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

thanks book....it looks like root rot, though this happens with heavy waterlogged soil according to the link and mine is light and sandy.....so not really sure. doesnt sound like the others though

Another gorgeous day here. I am impressed by the pictures of strawberries. Mind aren't anywhere near turning red. They probably need a bit more watering as well.

It is so dry here now - the joys of gardening on clay mean that everything clods up or a hard crust bakes on the top of the soil.

My raspberries aren't looking too bad but I did rather hack them back the other day without trying to work out whether they were autumn or summer fruiting ones - I've inherited a moving jungle so I've no idea . I think they were originally planted in two rows going across the plot. Now I have half a row going across and a jungle down the side. The jungle at the side is going to get tackled next autumn/winter. Mine are therefore surviving more by luck than any judgement on my part

Hi, need a but if gardening advice. I grew some corn in the greenhouse in little cardboard biodegradable pots. They grew happily and I decided to plant them out in my main veg bed about three weeks ago alongside nasturtiums and sunflowers as per recomendations. The corn don't appear to have grown at all and some have wilted and gone 'not green but not brown' above the soil.

What have I done wrong?

I can't offer any advice I'm afraid, total novice here. I have some questions though if people are happy to help? The soil on my plot is awful (see pic) - really difficult to dig, deep cracks, lots of bindweed and an area with matted, dead grass. My plan is to plant out some pumpkins, sweet peas and beans, and to also so some peas, beetroot and more beans, and maybe something for the winter (kale?). Will that work or have I left it too late? If I add manure can I plant through it? What would you do?

Pandora - welcome !
re sweetcorn - that feels a bit early for planting out in truth , unless you are somewhere very warm ? Did you harden them off ? ( ie leave outside during day , then putting back inside on a night) It may be they took a knock being too cold overnight . I would attempt to revive by maybe a foliar feed , they may well come back , but a bit slowly . Fingers crossed for you . Its not too late to maybe pick up some plant plugs if they do fail . I have only just planted up my first lot out this week .

I did harden them off but maybe it is a touch early for them. Poor things I have got another batch that are a few weeks behind so I'll wait until its properly warm.

Regarding the poor frozen ones I've dug them up and they are green where they were below the soil so I'm going to put them back into the greenhouse. Poor things.

x post - never too late Beanpole - whereabouts are you? It does look a bit sad , I will agree . If the ground is cracked , I will assume you are on clay , and its dry . You may well be better at this late stage to do some equivalent of raised beds - so your pumpkins could be planted out on mounds made up of soil , compost and manure ( as long as the manure isn't fresh ) You could dig holes to pop bean plants in , but big enough to add some goodness. chicken pellets , anything like that mulch if you can all around to help feed the soil , and suppress weeds . Anything to give the plants a boost . Water everything in really well . Beetroot and peas you need more of a tilth if you are going to sow direct , so you need to fork over and break up the surface , but I do succession sowing of these , so plenty of time yet .

Thanks bookbook, that's encouraging to hear and very helpful. I'm SW. I've dug up some of it already and mashed it with a fork/rake to make the soil finer. It took time, but I'm tenacious! I had it covered with plastic over the winter and then discovered lots of beautiful slow worms hibernating under it so couldn't touch it until they moved on.
What's the most cost effective compost/manure, can I use mushroom compost? I am going to need ALOT!

Spot the slow worm competition...

Stupidly excited to report I have my first pea pod growing 🤣

I’m still trying to work out what’s eating my rhubarb 😡

Beanpole I’m in the sw and the ground here is horrible, I only grow in raised beds, I have to water a lot 😥

Yes I fear my life will be ruled by watering over the coming months.

Congrats on the pea pod. Does anything actually eat rhubarb? I thought that would be safe (there goes another plan out of the window) isn't it poisonous?

Lovemusic what compost did you use for your raised beds, where did you get it? I'm looking at £90 online for a hippo bag full, is that the going rate? . I was hoping this would be a relatively low cost allotment!

BeanPole I managed to get some good quality top soil for my beds (luckily a relative was digging up their garden), I mixed it with some normal compost and old horse manure and things seem to be growing well.

I’m stumped on the rhubarb, I have caught a few snails munching on it so put down some slug pellets but the leafs are still being munched by something. Apparently there is a type of beetle that eats it. It’s only it’s 2nd year so I’m not expecting a bumper crop but a couple crumbles would be nice.

I had to take most of my holiday time early this ear (hence a bot late getting garden started).

I was feeling a bit sad I wouldn't be going away over summer and then I realised I will be around to look after/water garden and harvest from it. I felt genuinely uplifted

Thanks for all the tips for peppers and chillies. I think I'll try and keep most of them in the greenhouse with the aubergines.

