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

Hi MereDint - the normal advice for grafts is to plant so that the graft is 2-4" above the soil level . If it is in a pot , plant it so the soil level is the same as in the pot , if that makes sense?

And yes , tedious , but you just need to keep cutting out the suckers

Hello, here is a mystery for you. A few weeks ago I noticed two leaves sprouting, I thought, ooh my butternut squash seeds has grown from the compost. I put a cover over, watched it. I remembered a friends advice to have butternut vine raised up and gravity makes a long 'nut very useful for cooking. But it never turned into a butternut!
I have never bought this type, eaten this type, I have scratched my head a lot wondering how this is growing. Then I suddenly realized, I eat packets of pumpkin seed. Sprinkle on salads, toasted with sea salt etc etc.
So my question is, can a pumpkin seed from a packet, germinate and grow?
I know peas can grow from a pack of dried peas, done that. Corn can grow from popping corn, I do that a lot.(guinea pigs love it)
I have left my potatoes as I didn't want to disturb the squash.

Hi everyone, am I OK to join in? I'm a beginner and have no idea what I am doing. It might help me to follow what you guys are doing and when! I'm currently debating/googling when to see if my corn is ready, I peeled the leaves down from one ear last week and inside is what I thought was just really small kernels which were not yet ready but now I'm wondering it I have unfertilised kernels. Any advise, or should I just twist that ear off and open it properly to see what's happening? The silks went brown a few days ago. Thanks :)

Sorry I can’t help with your mystery willow.

I’m trying to get the layout sorted at our plot (I laid it all out yesterday!) and put raised beds in but they are looking like they are going to be expensive... Then I need to fill them...! Any cost savings ideas? I’ve tried Freecycle, gumtree... etc

Woo hoo - corn success

Evening!
welcome WaitingforToto - corn is a bit tricky to say the least , but look to see if you can tell that all the silks have turned brown - each one is a pollinated kernel inside , so there are lots! - you can usually move them, and see if there are many still silver , not brown .. Being nosey , whereabouts are you- North/South/East/West? Ask away about anything - usually someone can help :)
willow - that looks suspiciously like a Uchiki Kuri , so regardless of our knowledge , it would seem that yes , they do germinate from dried seeds!
Have not been to the plot for a few days , as I have been a bit poorly , but had the quickest trip to check and pick fruit this afternoon . Not so many raspberries as I expected , but I think the new plotter taking over may have been - and I said to help herself to some . And the broccoli was staring to flower too At home went and picked more plum tomatoes and aubergines to roast , along with the salad ones , which are ripening fast now .

Thanks for the warm welcome @bookbook! Your baby aubergines look great! I did peel some leaves back from a cob last night and it looks like the kernels are bigger further down, but they are very pale in colour, so maybe need to ripen a bit more? I’m in Yorkshire (Leeds). I’m a beekeeper and it’s warm enough for my bees to be out and about at the moment here so I’m hoping there’s still some warm that can help my veggies along 😊

Pretty little pumpkins willow. Nice to get a little unexpected surprise like that.

Welcome to the thread WaitingforToto. I am jealous of your bees - I do like the idea of keeping them. How many sweetcorn cobs have you got? You could always harvest one and try it.

We've had a good tomato harvest this year and no blight so far.

Hi, I am taking on my first allotment from November. I think I am lucky with the plot as it has been well maintained and is currently laid out as four beds with grass paths running in between, and around the edge of the plot.
The tap isn’t too close and hosepipes aren’t allowed. There is also no storage, does anyone have any thoughts on whether a shed with guttering and water butt is overkill or a good idea?

