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

Found ten slugs in the green house today. Very put out. Tried to gift them to the chickens but they were having none of it. I’ve got some nematodes to put on the main bed this evening and the plum moth trap also arrived. When I hung it in the tree there were at least 20 plums coming. I’m very excited as sum harvest of plums in last 4 years has been 1. So my garlic is coming up which I’ve not planted before so I’m off to google what I do now, as I’ve no idea. Lovely sunny day here.

SoundofSilence 2 - 0 Enormous Chunks of Metal.

It took a sledgehammer, a pickaxe, a spade, a hand trowel and fork and the pointy metal end of a temporary fence post, but they came out in the end, leaving a scene like the sandmonster pit in Return of the Jedi behind them. MiniSilence and I exchanged mutiple high fives, then abandoned plot due to hail. Tomorrow, actual gardening.

I think one of them was a length of lead water pipe. It snapped off and left something behind, but since it's way below any soil with humus in it, the rest can damn well stay there. The bindweed has had a great time recovering while I've been playing What The Hell Is That.

On the topic of slugs.

2 summers ago I nematoded the garden twice as everything was getting oblierated by slugs and the volume decreased significantly.

Last spring, I nematoded once around about mid may. Again, few issues last year, but then last year was a weird one.

But ever since those first two applicaitons, 6 weeks apart; the number of slugs we've found has been pretty much non existent. Whereas when it rained there would be hundreds of them, I virtually find none now.

Best goddam £25 I ever spent.

I applied nematodes for the first time last year. I definitely had a lot less trouble with slugs then typical but I wasn't sure how much of that was the nematodes and how much was the exceptionally dry summer. I'm going to do another treatment this year to be on the safe side.

We've had hail here today and the wind is biting. Haven't been able to face doing anything outside. Hard to believe that 2 weeks ago it was 23 degrees. I do need to try and weed round the tiny onion seedlings this weekend.

Order them when a rainy period is due.

We had some overnight rain but not the rain promised for this afternoon, I am going to have to start watering after work a couple of times a week at this rate. I planted out my Romanesque at the plot today. I never grown it before, any tips please and do I have to net it?

Afternoon all!
well, I finally got back to the plot today . In the last few days we have had sleet, hail, torrential downpours and howling gales .
One bonus - DH had rigged up the water butt to the new greenhouse on Monday - it is now nearly full -( not sure on size , but think its about 150-175 L )
So , more prepping for squash bed . couch grass digging out in the old strawberry bed ( a right pain) - glad we are digging them all up later this year . I planted out a row of beetroot , and the sweet peas too.
Picked asparagus - I am finally seeing the brand new crowns just breaking the surface -( well 3 out of the 5 so far ) . I had put some optimistic beetroot plugs in last autumn, and some seemed to be trying to bolt, so I have pulled those to bring home. Only little, but I will roast them tonight , see what they are like .
I have spent a bit of time in the greenhouse planting out the tomatoes into their summer pots. re- potted cucumbers and courgettes and the butternut squashes. Not really sure what is happening , as they all germinated within a day of each other , but the winter squashes 'Crown Prince" and 'Autumn King' have not shown up , so I have resown those today. Sown a few more flowers - cosmos, asters , and bee friendly mixes too . My sweetcorn has virtually all germinated - 22 out of 24 , so pleased with that. I have sown some more , as I kept some back just in case the first lot didn't take . All my french beans are up too . So what it is with the fresh winter squash seed , no idea

No rain here but a frost last night which took a few of my young veg plants , luckily I have spare indoors but just shows that it’s still not safe to put stuff outside yet.

My peppers were taking over the house so I planted them into a bigger pot this morning, they now look very sad, I think I might have killed them.

There were rumours at our allotments that there had been a frost but according to the Met. office the temperature hasn't dropped below 7 for the last couple of nights. Anyway nothing seems frosted. I just did some watering, hoeing and earthed up my potatoes. Back at home I have potted on tomatoes and courgettes. I have also started some french beans and runner beans in pots as my direct sowing doesn't seem to have worked.

