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

[bookbook]

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

Anybody know much about blueberries?! My kids love them and strawberries so I’ve ordered a range of strawberry plants so that I have a longer supply but no idea about growing blueberries? Do you need 2 for pollination?
Our plot is so wet we’ve made a trench all the way around it and it’s full all the way around! Because we only got it in January I honestly can’t imagine what it’s like in the sun!

I’ve got two blueberries in pots in acid compost. They do produce lots of fruits but while I wait for them to sweeten up the birds take most of them! I know I should net them and then don’t get round to it

Yes mere that’s the ones- you’ve just reminded me to order some!

I have grown blueberries very successfully for a few years now. It’s been very easy. They are in pots of acid compost which are sunk into our raised beds. We cut the bottom of the pot off before we sunk them.

We have a trio of bushes so they can pollinate. July, August, September fruiting bushes so we have a steady supply of fruit. The first year we bought them Feb and had fruit that year!

We don’t do much to them and they are really happy. They are in a fruit cage so they are netted, but it’s got a few holes, so the birds do get in occasionally.

Ooooh exciting thank you! We have left long posts on our raised beds so that we can net anything that may need it. Do you think I could put them in a raised bed if I put ericaceous compost in with the normal soil and top that up with a bag a year or something? I love the idea of walking to the allotment in the summer with some bowls and cream and picking strawberries and blueberries and eating them right away!!

We dig out some soil from the raised bed and sunk the pot in. Then filled the pot with acid compost. We haven’t ever needed to top it up or re do it. The plants were in 9cm pots and we got the biggest plastic pots we could. Each bush has its own pot.

Strawberries will need normal soil and it’s fine to put them in the same bed if they have normal soil. Strawberries are easy enough, but the first year will be settling in so crop could be anything depending on the weather. As all things!!

Well, I think all my plants will rot at this rate!! The garden is still incredibly waterlogged and we can't get out there to plant/ replant anything. There's a bit of sun predicted for tomorrow (fingers crossed!), would be great to finally get outside.

DTS2 loves strawberries, but has zero patience, so very few of them actually make it to the ripe red stage

Afternoon all!
@RubySlippers77 - it has gone to pot since then ! - it rained for a couple of days , and then it has been howling gales for the last 2 days .
All is still well though .
Very few around due to the weather.
Picked the very last lot of sprouts ( just the tops left now) , some leeks , and a savoy , and came home .

Got to the plot this morning, sunny and a bit breezy, and planted potatoes and shallots. Not too much wind damage for me but poor old Grumpy Ron's brassica cages are in bits.

Looks good bookbook

I visited the plot briefly with family in tow yesterday-planted shallots, onions and rhubarb. The water butts are full...
Hoping to go over all of Friday but forecast is wet for most of the week so will see how that pans out.

Sorry to hear your weather has gone rapidly downhill @bookbook! We actually had a nice day here today, but the DC were desperate to go out on their bikes/ scooters, which took up most of the day. I was exhausted when we got back - this ear infection has really taken it out of me - just didn't have the energy to go in the garden.

I hear Aldi have a lot of cheap garden stuff/ seeds at the moment? I can't get there till Thursday, hope it's still around by then!

Thanks for the welcome. 😊 @Janus, one of my raised beds already has garlic, onions, and shallots. Another has aqua dulce broad beans that I planted a while ago. I've started leeks and lettuces off indoors.

@bookbook I'm south east. (PS: I love your photos of harvests.)

I love bookbook‘s photos of produce too!
Thank you Elf, I’m same area as you so I must get on with the onions and garlic, I planned on starting some broad beans in pots tomorrow already!

Hello!
glad you like the photos - it helps me 'see' gaps in my veg growing - I have an album that shows them in order ( how sad is that ? )
I have had a couple of busy days , but managed to pop up this afternoon with DH .
We have pruned all the currant bushes , and I have sorted out the fruit cage nets - they were rolled back for winter , but the wind had loosened them , and they love to tangle in the branches , so checked for holes , and they all tidy and ready to go now .
I brought home some blackcurrant branches from the prunings, as I want to get some new ones rooted from the really good cropper which has nice size fruit, and the big piece of enviromesh so I can give it a wash and brush up

I've been reading Jonathan Stevens - Vegetable Growing which recommends a garden plan @bookbook - your photo album is the same sort of thing! (He is from Real Men Sow if anyone is interested in their resources, although the website doesn't seem to be active any more?)

Bought plenty of seeds from Aldi yesterday. Once I'm feeling better and we finally have a bit of sun, I will let DTS2 loose in the garden, he's super keen to plant some more bulbs! I can only hope he'll plant them the right way up this time

It's sowing day today. I've been saving plastic bottles for making mini self watering propagators so the windowsills will be full by this evening.

