Allotment/Veg Patch Thread 14 ! growing into summer

[bookbook]

Well, here we are - its the end of May and after a cold spell , we are heading for summer .
Everyone welcome to join us in the joy of growing your own , sharing the ups and downs , tips and advice
previous thread HERE

After ages of rain we finally got some sun this afternoon which was most welcome for us, the plants and the bees. We're doing well for strawberries and have had the first few raspberries, but my French beans and brassicas have been nibbled badly, and my runner beanplants are barely taller than when I planted them out a month ago. On the positive side courgettes are flowering and the first cucumber is nearly ready.

Morning!
Beautiful sun here this ,morning , after 2 days of rain , almost warm :)
Aquitaine - I think growers of veg are glad to see spares planted up - I hate throwing anything away if it can be of use
I have visitors this weekend , so no plotting for me , but did just pop down to pick some veg , and got given a cabbage :)
Picked a few peas and broad beans .
Everything really flourishing - especially the weeds ......

Hello! Can I join, please? I'm new to veg growing, and have this year taken on a small raised bed at our local allotments and am growing other bits in tubs in the garden. I'm really enjoying it so far. Using this year as an experiment to see what grows and what I like growing. So far at the raised bed I've planted: purple sprouting broccoli, beetroot, peas, potatoes (went in much too late I think), leeks, fennel (for the foliage/flowers only). In the garden I have tomatoes, strawberries, one pepper plant, herbs and radish.
I need some advice about my veg in the raised bed - I have planted the purple sprouting broccoli and beetroot way too dense (my fault, novice mistake ) and it's all coming up! Do I thin it out? What do I do with the spare plants? Will they grow ok somewhere else (in tubs?)?

Beetroot and PSB can be pricked out into modules and moved on.

PSB though will not produce until next spring, and you probably really only need a few plants. They grow to about a metre tall, and nearly a metre wide if you let them. but other things can grow underneath them like lettuces that you can crop whilst the PSB is growing. You need to be vigilant with all brassicas on the cabbage white caterpillars as they will strip the leaves overnight.

Beetroot needs around 3-4 inches to grow per plant, so thin those out and if you have somewhere else to plant them, transplant into gaps in between other plants.

Have a look at intercropping.

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Hi, has anybody used anything like this? If so, is it as good as it sounds?
I was thinking of using one in my greenhouse.
Hope you are all having a productive day in the allotment/raised bed today.

Hi @sackrifice ! Thanks, I will try thinning out both. Oops, I didn't realise the PSB would grow so big - newbie error, not done enough research before planting. Luckily I'm intending to grow enough for my parents as well as us! I'm thinking of transplanting some into big pots at home so if the caterpillars do eat the allotment ones I will have an insurance policy.
Will look up intercropping - sounds a good idea!
Rainy damp weather here with some patches of sun. Not cold though so I've been out in the garden. Everything is flourishing here too. Allotment tomorrow.

I've taken all the mowings and trimmings from last weekend to the allotment, I've taken a new wormery that I started earlier this year that got completely drenched and the worms were doing the backstroke yesterday so I've taken them as well, and I've bulked up the new compost heaps that I started 2 weeks ago and I've got utterly drenched in doing so.

I need to rethink my wormery and get a better lid arrangement so that they don't drown again.

I was thinking of using one in my greenhouse.

I've grown in all sorts of different containers, they should be fine

I have PSB too and didn’t realise how big it got, it’s grown quite tall over the past couple weeks 🤣.

@sackrifice
Thanks, I think I’ll buy one and grow some veg for the winter.

I don't think I really realised quite how much I was going to have to battle with critters as well as weeds when I took my allotment on.

MiniSilence was really excited when we planted up his little patch with peas, carrots and marigolds. The birds took every leaf off the peas, the slugs have massacred the marigolds and something has been tunnelling through the carrots. I noticed some damage so lifted them this weekend. We lost about 50% to splitting and pest damage. I chopped them into a bowl for him to eat so that there looked like more. He was still delighted. I will plan a bit better next time.

At least I got wise enough to net the blackcurrant bushes this weekend. I have to decide how far I want to go with netting - there are a lot of raspberries and blackberries to cover.

Most things plodding along slowly here. My beans aren't looking great, battered by the wind and the rain.

A couple more radishes picked today and courgette season is nearly here.

My runners are really struggling,have just ordered in some extras as we love beans and it would be very sad not to have any. My Japanese wineberry seems to be ailing - looks as if it ran short of water though this seems unlikely! Total failure on carrpts again,thought they were meant to be easy!

In more positive news the courgettes are flowering, cherries are orangey red, strawberries are ripening faster than I can keep up with picking, raspberries are starting, first cucumber is ready and first tomato is going orange. Oh and the currants are getting ripe so I must get them netted - thanks for the reminder.

And yes to battling with pests - blackfly, slugs, snails all an ongoing struggle here. And strawberries have to be carefully checked for woodlice....

I'm struggling with a lot of pests this year too, including my own flipping cat and toddler! My gooseberry bush was hit with sawfly yesterday for the second time this year. Luckily I noticed before they'd done too much (more) damage. Poor Gerty!
Managed a quick hour at the plot yesterday, mostly weeding but also picked a few berries. Hoping to get up and plant a few flowers out today.

