Allotment/Veg Patch Thread 15 - will winter ever end?

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Hi everyone , just putting this up quickly , will add on later
Everyone welcome! :)

yep , same here .
I have plan B to get stuff in at home . I have sown peas at home in plugs and I can do a bit of all sorts luckily - no problem with all the salads - I stocked up on compost , so have enough for all the tomatoes/peppers etc in the greenhouse . I can put wigwams up in the flower borders for beans , and have enough pots to do spinach and carrots and other bits . but I still have loads to pick at the plot atm ( . I emailed my plot NDN to go and pick my PSB , as the earliest anyone of us can get is next Friday , and then me the Friday after )

I'm planning for not being able to go to the plot too. We haven't got a huge amount of space at home but have got a small raised bed and quite a few pots. Some compost, maybe not enough. I am going to the plot later though but just for weeding.

I'm going to lift some strawberry plants and bring them home. They can go in patio pots.

I’ve sowed celeriac seeds in trays in the greenhouse Today. Packet says they should be at 18degrees min but I’m out of space in the house.

Sowed more cucumbers in trays in the house.

Sowed onion seeds in the veg plot.

I might plant out my onion sets, if I mulch them well they should be ok unattended for a few months.

I too am pondering this - what could I bring home from plot (probably just strawbs?), and how could I grow more at home. Am very limited as I only have about 80L of compost, and cant find any more. My hope is that I score some in a supermarket trip. I've already spread my home made compost too.

Does anyone reuse compost from the previous year, and so, what do you add to it to make it more nutritious?

I've just remembered I have a bag of compost at the plot so going to bring that back. I will also be reusing some, I tend to add the granular feed you buy in supermarkets.

I'm planning to sow onion and beetroot today and possibly stick some potato peelings and chopped potatoes with eyes in pots too.

I think spent compost is good as a soil conditioner the following year, though you'd want to feed as well as the nutrient content would have gone right down.

I always use up my spent compost as mulching around the garden , so I don't have any . But I think adding some extra fertiliser would help

If people need quick solutions for extra planters - blue ikea bags work quite well, although not the prettiest. It does rely on having compost/soil to fill them however.

I'm hoping that if there is a stricter lockdown that it won't be for more than a few weeks. Today we brought back about half a dozen seed trays and plan to bring back similar tomorrow.

We now have potatoes, broad beans, peas, onion and garlic in the ground. They should be able to look after themselves.

It would be nice to think that allotment growing would be seen as exempt from controls under strict lockdown but that probably won't happen.

Spent this morning hauling bags of horse poo ( luckily delivered last month) around for the raised bed. I rescued some seedlings from school on the last day so I’ve got tomatoes and some sort of mini squash and a few sweet peas. I’d ordered my mange tout seeds a while ago but hadn’t got round to cucumber, basil, coriander and lettuce. Anyone got suggestions of where to order seeds from? Real seeds are only opening sporadically

How are people getting to their plots? Not been since planted the potatoes and onions last week, but we usually drive as keep no tools there. No sheds allowed and our small box of tools were stolen last time we tried to keep some there. So just keep watering cans, small hand tools and an old battered rake there now. It is a 30min walk I guess but have children - my youngest would struggle to get there, back and be happy there! Now would want a pushchair trip now.

So not sure if allowed to drove to plot - hence trip to carry compost last week and potatoes! No way can we travel enough to water when it needs it!

Have a small greenhouse at home and equivalent to 2 raised beds for salad etc. So can grow lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, chilli, will try peppers and salad onions. Going to try spinach - but clay soil means no roots tend to work. Have 3 bags of compost!!

I did drive to mine today as I wanted to bring a lot of stuff back, but it's the first time I've taken my car out since Tuesday and it's only half a mile away, i do normally walk.

Do you know any of your neighbouring plotholders Rhubarb - I have several in a Whatsapp group mainly so we can coordinate shared watering when we're on holiday, perhaps water each others when the weather gets dryer?

I would also say that if I ever see anything wilting on a neighbouring plot I will always water it, I think we will all need to look out for each other now.

Anyway, I went at lunchtime thinking it would be quiet, wrong! Lots of people up there. Had a very quick, distant chat with a couple of them. Very, very cold wind up there, it's quite exposed, so I only stayed an hour.

Brought home two big bags of compost that had been left from last year (I use it as mulch). Laid another load out as mulch and planted onions and garlic. Dug out all the leeks that were ready (some of you might recall that I have got a self-seeding leek cycle going on so my leek harvesting is at very random times of the year), I will shred and freeze them. DD had asked if I could bring a rhubarb plant home fr the garden, I only have one crown and it's a late grower (only just emerged) so I wasn't all that keen, but a neighbour was just digging a load out and offered me some which was fortuitous. I also brought home half a dozen strawberry plants for the patio.

I spent this morning grubbing compost out of the bin, manuring, water-retaining graining and the holy of holies, found leaf mold in entirely flattened bags that I must have put down three years ago.

It's all gone on to my empty veggie bed, spaded in and watered. I'll be planting broad beans, spring onions and sugar snap pea and radishes.. My experiment will be growing spring onions, real onions and chard from seed. I'm trying leeks in containers again, now that the weather is cooler.

We can only drive to our 'allotment'. I felt guilty going yesterday. I say 'allotment' as it's a bit of overgrown land my dad owns that we have been battling with for a number of years. It does mean that no one else is there but we do have to drive.

We have potatoes, strawberries and raspberries currently there.

Courgettes, all the berries, mange tout, tomatoes and lots of herbs at home in our tiny terrace.

....and kale and garlic. SO much kale and garlic

Does anyone reuse compost from the previous year, and so, what do you add to it to make it more nutritious? I mix in a generous portion of slow release fertiliser granules. You could try comfrey tea, nettle tea, or even "recycled beer"

Anyone got suggestions of where to order seeds from? Chiltern seeds are good for herbs - haven't checked to see if they're still operational. They're good in general for anything slightly off-beat.

Hi, was here fleetingly under different name though not last year as wasn’t particularly well. I have just started a thread for people new to gardening and could with a bit of help from those of you who know what you are doing as now having a spot of Imposter Syndrome , if anyone could stick heads in that would be really great and especially anyone with experience of growing on clay 😀 A big thank you.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/gardening/3864718-2020-new-Gardeners-thread

I ordered from Premier seeds and it arrived yesterday - so quickly, within a couple of days.

Yes, re reusing compost I think I'll just mix in whatever feed and nourishment I can find*. I have quite a lot of fresh ish manure too, which is the reason I emptied my home made compost bays in the first place. Nb usually all of my tomato pots' varied plants' compost just gets added to my plot beds as a very lazy no dig, but this year I'd not quite finished that task.

• Will possibly draw the line at recycled beer though!

I drive to my allotment mostly , as I am usually taking stuff/bringing stuff back ., and its a fair stride ( about 20 minutes )
On our site there are lots of people keep chickens , so don't know what will happen if we get proper lockdown .
I am still getting regular emails form all the big seed companies , so I expect you can still get them . I have never been more glad I order and buy mine via our allotment catalogue ( that is Kings ) .
My first tomato seeds have germinated - Roma and St Pierre . No sign of Sungold or San Marzano yet , or the peppers and aubergines . It has taken such a turn for the chill here - it has been trying to sleet this morning .
I am just about ready to prick out first lot of brassicas , next lot ( sprouts ) are just germinating along with cosmos , which have popped out quickly too.

We've had bitterly cold, strong wind and sleet here today too, our washing line got ripped down (clothes did dry first luckily). No plot for me today, might go up tomorrow if the weather improves.