What are people’s top tips for fool proof allotments. I hope to go quite often (I have the half hour allotment book) but will have three dc in tow including a toddler

Evening !
what a fabulous day it has been .
Welcome lovemylot - sounds like you have a good plot ( are you North/South/East/West ? - just nosey! ) in truth I would definitely say a shed with guttering is so much worth it - storage too. But any way of harvesting rainwater to use is helpful .
I will be honest - I have no idea on fool proof allotments. I have never managed it.
It is so dependant on how much time you have , and how big it is .
My top tips
Grow what you like to eat .
Don't fret or panic - you will get weeds /slugs/pests and weather
Its a marathon , not a sprint ( very , very important one that)
Good Luck !
So I had a very gentle hour at the plot - mainly harvesting flowers, sweetcorn and raspberries . I took up the baby pumpkin plant , picked off all the pumpkins and weeded around it . Also cut all the side sprouts on the old calabrese, pulled those up and weeded there too. Found a courgette :) .
My garlic arrived in the post , and I have a new variety of banana shallots to try overwintering - "Griselle"
This afternoon , I realised I had better start hacking back some tomato leaves - I have so many ripe/semi ripe tomatoes . And as per my feed 'em and love 'em regime , they are still setting tomatoes . I'm not sure you can really tell where the trugs worth of leaves have gone from , and most of the tomatoes are hiding in the foliage - not showing in the pic

Two trays of tomatoes roasted for sauce and one bottle of raspberry cordial made today. The tomatoes are going to have to come out tomorrow as two bushes are showing blight. Another allotment holder said she suspected blight on her toms too. I will be getting ready for winter soon, putting down manure and covering some of the beds with black polythene. Welcome Lovemylot it's exciting isn't it.

Thank you for the warm welcome !

Morning all,

I had half an hour at the plot yesterday, picked yet more raspberries (I've had more this year than in the entire time I've had the plot which is 6 years). I was given a load of rhubarb by a neighbour which I will stew and freeze today and am still picking tomatoes and cucumbers. Also strawberries, just a few.

I'm spending so much time on the raspberries I have got behind with weeding but the ground has been so dry it has been difficult anyway, hoping the rain forecast for this week will help.

I've been making jars of oven dried tomatoes with herbs and garlic in olive oil, which are a bit fiddly but delicious, and dill pickled cucumber. I also bought a huge bag of pickling onions for £3 at a farm shop which I am doing in batches, I like this time of year.

Lovemylot - welcome! I think a shed/gutters etc is a very good idea. I have a tap by my plot and can use a hose (which especially helps in the height of summer when neighbouring plots need watering as a holiday time favour) but if I didn't I'd absolutely want a shed and water butt. Check your site rules though, ours are strict on position and you are not supposed to let your shed cast shade on anyone else's plot. As for gardening with DCs in tow, you need to keep them busy to stop them wandering off onto other people's plots (not just because that's wrong but for safety reasons, people leave sharp tools lying around etc. My plot neighbours rarely visit without their young DCs, they have kept things fairly low maintenance with a lot of fruit bushes. They also have a toy wheelbarrow and let the DCs dig in a bare patch.

I haven't been up to the plot for a few days but tomorrow I have a whole day child free (woohoo) so I'm hoping to get a fair bit done.

Raspberry cordial sounds good elephant

Does anyone make gifts from their produce? I'm wondering if there's anything I can make to gift people at whispers Christmas. Although I don't really have a glut of much, except runner beans 😄

Hi everyone,

Welcome lovemylot - I'm afraid I don't have much in the way of advice as I'm a newbie too. I let my 5 year old have a corner of our plot to dig in though, and we attempted (with moments of dramatic failure and modest success) to grow a sunflower fort around it. I also encourage her to get involved with watering. One of her favourite games though is to make "allotment soup" in an old bowl - just water with lots of shredded grass/weed leaves and petals/mud. There's usually a big make believe story that goes with it!

My plot has been sorely neglected (already!) whilst we've been settling into the new house and also making our newest family member feel at home - Max the whippet puppy.

Every curcubit on the site has been annihilated by powdery mildew this month. So I've brought home our Halloween pumpkins, and I'm pretty impressed by them! Not sure we'll do it every year though, because it takes up so much space, and DD will still want to go to the commercial pumpkin patch The courgette needs to come out too, and I think I'll give the round type a miss next year. The butternut squash is still putting on healthy growth though, so I can't decide whether to try keeping it on. Any thoughts?

