit stressed. Has it plenty of water?

grouchy you are so organised! Amazing that even your puppy knows to love blackcurrant. I grow summer savoury too - I quite like it. I don't grow it for this reason (honest), but many people believe that it helps counteract the wind one may get from eating beans. Infact it gets called 'beanherb' I think, in German.

I am having a go with asparagus peas - got the seed ages ago and then heard bad things - but my decorative edibles bed very much needs ground cover so I am planning to try. I hear that they are most edible if picked young and shredded finely. At worst I will have some pretty ground cover...

UNA, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Honestly, learn from my experience. I don't know much, but I know that biting a flannel that was soaked in that stuff you paint on your nails to stop you biting them would give you the asparagus pea experience.

So do that, and sow some mangetout 'shiraz' for the pretty & edible.

Could they be part of an Anderson shelter? I remember my grandad having one in the back the garden which was underground

Hello, can I join in? Had a veggie patch at home for a while now but this is the first time in a obout 9 years I am really going for it. My little greenhouse is bursting, got peas (petit pois and earlys) Broad beans, Runner beans (Scarlet) and French beans. Carrotts in a bed - or I would if some little bugger would stop eating the tops, Spring onions, Tomatoes, cucumbers, Aubergines and lots of salad bits like lettuce and radish.

The beans and peas are taking over so really need to get them outside, but it's to early for that isnt it?

I've got some of my climbing beans outside as they were already about a metre tall. Probably about another 3 weeks where we could potentially still have frosts, so i'm keeping an eye on the forecast and ready to protect them if need be. But I'm also fairly relaxed about losing them, I plant beans every few weeks throughout the season.

thespotted - i cant say its got an amazing taste to be honest. i think of it as a bit like chard......a good workhorse/filler that doesnt taste of much to add to things, and that is easy to grow. you can use little leaves in salad

I don't know much, but I know that biting a flannel that was soaked in that stuff you paint on your nails to stop you biting them would give you the asparagus pea experience.

I agree.

I did grow asparagas peas one year, tried one and then walked away [to gag], and left them growing. They did survive all that winter though.

I think I am very much not going to try at asparagus pea...
Rhubarb is 3 years old and did well last year. Certainly don’t need to water it today but will keep an eye.
I have the same problem nickdrake , peas are desperate to go out but the few I did plant have been battered by the storms. Also I need chicken guards for the bottoms and I’m dithering. I’ve kept some of those big plastic milk bottles so I’m going to try and fashion something out of those. The ones in already are under nets tunnels but they are about to outgrow them.

My peas survived the storms but lost my first lot of beans (kind of guessed it was too early), bought more bean seeds today. I have spare peas too if mine do die 🤣

My peppers have taken over my house, the plants have suddenly got huge, I planted them from seeds I got from Tesco’s long sweet red peppers and I’m really hoping I get a good crop, I’m going to have to move them outside or into my mums greenhouse soon.

Went out to check on the less today and they really needed to go out so I’m trialing new chicken proofing ....

2 milk cartoons, one juice bottle and a big orange juice carton. Then I ran out of bottles and cut the bottom out of some plastic plant pots and used those upside down. Then I realised I’d created a row of snug slug houses so I copper taped the top edges and shoved this slug blanket stuff inside. We will see. Divided up unhappy strawberries in a pot and got a pack of ten small strawberry plants and have turned most of the raised bed to them. I’m thinking we all love eating them and I can net them easily. Have had a good day.

Cathpot that chicken looks far too interested in the less.

Peas! Ops. She is our least bright member and just pootles aimlessly round me in case I start producing mealworms . To be fair she did eat a slug for me . Also some small thin pale almost centipede looking things that tie themselves in knots when you dig them up. I don’t know what they are so didn’t know whether to be pleased she ate them. It’s the scratching that’s the main problem , they mostly leave the plants alone- although they did give the garlic chives a haircut .

Evening!
well, we all agree on asparagus peas
hello dreaming - just jump in , no restrictions here :)
Welcome nickdrake - ( can I be nosey and ask whereabouts you are - North/South/East/West ? ) Yes still to early for beans - they really don't like any chance of frost . I only sowed mine in the last couple of days , along with sweetcorn .
Cath - that chicken - awwww...
I planted out my peas last week - they were hardened off quite well, and they seem to be fine so far. I didn't do the sweet peas as it was so windy , so they still have to go out.
Spent the morning at the plot planting out summer cabbages and cauliflowers , and finishing prepping up the brassica cage - the net needs putting up and its good to go . Then picked asparagus ., and a lot of leeks which I had left in where the cabbages and cauliflowers needed to go - they are all the runts that I had left in hopes of them getting a bit bigger . I still have some left in as yet . Considering that it rained on and off all day yesterday , the ground had just soaked it up

Hi, thanks for the welcome, I am east midlands. I did put some peas out today but wrapped them in fleece tonight. I have 2 huge pots of them so wont be too bad if one goes. I am loving the chat on this thread and really interesting to hear what you are all planting. We have a lot of established fruits dotted around the garden. When we bought it years ago the only 2 plants we kept from the awful garden were blackcurrants and redcurrants, since then I have planted lots of different rasberries so we have early, mid and lates, Cherries, apples, pear, blueberries and a lovely victoria plum which I am having terrible issues with grubs on, last year we didnt have any fruit and the year before it was bursting with them but each one had grubs inside. No idea what that one will be doing this year!

Well I've got 8 of my 12 beds planted out now. Herbs are looking good as are salad leaves. Onions I'm not sure about. I planted loads of seedlings and keep finding them lying on top of the soil like someone has plucked them out. I just replant but not sure if it's because I'm not planting them deep enough or birds are grabbing them? Waiting for my potatoes to come through. How long do they normally take for the plants to start showing? Strawberries looking good and carrots went in today. Last 4 beds will go in next month I think. Fingers crossed!