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

Wasn't it just!

Just got in after sowing Agretti [no point in keeping the seed you need fresh each year], lettuces, bulb fennel, spring onions [will put under a cloche when the weather turns and Chinese cabbage.

Moved the Long Red Florence onions from the courtyard where they were lacking in light to see if I can get them a bit bigger before harvesting them.

then gave up as it is too hot!

Well, after my first lot of tomatoes being lost to blossom rot I have been out every morning and evening picking them as soon as they start to change colour. This seems to have done the trick and am only losing a few. I have now got lots of lovely red tomatoes and have been busy making my tomato sauce to go in the freezer!

This morning I picked my 1st beetroots, have boiled them and they are now pickling!

I've had to pick all the carrots as they were getting covered in a fly.

I have been a bit lax over the last week or so and just picking the tomatoes. Seeing what we have picked today has really spurred me on and can't wait to start growing again!

Morning all,

I gave up on my onions yesterday and lifted them, absolutely pathetic compared to previous years. I think only about half survived, most of those are smaller than golf balls, not enough for pickling.

I'm bringing home my potatoes a few at a time, not a great harvest either, I've left them a bit long and many have holes in. First sweetcorn picked - they are small and only one cob per plant this year, plants only grew to 2' tall.

On the plus side my tomatoes are doing well, chard is prolific but not bolting and more seedlings have appeared which may be the start of next years crop.

I definitely should have watered my onions more in the spring. Saw my parents' harvest yesterday and they have some really good sized ones. I think they obviously got a lot more water on theirs than I did on mine.

They also gave me some of their tomatoes as they are doing really well and we didn't grow at all this year.

We visited the garden centre and I bought some spring cabbages going cheap - £1.30 for 6 plants. DH has bought some radishes and spring onion seeds to plant and I got some green manure seeds to chuck in a couple of beds.

Day off today so will go over later and do some gardening.

Can I join in please? I have dabbled in veg growing before and been relatively successful but have always had a garden full of kids trampling on everything so pretty much gave up. They are now vampires teens and rarely go out into the sun so I'm going to start again.
I have a good sized east facing back garden and small but usable west facing front garden plus shady, paved side return I'd be very grateful for tips and advice about where to start.

Morning !
well, I think we have all suffered from blossom end rot it seems - heard it on GQT !
Welcome Felix - sorry been a bit busy the last couple of days . It sounds as if you have all the basic skills, so I think the place to start, which is the most important advice I can give - grow what you like to eat . I grow things which are expensive to buy, or hard to find in the shops Front gardens are a bit tricky , as ( or maybe this is just me?) I like mine to look a bit tidy/nice , so how about dwarf fruit trees , or things like artichokes which look amazing and are perennials. On the shady paved side return, maybe something up the wall - how deep shade? you may beable to get away with something on the loganberry/tayberry side of things. At the back I would maybe do raised beds. Make sure you get it well weeded, and fed , and off you go. Lots can be done now - I have sown beetroot, perennial spinach etc, and there are spring greens and cabbage plants for sale. Later you can overwinter garlic, shallots , broad beans . Good luck :)
Well, I have been run off my feet already this week, but thought I had the rest of the week to get dug in . But no , so I went and spent a bit of time this morning trying to get the winter onion bed ready. Not quite there yet . Picked everything I could. Coming to the end of the sweetcorn - there are more cobs, but not as filled up IYSWIM. The early sprouting broccoli has thrown up its first head, and I chopped off a lot of the brokali and calabrese side shoots too . And courgettes ( surprise ! ) The french beans ( green and purple) have all thrown out loads more flowers, so may well get some more yet .
I have been asking, and it seems everyone has had poor onion harvests - even the old timers who never have a problem - so its not just us !

Hi everyone!

I think I'm the only person whose onions have been absolute MONSTERS this year. They were red - perhaps they are more resistant to the conditions? Also am in Scotland so whilst we have had similar conditions they were not perhaps as extreme.

My san marzano (heritage) and orange queen (F1) succombed to blosoom end rot, but my gardener's delight (F1) and craigella (heritage) didn't. So perhaps some varieties more resistent than others (and not necessarily because F1!). I found our san marzanos and orange queen perfectly serviceable once the end had been cut off though.

Our climbing runner beans have been amazing this year (from 5 year old beans!!!!). THey are still going like the clappers. The climbing french beans on the other hand didn't want to climb up the trellis which was very odd....So a pretty poor harvest from them. We tried edamame this year (4 bushes) which only yielded enough for a small bowl of pods. They tasted amazing but wonder if it was too hot for them....Will try again next year.