I sow all my seeds in pots elephant - all inside on a sunny windowsill. There is very little I direct sow , as I am useless at doing a flat , fine tilth !

I hope you don't mind me crashing into the thread! I love reading what everyone is up to, this is my second year of having an allotment . Feeling a bit wobbly tonight as went down this evening and two kids were breaking into my shed. They ran off when they saw me walking up the path but were shouting and swearing at me as they left. I can clear up the damage but I felt really scared which is silly really as they were just kids. It's made me really nervous about going back. Feel like quitting now and that my safe place from the outside world has been spoilt, silly really.

Welcome bob - thats not nice . Is it an isolated spot , or are there not many people around on other plots? Not silly at all, it has disturbed your safe space . We have discussed safety before on these threads .
Are you on a private site, or a council one ? Do you have any sort of management/committee that you can go and tell of your concerns?
In the meantime , make sure you don't leave anything of worth in your shed .

bobofthelobs That is not nice, I hope you are feeling ok now. We have a really quiet allotment with no gate keys etc. but some teenage silliness does go on from time to time. I think you just have to think that they will grow up one day.

Very unnerving bob. We get break ins from time to time. Our approach is to leave the shed unlocked. More damage gets done by them breaking the shed open. On the whole where we are the kids are looking for petrol for their bikes. We had a more organised break in across the field a few weeks ago. Lots of barrows commandeered to move booty to the main gate where I guess a van was waiting to transport the pick of the tools lifted.

Tomatoes, peppers, chillies, cucumbers, aubergines all in their final growing positions in tunnel and greenhouse. Tomorrow I am going to sow another couple of rows of peas plus start french beans in modules.

Gave away about 20 aubergine plants to new plot neighbours. They also said yes to peppers and tomatoes. I always end up with far too many as there seems to be a rule that if you sow only what you need then nothing comes up but if you sow the whole packet then they all come up!

Hello, I haven't posted for ages but have been here on and off for several years under different names. I shall just say that I am very impressed that Book remembered my pickled cucamelons, that was three years ago. they were made using a Dillpickle type recipe and were delicious. I haven't planted them for the last couple of years but have sown some this year again.

I've had a busy few days at the plot digging out bindweed, finally planting out my potatoes, digging out some very large chard plants from last year, they have roots like tree trunks. Also transplanted some of the smaller chard seedlings. Last year I let some leeks bolt, they grew beautiful allium flowers and have self seeded all over the place so I've got millions of leek seedlings which need thinning out. At home I've still got sunflowers, sweetcorn, tomatoes cucamelons, PSB, pumpkins and probably a few others, we are in a late frost area so not going to plant out really tender things yet.

Bob - poor you, that sounds horrible. Possibly worth reporting to the police as well as council and allotment association. Our rules state that you must lock the gates on the way in and out, but I don't terribly like being locked in, I'm often the only person up there and worry about having an accident and no one being able to get to me, but we have had break-ins too.

Bob sounds scary, would have upset me too.

My pepper plants are looking better this morning, they are huge. I got the seeds from some ‘sweet red peppers’ from Tesco (the long red peppers) and now I’m realising that the plants are going to be bigger than regular peppers, I hope I get a good crop.

I’m waiting impatiently for good weather so I can plant the rest of my seedlings out, next weekend is looking good.

Welcome Bob. That does sound scary. Hope you're feeling better now.

My courgettes have finally germinated - well, half of them have anyway. Looks like we'll get two yellows and one green.

Afternoon!
I have a weird memory Expletive
Well, managed another hour this morning at the plot - mainly weeding out couch from the strawberries , and still prepping up the squash bed. Picked a cabbage and some purple sprouting too. I actually finally dug out some of the older PSB plants - just 3 left now .
Went back this afternoon with DH to do the sorting of the net over the brassica cage thing . I find it quite hard when its a really big net , but we have got it in the right place, and basically tied and bricked down, so it can relax and we can go back tomorrow to finesse it a bit . It started to rain whilst we were there, so we came home.
It seems I am not the only one having trouble with curcubits germinating , so my spare courgettes already have a forever home when they are ready . This is from a plot neighbour who doesn't normally have any problems ( she has underfloor heating in her conservatory - like a giant warming pad! ) . Wonder if its light levels?

