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

Morning all!
well, so bright and sunny , but it was 3º when I set off for the plot this morning - I could see my breath !
tiz - anything is nice to pick now , I am finishing off tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers have finished, but I still have some aubergines growing , little star that 'Jackpot' has been .
DrWhy - I think we all have our own way of putting the plots to bed. I mulch as much as possible with rotted manure. I put it on fairly thickly after weeding/forking over. If I run out of manure, I sow a green manure instead. I am on chalk, with a fairly thin top layer of soil, so I feel it protects mine a bit, stopping too much leaching out. Chicken manure pellets I use as a boost whilst things are growing.
First day back at the plot, when I could finally get my welly on my bad leg . So I tried to take it a bit easy. I pulled up the frosted courgette plants , picked the last few on them. Pulled up the purple and green french beans, and tidied away the wigwams. Lots to pick off them too. Pulled a couple of baby cabbages to thin out the row. Then started to dig out the last few Pink Fir potatoes. By then my leg decided it had had enough, so just picked the few raspberries and came home.

Hopefully can get going properly later this week - I still have garlic and shallots to plant, and some germinated beetroot and chard plugs, which have been waiting patiently !

Beautiful day today, weatherwise. I have started clearing 3 of the beds ready for the winter. I picked the last beans, courgettes, cucumbers and tomatoes, and took all the plants to the compost heap. I picked another ice cream container of raspberries and shared half with a plot neighbour. There will be more to pick next weekend and then that will be it. I've also got a few strawberries ripening at the plot and in the garden, not very many but just enough for me if they survive. The plan for half term is go and get manure from a stable owner I have christened 'Sue Poo' (so I know who she is on my phone) and then cover the non active beds in black polythene. It worked really well last year.

I've got strawberries too Elephant, on the new plants I put in in Spring rather than the established ones. Just enough for a tasty treat for me as I work, not enough to take home! Plenty of raspberries too. I picked all my green tomatoes on Friday and made chutney this morning.

I'm sorry I missed you last Sunday Meet0nTheIedge. I'm just trying to get the motivation to make salted cucumbers as they went down very well last Christmas.

Thank you very much for all the advice folks. We’ve got the manure we bought at the garden centre so going to give DH the good news that he can spread it as a mulch rather than digging it in - I’m quite pregnant so he’s doing the heavy work for me!
I think I will have to get the root veg out reasonably soon, the first year I tried leaving them until I needed them then the ground froze solid and it was a nightmare to get them out!
Next job will be to tackle the fruit bed I think, once we’be picked the last of the raspberries cut them back along with the currents and get the old straw up from round the strawberries.
I love seeing what other people have grown and what they do with it. I was worried about what we’d do with all the carrots but they are so tasty that I keep snacking on them while I’m cooking!

Me too Elephant, I got settled on a table and then felt a bit shy of circulating, it's a bit daunting walking up to a table of strangers. Also I had to leave early. Was a lovely day though.

Meet0nTheIedge Yes I agree. We should take a leaf out of Bookbook's book!

www.waitrosegarden.com/plants//asparagus-pacific-2000/classid.2000016097/?gclid=Cj0KCQjw3ebdBRC1ARIsAD8U0V5pqNIzQhbiUjGbkcKNQb5xxr24gZ1_fn4NGBgtEStIH89FgqPbhLcaAv1pEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds&dclid=CL6g-Gh9d0CFYrW3godc0EFTg
I was planning to start my asparagus bed in the spring but this seems a good offer and I could prepare the ground at half term, it has been covered for the last year to get the bindweed to the surface. Does anyone know the variety? Any advice would be welcome. If I plant in November does 2019 count as the first year?

elephant - but then I did more chatting than crochet - I'm just nosey really !

DrWhy - yes, I do as least as possible, though I do like a bit of digging/weeding . Trying to get veg out of frozen ground is no joke. Root veg store well though .
elephant - one of the varieties I grow is Pacific 2000 - its a nice one . It doesn't seem to say whether it is a 1 year or 2 year crown as far as I can see? I have not seen asparagus offered to be planted in November, but you are quite south , so may get away with it. mmm - tricky eh? but I would err on the safe side, see how it establishes .

I think Pacific2000 is one of the varieties I grow (with Gijnlim and Stewart’s Purple). They’ve all been tasty and trouble free so far. We planted them in spring 2017 and did some limited picking last year, so looking forward to our first proper season in 2019 :)

Really hoping my new perennial bed gets going for next year - so far I've had a handful of wineberries and chilean guavas, 3-4 artichokes and some herbs, next year I'm hoping to have better crops of all of those plus angelica, strawberries, garlic chives, tasmanian pepper leaves, carolina allspice, feijoa flowers, persian shallots and skirret.