We've harvested some sweetcorn and now I can totally understand why people rave about the difference in taste when you grow your own! Wow!

Other than that I think we might get one cabbage. Which I might serve with the two carrots. But I said I'd be happy with literally anything this year, and I am ^^ It's been a lot of fun already!

Some photos

Afternoon!
very jealous of the strawberries Expletive
and those pumpkins are beautiful Acquitaine ! I am leaving my butternut squashes as long as I can . I have 2 really good size ones , but the rest are a bit small. They can hang on until the nights get cooler , or the weather turns nasty.
I make jam and pickles Pyxie , as small 'extra' gifts . I try to make things that you can't buy if possible . So I have made rhubarb and vanilla jam, will be making pear and lemon jam , as my pears are nearly ready .
I had an hour of weeding this morning - finished prepping up the garlic and shallot bed , and tidied around the leeks and savoys . I picked all the last of the green beans - I will be pulling those up this week , and just a few raspberries too .
I have just picked the tomatoes out of the greenhouse , after hacking back leaves yesterday .
Supposedly turning autumnal , but could really do with some rain now . Its getting pretty dry .

@bookbook happy to say, Uchiki Kuri is delicious in the slow cooker with pork and dumplings. Thank you for the identification.

I spent a couple of hours at the plot today, did a load of strimming and some weeding. Nowhere near as much as I thought I'd get done though! I have next Monday off too so I'm planning to prune the blackcurrants and maybe plant out my autumn onions and garlic sets. It's not too early is it?
I saw a lizard on my plot today which was very exciting!

Evening all, I just wanted to share my latest adventure in leek growing. I let some bolt and self seed this time last year, resulting in lots of baby leeks this summer, some of which again bolted. I noticed that one of the flower heads had germinated hundreds of tiny seedlings so I have carefully picked them off and planted them in a seed tray.

Book did you get your rain? Torrential here for 48 hours after several weeks of hot dry weather. Hoping it will make weeding easier as I am very behind.

Pyxie a lizard! I have slow worms on my plot and am very fond of them. DS and I saw a lizard while walking on sandy heathland the other day.

Pyxie Jams and pickles are what people usually go for, though jams are less universally welcome now we're all trying to avoid sugar. I'm not sure many people would appreciate a jar of carefully preserved runner beans Can you do anything with the byproducts? even there I don't have much idea apart from christmas decorations - silver spraying teasel heads type of thing. (I'm posting in the belief that really bad ideas can sometimes stimulate good ideas )
.

I made this runner beam chutney a few weeks ago, haven't tried it yet but I made a similar one last year and it was lovely.

www.riverford.co.uk/sur/recipes/view/recipe/runner-bean-chutney

well, did we get rain Expletive !
Sunday through to Monday morning 19.2 mm
Tuesday 29.3 mm

Today so far 8.4 mm
I have managed a trip this morning - pulled up the french beans , cut flowers and a couple of courgettes , and started pulling out sweetcorn plants . I think what cobs are left on won't be up to much now , out will take out on the next visit .
Tidied up in the brassica cage , cut the sprouting broccoli , and dug up the 2 Brokali plants , which have all gone to flower now .
DH was happy - I picked the very first sprouts!
The rest of the week is looking really unsettled , but trying to get harvesting and tidying up done as much as possible when I can

The plots are all starting to look a bit bare, the weather is a bit miserable and it's getting dark so early. What do you do to cheer yourselves up?!
I think my pumpkin is pretty much ready for harvesting, I might just wait for a dry(ish) day. Hoping to get some garlic planted on Monday and I need to prune the blackcurrants, although I'm tempted to get rid of a few of them.

Dive into the seed catalogues. Make sure there are spring bulbs in the garden because this time of you they're just beginning to shoot, and it's a reminder that the seasons go on.