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

Gnome I always admire your hot bed system. I cover the beds that I can with black polythene over winter, yes it does encourage slugs but also slow worms. I usually have at least 2 slow worms to a bed so I reckon things balance out.

That is a good point about slow worms. We havent seen evidence of them. Our compost beds get moved around a lot so that may be discouraging them. Last year we dug a couple of ponds so I am hoping that will encourage slug eating amphibians.

Morning!
Welcome Janus :) - I am the nosey one who asks whereabouts you are - North/South/East/West ? Cheap sheds - look on guntree/local fb selling sites , maybe ask at your site . see if anyone leaving is selling theirs . Books - my absolute top one is The Allotment Book by Andy Clevely , but I use others too . I also use Garden Focused website - it has a very useful year planner for week to week jobs in your area ( you can put in your nearest town , and it adjusts for where you are ) . If you have the chance borrow books from the library to see which one 'clicks' with you :)
Emrys - I agree totally about not getting rid of turf . Stack it grass side to grass side in a tidy heap , turves on top of one another , and you will get loam eventually . You want to try and add as much good organic stuff as possible :)
Titsy - that greenhouse looks fab!
hello again Gnome - you virtually have a small holding now !
I am just keeping on top as much as I can atm , picking veg , and getting ready for the growing season . I will be away soon for a couple of weeks in the sun , so want to leave it ready to go when I get back .

I rather fell off the thread but it's a new year,the rhubarb is already sprouting and I must start thinking about what I want to grow this year!

Book book - I am in Hampshire so relatively mild, not too wet!
That garden focus website is amazing! Just put in all that I want to grow and it tells me when to get on with it!! I love it! Top tip, thank you.

In the garden centre right now :)

Morning all, I've fallen off the thread again. So far this year I have bought seed potatoes and onion sets, that's been about it. I need to do low maintenance as much as possible as it's going to be an extremely busy year in other parts of my life.

Janus - I don't have raised beds or any edging at all, my plot is small and I don't want to lose much of it to paths. I also find edgings get in the way of my kneeling and sitting, I spend a lot of time doing both. I would say about half the plots on my site are like mine as they are all small. I'm in Hampshire too

Thinking of resources, I have found the following useful:

www.growveg.com - useful for planning the plot and for keeping track of crop rotation. I do have a fairly large allotment with multiple similarly sized beds and it is easy to lose track of which bed the beans/potatoes/onions were in!

My favourite book is Vegetable Growing Month-by-month only £2.23 secondhand! No glossy photographs just lots of useful information.

bookbook two weeks in the sun, sounds wonderful!

We are up to about a quarter of an acre (40 poles in our local measure) which is the maximum holding without needing special permission from the committee. We are a private allotment and smallholding society which does have advantages as it means that trees are allowed and some plot holders also keep poultry and one of the other fields in the society has a small pig farm.

Hi all

It's so mild here I have to keep reminding myself it's the beginning of January and probably too early to start getting on with anything. It feels so much like spring right now.

Sowing onion seed will be the first job, but not for another month yet.

I'm actually hoping for some cold weather, my garlic didn't clove last year and was really hoping for a better result this year.

So I have planted asparagus and rhubarb today in the garden and have put seed potato in egg boxes for chitting. Can I plant those out in March if I cover with fleece do you think? Have garlic and onion sets in the shed. The garlic said to plant in spring so should I go for it in March?

Emrys, what a productive day! I would definitely go on the gardenfocused website as you can put in your home town and it will tell you when would be best to put outside etc (bookbook recommended it and it’s great). I really want to get asparagus going in my allotment and will have to try and not touch it for a couple of years!!

EmrysAtticus and Janus If you have massed of weeds you'll also have a dense "turf".What I'd to is cut the taller weeds and stack to one side, then strip the turf in nice tidy rectangles. stack the turves upside down to form four walls, and put all the weeds inside. I hate the idea of removing from the allotment/garden any nutritious stuff that it has grown. I hope that shop bought veg and fruit peelings along with old cardboard compensate for the veg and fruit I've eaten, then everything else gets recycled.

I fell off this thread in the run up to Christmas... now need to get back to my sadly neglected plot. I’ve still to finish making up my raised beds and need to fill and cover them, make my compost bin which is currently a pile and do some serious pruning-hoping I haven’t missed the boat on that... Monday looks promising for a whole day on the plot... will read back through and catch up on all the info you’ve all helpfully added over the last few months!

I planted chilly seeds today 😁, my first time growing them from seed, hope I can keep them alive.