Elsewhere I’ve cleared most of the raised beds into winter mode; chard, pak choi and tsai tai still growing, garlic and broad beans sown outdoors. Pea shoots, herbs, lettuce, stirfry greens and spring onions are all sprouting busily in the greenhouse. Citrus trees and a few other tender plants are inside now too and the tomatoes and cucumbers are fading but still going so the greenhouse is a bit crowded! Generally though my first summer with a greenhouse has been brilliant - absolutely loads of delicious tomatoes and a reasonable number of cucumbers. Next year I'm hoping to have better luck with peppers and melons as I don't think they were in big enough pots.

I’ve not yet cleared the bean/sweetcorn/sweet potato beds as the sweet potatoes are still in - they're still looking good and green so I think I'll leave them for a while yet. I’m planning a good mulching with bark chips now with green manure in any gaps where I’m not growing stuff, then a good top dressing with compost or manure in the spring.

Raspberries are over here. I have 5 allgold plants which have got nicely established (2 years old) but I find I'm not a huge fan of the flavour - they're not quite tangy enough for me and I much prefer my summer ones. So I'm a bit torn whether to root them up and pop in a different autumn variety, maybe doing it gradually so I don't lose the whole crop at once.

Strawberries are having a bit of a last hurrah here too, just enough for a sneaky nibble if I catch them before the slugs do! Bit of a disappointing year for apples but the trees are still youngsters (planted in winter 2017) – I'm hoping that they’re having a rest year ready to crop fully next year.

We are waiting patiently for our asparagus. This year we picked a couple of stems, hopefully next year we'll have more to pick.

I am doing a mixture of manure and green manure on my plot. I think the manure works best but the difficulty is transporting it from where it is delivered to my plot - the other end of the site basically. There's a limit to how many barrowloads DH and I can manage. So I've planted some beds with green manure as well although in previous years I've struggled a bit with the digging it back in again. I think because we're in the south the growing season starts early then the plants are trying to grow while i'm trying to dig them in!

I'm growing on clay so anything that helps to break up the clods is good. I also use blood, fish and bonemeal pellets during the growing season to give everything a boost.

Last weekend was more clearing and digging. Harvested chard, spinach and raspberries. The raspberries were inherited on the wild plot I took on a couple of years ago. I think they have migrated from where they were originally planted to the margins of the plot in between some nettles. So picking is an interesting experience!

I do admire the crochet designs that some of you do for Woolly Hugs. So clever!

Afternoon all
getting a bit wild here
Una - that combination of varieties are the same that I have -( it was a collection from Pomona fruits )- we like the purple one particularly .
Cedar - snap with cutting down/digging in green manure. Its hoss work as my Dear Dad would have said - so much harder than it sounds .
I am still having to go careful with my leg - it flared up a bit yesterady after going down to the plot, so an hour yesterday, and hour today. Not really enough time for me to really get on top of things, but needs must.
Yesterday I finished digging up the last of the pink fir potatoes , and today I dug up all the blackened dahlias, ready to dry off and store over winter. Finished over these two days prepping up for the new asparagus bed , so now I just need to get on top of weeding !! . Blimming slugs having a bit of a feast on my spring greens , so I caved and threw a few organic slug pellets around . The winter onions are all through and growing well though, so thats something!

So with regard to the asparagus, should I plant more than one variety?

you don't need more than one variety per se elephant - the selection is designed to allow you to harvest over a longer period

Okay if I join in? We have been on the waiting list for a year and have just signed for a plot. It's very exciting, after being three years without a garden! Our plot is a decent size; the only drawback is that it runs along side a road (quiet one though). It doesn't seem to be in too bad a state - there's one bed which looks a little scary but the others seems to just have planting in that has run to seed. We have three apple trees, a plum and something else..cherry maybe..but the apples don't look great. At the end of the plot, there's three massive rhubarb plants, a currant bush and some raspberries.

Tomorrow was going to be our first day down there but having checked the forecast, I don't think so. Sunday is looking better so the plan is to get a couple of the smaller beds cleared plus some of the paths.

