Allotment/Veg Patch Thread 16 Weather weirdness prevails !

[bookbook]

Hello to everyone !
pull up a garden chair and join in with the trials and tribulations of growing your own , against the odds of weather , pests and diseases.
Previous thread is HERE

Thank you for the welcome book book. I am in the south-west....it was baking here today I have caught the sun from being out on my patch today. I found out the plants I couldn't recognise are Jerusalem artichokes....who knew...I have quite a good grasp on the sun/directions as my house isn't far from the site and follows the lie of the land in the same way. I really enjoyed it out there today so good to bail out from the house, family,cleaning etc and just dig and clear.

Evening all, finally cleared my little patch ready for winter. Had a nice bunch of carrots (wish I'd left some in as they were tiny but just want to get the garlic in now). Surprised as I didn't have a cloche and they managed to survive the cold nights.

Just wanted to say thank you to everyone as this thread really gave me confidence to try new things and helped me yield my first ever 'crop'. I successfully managed to grow carrots, peas, spinach, potatoes and tomatoes. Can't quite believe it . (And all that with a pesky little foxy friend too)

Evening!
ah Bear - well, they are an interesting vegetable - quite invasive if you don't keep on top of them , and not everybody's cup of tea , digestive wise !
Rookie - they look wonderful!
So , definitely slowing down on trips to the plot . It has been so damp and dreary. I went on Monday , and have tidied nearly everything now . So it is just maintenance and harvesting for a while to come .
Picked leeks , beetroot and perpetual spinach .

Bear Last winter I cut the noses off 3 of the artichokes I'd bought for eating, pieces the size of a hazelnut, managed to get them to root, and planted them out in the garden. Not a favourable spot, so they didn't do well, only got to about 4ft high. But today I've dug 4 artichokes, each almost 6 inches long and an inch wide, so considerably more than 3 hazelnuts worth! A result. I think I might start growing them again. I love the taste.

I've finished my apple harvest - picked the last of the Cornish Aromatic. Photo doesn't do them justice, they're a beautiful apple, like something out of a Dutch master, lovely dark red streaks. And the last tomatoes are ripening nicely in the kitchen.

Mine didn't get as far as flowering, but each root has been at least a meal. Hoping to find them a permanent home for the next few years. Elsewhere in the garden, so I might end with them in a couple of places.

Sorry, focused on the Jerusalem artichokes

Still no real frosts to speak of and my chillis are still soldiering on outside! Picking as and when we need them right now

All my garlic has shot up very quickly, I'm not sure this warm weather is good for it at this time of year.

Carrots look great rookie, I have some late planted ones that didn't look to be doing much last time I checked.

beautiful looking apples Mere :)
tiz - they are looking good!
I haven't planted any garlic this year .
it has just been too wet to do anything the last few days - , and am not due to go until later in the week
I did pop up between the rain showers to pick some sprouts yesterday . It was soggy .

Evening
hope everyone is well,.
Weather was pretty good , after a cold night .
I managed to get to the allotment today , just keeping on top of things now . I noticed an old timer digging in his mustard crop as green manure today . Picked leeks and a celeriac . Wednesday was just a zoom in for a cabbage .
I have tidied out all the greenhouse , so now need to do the shed at the plot really .....

@Rookiegardener I'm impressed by your carrots!!

It's been really cold here overnight @bookbook but I still have a few things flowering in the garden, bizarrely - one geranium is hanging on for dear life! I really need to have a good tidy up and maybe plant some daffodils (at DS2's request) but have been busy sorting out the house, ordering Christmas presents and job hunting. Planning to get it done soon though as DP keeps threatening to mow the lawn; mind you, it usually takes him weeks to get round to things so I'm probably safe for a while

I have quite a lot still flowering - corn marigold, cosmos, nasturtiums, then out of season stuff like snow-in-summer and wallflowers. And of course all the winter stuff has started. More relevant to the thread, I have a single quince still clinging to the top of the tree. All the others have already been made into quince paste and quince jelly, so I may do something else with this one when it finally comes down.

I was very disappointed this year @MereDintofPandiculation that MIL didn't load us down with apples as usual! She has a big apple tree in her garden that we usually get plenty of fruit from to make crumbles, sauce etc but this year most of the apples were a bit rubbish the curse of 2020 strikes again...

the curse of 2020 strikes again... Our apple crop was small (just over 100lb) but it was the mulberries which really failed. I thought I'd be able to supplement from the tree in the park opposite, but that one seemed to have failed too.

Afternoon!
Well, I think 2020 can do one really - I lost all my plums and gages to a late frost after they had set . I did get a nice load of apples from a relative , so I am not complaining too much .
The weather has been damp and dreary , frost and no frost , just rubbish really . I have done a couple of trips to the plot this week . Mostly to pick veg and check over everything , but all the digging and weeding has been done now .

Finally got too cold for the chillis so harvested the remainder and cleared the plants away

I can never bring myself to harvest the chillis as they look so good on the plant, so I just pick one when I need it (I don't use many).

Thats what we've been doing up until now, but frost and snow have finished the plants off so no plants to leave them on :-)

hello :)

I thought everyone had gone into hibernation!
Just harvesting here . It has been wet, dark , foggy and cold .
This weeks harvests - savoy /beetroot/ leeks and perennial spinach :)

Bookbook

What a lovely garden allotment you have! Your veg looks brilliant!

@bookbook I would dearly love to hibernate

Much fog and dampness here, too. I'm waiting for a nice bright day to get out in the garden and do the final bit of tidying up I need to do. I don't mind cold but rain makes it too much of a chore!

Very impressed by your veg

well, hope everyone is okay and keeping going .
Still mostly wet here , with a few bits of dry and even some sun .
Only picking though , not every day .
Here are the 2 loads done this week .

I've managed a couple of beetroot (roots for lunch, tops in Eggs Florentine for tea), and some purple sprouting.

At this time of year, harvesting is much more like foraging.

Hi, is it ok to join this thread? It's lovely seeing everyone's produce photos, you've grown some brilliant things. I have an allotment in Yorkshire. I went up early to see the sunrise for the Solstice as my plots on a hill, but it's just drizzle and fog. It's so mild here I've still got greenfly. My plot is mostly mud, cauliflower and kale at the moment but I'm in daydreaming mode planning what to grow next year.

I love all this winter veg. Really hoping to grow some for next year so there will be plenty of sprouts and cabbage for Christmas dinner

@DandelionsAreMyFriends I'm in the SE (and tier 4 now!) and saw daffodils growing today... plenty of rain here but not much frost or snow. much to the disappointment of my DC!