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

Hi guys, work has been busy busy last few weeks so we've literally popped to the allotment to water and harvest. Glut of toms us nearly done, we've lifted all but one edge of potatoes, betroot all got pulled today apart from one row, beans still coming out of our ears. Made a Jamie Oliver Chutney from the extra toms, onions we dried and are still getting through. We're building the beds as we work backwards and clear the plot. Incredibly yours is awesome!

This is today's harvest. As you can see, my onions are pathetic

Found some runner beans that I'd missed and which had grown enormous. I'll have the smaller ones with dinner and put the big ones into my plum chutney. The broad beans were also ones I'd missed.

I was going to come back and share a photo of my first decent tomato harvest but one of my darling children ate them all.

Instead, here's a picture of one of the crazy tomatoes.

Hello all! I'm after some advice - I've been on the waiting list for an allotment for a while and got an email today to say there's a plot available and I'm next on the list!

Very exciting but also terrifying - I want to grow veggies but have no idea how or where to start. Only have a wee back yard at the moment and the only things I've had any luck growing there are herbs.

Is there a beginner's guide anywhere you could point me in the direction of please???

Greebols very exciting! I bought Andy Cleverlys The Allotment Book which is good, but I am also on here and a few FB allotment pages which are helpful. See what state it's in first, start off slowly and take it from there. You could have a look and see what you can set off in pots at home for late/over winter crops. Off the top of my head spring cabbage is one and also broad beans. I plan on overwintering spring cabbage, garlic and possibly onions.

The duck saga continues. My last 3 lettuce have gone. Green tomatoes been munched. Am not happy. More fresh duck poo so definetly ducks.

Good few hours up there today. Pulled the last of the reds, much better size. Not massive but big enough to peel. Also 3 more courgettes, 20 million cucumbers, a small bag of tomatoes and our first ripe melon. It's not massive, but smells amazing!

Tomatoes seem to really slowed down. Expected a gazillion but only a few. Have trimmed some leaves and pinned some up to encourage them to ripen while its warm enough.

Also sowed some more beetroot in the decimated.lettuce bed. Even if they are small I can pickle then whole.

Tidied the shed, cleaned the chickens out, oh and picked some more french beans. These have been much better then the original crop.

Am now making plans for next year. Desperately want a poly tunnel. Packed away our little mini greenhouse at home and was thinking how much easier it would be to have a polytunnel.

Tomatoes picked today, plants don't look too healthy though so not sure the remainder on the plants will come to much. Still pleased as the two previous times I've tried to grow tomatoes they've got bought before a single fruit was set. Going to try a few different varieties next year to try and spread the crop out a bit.

Frouby how annoying about the ducks. They'd succumb to foxes at our allotments if they weren't well penned in.

Incredibly your plot looks amazing! You've obviously put in loads of work to get it looking so neat and tidy. I don't think mine will ever look as good. It's always going to be a bit rough and ready around the edges

tizwozliz if the plants don't look too happy but you have green fruit on them you can pick them and ripen them in a bowl or tray. Adding a banana helps. I've not grown any this year but in previous years they've got blight but I manage to get a fair crop by picking the green fruit off before the blight gets them.

greebols how very exciting. When you go and look at the plot see what's there already. If you are lucky you may get a plot that someone else has been cultivating this year so it might be OK. Otherwise you'll have to see what needs to be cleared. Don't let that put you off unless it is full of brambles. Most weeds will be dying back in the autumn anyway. You can plant cabbages and other winter greens now for the winter/spring. You can also get green manure seeds which are a crop that you chop up and dig in. Otherwise just clear beds and cover them with something like tarpaulins to stop the weeds growing back.
There are lots of gardening/allotment books out there. I have an RHS one on vegetable gardening. Our library has a whole load so check out yours and you can borrow them see if they are any good as they tend to be hardback books so expensive.

