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

Afternoon
Pyxie - as MereDint suggests - seed catalogues , planning what to do better next year , planting bulbs .

Though my plot is not so bare , as it still has loads of winter veg in , lots are now empty , or have green manure sprouting on bare patches .
Well, it wasn't raining this morning - positively sunny , so that was a plus .I went down early , and harvested the first couple of leeks , a couple of courgettes . Went to look at the sweetcorn , and 1 cob has been decimated by some sort of rodent . I picked the 3 last big ones , and will strip out the rest over the weekend . I made a decision to harvest all my crown prince squashes too - the stems had a nice brown corky look. A bit of collateral damage to one of the butternut plants though . I was turfing out all the redundant foliage , and managed to pull out a plant that I intended to leave so all my littly butternuts have been brought home too . I still have 2 pretty big butternuts ripening up , so no point in fretting over it.
I had a few raspberries to pick too. They won't keep , but I have some cooking apples which I had given , so I will cook some pie filling .
It is now raining again. We are lucky that the ground is so free draining , other wise it would be a quagmire .

Spent a very wet afternoon at the plot today, getting the shape in and have decided to most of the plot and put raised beds over the top. Found a massive tomato plant which had been buried with some potatoes it looks very healthy but I can’t imagine they will ripen at this Time of year now. Feeling positive that I will be more ready for next spring with the steady progress over the last couple of weeks... great to see ongoing progress from you all

Ohh yes, I do need to have a look at spring bulbs

book wow, that's a lot of crown prince! They must have taken up a lot of room. I'm sad that I didn't think of growing butternut, definitely on the list for next year.

but I can’t imagine they will ripen at this Time of year now. I find they ripen if I pick them and bring them indoors.

First year I tried, I just put them in a bowl, and they never seemed to get fully ripe, just a mix of green, yellow and orange ones. Then I realised ... I was adding new tomatoes every few days, level in bowl was staying the same = DS1 was helping himself to a ripe tomato every time he walked past. (I don't begrudge him - apart from meals I cook, it's about the only veg he eats).

Will give that a go thanks mere

Finally, some success! After 3 years of trying, my carrots have finally worked! Pics below of the first lot I have pulled up (and also a snap of last year's effort, which was somewhat less successful )

Sorry, only the pics of today's carrots have posted, here is last year's 😂😂

Arrrgg third pic won't post! Nevermind

I've just cleaned out my greenhouse today. Just waiting for the water to drain off, then it's everything swept up, a last swish of water, and all the trays and plants are going back in, and then i'll make a start on pricking out about 1000 brassicas I've sowed for winter.

Afternoon!
wow Waiting - those carrots are amazing ! I am totally rubbish at growing them - I have a try most years , never with much success.
Pyxie - yep a lot of room - they have had their own bed with butternuts and autumn crown - 7m x 3m . I won't have as much room next year , so will have to not grow quite so many . Those 8 crown prince came off 3 plants , and I had the little baby pumpkins and some butternuts . The autumn crownI had to dig out due to mosaic virus . So 10 plants all together .
It was horrid this morning , but I popped in to pick the last of the summer cauliflowers , as I need the space for shallots .
It turned really nice this afternoon , so I have spent a couple of hours sorting my greenhouse at home . I picked off all the last aubergines , and had some tomatoes dropping on the floor . I then made space on the shelf for my squashes to cure by moving the cucumber plants . Found a whopper hiding I washed all the squashes in mild bleach , then all the drip trays too . That's one small job done . I looked at the sweet potato and decided that it was time to see what had happened . I have got 1.1 kg from the one plant ( Erato Gusto , which I hadn't heard of ) bought for £2.50 . I'm not sure , until we eat them , if it was worth the effort , but they look nice .

A dry day at last here so I was able to spend a couple of hours at the plot. I've picked the last of the tomatoes and beans and pulled out the plants to get the bed ready for winter. I also got rid of the sunflowers and cosmos. Quite satisfying really. I've got a lot of weeding to do next weekend.

A day of weeding today. Took out the runner beans. Butternuts are being left for a few more weeks.

lovemy I have a toddler in tow. A small watering can, mini tools and a waterproof suit and wellies have worked! Plus fruit that can be picked and eaten in situ.

My raspberries have produced lots of green growth and a handful of berries. Any advice or shall I just pull them out? This I stagier 3rd year of hardly any fruit.

We finally hd a dry day yesterday too, but I was out all day and didn't make it to the plot. I did pop up on Friday evening just before it got dark and picked a couple more cucumbers, tomatoes, strawberries, raspberries and blackberries, the soft fruit is slowing down now.

Rhubarb - are your raspberries summer or autumn fruiting? I inherited mine with the plot 6 years ago and didn't know what to do with them and got it wrong more often than not. Having now established that they are autumn fruiters (start harvesting in the second half of August), I cut the whole lot down to short stumps in March, dig out as much of the grass that grows around them as I can and put loads of manure round them. I am low getting bumper crops.

I've got lots of green tomatoes too, I'm also unsure what to do with my pumpkins, they are Hallowe'en ones. Last year I picked them about now, washed them in bleach and put them on slatted shelves in my potting shed to keep dry but some still rotted. If this wet weather persists I don't want them on the ground for much longer (they are on tiles).

