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! :)

Evening!
ah , missed the watering query .
I am watering in the greenhouse once a day (tomatoes/peppers/cucumbers/aubergines)
at the plot really only the newly planted squashes and courgettes - everything else is well watered in when planted and left to get on with it until fruit etc has set . I don't water trees or fruit bushes ( anything well established really)

Well, back down there this morning . I am now just about planted up - did the second succession leeks , celeriac and sowed some carrots and spinach ( probably too warm for the spinach , but decoded it was worth a go ) . I just have kale to plant , another row of beetroot to sow and then prep up for autumn cauliflowers and winter cabbages .
Had a good look at everything - dahlias and sweet peas nearly ready to flower ,, the redcurrants are turning pink , and some broad bean about ready to pick .
Sadly ,I did lose all the Victoria plums in the late frost :( Hey - ho , that is growing for you .

Evening all!

I went over to my allotment for the first time in a good few weeks today- have been through a tricky patch with 7mo DS teething and not sleeping so I've not really had the time or energy for it.

The last time I saw it it was looking ok- the grass was spreading a bit but the potatoes I'd planted were growing and my apple tree had lots of blossom.

Well I could have cried this evening. The couch grass and bind weed have completely taken over. All but two of the 5 potatoes plants are gone. Can't even see where I planted the garlic and courgettes. I spent two hours clearing space around the apple tree and disentangling the bind weed that had started to grow round it again. I think I'm gonna have to just buy a giant ass tarp- cover the whole thing over and start afresh next spring because it is completely insurmountable.

Any recommendations for a giant ass tarp?

Also my apple tree has started to bear fruit- does anybody know what sort this is?

Oh, Angelo, what a shame, I am cursed with couch grass and bindweed too and they are rampant in spring. Do you have access to bulk compost or well rotted manure by any chance? We dealt with this problem one year by collecting cardboard boxes, flattening them and covering in a few inches of compost. Then soaked it all with a hose, made holes with a bulb planter and put plants through that. Failing that a giant ass tarp is probably your best bet. There will be others in similar positions this year with shielding, no childcare etc. It might be worth letting your council or allotment association know if you are going to pause till next spring, ours aren't doing inspections this year but there might be someone who could lend you a hand (maybe someone who is furloughed or redundant).

Also my apple tree has started to bear fruit- does anybody know what sort this is? There's over 400 varieties of apple in the UK. You'll need to wait until the fruit is ripe and then look at things lie the shape of the fruit, the colour, any marking on it, the shape of the core, the shape of the indentation where the reamains of the flower is, the shape of the indentation around the stalk ...

thanks for your replies on the watering - it's not really raining properly here today - a bit of a dribble and that's it so I'm keeping my fingers crossed we get a bit more!

my poor droopy cauliflowers have almost given up the ghost bar 3 of them which are trying to come to life!

@AngeloMysterioso our apples have also just started - they are one of the few fruits the birds don't get! It's exciting seeing them growing though they've still got months to go!

I need to start thinning some of the veg - my beetroot, radishes and giant pumpkins are a bit close together. I always hate thinning as it feels like I'm throwing stuff away so I sometimes try and transfer them to pots though because the greenhouse is still overheated, I think dp will murder me if I bring any more back inside the house!

watermelons on their 4th leaf! I have hope!

@angelo we just have a giant black thick tarp from ages ago - it's some tatty old thing. i don't think it matters what it is as long as it's thick and tough. I don't think we've bought a new one in years so they do last well.

I've name changed from something tree-like...

I asked this before but it got lost in the thread - my petit pois's are having some problems. One turned yellow and has now died. The one next to it has some yellow leaves too. Am I likely to be overwatering? Would some tomato feed help? Please help before I lose them all (I've already accepted that I can't grow strawberries, would hate another failure!)

enyemaka i didn't want to leave your post unanswered. The mice ate all my peas/beans this year bar one broad bean (!). Are the yellow leaves all over or just the lower leaves or upper leaves? I would feed them with tomato feed and see what happens. Yellow leaves are generally under or over feeding but it's hard to tell with no other info! are they out in the soil?

@AngeloMysterioso what a shame about your allotment. These things seem to return to Nature far too quickly!! Hopefully your apples will be tasty though

@BlueWave I sowed some carrot and beetroot seeds in huge pots, thought that'll give them plenty of space. Now all the seedlings are coming up there are loads and they're all packed together I suspect that my DC have got hold of the packets and poked loads more seeds in there...

Wondering if there will be any water in the water it’s after the slight drizzle!
Hopeful.