I bought some kohlrabi and kale plants today and a yellow courgette plant to replace mine that were eaten. And some kohlrabi and pak choi seeds. I'm hoping to get a decent stretch in at the plot tomorrow.

My Kohl rabbi are doing well, first time I have grown them, I don’t even know what they taste like 🤣

I brought my peppers back in last night as the wind picked up and they started looking sad, I don’t want to ruin them now they have started to fruit. Hopefully next year I will have a greenhouse.

i missed this thread last weekend.

I also have a heated propagator which I have used once or twice, but I haven’t gained much from it, or I’m using it incorrectly. To the posters who use their heated propagators, do you just use individual little pots for your seeds in it, or do you put just compost in the base, put your seeds in, then use it as a mini raised bed if you see what I mean?

I used my heated propagator to crack open seeds. I sowed them in two half seed trays, in rows and as soon as they poke their heads up, they get pricked out and into small pots. I only use it during the first 3 months of the year.

I got rid of it when I switched greenhouses, the big one went to the allotment and I put a half size one in, next to a power source so moved to a heat mat. Again I used it to start seeds off and to keep the whole greenhouse warm, it gets switched off around the end of April. I freecycled the heated prop.

I can't offer any advice I'm afraid, total novice here. I have some questions though if people are happy to help? The soil on my plot is awful (see pic) - really difficult to dig, deep cracks, lots of bindweed and an area with matted, dead grass. My plan is to plant out some pumpkins, sweet peas and beans, and to also so some peas, beetroot and more beans, and maybe something for the winter (kale?). Will that work or have I left it too late? If I add manure can I plant through it? What would you do?

Looks like you are on clay?

So either you could dunk a load of manure on top of that, recover it and come back next year; you could cut a cross in the plastic, dig out the soil where you want to plant your stuff [a hole for each plant]], mix soil with well rotted manure, plant plant, fill back up with the soil/manure mix, water in and unfold the edges back up to the plant stem. Or save yourself 10 years of strife and start getting raised beds in now, building up as you go.

Our local topsoil place delivers and if you buy a truckload [3 tonnes] it costs about £180; but you usually get 4 tonnes [volume] of actual material. Esp if it hasn't rained recently.

If you dig clay now, the weed roots break and you will give them a new lease of life as soon as you take that plastic off.

My Kohl rabbi are doing well, first time I have grown them, I don’t even know what they taste like

YAY!

I've just sown a load for late summer and autumn.

Hi, need a but if gardening advice. I grew some corn in the greenhouse in little cardboard biodegradable pots. They grew happily and I decided to plant them out in my main veg bed about three weeks ago alongside nasturtiums and sunflowers as per recomendations. The corn don't appear to have grown at all and some have wilted and gone 'not green but not brown' above the soil.

Dig one up. Have the biodegradeable pots degraded enough to let the roots through? they often don't as they dry out and unless they are in wet conditions they become a barrier so if the roots haven't penetrated, dig them out, crumble or peel the pots off the roots and replant.

The main thing with sweetcorn though is wind burn. So put up a barrier around them to keep the wind off until they are a good 2 ft high.

Tbh most of the pots were still intact. I'll give them a little holiday in the greenhouse for a week or two then I'll pop them back in the bed. I didn't know about wind burn. They will be sheltered a fair bit by the nasturtiums that are with them but I'll make a wee fence for them. Thank you for the advice.

BeanpoleMalfunction my technique for squash is to pile up compostable material and manure, cover with weedproof (we reuse the same sheet for many years) then when ready to plant out we burn holes in the plastic, add a scoop of regular compost, water well and plant. Keep watering. The organic matter rots down and the worms help break up the soil.

We have been working round all the beds on the allotment and this technique is really bringing the beds along and improving the soil.

Yes get them out of the pots before they go back in the ground if you haven't already.

Thanks for the tips. I can't leave it unfortunately as the allotment committee are already on my back for not cultivating enough of the plot - I got it last August mid-drought covered in 7ft high grass and ragwort, and riddled with bindweed. The plot hadn't been worked for a couple of years. I was thinking it would take 2 years to get it shipshape but clearly not fast enough for the committee
If I put manure down/plant through the plastic, or do raise beds with new soil for that matter, will the bind weed resurface? It seemed to thrive pretty well under the plastic this year. I've been digging it all out today - have I done the wrong thing?
I definitely think raised beds are the answer! Sorry to hijack the thread.

Beanpole the bind weed probably will resurface, it’s a bloody nightmare to get rid of and I have been unsuccessful at removing it, I’m pulling it out every day ☹️ You need to remove all the roots, leave the slightest bit behind and it will come back.