We ate our 2 aubergines this week that we managed to grow this year (from 2 plants). An imrpovement on the 1 that we managed last year (from 4 plants!).

Welcome to the thread Felix. Definitely only bother with things you like to eat. This is why we avoid courgettes as no-one really likes them in our house.
Clarebellski were your beans climbers? I spent ages the other year trying to train some beans up the poles before I realised I had dwarf beans not climbing ones. Otherwise maybe the heat was too much.

I managed to weed most of my old onion bed earlier in the week - the horsetail had become rampant in some places. I've sown some green manure which will hopefully keep down the weeds. Plan to plant out spring cabbages with more green manure around them this weekend. If there is time would also like to get on and start digging out one of the areas we are going to clear this autumn/winter. It has had cardboard and tarpaulin over the top so I am hoping that has killed the grass/weeds underneath. Will depend on the weather.

Afternoon!
ooh clara - I looked at edamame beans , but do they just have the 2 beans in each pod ?( not sure if I remember aright ) so it felt like you may need a field's worth!- and well done on the onions - did you have any rain up there? We are still dry as dust , though we have had a mere sprinkle today - daft little showers that don't even damp the soil
I managed another hour or so this morning - nearly done the new onion bed. I decided to have a go at digging up the pink fir potatoes - a bit of a joke really . I did harvest yet another courgette - found that some french beans had started setting again , and brought home a couple more sweetcorn. they are not totally filled these later ones, but I cannot complain about the harvest we have had from them at all.
Was chatting to someone further down, I gave him a couple of spare aubergine plants earlier in the year and he very kindly gave me some baking apples in return today :) .
I have just been sorting my seed order out as well today , ready to pop in tomorrow .

Not been very well this week so not been out to check on things at all, raining on and off means it's not mattered too much.

Hoping to get some spring cabbage sown this weekend, although reluctant to sow too much as they took forever last year and I'll need the beds next spring.

Tomatoes still ripening nicely, beans coming along although noticeably slower than over the summer and the patty pan show no signs of stopping!

Many thanks for all the advice bookbook hoping to get started this weekend!!

Took our first sweetcorns off. Off work this weekend so will see how the weather goes.

Well I'm back from my visit. They had 7 half plots, and 1 full - which was huge, and had apparently been used as a junk yard as it was full of scrap metal!

Most of them would need clearing and started from scratch, but one of them had some raised beds, a fruit cage and a compost heap already in place. The rest of the plot has been carefully covered in polythene.

I think that one might be ok for a newbie, what do you think?

Yes definitely go for that one!

What is the water situation on the site?

definitely that one Greebols !!!! did you get first pick I hope?

I get first pick, yes, and there were taps dotted all over the site. There's also some communal apple trees, which is nice.

Ok that's good as having water is very important!

Take that and go get some photos.

Yesterday I harvested our very first artichoke - very tasty! I hadn't realised they were quite so viciously thorny raw, but thankfully they were much better once cooked. I have 1 big plant from last year and 4 new ones from this year so hopefully we'll get decent crops next year. They're in my ornamental perennial veg bed which is being a bit slow to get going but hopefully it will be productive and less work in future years.

Anyone care to share a tomato sauce recipe suitable for freezing before I just go with my normal method of roasting everything with a bit of garlic and rosemary. Extra points if it can use up some patty pan squash too

I've stored a lot of toms and courgette in jars as pasta sauce/base sauce for stews.

Tiz I read a very good tip to make a tomato sauce without any herbs/garlic etc, then you can just season as needed when you defrost. I just chucked all mine in until they broke down and then froze in muffin trays so that they make nice little hockey puck portions!

jars have the advantage that you don't need freezer space.

Have you canned those by processing in boiling water Red?

yes. clean jar. fill with boiling water for 5 min. tip out and immediately fill with boiling sauce and close the lid.

Afternoon!
I was down at the plot early this morning. In the drizzle, admittedly , but I got my winter brassicas planted up - cauliflower/cabbage/spring greens. All settled in nicely under enviromesh. It is proper raining now at long last, so for once I timed it right :)

I roast my tomatoes with olive oil/balsamic vinegar/garlic/salt/pepper ( and any aubergines I have )
I fry/saute onions or shallots in a pan on the hob, along with any other veg to hand - mostly diced courgette -but chopped up french beans, torn up spinach etc , cook them until soft and then add the roasted tomatoes. Then season with basil/oregano etc. I've found that frying the courgettes stops them going all mushy, so they still have a bit of texture left.