Evening!
oh Angelo - how awful for you - bindweed is the absolute devil - I basically only keep mine under control . It has been such freakily warm weather , I think courgettes may well have suffered badly . I would try to rip out what bindweed you can - it will only slow it , but better that than leaving it to rampage . Good idea to cover and plant through if that is a possibility for you ?
@enyemaka - sorry to have missed your query . In truth , I don't water peas unless the pods have already formed , and the leaves are drooping . Can you give them a feed ? Try with a foliar feed first , as that works quickly normally , and will give you an idea of what the problem is .
well we had a pitiful amount of drizzle yesterday - 3mm over 24 hours , so when I got to the plot this morning , you wouldn't know we had had any rain .
But I got the last prepping up for autumn cauliflowers done , did some more weeding of bindweed , and checked everything over . I have 1 pink strawberry , the peas look to be getting ready to flower , and the very first sweet peas are here . So picked those , and the first small handful of broad beans too :)
Greenhouse at home is doing well - aubergines and peppers have flower buds , more tomatoes setting , and one cucumber .
But shut everything up today , its been cold .

We ended up with more rain than forecast so the water butts are half full again, the temperature is a bit of a shock to the system after months of warm weather though.

Aphids are really bad this year, lots on the fruit bushes and other plants which I never normally have to worry about. I've been liberally spraying with washing up liquid and now the ants are feasting on the dead corpses.

All my courgettes are now in the ground, potatoes coming along nicely, radish and beetroot bolting. I don't mind so much as I find the radish seed pods are really tasty. Looks like I might have french beans and mange tout to pick in a week or so.

Still battling with cats using any patch of bare soil as a toilet, i've got plant pots, bricks, sticks and all sorts trying to take up the space but still they find a patch. So infuriating

our aphids are mental too - they destroyed a fair few plants before the ants came in

the 3 surviving cauliflowers are tentatively looking happier but I don't think we are out of the woods yet! The one last bean is still hanging on!

I have ordered some Brussel sprout seeds and cabbage to get them ready for Christmas :) - and this weekend I'm clearing the large compost area (which they built right against the neighbour's wall, and it smells!) to turn those into 3 large beds. Have ordered a hot bin composter to replace them (though it's a month away)

beetroots and pumpkins looking v happy - need to remember when to start pulling up the early carrots but I think we are a few weeks off

my tomatoes still didn't flower :( - the peppers are looking v odd but I grew them from seed so can't remember what they are and my babies the watermelons now have 4 leaves!

@enyemaka Was it you who posted the other day about possibly having to move on? Glad you were able to stay. No idea about the peas, it's not happened to me, apart from drought they seem pretty robust. Are you growing in compost? - is there any possibility that the source was a bit dodgy (eg including grass cuttings from a lawn treated with "weed and feed")?

Hopeful for replenished water butts also.

Tiz cats are the problem we have. Resorted to netting some areas - hassle and expense due to the pets of others, sigh.

First few strawberries eaten by children straight from the plant - fabulous!

Just the cucamelon to plant out now, plus some parsley and coriander.

I've put off netting or similar so far as it makes it so much more difficult to pull up little weeds as i potter about. I had chicken wire over cloche hoops last year which worked well, but wasn't easy to lift on and off. If i can find some wood, i'll try and mount the hoops on two 'ski's' of wood so it can easily be lifted on and off. The main problem is where the onions are, as they're still so small they obviously don't register as plants to the cats.

It's turned really windy here this afternoon, not sure the tomato plants that didn't get a space in the greenhouse are going to like it.

The weather has confused me a bit with what time of year it is, I have to keep reminding myself that it's still only just June, panicking about how small my chillis are when there's loads of time yet so I wouldn't start panicking about your tomatoes yet @BlueWave

My cucamelons are taking over the house, I’m too scared to plant them out as last year it killed them. I planted more chard after the cat rolled on my seedlings and squashed them.

I had to net my veg bed until it was full of plants due to a cat (not ours) using it as a toilet. And then I chicken wired any tiny plants because my own Maine Coon likes to squash them too.

And then I chicken wired any tiny plants because my own Maine Coon likes to squash them too. My cat's not friends with me at the moment because I've filled the cucumber bed with pointy sticks.

Whilst a bit of rain was lovely, I'm not sure my plants will appreciate this hail quite so much

Thanks for the advice re. my peas (and not sure who it is Mere was thinking of). Think I might have been overwatering so planted a few more and will water every few days rather than every day. The change in weather will help that.

Still next to no rain here, cold, grey, breezy but stubbornly dry. My lawn should not look like this

It rained! Properly for about half an hour...
Compost bin built...

We got a decent half hour of rain this evening too, just after Ds had got back from watering the allotment

Got up to a thoroughly damp garden, hopefully the lawn will revive itself a bit now. However the water butt doesn't look much fuller so it can't have been that much rain.

Just watered the tomatoes and cucumbers in the greenhouse. Lots of birds chirping and bees humming. I haven't been to the allotment for several days as DS has taken over the watering but hope to pop up this evening.

Been out picking rhubarb this morning as it’s gone crazy due to the rain, needed to reduce it down as it’s covering my courgettes.

My strawberries seem to be very small, had a few bigger ones last week but this mornings picking don’t look good. Do I need to feed them? Have given them a couple feeds over the past few weeks (liquid seaweed) but do I need to feed them more when fruiting?

I need to be more productive today as the weather is better, I have lots of chillies and tomatoes to put into bigger pots and a few bits to move into the veg patch, I have been a bit lazy the past week 😂