Evening!
Welcome Hovering :) - sounds good, and exciting , with a lot of stuff already there . And a really good time to be taking it over . You have time to lick it into shape, and maybe even get some overwintering stuff in . Apple trees - if they just look sad, a good prune, and a really good feed will do the world of good . Nosey person here - are you North/South/East/ West ?
Not a bad idea about tomorrow - even today has been horrendous here , so I didn't go . But I must try to go tomorrow, so it will be interesting.
Hope everyone is safe and sound from the wind

I was just about to place my order for the crowns from Waitrose and they wanted to add £15 shipping costs! Back to googling. I will however ask at my local branch if I can do it as a 'click and collect'.

Very windy here (SE) but dry and warm so I managed half an hour of weeding and wrt home with rhubarb, runner beans and two pumpkins.

Welcome Hovering, how exciting! Hope the weather lets you get some work done this weekend. Hope everyone else is ok too.

Lost the greenhouse to the wind again, I need to figure out a way to attach the frame to the wall rather than just by a tab on the cover. So tomatoes are officially over, rescued the last of the ripened ones and picked the green ones too and will see if they ripen up indoors.

Also picked some strangely shaped pumpkins. I've got 3 now that I'll carve for halloween. Normally use the flesh for soup and roast the seeds too.

Not worth trying to do anything today with the weather, but hoping i can spend some time tomorrow tidying things up a bit.

Afternoon all from windy North !
Dry, and very warm too , goodness knows what this weather is playing at.
elephant - that p&p is daylight robbery!
tiz - we have a little put up aldi greenhouse on the wall during spring/summer - DH drilled a couple of holes to take screws in the brick, and we tied the frame to those if that makes sense?
Love that pumpkin - it looks like an enormous Uchiki Kuru squash - could it have cross pollinated?
I was down at the plot for an hour this morning, I looked like Worzel Gummage when I got back, the wind was a bit erm stiff ! I have managed to nearly finish tidying up the fruit cage , and picked broccoli and raspberries, before the leg started to grumble a bit. But a good go - managed to get loads of stubborn bindweed out fairly easily, which is always a plus .
Fingers crossed it stays dry tomorrow , as I will beable to finish that job completely, but I am not holding out much hope looking at the forecast . hey ho !

I'm going to have a go at this recipe tonight to use up my cucumbers tonight, well it's an excuse to open the gin. Lovely and warm here today too, so I managed to get to the plot to pick more raspberries. I did a bit of weeding but it needs a bit more of a concerted effort.

bookbook I'm in North Yorkshire. Well this weekend just goes to show you should never believe weather forecasts. Saturday was actually quite a nice day here - very autumnal but dry - Sunday, on the other hand, was awful but I still managed a couple of hours down there.

Took out all of the tall weeds with seeds on and part cleared one of the larger beds. Then measured everything so I could draw up a plan with a glass of wine at home out of the way of the wind and rain.

The person who I took over from had obviously done quite a lot of work last year on it - the membranes under the paths, for example, are new and well laid but the problem is the size of the raised beds. Rather than doing rectangular ones, he has put in 6ft square ones which are impossible to reach the centre of. So I am torn between rejigging all the beds to a 4ft width or laying flags down the centre.

I took stock of what is already there: I have rhubarb, currant (I think black), autumn raspberries, strawberries, leeks, parsnips, three apple trees, a plum tree and another tree (no idea as yet what). Next weekend (weather dependent) I shall finish the large bed and do a couple of the small ones. Can anyone tell me how high broad beans grow? I have never grown them before, but my daughter has decided that they are one of her new favourite veggies!

Morning!
well, I decided to have a quick go at the plot. It was a bit mizzly, but not bad . I planted out my last ditch beetroot and perennial spinach plants , and pulled some beetroot. It was not too claggy underfoot. In fact , perfect for weeding, but I don't have the time today , of course .... I have to really try hard now - my poor sprouts are now crawling with black aphids after all the white fly - desperate measures ahead - have to decide yes or no to organic bug spray :(
Hovering - not a million miles away then ! - I often think where I am ( edge of the Wolds) is like a Bermuda Triangle for weather forecasters it is never worth making any decisions until the day - as it's usually wrong. It did rain all day yesterday . That sounds like a fantastic amount you have - if its a blackcurrant, stroke the stem or branches, and it will smell of blackcurrants. If it doesn't it could be red or white . Broad beans depends on variety - I grow 'The Sutton' which is a compact variety suitable for wind and overwintering - it grows to about 15-18 " , but others grow taller - up to 3' and may need a bit of support .

bookbook Not so far away at all - and Bermuda Triangle for weather forecaster sums it up very nicely! Thanks for the tip about black currants - I shall call in on the way back from work this evening. Broad bean wise - Aquadulce Claudia was recommended to me. Anyone know how high they grow?