Afternoon
Rhubarb - if you have new growth from the bottom , I would cut out all the stalks that had berries on down to the ground , and leave about 4 stalks from each plant for next year , see if they berry well. If not , they may well be autumn ones , in which case follow Expletives advice.
I had some of my squashes rot last year too Expletive - I think it must have been quite a damp winter , rather than cold IYSWIM ?
I did have them in my shed rather than garage , which also may have been an issue though .
Well, it was bonus time today . It wasn't raining this morning ( yayyy!! ) . So I have pulled up all the sweetcorn ,and taken off any likely cobs. I cracked and checked the 2 big butternuts , and realised I had chopped through the stem to the biggest one , so brought those home too .
Realised I had neglected the beetroot recently so , dug 4 whoppers . And a tiny cabbage left after I took up cauliflowers . Only little , but will still eat .
I too have lots of weeding and sorting to get done .

The problem of gardening related user names! - took me a while to get my head around Rhubarb - if you have new growth from the bottom ... see if they berry well

Well my sweetcorn isn't as big or as yellow as I might have hoped but overall I'm fairly chuffed with my first bash (flavour depending!)

Thanks - will try that!

I'm currently busy digging over the beds that are done with (courgette, tomatoes, onions etc). Need to improve the soil over winter. They sell some kind of compost at the allotment shop that helps break down clay so I think I'll start with that. Does anyone here add shredded leaves in their beds? I'm not keen on manure after the weedfest that occured last time I used it (and that was the well rotted stuff).

Funnily enough about an hour after my post this morning I popped to the allotment and found they'd had a huge pile of shredded leaves delivered! So I spend 3 hours working my arse off clearing and digging over half the beds and shifted about half a ton of leaves and piled them up on the beds. I'm going to cover those in cardboard sheets and then some kind of extra mulch or soil on top of that and leave it to rot down over winter. Feeling very accomplished!

wow Titsy - that looks amazing . A good hot bath planned for tonight?
We had a frost last night ....
I managed to get to the plot for the first time since Sunday .
I have planted out my garlic and shallots , ( had to dig up a tiny cauliflower that was all by itself in the middle of that bed .) Also dug up and brought home the dahlias . Picked some courgettes and pulled up all the cosmos from the other half plot . It is now officially not mine , so I am a little sad , but mostly relieved that I don't have to keep on top of it anymore .
Still loads to do - I have to move some raised beds , and re wire around the plot - the old chicken wire is looking decidedly dodgy , and the rabbits will be in if they can .
Finally managed to pick all the pears at home too, after a very wet week. A really good harvest this year , after a lot of heavy pruning for the last 3 years to get it so we can reach the fruit!

A quick visit this afternoon, picked yet more raspberries (nearly over now), all my green tomatoes to ripen at home and a bit of weeding. My mammoth raspberry crop this year has taken so much of my time picking them that I'm behind with weeding but at least the ground is very soft so even long tap roots are lifting very easily. Oh and a few photos. My chard is beautiful and I think some of my slow worms are pregnant although it seems late in the year.

Your allotment looks so neat Titsywoo and I am very jealous of the slow worms Expletive. Frost already Bookbook! We may have had a touch in the air here as well. Neighbour's roof was whiteish first thing in the morning yesterday.

On Saturday we managed a couple of hours and I cleared out half of the main squash bed and dug over. The bed with the rogue 'cucumbers' which are now squashes is still going strong. The plants have done so much better there than in the main bed. The squashes are massive, the biggest I've managed to grow. If the weather stays dry we'll get over this weekend and clear some more.

I made a sticky squash cake yesterday of which DD has said 'I'll eat as it doesn't taste like squash' so I count that as a success. Also made roasted tomato and squash soup which I'll be making again as I saw my mum and she off loaded some of their tomatoes onto us... (But then I off loaded a squash onto her!).

Hello lovely people!

I am now back into gardening after breaking my elbow and giving up on it all because of weeds.

Have spent the last couple of days clearing the vegetable patch. Next step is to lay down some newspaper and then cover that with homemade compost to rot down over Winter.

Before and after photos there.

Forgot to ask: there was a lot of moss through the garden. I've turned it over. Do I need to do something to kill it off or will it just sort of compost into the soil?

Morning !
so jealous of the slow worms Expletive - I know where you are coming from with the time taken to harvest berries - its never ending .
Cedar - sticky squash cake sound good - have you a link to the recipe ?

Grouchy - thats impressive , hope the elbow has healed well, and your DPup doesn't spoil anything! .erm - moss keeps trundling and increasing on is my experience . I have waged war with the moss in my grass lawn for years , and I am still losing .
So the forecast for tomorrow is horrendous , so went early to the plot . I have one area completely weeded and dug over ready for mulching over winter . (I have been taken up with other things , so must get my manure delivery sorted ).
I have pulled a nice load of perennial spinach to make fresh pesto. And dug up a couple of red cabbage . We are not big fans , so gave one away - they are pretty big . Going to braise some , and make some coleslaw too I think .