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

[bookbook]

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

That's a relief Trebolla. I had similar with mine, there is a grassy strip between mine and the plot behind me but not clear where the boundaries are. I've always walked along it to get to the rear of my raspberry patch and always cut the grass there. Then one day I was perched there weeding and the plotholder came along with one of his DCs who said loudly "why is she on our plot?" to which the Dad said "I don't know" and I simultaneously said "this half of the strip is mine and the other side is yours", but it got me thinking. I asked the site rep and she said you can't really tell as over the years the markers have been lost, moved, people have conceded/gained bits. Not very satisfactory. I only walk along it when they're not around now. And I leave them to cut the grass.

Afternoon !
well, it was too hot yesterday - I finished digging over the squash bed , picked some spring cabbage , sorted out the peas with netting and pigeon protection and came home .
I was going to plant out sweetcorn and beans today , but looked at the forecast first . Strong winds tomorrow and Friday . So , apart from doing a bit of watering on newly planted leeks and the cauliflowers , I have had a day off today , and will wait until Sunday to plant out .
At home , the first tomatoes are setting , ( Sungold cherry ones ) and I have a cucumber set too
Trying to decide if its too warm now to sow some more spinach - I have a nice lot coming along at home , but barely enough for a decent picking - mmm .

Too hot here too, yesterday and today, still 25C here and not a cloud in the sky, all I have done is water. It's forecast between 17 amd 23 for the next few days which is much more to my liking but also very breezy, I might hold off planting out till that calms down, but then it'll get hot again . No shade on my plot till about 7pm either.

I have been to the garden centre today and it was lovely.

I decided yesterday to wash my pots in a big trug of soapy water. The reason I'm still on MN is that going out to finish them in this cold wind doesn't seem nearly as attractive as it did yesterday.

Planted some more strawberries today-ordered mid April and arrived yesterday; tiny little things hope they get established...
It’s been hot here this week too-much breezier today. Hoping to get courgettes planted out this weekend and need to repot the tomatoes too. Eating out pak Choi and on a second sowing.
Hope everyone enjoying the sunshine (and never ending watering...)

Well I am glad that I did not plant more than one squash out with the cold wind today!

My squashes look ok but my courgettes are not happy, I have 2 more left indoors so I think I will wait until this wind is gone before hardening them off.

Good morning. I’m after a ID for some vegetable I planted from seed. There’s four small pots which I have planted. The label is blank so no help there and I have no seed packet that isn’t matched to everything else.

@Harrykanesrightsock Pakchoi?

I managed to kill off a whole propagator worth of seedlings. Got too hot in the porch yesterday, and because I'd shaded them I didn't notice they were wilting. Cucumber crisis this year. Rest can be re-sowed.

It's not cold here at all but the wind is fierce. Hopefully will die down later on. Plans for the weekend are to get the courgette and squash that are in the greenhouse into the raised beds. Then the courgettes that were sown last weekend can graduate from the house to the greenhouse.

Also need to get the brussel sprouts netted up, i've spotted the odd cabbage white but it won't be long before they're out in force. It will keep the pigeons off them too

Sweetcorn are going to stay in the greenhouse for another week or so I think.

Some of my tomatoes are just starting to flower. I'd love to eat a homegrown tomato in the summer, the past few years I haven't had any ripen until September. Think there'll possibly be radish ready this week too :-)

MereDintofPandiculation hmm Thankyou. I have Pakchoi but it’s much darker. Could just be a different variety. I’ve squinted at the label and it says turnip. But I have turnip in the plot and it doesn’t look like that.

Allotment plant sale today so I now have courgettes, squash, pumpkins, more strawbs and some sweet corn in the ground-was it too early for the sweet corn?

Still building up the beds and trying to fill them with soil/compost but hard to get hold of enough of the stuff without spending a small fortune...

Four young sparrows in the fruit netting this morning, and needed to be freed. No idea how they got in, one nearly strangled itself in its panic to try and get out whilst i was creating an escape route. Still very windy here, although it was forecast to be calmer so everything on hold until tomorrow.

But I have turnip in the plot and it doesn’t look like that. Yes, I don't think it's turnip or any sort of beet - they have more of a stem.

Afternoon all!
well, you lot are all getting on with it!
Harrykane - certainly looks like something Chinese leaf /pakchoi - there are quite a few varieties.
Whattodo - ooh , a sale - great idea! we tend to just swap around . I have planted out my sweetcorn today , so I certainly hope its not too early , but they have been well hardened off .
tiz - it only needs a small gap , you may have to look quite hard , poor things .
So I popped up on Friday morning just to check everything was battened down , and picked the last lot of asparagus , did some weeding , and that was it . Really , really strong winds on Friday and Saturday .
So I went this morning - still pretty breezy , but easing off at last . Everything survived , so it was planting up day . Sweetcorn , Borlotti beans , French beans , 2 crown prince squashes , and 1 courgette. The rest of the courgettes and squashes will not be ready for another week , as they came from my second , more successful! , sowing . Watered the strawberries as it is just so dry .
The soft fruit is looking good for later on in the season fingers crossed - currant bushes looking full ( these are the white currants ) and the loganberry full of flowers too :) might make up for losing a lot of plums in the frosts .
Back home this afternoon , and I have sown Basil , late autumn cauliflowers , and the winter savoy cabbages . It felt odd , sowing for next year!

