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

[bookbook]

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

Lots of glorious rain here overnight and continuing today. I'm so glad as I hadn't bothered to water anything at the plot yet!
Hoping to get some cauliflowers planted out this weekend. I still have all of my main crop pots to get in yet, but I don't know where I'm going to put them!
I have a load of celery seedlings to do something with. I only sowed because I had a free packet of seeds. Any advice? Are they worth the hassle?

I managed to get a couple bags of compost at Lidl this morning whilst getting a bit of food shopping, I’m waiting for a compost delivery, was told “middle of April’ 🤨. Also managed to find some horse manure on the way home for my rhubarb and one of my raised beds (cabbages and cauliflowers). Planted some more seeds this morning and separated my leak seedling in hope they grow a bit faster.

Afternoon!
did my hour at the plot this morning , so much to catch up on .
Rhubarb - have you any way of letting them know you are having to shield? The NAS are saying plot inspections should be suspended this year , as there will be those in the vulnerable category which cannot get to their plots.
Pyxie - do you know if its the self blanching variety of celery? I grew some a couple of years ago , and it was okay , but needed a bit of watering( I got given a tray of spare plants) , but in truth , I am the only one who eats it , so I gave most of it away , just used it in soups and when making bolognese !
I weeded my asparagus bed , and picked some too - most is still just starting to come through. Sowed peas - I popped them in warm water with added chilli powder in a little tub for half an hour before hand - this seems to have worked the last couple of years to deter mice .
Just need some rain now - it is so dry .

We had a little bit of rain overnight but not as much as we need.

One of our local garden centres has hurriedly set up a webshop so i placed an order for some compost and a few plants from there and they've just phoned me and said they're placing it on the driveway right now. No tayberries unfortunately but I've got a loganberry instead. I also got some chives as the ones I sowed didn't germinate (it was old seed) and needed to spend a bit more to get delivery.

Bit of a whinge from me today. I share a plot with a mate who is self employed. She barely came on the plot last year as she was building up her business so I kept it going. Due to CV she can’t work, and has been spending all her time on the plot to the extent that nothing needs doing, and when it does, she gets there first! I’m still working, desperate for some plot time at the weekends but when I get there, there is literally nothing to do - not even weeding! I’m lucky that I have a good job and it’s secure and I have myself for chuntering away over it, but I only have a tiny garden and really look forward to my weekend plot time. Only spent an hour down there this morning as I couldn’t find anything to do. Yes I know I’m being unreasonable...

Plenty of rain here overnight!! At least my peas seem to like it!

A few garden centres round here are doing deliveries too, which I think is a great idea - no contact required and it keeps them in business. Ours don't have a massive selection (they're all small, family run ones so you have to choose a 'pack' rather than selecting what you want) but it's my birthday in a couple of weeks and I'll ask for a fruit/ veg pack from my DM as she never knows what to get me.

My potatoes are doing well in a big plastic veg bag that I bought from Poundland last year. DP pointed out that we have room for more of them at the side of the house (although they would be at constant risk of being mown down by a DC on a bike...) - however I can't find anything similar even on ebay for a reasonable price! I'd love another trip to the pound shop but probably not for a while!!

I'd be annoyed too Chock - how do you divide up the work normally? Can you ask her to leave some of it for you to do? She might think she's doing you a favour.

No more rain today but cool, calm and dry. Went up to the plot this evening and wow, what a difference after yesterday's rain. Soil that I couldn't get a fork into on Thurs was all
lovely and soft so I spent about 90 mins clearing couch grass (I do actually find it relaxing when the conditions are right and this evening was perfect, no one else around either).

@ExpletiveDelighted - to be honest we’ve never really divided things up formally - we’ve always had roughly the same amount of spare time free until last year when she started to work more irregular hours and of course now it’s like her main project.

I dunno - maybe I’m just getting possessive about it because I’ve been the one keeping it going over the past year. We’ve also been told by our council to only spend a couple of hours there a day, to keep things ticking over but she’s doing all-dayers several times a week. She’s one of these people who likes to be busy and is determined to see the positive side of a lockdown, which I can understand, which makes me feel like even more of a cow when I’m seething to myself when I’m turning over the compost heap for the second time in a week...

Peas & shallots are all in now. We start the shallots as seeds in late December & early January. Been pleased with the results in previous years as we end up with individual large shallots rather than clusters of small shallots as you do with sets.

Our new orchard is leafing up nicely. One of our new cider apple trees has the most amazing red blossom. It is a great apple blossom year here. Anyone else seeing the same?

Afternoon !
gorgeous day ere , sunny but a stiff breeze. Still no rain ....
chock - oh , that sounds hard. Could you possibly get the nerve up to ask her to leave some work for you? If its a small plot , maybe reserve some of the space . I think I would find it really annoying tbh , but could it be she doesn't care appreciate she is stopping you from getting your allowed exercise?
Gnome - all the blossom has been stunning this year - my little apple tree is covered , and the crab apple has been amazing - all due to the nice weather i suppose :)
Did my hour this morning - picked sprouting broccoli , gave away cabbage plants , and have been promised a couple of sweet peppers in return - even my second sowing is looking iffy . I dug up the PSB plants that had gone over - they should have been taken out a couple of weeks ago , but as I wasn't there , no hardship . Need to get that bit sorted ready to plant out beetroot .
My sweetcorn has all germinated - quick going I feel , all through today bar 2 out of 24 , sown on Wednesday the 15 th!
Need to go with DH tomorrow , get all the bean and sweet pea canes up , and plant out the sweet peas if we have time .