Seed potatoes bought in the week, I've got charlottes and maris piper this year. Debating whether I have room for a third variety as well.

Also thinking about constructing some extra raised beds and another bed for soft fruit. I just need to think about layout and whether it's possible.

Afternoon!
I have been rather busy with other stuff this week , so haven't been down to the plot .
I found time to sow the first batch of leeks , summer cabbages and cauliflowers yesterday .
Ruby - I draw up a proper plan too, on graph paper - but that tends to get altered as I go along :)

Went to Lidl for emergency garlic bread, came home with 2 pairs of secateurs , a trowel set, and two succulents first the bathroom. Planted 4 fruit bushes in the school garden, including Loganberry which I’ve not tried before.

Please may I join your veg thread? I don't have an allotment but we have a fair sized garden for the outskirts of London with fruit (apples, pears, cherries, raspberries, blackcurrants, blackberries, raspberries and strawberries) and herbs already and last year started to grow some veg too. I really loved doing that and want to do more this year and definitely in a more timely manner. I was late planting most things last year and still have a veg trug full of radish sized turnips and carrots that should have been fully grown last autumn!

I love seeing the photos on the thread. So inspiring!

Hello all....rejoining after a couple of years. Almost an acre of garden, at least half of which is brambles and nettles, with a fair amount of couch grass. Was many years ago planted and landscaped, so uncovered paths and rookeries etc. Trying to get rid of most of the grass, tidy up, and build raised beds.
I have 3 large (2.5 x 1m?) non raised designated veg “areas” for now, plus loads of pots.
Enormous pampas grass (yes, I know... at least it’s in back garden) which I have been slowly killing; sadly too close to house to set on fire!
Not enough time and not much help, so am working from house outwards.

I have started de-brambling the old greenhouse and shed, and have at least sown many sweet peas. They are all germinating well and moved to a cold bright place, so that I don’t end up with leggy specimens planted several months too late. We planted a sweet pea tunnel and pots 2 years ago which worked wonders for covering up unfinished areas (ie: most of garden).
Lost of strawberries plus baby plants from last year’s runners greening up, as are herbs.
I would like to concentrate on some easy greens - do I sow leeks, chard, PSB now?

Afternoon!
welcome Cineraria everyone will budge up on the bench :). It takes time to find out optimum sowing/planting times for your area , it varies such a lot around the country. At least you have got the groundwork in already !
and hello again quince - still battling on I see - I remember your trials and tribulations trying to keep on top of brambles :) Yes to sowing leeks now - I have sown my first succession , but I am leaving off PSB until towards the end of March personally
I really haven't had chance to get to the plot - hoping tomorrow will be okay in the morning , just to be on top of weeding and keeping on top of stuff .
The broad beans are doing well in the greenhouse , so once these high winds stop ,( please be soon ) I shall be hardening them off . The sweet peas are all through too .
I feel as if I am walking on the spot at the moment - almost ready to go , but the weather has been against me on getting down to the plot when its dry .

I managed an hour with toddler in tow today, 2 Christmas trees replanted and some more digging out of brambles.
Next week hoping to get the plum and pear ordered and make some more progress with the brambles. Feel like I might only have a few more sessions making progress over at the plot before I’m just catching up when I’m there.
Love to see and hear other people’s progress.

Place marking !
New to us garden and planning to build several raised beds for a range of veg. Have started tomato, courgette, and chilli seeds off in the conservatory and will be keeping some of them there. Plan to grow spinach, potato, lettuce and carrots in the garden. Already have a gooseberry, blueberry and raspberry planted about a month ago and a range of herbs.
Want to add more unusual herbs too, and things we can't easily get in the shops, eg. Sorrel, lovage, ...

I have loads of compost/ seeds/ bulbs/ pots ready to go but the weather has still been awful.... we get maybe one day of sunshine and then it's back to rain. I did get outside for one afternoon but spent it mainly digging up bulbs that DTS2 had planted as he'd popped them right at the bottom of each pot and shovelled tons of compost on top now they're nearer the top they should have at least a slight chance of flowering!

@TiddleTaddleTat I'm in awe of your herb aspirations. I keep buying pots of coriander and can't even keep those alive!

Same here Ruby, I am going to make a concerted effort to get to the plot this weekend and get some seeds in, at home, this weekend. The seed/plant catalogues keep arriving through the post, I am eyeing up giant strawberries, white strawberries, a pomegranate and a honey berry bush. Does anyone have any experience?