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

Not sure what it went down to here, but it was 9°C when I went out at 9.30 last night and the heating kicked in this morning for the first time.

Morning!
Just got back from the plot - grass frost in the shade at 7 this morning according to one of the old timers there , so definitely autumn on the start line . I did mostly tidying , picked a few bits ( along with some gifted blackberries .) I am going to stop picking the purple french beans , so I can let them set seed now .
Its my butternut squash which are very slow - they are only just getting going .

Oh wow Book frost already. My harvest for the last few days has been really quite similar: tomatoes, cucumber, raspberries and beans. But today I picked a handful of strawberries. I bought the plants in B&Q last year in about August reckoning they must be a late variety and it looks as if they are.

Finally back to the allotment on Friday now that the kids are back at school. Made and planted a new raised bed; I’m hopeful the colder weather will slow the weed growth which has been hard to keep on top of. We’ve had enough potatoes, courgettes, rubber beans, cucumbers, chard, kale to keep us going through the summer so overall a success I suppose but want it to be a bit more planned for next year! Came back from holiday to dead pumpkin plants and all of the Asian veg I’d planned are dead too... if feels like such a waste!
Hoping to get the allotment more sorted through the winter ready for next spring... all the old timers are telling me that’s when the proper work gets done

Elephant - strawberries here too, Input in some new plants last summer and had a mini September harvest, getting a few again now, small and very, very sweet.

It turned very warm here yesterday, picked another lot of raspberries, more potatoes, last of the sweetcorn and some more tomatoes. The ground is very hard and dry making weeding difficult though, forecast rain today so hoping to crack on with weeding later in the week.

Haven't been on here for ages. August was so busy that the allotment went a bit wild so I have a lot of weeding to do. Still harvesting courgettes and sweet corn is finally ripe and the deer didn't get to it - yay! Had fresh corn for dinner last night and it was amazing. Harvested one bed of potatoes. OH MY GOD. So many. I have 3 sacks full and there is another bed still to dig up (which I will leave for a couple more weeks). I dont know where to begin. Do I need to wash them all? Finding somewhere to lay them all out to cure is going to be tricky! And where should I store them? How long will they store for? They are rooster pots.

I lay mine out on the patio table to cure, it is wooden and slatted. I then keep them in my potting shed. Never had that many though!

Another person who fell off the thread. Onions and potatoes are stored.
Apples are disappointing - think codling moth as very few nit affected so only a dozen to store. Lots in freezer for crumbles!

Courgettes, cucumbers and tomatoes still going well. Cucamelons are having a few picked each day. Had too much chard and nit enough spinach.

Weeds, oh my have had the worst time with them.

Raspberries - only had a handful from two rows and this is the second year this has happened. So going to do a major overhaul of the fruit section this autumn. Deal with the weeds, out down some weed suppressant and start again in there I think, half of the black YrR ant plants had no real fruit due to an ? Aphid attack?

My most successful sweet corn to date - 4 kernels :-)

I had 5 plants in a square with one in the middle this year and I was stroking the flowers in an effort to aid pollination. The threads seem to disappear though, I suspect something is nibbling them before they can carry out their pollination duties

Similar here Tiz, that's after I've snapped off the completely bald parts.

Forgot photo

Evening !
oh , how disappointing tiz and Expletive I wonder if its the number of plants needed for really good pollination? I have done much better with a big block together . I used to do okay with a 4 x 4 block ( so 16 plants ) but this year has been really good , but i have , I think ...., 6 x 6 this year .
No plot for a couple of days , but done some picking in the greenhouse , so I can roast more tomatoes and aubergines . My one big fail is peppers this year , they have been rubbish . But I was listening to Bob Flowerdew on GQT , and he says to keep the roots /plant pots in the cool , not in the sun- the roots don't like it much it seems . As my peppers were in full sun in the greenhouse , I am assuming that was why!
Sorted my seed order out today as well , so my seed box is clean and tidy too :)

My sweetcorn were in a 3x3 block this year, they didn't get very tall (maybe 3') and only one cob per plant. Need to rethink next year.

My sweetcorn has done really well. I've got 12 plants (I did 2 rows of 6) and seem to have about 4 cobs per plant. I'm not sure why they haven't all been eaten by the deer yet but I'm sure they'll be decimated soon! I planted masses of sweetpeas right next to them so not sure if that has aided pollination at all or if I just got lucky?

Haven't had time to catch up with the thread since we got back from holiday the other week. Everything seems to have survived us being away.

Discovered that the mini cucumber plants that I was gifted by a neighbour are actually not cucumbers at all but butternut squashes and they have grown some rather fine plants! We've got about 7 squashes coming i think. Neighbour assures me that he didn't get the seeds muddled and they definitely said cucumber on the packet but since he was growing both squashes and cucumbers I suspect that he got his seedlings muddled at some point. This does explain why he had ripe cucumbers while my plants were only just starting to flower

Main crop potatoes had a quite a bit of slug damage which was disappointing. I think we'll try a different variety next year and perhaps nematodes.