We inherited a v overgrown plot and are still working to get all of it cleared. But we have six big beds now either full of seed sown direct or waiting for the seedlings to get a bit bigger and be hardened off.

Today was hours bindweed and couch grass root clearing as we get a bed ready for courgettes and strawberries. I hadn't really planned to put them in together but it seems the plants I ordered will arrive the same time as the courgettes are ready to plant out. I've got three types of courgette: romanesco, soleil and Sicilian. I'm thinking one of each will give us more than enough fruit? (there are just two of us...)

Looking at the third of the plot we have yet to clear today, I wondered if just sowing a load of nasturtiums might make the space useful and pretty while we get round to clearing it, which could be a wee while yet (work is quite full on for us both right now). But will they be that helpful in smothering the weeds? Or will I just end up with a worse mess than I started with?

Tangelo I would be wary of sowing nasturtiams IME they self set so you will get millions next year and they are also end up covered in blackfly.

Gnome
The self-seeding was my worry. I tell myself I'd keep on top of them and then they'd just rampage. Thanks!

Tangelo - could be worth thinking of a spring/summer green manure if it is not too much overgrown to do that .

I love nasturtiums, I've never found them to self seed prolifically and if the odd one pops up I'm usually happy to accommodate it, either in situ or by moving it (they have such distinctive leaves that it's easy to spot seedlings). The leaves are tasty too.

@bookbook it’s a really big plot - she’s really gone to town on it this past fortnight! I am looking after the tomatoes and other greenhouse plants at home (our collection of wood and Perspex that we call a greenhouse has no door so we can’t plant them yet) plus the borlotti and cannellini bean seeds, so at least I can do those. I also have to write a letter to the 85 year old Italian plot holder who has started gardening in the buff now the sun has arrived. I get all the great jobs!

Book
It's quite overgrown but the earth is great below the weeds, and I like the idea of a green compost tho I'm not sure I entirely understand how they work

Expletive
I was thinking of harvesting some flowers and leaves for eating - - I keep getting them strewn about expensive restaurant salads (well, I did when those were a possibility) like they are very exclusive ingredients rather something so easy to grow. I've seen that people pickle the seed pods and use them like capers too - tho I've yet to eat one.

I'll let you know what I do and come back with some pictures. Our allotment society has just relaid all the paths and we have got back a sliver of land on the end of our plot that is compacted with years of people tramping on it. Maybe I'll do a small crop of them there on the poor soil if nothing else.

Thanks for advice for all!

Hi, jumping in for some advice please. I dug over my very clay heavy plot a few weeks before lockdown started with the plan to use a rotavator to break down the big lumps of soil. But I've not been able to get down to the plot since then and now I'm unable to use a rotavator as the allotment has stopped loaning out tools.

Totally understandable but I'm left with a plot that looks like the surface of the moon as it's been so dry. Does any one have any ideas of how I can rescue it so I can actually get some plants in? Is it just a case of brute force to get the soil usable or have I totally messed up? I'm still pretty new to this and kept looking at everyone else's plots last night when I finally got to go down feeling very disheartened.

Book yes it's a self blanching variety, I have an old baby bath that I might just shove them in and see what they do!

Chock he's on the allotment in the nude?! I feel like a rebel when I go bare foot

I got my main crop potatoes and some caulis in at the plot yesterday. There's not an awful lot of room left up there now. I'll be growing much more at home again this year I think.
Roughly when will the broad beans be coming out? Around July? They're looking good now with their flowers, I should probably be providing some sort of support for them now I suppose.

bobofthelobs have you tried getting a fork into the soil? We had rain recently which did help to loosen things up a bit.

Do you have anyone who delivers horse manure to the plot? We have a local stables who will deliver a trailer load (about a ton) for £10. It's worth asking fellow plotholders about this. I know all the books say it needs to be well rotted but I use it pretty much fresh out of the horse with no ill effects. This spread over the beds will get pulled down into the soil by worms who will do a lot of the breaking up for you.

Other measure for breaking up soil: each year we nominate a couple of beds as 'hot' beds. All the compostable material is piled up on these then covered in strong weedproof matting with planting holes cut in it. Under the matting the compostable material breaks down pretty quickly. We plant things like courgettes in these beds. They appreciate the heat and the lack of weed competition. If you lack compostable material then more of the horse manure will also breakdown quickly. If the material hasnt broken down then put regular compost in the planting holes and plant into that.

At the end of the season take off the weedproof matting (fold it up and put it away for next year). Remove any unrotted material and move it to next year's hot bed.

We have been using this method for a few years as we are slowly improving all the beds. It really does work.

@GnomeDePlume Thanks so much for your help. There is someone who delivers manure but the committee aren't allowing any non-plot holders on site at the moment but I will try this as soon as I can. Will also have a go at the composting idea too.

We've not had rain for about 5 weeks now and there isn't any forecast for days. I will keep trying to manually breaking the lumps for now. Thanks again

Yes @Pyxie! He’s a wiry old Sicilian and quite brown but as soon as there’s a bit of sun all the clothes come off and this little white bum starts bobbing about! His plot is quite screened, so it’s not very overtly done. To be honest I don’t really have a problem with it, but the wife of another plotter really does, so now I have to write him a letter!

Fair play to him, I'd be too worried about stinging nettles and brambles

What an image Chock! My Mum used to have a gardener who would work in her garden in a thong. I'm getting stuff hardened off and then off to the plot with them.

@chockaholic72 I'd get the offended lady to write the letter if she's so upset and let the old man brown his bottom to be honest!