Allotment/Veg Patch Thread 14 ! growing into summer

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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

Hello, please can I join in? I've been reading your threads from last year and grabbing lots of tips,so I thought I should introduce myself and say hi!

We just took over our first allotment last month, in SE England.

It's only small - 5m x 5m - I hadn't realised how huge standard allotments are, these are the only ones I've ever seen up close! I've kind of got the hang of gardening over the years, but this is going to be my first stab at produce. I've been gifted some cabbage and bean seedlings to get started, and we've also tried sowing spring onions, kohl rabi, beetroot, peas and pumpkins. And my 5yo has planted sunflower seeds around the edge of one bed to grow a fort!

I want to use quite a large proportion of the space for fruit, so that's got to wait for now.

Ooh and we've started some corn, but so late I feel sceptical about it catching up!

Evening!
welcome Acquitaine - we can all shuffle along the bench for you :)
Depends on the variety of sweetcorn - you have a reasonable chance down south I think - its surprising how quickly they catch up. Sounds like a good manageable size , have you got it all up and ready to go?
Once the plants have got established , I don't have too much trouble with slugs , apart from the little devils that burrow into my potatoes. I do use a small amount of judicially placed slug pellets around squashes and courgettes, but only needed to do it the once , and they are fine now .
Pleased to say my replacement french beans all came up in 6 days , I can start hardening them off , ready to plant next week . Spent most of the morning planting leeks and weeding /prepping for next succession row of beetroot . Fed the asparagus - cropping has finished for the year now . I was offered some lettuce seedlings , so said yes please -( I have a couple of small raised beds that are going to have new strawberry runners in autumn which are empty atm ) . She brought over a tray full of little gems - miles too many really - so I have just packed them in , about 50 of them - will eat the thinnings as they grow .
I am looking at picking gooseberries soon - I have some not covered in mildew yay!!

I even got rid of all the horrid bindweed and perennial weeds that have been in a bucket into the green waste trailer as well, so feeling a bit in control!

Aw thanks!

It's Lark sweetcorn I think? My father in law is a seasoned vegetable grower, and he's confident I'll get away with it!

Luckily the site was cleared for us before we arrived, so I managed to dodge that job. We've marked out four beds, but the huge gaps in between (awaiting their fruit plants) still make it look rather barren and unloved overall!

Maybe this will be the thing that finally teaches me patience...

We are busy harvesting all the overwintering onions, the ones that bolted are coming in for use first and the ones that haven't are being strung up in the greenhouse for later.

And I moved a compost heap so I have two empty beds...well I did for about 1 day.

I've put squashes, spare tomatoes, more beans in, and sown carrots.

I've got loads of seedlings waiting to fill the next two onions beds as well.

I'm picking bored beans and mange tout every day as well, so have sown more stuff to take their place when they are out. Plus I've bought more beans [I like beans] to go into the soil when the potatoes are out.

I've got chard and beetroot germinated, for another bed that is emptied.

I am a big believer in having stuff ready to go in as soon as a bed is cleared.

Sack ,im. A big fan of beans too, can never have too many. I plated some leeks and carrots indoors today ready to replace the peas when they finish, had to use a shorter variety of carrot as my pea beds are not deep enough for long carrots.

Evening all, first flowers on my outdoor tomatoes . I'm still chasing bindweed but it seems to be getting weaker, I picked some sweet peas and will harvest strawberries, a few peas and broad beans tomorrow.

Hello Acquitaine what fruit do you plan to grow? I think fruit is one of the really worthwhile things to grow as the cost of fruit in the shops is shocking.

sackrifice our over wintering onions are coming in now. It is a shame they dont store for long. I am going to make a batch of onion marmalade to use up some of the surplus.

Garlic is looking ready to harvest.

Harvested our first potatoes today. These are Abbots, a waxy first early. Having them for dinner tonight and tomorrow so I will report back. Carrots in buckets started in January are finally ready for harvesting. It now feels like the harvest has truly started.

If I had my way the whole plot would be wall to wall raspberries, but we'll also grow strawberries for my daughter and rhubarb for my husband (judging by the other plots we have a rhubarb growing paradise). Gooseberries, blackcurrants and blueberries are in definitely in contention. And I'd never heard of Japanese wineberries until I discovered this thread, now I'd love to try them! Most of all I'd love to find enough space for a blackberry, but I think I'm already being ambitious about how much I can fit in and they need so much room.

Buuuuuut... we're moving house next month, so I'm optimistic that with a bit of juggling, everything will find a home in one place or the other. And for the first time in my life I'll have a greenhouse, which will be joyous.

Our plot looked like it was making a respectable start on Thursday, but we've had torrential rain ever since, so hopefully I won't find everything washed away tomorrow! The only total germination failure has been the peas. I'm going to try sowing another batch, but I found some dahlias in Tesco and I might let them have the peas' space instead. That'll teach 'em.

Peas are probably not worth the hassle, I have 2 lots growing and they are doing better then they ever have before but there’s still not enough peas to go with a meal and one of the kids keeps picking them and eating them. I can’t wait for them to finish so I can get something else planted.

I agree with you Lovemusic but it's normally me doing the eating!