Sweetcorn - I think it will depend on the variety grown - some produce more cobs per plants than others. And I guess the way the wind blows across where you planted them. My neighbour has had quite a success so we might have another go next year - we stopped before because the mice were getting at them. But I do love fresh sweetcorn.

Morning
there has been a lot of confused gardeners with curcubits this year Cedar [grin[], but lucky you on the butternuts . I think I have 2 or 3 , but they are very late , and still quite small . This happens to me every year , even though I choose a variety that is supposedly good 'in the North' .
Well, a trip to the plot this morning . I weeded the asparagus bed and around it , picked courgettes and sweetcorn . Then the lady taking over the other half of the plot arrived to take over the very tidy shed I am leaving her with . We mainly chatted ...but we did pick raspberries too - she had a pot as full as mine , and plenty to go at yet .
She is ready to be up and getting hers sorted , while letting me finish my harvesting , so I can now concentrate on getting mine into shape - quite a lot of re-arranging to do .
My sweetcorn has been good this year - just the ends haven't got kernels , but they are long - so no hardship not having that last inch . They variety is 'Swift" , and were successful last year too, so will do those again .

Some of my raspberries are making a bid to grow on the path rather than in the raspberry bed. They will need to be subdued this autumn! We're also going to clear out some old gooseberries and redcurrant bushes which don't do much (and we don't really like gooseberries anyway). This is in part of the very overgrown halfplot we took on about 3 years ago. Once we get that sorted there is just one edge of the plot where raspberries have taken up residency left to tackle. I'm not sure whether they've come from the next door plot which was at one stage completely just overgrown with raspberries or whether more of mine have escaped . Nice autumn raspberries on them though so I don't want to lose them.

What does everyone do with their allotments over winter? Since I think my soil needs more improving I was thinking about chucking down some well rotted manure (perhaps on top of cardboard) and leaving it over November to March. I'm worried about just ending up with tons of weeds though. The beds I put manure on this year have loads more weeds than the others which I'm guessing is seeds in the manure.

Afternoon all!
Titsy - I am down at the plot all over winter too , with still plenty to harvest . Its the time best spent getting everything ready for spring , so everything weeded , dug over if need be. I mulch with manure over winter - once cleared , I just leave it to work into the soil , and if need be , dig in when I am prepping up ready to plant out next year . There is more time when you are not frantically keeping on top of weeds to plan and move things around too. :)
Cedar - raspberries get everywhere . When I dug out a load of autumn ones 2 years ago , I just put some bright green wire around the best cropper/berry to keep , as it is easy forget .
I only had a bit of time to pick today , so flowers , green beans and the first of the perennial spinach

Still picking beans daily to freeze, getting a few mini cucumbers and the odd tomato. Have tidied up some of the raised beds this week - tulip bulbs have gone in one, spring cabbage and beetroot in the other. Propped up my ornamental gourd on a brick, not quite sure why I even grew it tbh. Hoping the warmer weather forecast will spur my tomatoes on a bit.

My first visit to the plot today in 6 days. Rather a lot of harvesting to do, tomatoes, a few beans and raspberries. I've pulled out the sweetcorn, we had 3 meals from it so not so bad. Also pulled out tobacco plants and sweet peas. Lovely weather but just beginning to feel like Autumn. Last Autumn I put in some dwarf fruit trees, one of them has two suckers taller than the actual tree, they are definitely coming from under the graft . I guess I should remove them, but when, any advice please?

Morning
elephant - I would get those suckers out asap - are they small enough to secateur out really close to the trunk? You don't want them to take growth from the grafted one .
I had a short trip to the plot today - mainly went to harvest , -picked sweetcorn , beans , raspberries , and a few calabrese shoots too. I pulled up the purple french beans , they are looking really sad now , but have given me such a good harvest this year . Started to clear where the wigwam had been , but am a bit frail today so gave up :) DH has just gone to cut the grass before the (forecast) rain - its a bit long and lush !

bookbook Where do you put the graft relative to the soil to avoid suckers? I can't remember whether it's just above or just below. Logic says above, because when you graft at the top of a stem to get a standard, you aren't plagued by suckers. So that would say you get more problems with suckers when you've planted a bit deep.

And if you are getting suckers, is there any way of stopping the, apart from removing them every time you see them?

I've just been on holiday for a week so was anxious to get up to check on the plot last night. Everything's still looking good, although my plot neighbour seems to have strimmed a few of my leeks while doing the path - they weren't even that close to it! Oh well. My pumpkin is starting to turn orange which I'm stupidly excited about! Lots of tomatoes, runner beans, cucamelons and raspberries and my sweetpeas are still going strong.

The suckers are gone, thanks for your advice Book.