I've been up on the blocks after a wrist operation, but getting back there now. It being winter in Melbourne, it's citrus fruiting time, and both my mandarin container trees are doing very well indeed, and the espaliered lemon has eleven, count them, eleven lemons. 🍋 Only taken eight years. I'm so chuffed, though lemons are so common here, they are left out in boxes on pavements for passersby to help themselves.

Rain has arrived at last and winter grass is springing up everywhere, boo hiss. Has to be pulled out before it seeds.

I now have the privilege of a resting veggie bed, one I can pamper for the late winter/spring planting.

Una, I’m worried about my beans too, they don’t seem to be filling out and some are flowering early (not yet frown very tall), beans are my favourite so I need a good crop.

Decided to pick my 2nd lot of peas early and have them as mange-tout.

My fruit isn’t doing well, too wet I think?

My runner beans have barely grown too - although the extra ones I sowed with sweet pea plug plants in a big pot have come away and are already the same size as the plug plant runners that I'd sown a month earlier and then planted out about 3 weeks ago (around the same time I sowed the extra seed ).

My planter full of mixed salad leaves has barely come away (certainly not enough to "cut and come again" --I took a trim but that was marginal) - and that was sown on 24 April

However my "bright and spicy" salad mix (brassica based) and the mizuna (both in the raised bed) have done well and I've already taken a number of cuts. Shame dh now says he doesn't like mizuna

Evening!
welcome wideawake - we all learn as we go along - yes PSB is big, and cabbage white caterpillars love it too , so net it ! :)
hello echt - is this still the same thing that caused being on the blocks last time you posted , or something new ? At least able to not stress too much as you go into winter. Lemons!
I do think the cold and wet has caused a lot of problems with things really getting going . My purple french beans are fine , now twirling up the canes nicely . The ones that I sowed late and planted out last week are looking a bit battered from wind and rain, and something has nibbled a few too
In fact this year is a real rollercoaster for me in terms of how things are going .
I finally got to go to the plot this afternoon , DH came to help . Weeds are rife . Went to plant up the last succession leeks , some plugs of beetroot and spinach , and a few late germinating annual flowers .
Goodness knows what has happened, but the last lot of leeks I planted have just disappeared - 2 still growing out of their dibbed holes out of 40 - not a sign and I have had to dig up another 5 plants out of the brassica cage due to cabbage root fly . Really disappointed . But the peas and broad beans are in much better shape than last year .
The courgettes are just starting to flower , but they are looking a bit sad, as are the squashes . Its just a bit too cold I think , so a bit of warmth should help .
On a better note - picked the very first raspberries of the season , and a very few strawberries - which are usually going well by now .
I had a little furtle around the potatoes ( Charlottes) and brought some home for tea - they were delicious

So - onward and upward with weeding a priority .
I have all my autumn and winter cabbages and cauliflowers pricked out , and a spot for them to go when I dig out the bolted chard ....
Must sow some more beetroot and spinach.
Gratuitous pic of peonies , as they are finally breaking bud ! :)

Feeling very smug and almost like a real gardener as for the first time ever I've "strung" the supports for my tomatoes in the greenhouse. This time last year I didn't even have a greenhouse

All bar 2 of the tomatoes I've grown from seed - and the other two were from my GB, to whom I've given three of my tomato plants

Wowee booky those peonies are STUNNING.

I too am jealous of echt's 🍋 🍋 🍋 🍋 🍋 🍋 🍋 🍋 🍋 🍋 🍋, and I am sending good wrist vibes your way.

It's raining again here. So much rain. My grass is growing but that's about it. The lack of light, plus the cold nights, means that my tomatoes are struggling. Home ones are OK ish but my more exposed ones at the plot are actually turning blue! It's nearly Midsummer!

Yes, I am having a moan! OK, one upside - I have loads of nigella and am cutting big frothy armfuls for the house. Some I sowed, then found that nature had done a much better job of sowing and growing it for me.

Hello, bookbook - I've had my wrist that was broken last year repaired but of course this still meant weeks in a splint and no driving, as well as watching the garden go to rack and ruin. Because it never gets really cold here, there's always something growing, in this case the winter grass and weeds. You don't get quite the same downtime that the English winters affords.

I'm looking forward to better luck with tomatoes this year, though mysteriously, the tomato crop across Au was rubbish last year, and most amateur grower reported poor yields. Mine were all big and soggy or little and soggy, no blight, insects, etc. Just rubbish.

Zebra I am jealous of your Nigella! I love them but I must have sown my seed quite late cause my seedlings are still tiny!
My psb seem to be doing very well, one plant is already massive, but everything else seems to be quite slow at the moment. My plot cucumbers and pumpkins have been munched and 1 of my 2 cucumbers at home isn't looking too happy. I hope we get a glorious July to make up for this June!
Book - 38 leeks gone?! That's rubbish, what would it have been? Birds maybe? At least your peonies are looking beautiful.

I'm loving the pics of produce. They look so good. We've just realised that the raspberries in the garden at home have been hiding their fruits rather well. Nothing to photograph as they went straight down the hatch, shared out between me and MiniSilence .

I haven't managed to get to the allotment since Saturday. I was planning to go tonight but I had to taxi Dd to the County Scout camp to put up tents for the beavers. I had a little wander around the site and was pleased to see clumps of lady orchids. My peppers a home are putting on a few more leaves but are growing painfully slowly.