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

[bookbook]

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

Afternoon!
welcome Rookiegardener :) Whereabouts are you ( Just nosey , but makes a difference to when you sow/harvest) North/South/East/West ? It seems that everyone is having trouble with ripening tomatoes - me included . Normally , once they start , they keep going , but I think the stop and start weather is causing issues . I sow maincrop peas and carrots up to now - I do small and often succession rows , and it works fine . Cats are a real nuisance - maybe some string zigzagged across your beds may help to discourage them from thinking its their litter tray!
Thomas - mmm sprouts may be a little too late , unless maybe you can find some plug plants to plant up ?
No work at the plot today for me , and it is looking a bit iffy on the weather tomorrow , but will try to get to do some weeding regardless

@bookbook evening! I'm in the south east. I definitely agree about the stop start weather, that odd week of sun and high temps worked wonders on my tomatoes but now with the cloudy weather again it's a slow season.

Forgive my rookie nature but what's a succession row ?

The cat was back this evening and candidly, right in front of me, without a care in the world, uses the patch as a litter again. I may try and sow indoors tomorrow and see where I get with those seedlings while I try to decat my veg patch.

succession row is when once one row is up and germinated , I sow another row , to get a succession of harvest over a few weeks its not all over and done with in one sowing :) Annoying about the cat - as I say , can you put up something in the soil to deter them / nets /canes , sprinkle strong chilli powder water over the beds? I dont have cats , so don't know if anyone else has any suggestions .

We have issues with cats so out short garden canes or twigs in the soil and grow a loose net over until plants are established.

Put

Yes, chilli powder, curry powder, ground pepper over the bed. You need to use quite a lot and replace after rain.
And run at the cat to scare it off, or use water to scare it away.

Nb I love cats. I have cats. None of the above would hurt the cat, just deter it.

That, or net any freshly dug areas of bare soil.

@RhubarbJelly @TheSpottedZebra thank you for the tips. I will try this tomorrow. And perhaps I should resow for the third time now! I have put a cage around it but ran out of wire to put anything over the top. Need to also add that to my to do list tomorrow.

Afternoon!
odd day weather wise. It was supposed to rain and thunder - well, it hasn't
Did a solid hour at the plot this morning weeding , then dug some beetroot , cut flowers , found some volunteer potatoes and cut 8 courgettes ........ . Didn't need to water at least , as it had rained a lot overnight

Lovely pic, booky !

Odd weather day here too. It was blazing g at about 9am so I put on my factor 30. It HAMMERED it down before I'd got out of the house. Then it was hot again so off I went and picked a load of fruit (I've made jams, freezer is full, I'm rather fruited out actually ) and 3 small courgettes. Prodded some tomatoes that are so nearly ripe, but thought I'd leave it a while longer...

I went home just as it was getting too hot. Then the storms came and half of my tomatoes in pots fell over. Hopefully the plants themselves will be fine and it's just superficial damage.

I was in a Zoom meeting all morning - weather in Leeds was cloudy, York and Newcastle were both in bright sunshine, as, I presume, was Manchester because isn't that where the Test Match is?

Thanks bookbook, I'll try and be more organised next year with the sprouts. Lovely harvest photo!

We had rain this morning (I'm 7 miles from Leeds), but got up to the plot in the afternoon to do some weeding. I picked some asparagus peas, and broad beans, and saved some poppy seeds before I pulled them out. Planted some more kohlrabi too.

Strong winds and heavy rain here last night.... guess my tomatoes never will ripen . My biggest yielder fell and some trusses broke as well as some random scatterings of unripened cherry tomatoes.

Book book your harvest looks amazing.

I spent the morning at the plot after a week away, lots of weeding to be done during the week, but a good harvest today, cucumbers, courgettes, raspberries and runner beans. My tomatoes don't show any signs of ripening either.

Sorry to hear about your damaged tomatoes @Rookiegardener.

Weeded the veg patch this morning and harvested some British Queen second earlies.

Not strictly veg growing but felled a stagshorn sumac this morning (well, DH did, I'm 5 months pregnant so working on the lighter stuff) in preparation for building the trellis fencing for the new rose garden next year. Planning to put in a morello cherry. Also ordered a Black Lady mulberry for growing in a pot on the patio!

Can anyone ID my squash?
I was hoping it was butternut but it’s already pretty big and the skin is quite pale (not yellow). I did plant butternut squash but also ornamental squash, the plants got a bit mixed up but I do have other butternut squash planted somewhere else and the leaves look a bit different.

Cut all my rhubarb back today as it had taken over and and was blocking out light to my courgettes. Runner beans are not doing that great, mainly because of the bind weed coming over from next door 😡, have spent most of the day chopping down bind weed and nettles.

Can I join? Ive just brought a house with a beautiful greenhouse and raised beds.
Ive no clue.
It does have Rhubarb, Raspberries and Gooseberries that im enjoying.
And I've put my (what were sad) outdoor tomatoes in the greenhouse and they already look happier!

Ive ordered some seeds that my allotment book suggested could be planted in August, so jumping straight in!

I've got about half a dozen tomatoes ripe and ready to pick, and about a dozen full size and ripening. But it seems to me that the weather then put a halt to everything (possibly low light levels rather than cold), so I have masses of flowers, but no sign of the intermediate stages of pea sized, marble sized etc tomatoes.

On the plus side, I discovered a cucumber! Fingers crossed, I may even be able to pick it in July (My records say I was eating quite a lot of cucumbers in july last year.

Someone will need to start a new thread soon - there's only 38 messages to go before this thread closes.

Afternoon !
sorry been a bit tied up in RL , and forgot to post!
welcome Karcheer , sounds like its all ready to go ! ( whereabouts are you North/South/East/West ? ) Nothing quite liking growing and eating your own veg :)
Rookiegardener - sad to hear about the tomatoes - hope you have managed to salvage some . We have had some strong winds over the last week .
I have been to the allotment twice this week - Wednesday got some weeding done , all the fruit cage is sorted , but did spend a lot of time harvesting . I gave away a load of sweet peas , and got enormous calabrese heads back! Courgettes just keep coming ....
Today ,was mostly weeding , though it rained a bit , the ground underneath is pretty dry , surprisingly . I took the hoops and fleece off a row of peas I sowed a couple of weeks back - they are looking good , so put chicken wire and bamboos around to protect them from the birds. Found quite a lot of french beans to pick - the first ones always like to hide around the bottom , even though they are climbers . Then went to pick a couple of courgettes ( as I thought) . This year , they seem to be appearing from nowhere ...true glut season for me .
I'll get a new thread up Mere :)

New Thread HERE