I need to start planning what I’m going to plant this year, trying to remember what was a success last summer, what we did and didn’t eat. I don’t think I will be growing as many peppers this year (they were hard work and much bigger than I thought they would be), wasn’t successful with beetroot last summer, not sure wether to try again. I need more planting space.

I normally grow chillis in the greenhouse, but last year ended up with too many so a few were relegated outdoors where to my surprise they ended up being amazing. So I'm planning to plant even more this year.

I've been cutting down brambles today to get to the back of my shed to replace a plank. However the shed is so old and rotten at the back I'm going to have to get a new one this year. Everybody elses rhubarb is showing, mine's just emerging. I did the raspberries and will go back to weed in earnest tomorrow.

When’s the best time to plant raspberry canes? Though I’m not really sure I have space 🤣. Just been out to check my rhubarb, I have one lot that up and the other is yet to emerge.

New here - hello! I moved into my new house last summer and there is a veg plot I'm taking over. Currently has strawberrries in it which I want to move to pots and then plant some veg here. What's simple to grow and when should I start? I'm thinking salad veg (lettuces, etc), squashes, broccoli, beans, onions (thinking about things we like and would eat mainly). Any tips much appreciated please.

Afternoon !
welcome everyonebutme - just ask away , someone will hopefully help. You have the right idea for growing only what you like to eat . The planning can get a bit complicated , as some things are quick growers , others are more 'slow burn' . So make a top priority list , and see how long they are in the ground , and how much space they need . And it makes a difference where you are too ( only nosey! )
Love - now is ideal for planting any fruit or tress , as long as the ground isn't too hard .
I went yesterday to pick some veg - some perennial spinach , sprouting broccoli and a couple of spring cabbage hearts ( the slugs really went for the outer leaves , so decided I may as well ) . I went back this morning to do a bit of weeding - ground like iron and 0º , so I slunk home . Just no point in trying to dig in that , sadly .
But, nothing much left to do , and yes Gnome - it will be nice to get some warm sun , but it will be a bit of a shock coming back though - February is usually the coldest month here.
But it will then be all go , sowing a fair amount of seeds , and pruning currant bushes .

everyonebutme if you plan properly you could grow several crops over the season, I usually plant peas in 2 of my beds and they finish pretty early so I will then plant some carrots when the peas have finished. Beans are always a good thing to grow, they give a big crop, I grew runner beans and French beans last year and am still eating them now. My broccoli got eaten by slugs, if you grow this you need to ideally make a netted frame to protect them from butterflies laying their eggs (same with cabbages and cauliflowers). Spring onions are easy to grow and lettuce, you can keep sewing them all summer.

Remember that broccoli from the supermarket is actually calabrese, and if you sow broccoli seed you'll get sprouting broccoli (usually purple) with lots of small shoots of flower buds rather than one giant head of flower buds.

Another question. Do you all grew from seeds? Do you sow straight in your patch? Or grow the seeds in pots/trays first and then transplant? I'm not sure I'd have the space or anywhere to plant seeds in pots/trays first.

I mainly grow from seed but no reason why you can't grow from plug plants - larger garden centres will have a good selection. It does put the cost up, but then again if you grow from seed you need pots, labels, compost, trays. These can all be reused but there is an upfront cost. I have a greenhouse now but used to manage with one of those mini patio ones and working on the patio table. I have a long, thin windowsill incubator (plastic tray with a deep cover). I make tiny pots from newspaper, I have a gadget for this, and start any seeds that need warmth on my living room windowsill in it. Transfer to greenhouse. Others can be started in the greenhouse or directly into the ground, the packs have instructions.

Of those you list:

Onions - grow from sets (tiny baby onions) plant directly into ground any time now.
Lettuce - need to be frost free, start in incubator, transfer to greenhouse then ground, early in the year, can sow direct into the ground in summer but beware slugs.
Beans - incubator, greenhouse, plant out - frost sensitive.
Purple sprouting brocolli - incubator, greenhouse, plant out, grow slowly all winter, need netting.
Broad beans and peas can be sewn directly and early.

I would suggest going to a garden centre and reading seed packs to get an idea, also there are books and planners. Just being on this thread is very helpful as you can take your cue from what others are doing. One thing it is important to know is the predicted last frost of spring in your area, this can be quite localised, mine is late despite being in the SE of England. There are online frost maps.

I tend to do seeds for most things and buy plants if any of them fail or get massacred by slugs! I find plug plants often don't work very well (rootbound, shocked by different environment or being in the post etc) whereas I can be more generous with seeds so a few losses aren't such a big problem.