Afternoon!
Flying - that is looking amazingly tidy !
pretty - could you use them as pickling onions ( have you enough?) Mine were all sizes this year, some like pebbles, some a decent size , all in the same row

tiz - they will keep on ripening. If it gets cold, just harvest and pop in a cool dark place and cover with newspaper , they will ripen eventually.
Frouby - grrr on the ducks - have you any chicken wire that you can just pop over your plants as an interim measure. Now they have found you, they will keep coming.
Greebols - wow, exciting ! I agree on the Andi Clevely book, and on popping into your library. A few things to consider when you go to look. Ask about water, access to your plot ( you will be carting all sorts there ) whether you can have a shed. How secure/safe it is . What does it look like - don't worry about weeds , they are everywhere at the moment, but check to see if there are any fruit bushes, perennial plants ( rhubarb/asparagus etc) . Look around at the other plots too - are they basically well looked after, and lots of people around . If you can then ,measure it , and make a plan of the shape and size - with where the sun comes up and down , any hedges. and shaded areas ( This will help to work out where you may want to plant things, or situate shed etc) .
Come back and let us know :) - lots of helpful people on here !

butternut squash look so weird! mine grows up a tall bush. at least it hasn't escaped to the neighbours.

when can I harvest it? when will it turn orange?

Well DuckGate continues.

Was in a rush today and just nipped down to feed and water the chooks.

Guess what I found on my bloody plot? 4 little ducks. Tried to usher them off but they were just doing what runner ducks do and running. Hmmmppph.

Did my chooks and thought at least if they are actually on my plot, next door will realise they are still escaping and do something about it.

Just as I was pulling up road DuckMan is coming down. So pulled over and told him. Again. The cheeky bugger said 'oh I know, they were there this morning but I was in a rush so just left them, they will be eating slugs for you though'. 😮.

I was not amused. Pointed out that I doubt they would be hunting for slugs as they had a buffet bar of all my bloody veg. They won't eat the veg he says. It's the slugs they are after. So I told him they had decimated 14 almost ready lettuces, 4 baby pumpkins, numerous tomatoes as I keep finding chovelled halves and a bed of beetroot seedlings. And that we put a lot of time and effort and money into our plot, have securely fenced our own birds in and that it's down to him to fence his stock in, not me fence against it. And that the fox will take them if they can free range like that.

Was not amused. I didn't shout, just made it perfectly clear that it needs to stop. If it happens again am phoning the council and complaining. That's twice he has been told and I know the fella at the bottom of my plot has told him as well.

I don't mind losing stuff to the weather or wildlife but not domestic animals not secured.

Thank you so much for all the helpful tips! I shall report back tomorrow once I've seen it!

Re-reading the email I'm not sure if I have a plot or just the chance of one:

"I now have vacant plots at XXXX Allotments and you are next on the list.
Due to the number of people on the waiting list and the number of vacant plots i have decided to meet the next 4 people at the entrance to the allotment site on Saturday 8th Spetember at 9.30am."

Am I going to have to take part in some deadly Hunger Games-style battle to get my plot? Is the allotment world really that cutthroat?

I'm leaving in about an hour. If I don't come back, avenge my death.

I'd read that as there are (at least) 4 plots that have become available . Hopefully you will get first choice as you were next on the list.

Good luck

Bookbook - not nearly enough for pickling onions - although if I'd known they were going to end up this small, I could have planted much more densely, as I had loads of sets left over

My tumbling Tom looks really sickly (yellow limp leaves) but its tomatoes are reddening up nicely. It's been fed regularly , just like the other plants.

The "yellow" tomato is producing a purply brown tomato. I may take it back to Dobbies to show them. I'll check it for flavour first!

One of my Brandywine beef tomatoes (one of the smaller ones) is pinkening, so it might not all go into green tomato chutney (some other really large fruits on the plant).

a very quick dip in to read - back later , but Greebols - does that say 8th September ?

I'm leaving in about an hour. If I don't come back, avenge my death

Patience is good in allotmenting but waiting a week for them to show is pretty hardcore.

