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

[bookbook]

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

Oh, and is this what baby crown prince look like?

tiz - yes! :)

Great, it made sense but my squash are so interwoven and have ranged so far it's difficult to work out which bits come from which parent plant!

Hello!
been a bit cool here - a bit of a breeze and grey .
Only a quick trip to the plot today to water the squashes and courgettes . Cut flowers , and then found these monsters . There are so many set courgettes all tangled up with one another that they are having to curl and sit on the soil . Glut is here......

I have 5 female courgette flowers today. And not a male in sight.

I have them Mere! I have ALL the Male flowers.
I remain glutless.

I'm going to have to resort to dipping them in batter and deep frying. Or use them in salads. You can do the same with surplus males - they taste very sweet, especially the base where the nectar is.

"As I suspected, someone has been adding soil to my allotment.
The plot thickens 😎"
Just to make you giggle and so I find the new thread and don't fall off this one.

@elephantoverthehill

"As I suspected, someone has been adding soil to my allotment. The plot thickens 😎" Just to make you giggle and so I find the new thread and don't fall off this one.

hehehe!

Afternoon!
another weeding day - so many weeds , so little time !
Planted out half a dozen autumn cauliflowers .
Cut sweet peas , picked the first small head of calabrese and some brokali . Also - first head of my autumn/winter purple sprouting broccoli - how mad is that?
I realised I had the first french beans too , and guess what - more courgettes !
We got a tiny bit of rain after lunch - it has been a grey day , but wasn't expecting that , it is a bit cool for July

We're away for a week tomorrow so picked some courgettes that were ready or might get too big in our absence.

Weather looks to be damp whilst we are away so hopefully all should be ok. Have emergency waterers on standby

Lovely harvest photos.
Glad I had not removed French bean plants as more beans have appeared. Courgettes are doing well - I am doing a 2 sisters approach with runner beans and courgettes in one bed.

First cucumber just licked, but only green tomatoes.

Need to tackle the weeds this coming weekend.

I've reached glut levels of... sugar snap peas! Er yay. We've eaten loads raw as snacks, in salads and had more stir fries than anyone really wants. Then I ran out of ideas. They're not exactly waffley versatile, are they? I've picked 6 french beans, and maybe 8 courgettes. But had the first runners at lunch and they were lovely. Loads more coming. Everything is so late for me this year. Even things that didn't grow in the bad compost.

Hello Son !

LOADS grows in clay. I'm on heavy clay, and I do moan about it but it does have its upsides. It's usually full of nutrients, and it usually holds onto water well, even when the top looks cracked and dry. It's usually of a relatively neutral ph. Brassicas are famously good on clay, as are roses. Root veg harder to grow. I grow in the ground, on mostly no dig beds although I did do an initial dig to get rid of weeds. I top up with whatever mulch ,organic material I can get. It mostly works apart from it's not great for sowing small seeds direct, but I start most stuff at home anyway.

Nb people at my site DO sow direct, but they mostly dig a lot, and often do a furrow of multi purpose compost, to start off the seed. And lots have indeed built raised beds.

Yes, things definitely noticeably later this year. This came up on my timeline from 2 years ago today. I'm still at the let's check every 5 mins stage, no chance of things going unnoticed to get to this size

Evening all! I'm in courgette glut phase, but only because my local farm veg bag is also supplying me with courgettes!

Getting good handfuls of my dwarf yellow beans, which are very nice. But still in the stage of just a few raspberries here and there, which we promptly eat!

Lovely looking squash @tizwozliz! All my varieties (four) seem to be coming on well, although I can't remember which variety is where and the fruits are too small to tell yet!

Evening all, wanted to say hello after lurking for so long! This is my second year with an allotment - located in West Yorkshire, soil is quite heavy clay. Dh and I have a mix of raised beds and planting direct (no dig method). I wanted to show you my asparagus peas/winged beans, as I'm ridiculously excited about them! First time growing them, and I reckon I can pick some in a few days.

Evening!
welcome SonEtLumiere and ThomasHardyPerennial :) . Can I be nosey Son - I love knowing where you are - North/South/East/West
as Spotted says - clay has its problems , but is packed with nutrients - you just need to work on adding as much organic stuff as you can to help open it up , but root crops will always be less easy .
Thomas - nice to see you unlurk ! and waves from E Yorks :) but I will take the 5th on asparagus peas ....
Only a very quick trip to the plot today , got all the nets tied up out of the way on the fruit cage, so now no excuse to finish weeding ...
Funnily enough , I think my courgettes and squashes are a tweak ahead - I actually have 2 butternut squashes set ( only tiny , but hey! )

Asparagus peas! How exciting!
REALLY beautiful flowers.

sugar snap peas I usually just use them instead of peas - tonight we had some huge and really good chicken kievs from the farmers market - they're now delivering - with sugar snaps and courgettes. A real treat of a meal.

Asparagus peas! A pain to pick, though! You're supposed to pick at an inch long - takes a long time to pick a serving. But they are beautiful looking plants.

Son I've got grapes in Yorkshire! You could also think about figs, quince and apricots, all of which would like a warm spot.

I will have two ripe tomatoes at the weekend

Plenty of watering the last few days. Even with a little rain it never seems to give the pots a thorough soaking. Everything is coming on well though. I have picked a few more courgettes and like Mere I have 2 tomatoes that are verging on red! All of my others are completely green though and there are so many of them. Thankfully they are all different sizes so hopefully they won't all be ready to pick at the same time.

My peppers and runner beans are growing well and I've picked another hand full of dwarf beans. The chilli plants are just starting to flower so pleased about that too.

I was impressed with the aubergine pictures! My plants are growing but no flowers yet.
Oh, I nearly forgot... my cucumbers are doing well too. About to pick my second one.

Thank you for the warm welcome! I saw asparagus peas in a book, and just thought I would give it a try. It's nice to grow something just as an experiment, I will make sure to pick them when they are small!

As for growing things on clay, currently have potatoes, onions, garlic, sweetcorn, and strawberries all growing. I will definitely try brassicas now they have been recommended for clay.

Am I too late to start brussels sprouts?

Hello everyone can I join? It's my first year planting anything and I started with cherry tomatoes. They seem to be flowering like crazy but most are still very very green.

I just sowed some Nantes carrots and some peas.. I read they can be sown in July.. anyone have any experience? Currently the neighbours cats keep digging up my seeds so I may have to start from scratch and sow them indoors and move them out later..