We had our first ripe strawberry today (dd ate it), it’s the first thing we have produced this year, though I caught dd2 eating my lettuce earlier, they are not ready yet.

My black currants are looking good, it’s their 2nd year and the 1st year they have produced any fruit, I don’t think we will have loads but I’m super excited about eating them, same with the gooseberries. Started hardening off the runner beans today in hope I can plant them this week without the wind getting them.

Have started growing fennel from seed, I don’t have a clue what I’m doing, don’t think I even like fennel but it was free seeds with a magazine and the germinated pretty quickly.

I had my first strawberry today too, and very nice it was. Planted out sweetcorn and sunflowers and watered everything, the ground is dry as a bone here now. We went for a drive yesterday and when we were about 10 miles away there was a torrential downpour including hail but we got home and found it had bypassed us completely.

I had my first strawberry today too It's things like this which make me realise how much shorter the growing season is here in the frozen north.

We've had a weather mixture here, several hard frosts the week before last, sun and strong winds last week and now hot, sunny and calm predicted for at least a week. Haven't had any decent rain for about a month. Hampshire.

Just come back from the plot, planted out pumpkins and broad beans. There are many things I haven't liked about lockdown, but plenty of time for gardening has been a real positive.

Those with strawberries, is it early for you this year, or is strawberries in May normal? I associate strawberries with mid June and the start of Wimbledon.

@bookbook any basil growing tips? It's something that I can't seem to grow or keep alive

Courgettes and patty pan squash have gone into the beds outside first thing today. I'm having a rethink on planting plans as I don't need quite so much room for squash and pumpkin after losing some to the frost. So corn is going into a different bed than planned and I then gain a spare bed that i'll stick some carrots in i think

@Lovemusic33 - I grew fennel on request last year and it's survived the winter and is growing well again this year, it looks quite attractive but doesn't seem to have grown any sort of substantial roots and we've never used it for anything so i've not really got any advice there.

First handful of delicious Ruby Strawberries yesterday here as well, and a bunch of tasty radishes. My beans that got nipped by the frost have started to grow strongly again so I'm going to have millions of them as I started some more inside.
Today I'm going to pot my sweetcorn on as I still have work to do on the bed it's going into and I'm going to plant some of my tomatoes out at the allotment and into grow bags in the garden. Might get some of my cosmos plants into the borders too

Evening!
yes . mid June for strawberries here in Yorkshire
tiz - I just sow the same as everything else . Compost in pot , and I always water the compost really well first . Sprinkle on seeds , and gently press into compost with fingertips . Cover whole pot with a plastic bag to keep it damp . I do all sowings in the greenhouse . As soon as the first leaves appear , the plastic bag comes off . With basil , I tend to sow it in the pot it will stay in usually , unless I have miles too many seedlings germinate . ( If I do I tend to split the seedlings in chunks into suitable size pots rather than prick out ) . Once established, you need to pick regularly - I always cut quite a long stems worth off so it bushes out , it can try to flower if it gets too stressed with heat or dry .

tiz book
I am trying some seeds from Chiltern Seeds this year called English basil which I'm going to plant out with my tomatoes at the allotment. The germination has been much better than for my genovese basil so I am hopeful! Will update when it's got a bit bigger and been planted out

Hello all! Was wondering I I could join you. We have finally moved house - actually got it before lockdown and planted fruit/veg in the garden early March but hadn't moved fully and then got trapped in lockdown in old house but we're now back!

Things doing well (in beds)

Early Nantes carrots looking great
Parsnips
Black currants
Gooseberries
Raspberries
Beetroot seedlings just emerged
Herb bed - parsley, dill, basil doing well but rosemary yet to sprout!

None of the broad beans or peas sowed out took which is unusual but I'm wondering if the birds got them

I wanted to ask you what to do about the greenhouse. They have an old glass frame one which is way too hot in summer and too cold in winter. It's been about 40C every day in there so I can't even keep my seedlings in there. The stuff sowed in pots has had to come in to the house (tomatoes, lettuce, broad beans though the black aphids are already attacking them). Is it worth trying to make it cooler? I am pondering just bringing it down and remaking it somewhere else in the garden at this rate.

Am also trying water melons this year but haven't got past 2 leaves in any of them as yet. Tomatoes huge but not flowering!

The first strawberry