As you can see, my onions are pathetic

I am the queen of onions, I once had a parade of old men around my plot as I had grown bigger ones than them and my now deceased allotment neighbour went and got the parade together to show them off [It wasn't even his plot at that time - he was just looking after it].

And mine have been horrendous this year. The professional onion growers have had horrendous onions this year. Don't worry about it - we didn't get the spring rains that onions need to bulk up. Just try again next year.

Oh god, I'm an idiot. How the hell am I supposed keep plants alive when I can barely function as an adult??!

Thank you all for pointing that out before I left!

I'm thinking of putting in some onions to over-winter. Unfortunately, the bed that they'd go in (the brassica bed) is still chockablock full of ..... brassicas

I'd through that the romanesco cauliflowers would be out by now - but given that they're showing no sign of flowering I may just have to treat them like a cabbage.

Afternoon!
I am back
Frouby - I would definitely complain, others are annoyed too- he sounds very laissez faire - all very well and good when they are not eating his veg .
Went and watered today - so dry picked courgettes, pulled beetroot, DH found a few beans and raspberries . Started hoeing around the leeks , managed not to chop any off, so thats a plus!
On talking of onions, I have bought some red and white overwinter sets from our local Horticultural shop, so need to get a shift on to prep up a bed for them. Haven't done onions before really - normally stick to shallots and garlic. But they had just come in the previous day, and looked in such good condition. Loose, and buy by the 250 gm , so was able to (sort of) pick out the best ones . Cut flowers ,and came home. I took some pictures of my butternut squashes , as I have them at various stages , so redsummershoes - yours is a baby , they need to get quite big, and then they gradually lose the stripes on the skin, and then it turns soft orange. Wait until the stalk is very hard ( looks like solid cork) .

Butternut squashes , including odd shaped one - but they are all still growing , and will until the frosts, so hoping for a reasonable harvest of them .

Good point about garlic. Any space I release on my brassica bed, I'll need for my garlic.

So in the last few days I've sown:
In small seed trays:
dwarf peas, winter lettuce, beetroot, parsley, kohl rabi, chard, red cabbage - the first three will do into the greenhouse once the tomatoes are finished - the rest will go into the raised beds. the kohl rabi are up already

In the new raised beds:
planted leeks, bunching onions, kohl rabi, two tomato armpits that have grown better than some of my tomatoes, a yellow courgette that I dug up at the allotment before I put the weed fabric down, red cabbages and kales that I bought from a local nursery a few weeks back. It was a dream to plant and not have to dig for 2 hours prior to planting anything.

Sown: last crops of basil and coriander, 400 peas for the shoots, pak choi, more bunching onions, a weird Japanese thingy which was given to me a few years back which I haven't worked out yet [seed looks like amaranthus] - just for the leaves, loads of spinach, and today I'll sow a fair amount of lettuce. I'll also be putting 200 overwintering onions - 100 into each bed. That leaves two beds for all the stuff in my seed trays to be planted into.

We are probably going to just grow two beds of potatoes each year, and concentrate on other more expensive stuff to grow. Pea shoots are good as they don't grow too fast this time of year but do germinate very quickly - and they are expensive to buy, whilst also it not being important which variety they are so you can buy up cheap packets of seeds and just sow them really close together and get greens really quickly.

I went to Wyevale yesterday to buy some veg packs and they were quite expensive so I walked away, and their seed sale of 50p a packet has started so I just bought 10 packets - mainly Franchi seeds for next spring.

You can put garlic and onions in the same bed; the garlic goes deeper so just plant them in the spaces between the onions. So if your onions are in blocks, plant the garlic right in the middle of each square of 4 onions.

Afternoon!
I must admit I have always grown things that are more expensive that we like - asparagus/soft fruit /green beans etc. I think price often equates to how long it takes to harvest rather than how hard they are to grow! Potatoes were always way down the line of priority for me , along with carrots.
Started getting a winter onion bed sorted this morning . It was incredibly warm . Picked a few stray runners , and enough sweetcorn for tea .