Here in Melbourne, the mysterious cotyledons sprouting everywhere on my patch are indeed warrigal greens. I'm planting up three big containers, for some of seedlings, one for me, one my DD who has become more interested in gardening since she left home, one for a lovely neighbour who has sent round meals for me while I'm up on the blocks (temporarily) wants to have veggie patch but is not a gardener.

Broad beans have all sprouted and grown well, and rainbow chard racing away. New growth of rocket looks good, and the dog thinks it tastes good too. Spring onions are now erect and it will be interesting to see how long it takes for them to mature. I've never grown them in winter before. The local Bunnings guarantee is that they never sell any veg that will not grow in a Melbourne winter. Having said that, I am next to the sea, with barely a hoarfrost, but you only have go 12Ks north, still in the main city, and by heck it gets very cold indeed in winter.

For now we have beautiful autumn days, sunny and 19 today. More rain now, though not enough.

I got up at 3.00. a.m. today to try to see the Eta Aquariid meteor showers, but with no luck. I think I need to be more patient. I'll rug up and sit on the balcony outside my bedroom tomorrow at 3.00. There's relatively low light pollution in the suburbs so worth a go.

Still struggling with my peppers, they are moody feckers. I tried putting them outside for a hour just so I could give them a good watering as they are now living in a huge pot in my living room. 5 minutes outside and the leaves go floppy, bring them back in and they perk up. I have a feeling they are never going to go outside and my living room will look like a greenhouse 🤣

Can I join you all?

cathpot do I know you from when our DC were little? Fridays spent at PP?

I don’t have an allotment, just a collection of seedlings growing on some steps in the garden. We’re in Italy so perhaps slightly different growing conditions!

I’m struggling to know which plants are which - the trays under the seed trays were labelled and then DH tried to be helpful.

I can guess the radishes & strawberries. I’ve got a good idea which the watermelons are. Peppers, cucumbers and chanteray melons are anyone’s guess!

We don’t have any beds so they’re all going to have to try to survive in pots. I don’t know what will happen when we’re on holiday! I’m scared to ask the farmer next door in case he laughs at my puny efforts (he has about 5 tractors!).

I’ve just planted seeds for carrots, basil, onions and tomatoes. Waiting to see what grows. We had nearly 100% germination last time although some took much longer than the packets said.

If all the plants are successful I’ll be sick of cucumbers in the summer!

Welcome Nearly Wow gardening in Italy. I would love to be able to grow melons in numbers, I usually manage one or and that's a bit hit and miss. I've got the offer of greenhouse space this year so maybe I'll give it another go. Yeah it's forecast to rain tomorrow .

My curcubit germination rate is pretty abysmal this year. I have two courgettes and 1 ornamental gourd. That's from a first sowing of 2 each of 4 different varieties and a second sowing of another 2 of 3 varieties. Debating whether to try a third go or not - i really want some yellow courgettes this year and otherwise it's not going to happen.

tiz, same here with courgettes, only the round courgettes have germinated and I stupidly put them outside too early. I have planted more. Also only had 2 butternut squash germinate out of 10.

Thanks elephantoverthehill

I’m excited about not needing a greenhouse - I found it set my hay fever off too much to be able to stay in for long.

We’re hoping to grow the melons on a large area of black padded tiles - like bouncy playground tiles. I was thinking the warmth might help. Although maybe it will be too much.

We’re Northern Italy so sunshine and showers - sadly ideal for growing grass as well as vegetables! We have lots of fruit trees too but I don’t know what they are as we moved in at the end of the season. There’s at least apple and pomegranate.