Acquitaine you can get blackberries which have erect or semi-erect stems which can be grown in a more space-efficient way - mine (Apache) are trained vertically up some hefty poles - for control more than suppprt. 2 plants have a slightly bigger footprint than a runner bean wigwam. Or training along a fence works well with the trailing kind.

Oh, and chilean guava are delicious - look a bit like red blueberries and have a really unique flavour.

Afternoon !
I love raspberries , but they are such thugs Acquitane they try for world domination , along with blackberries !
I have to harvest my onions too, but garlic looks still to be holding up .
One of those backbreaking mornings for my old bones today . I desperately needed to straw the strawberries , but needed to weed first . oh the bindweed . but , I think I got it all - it hides in strawberry leaves . But straw is down , but they are not netted yet .
I picked the first very few peas and broad beans , and 1 strawberry ( there were 5 , but 4 were munched before I got to them , of course ..)
Then I decided to check on my brassica cage . The 4 plants I was keeping an eye on didn't look any better , so I dug them up , better safe than sorry. I found a cabbage root fly egg :( - only on one of the plants though, not sure why . Everything else is still looking okay , fingers crossed , so now I need to get some cabbage collars on the rest of the plants for if any pupate and hatch in August .
Picture of said beastie if anyone is interested , along with poorly plant roots. ( Beastie is white grain like thing on left )
Its going to be a battle this year .
At least I am not lugging water like last year I suppose . Brimming water butts after yesterday .

My water but is almost full, more rain coming tomorrow and the rest of the week so both should be full up by the end of the week. I’m kind of pleased it’s not as dry as last year. I didn’t grow anything last year and struggled to just keep my grass and few plants alive, can’t imagine how hard it would have been for veg growers.

I love raspberries , but they are such thugs Acquitane they try for world domination

I found if you get the thornless ones, they strive for just being slightly overbearing rather than total takeover.

Hello again, it’s @Chocolateandabook2019, but I’ve name changed due to reducing my working hours down to three days, whoop whoop!

Update: the tomato plants appear to be thriving, bushier and a bit taller than when I last posted. I’ve got two growbags for them, just for while I’m away. The tomato plants are the windowsill/patio cherry tomato type, so I should have enough room for most of them.

The strawberry plants are coming on a treat too.
I’ve bought a strawberry planter, due next week. It’s one of the plastic bag types with slits/pockets in (I’ll add a pic of what I mean in a second) I think I can fit some of my tomato plants in there too if I can’t get them all in the growbags.

Lovely day pootling about outside. Didn’t some time sorting out the greenhouse. I’ve still over cucumbered in a significant way- I’m taking another couple into work for gardening club. Strawberries are forming but nowhere near red. I’m going to try the wool blanket stuff under them rather than straw as it’s a windy spot and straw ends up everywhere. The slugs have decimated one of my beans- I have treated with nematodes but was a few weeks ago and maybe I need to do it again. Two chillies in the greenhouse have leaves covered in tiny perfectly circular holes being made by really tiny caterpillar like things. Not seen them before. I’ve brushed them off but left the chillies outside for now until I work out what they are.

www.amazon.co.uk/JYCRA-Strawberry-Planting-Eco-Friendly-Strawberries/dp/B07CN8XJZM?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

This is similar. I hope it works..

Amazing tips guys, thank you so much!

Chilean Guavas sound familiar! I'm going to find out more.

I remember my dad battling rogue raspberries in our garden when I was small. If nothing else grows, maybe wall-to-wall raspberries IS my back up plan!

I might have to plant raspberries next year.

My rouge vegetable is courgettes, if everything else fails I will always have loads of them as they seem to be the easiest thing to grow and seem to produce far more than anyone can ever eat.

My fails so far have been butternut squash (I put them out too early) and my pumpkin plant got eaten by slugs. I’m pretty pleased that everything else seems to be doing really well.

Weren't the guava berry things on GW this week, apparently Queen Vic's favourite fruit? I started looking into them, does anyone have any tips, recommended varieties etc.
I managed to pick enough peas and broad beans for a risotto tonight.

@Cathpot, there are no strawberries forming on mine yet, but lovely bushy leaves. I don’t think it’ll be long though.
Funny weather today, raining and sunny, so the lawn will be a jungle again very soon...

Two chillies in the greenhouse have leaves covered in tiny perfectly circular holes being made by really tiny caterpillar like things. Not seen them before. I’ve brushed them off but left the chillies outside for now until I work out what they are

Obviously they are destructive, but what I quite admire about them, is that if they think you are coming, they weave a tiny drop rope and get themselves down to soil level in seconds, and wait until you have gone to climb back up. Especially when they are so small.

I still haven't worked out what they are as the hornworms that you get in the states are much much bigger, and the ones here are tiny, and almost invisible as they hide along the lines of a leaf so that you can't see them.

i usually spot them as soon as I see a hole in the leaf, and then turn the leaf over very very gently, and catch them on some card onto which I have put double sided sticky tap and peeled the back off.

Been shuffling in the allotment for the last couple of days as another DVT has made me a bit inflexible. Thankfully carrots in buckets were reachable. DH was on potato digging duty so dinner tonight incorporates potatoes (Abbots,delicious), carrots, broad beans.

We have been expirimenting with growing pea shoots using dried peas (not seed peas). Flavour is good so I will start another tray off.