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

@Lovemusic33 Don't forget that soft fruit also needs picking every couple of days.

Have you tried any of the hybrid blackberries - loganberry, tayberry, sunberry and the rest? Very tough and maintenance free, and don't sucker like raspberries.

Tree cabbage - I've got one that's been going for about 4 years. Just pick a few leaves when you want.

Fantastic leeks bookbook
I have been sowing calibrese and lots of flower seeds today in my green house today also hardening off my broad beans and peas with a view to plant them out next week weather permitting.
🤞

Busy day yesterday sewing seeds, hope I’m not too early, I’m down south so slightly warmer but still some cold nights forecast.
Sewed some marigolds, leaks, kohlrabi, patty pan, cosmos and pricked out PSB and cauliflower.

My raspberry canes arrived, thought I had ordered 3 but I have 6, no idea where I’m going to put the extra ones, will they be ok in big pots until I hear if I’m getting a plot? Running out of space in the garden, they are autumn fruiting raspberries.

I've done a major amount of seed sowing today. I love this time of year when everything is getting started.

Onions planted today and a Tayberry put in.
Potatoes chitting.

Hope you get that plot Lovemusic.

I think I won’t find out until April if I get a plot, people pay in April for their plot for a year so anyone that’s going to give up their plot probably won’t do so until the next payment is due? Though there’s defiantly a overgrown messy plot up there so I’m crossing my fingers 😁.

I have just had an email from my allotment committee to see if anyone wants to give up their allotments in April so fingers crossed you get good news lovemusic33

Had an hour up at the plot today, first weekend visit for ages, there were quite a lot of people up there including some new plotholders (our rent is due end Dec so any that are given up can be handed over in the NY). Unfortunately that means that "man who thinks he owns the place" is in his element, going round giving unwanted advice and offers of help in a loud voice to anyone that will listen. This has happened over the last couple of years, he talks at length especially to new people, offers to help them (especially women on their own) and then potters about working on other people's plots when they're not there.

Anyway, managed to avoid engaging with him today, planted out onion sets and cut back about half my autumn raspberries.

Evening all!
I had a trip to the plot this morning . Sunny but with a stiff breeze!
Exponentially - I think there must be one of those on every site ... they can be such nuisances .
Gradually getting the beds prepped up , bit at a time . Pulled up the last 2 sprout tops , some kale , and a tiny runt savoy :) .
After sowing leeks , I have also done some small succession sowings of summer (sweetheart) cabbages , summer cauliflowers , and beetroot - these are all in the greenhouse . i sowed a few sweet peppers too, which are on my sunniest windowsill in the house :)

It’s people offering unwanted advice, or rather the thought of my gardening skills being judged, that puts me off having an allotment

In mitigation ours doesn't judge, but wants to be the person who knows everything that's going on, the one people turn to for advice etc but he overdoes it.

We moved a small magnolia tree to the front garden last week which will allow me to expand my raised bed empire :-) Really need to sit down and plan what needs to go where.

Chillies are just starting to germinate, planning to start some tomatoes off this week. Still need to sort out the greenhouse situation, the one I wanted is out of stock (just wilko plastic type one)

Bit off topic but which magnolia do you have? I’m looking for a small one. @tizwozliz

Looks like the weather is due to start warming up next week, looking at 13-14 degrees in the south during the day, which is nice.

This week looks chilly and dreary! Can't wait to get a proper start on my carrots, peas etc.

Mind if I join in? We moved house last year and have space for growing adventures now; the front garden will be a food forest and the back, veg. And thankfully the only interfering person is me

I spread a ton of manure today and planted 20 asparagus crowns. I have jerusalem artichokes and a load of fruit trees, shrubs and canes of various types in already, and flats of seedlings everywhere.

I haven't a bloody clue what I'm doing, but I'm having a great time, and so far we've really enjoyed having a supply of salad leaves all winter (in my badly built but effective coldframes).

@UtterlyUnimaginativeUsername

Mind if I join in? We moved house last year and have space for growing adventures now; the front garden will be a food forest and the back, veg. And thankfully the only interfering person is me

I spread a ton of manure today and planted 20 asparagus crowns. I have jerusalem artichokes and a load of fruit trees, shrubs and canes of various types in already, and flats of seedlings everywhere.

I haven't a bloody clue what I'm doing, but I'm having a great time, and so far we've really enjoyed having a supply of salad leaves all winter (in my badly built but effective coldframes).

Welcome to the thread. My plot is in my garden but I’m trying to get an allotment plot as I want to have more flowers and shrubs in the garden and less veg. Sounds like you have made a good start, I’m hoping to plant asparagus on a plot when I get one, I think it takes a few years to get a good crop but worth it.

Yes, I planted one year old crowns so I've to wait two years for my first small harvest. It'll be worth it though. And I'd say I'll be eating my asparagus before my quince and almonds! At least we have annuals for a bit of excitement in the meantime : )

Please could someone offer a little Chilli help?

By some miracle I've managed to germinate a few chillis. I put them on a small heat mat set at 30c which is where they are now and a grow light over them.

They are currently about an inch tall and the true leaves are just forming. They are indoors and the room doesn't go below 18c.

I'd like to free up the heat mat soon if possible. At what point can they come off the heat but still under a light? Thanks!

I grow chillies without a heat mat so I’m sure they will be fine without it.

Has anyone grown baby corn? Does it take up as much space as normal corn? Is it worth growing?

Getting super excited about seeds germinating, each morning I get up and check them all 🤣, I don’t seem to be having as much luck with lettuce, I have been planting in the cardboard seed tray pods and almost everything I’ve planted in them has started to die a couple days after germinating, I won’t be using them again.

@applejane i grew two enormous chilli plants ('Big Jim') last year, no heat mat or lamp. They had tonnes of chillis. I'm in south of England and it was a warm spring / summer. I'm growing a few more varieties at the moment and have just transplanted 30 or so seedlings again with no special gear. Fingers crossed they''ll all be okay!

Today I’m building frames for vertical growing, this could go terribly wrong but I am armed with my new electric drill/screw driver, some timber and some steel mesh bought from B&Q (i think it’s meant for something else). If the first one works I shall be going back to b&q for more meat 🤣 or I might attempt a netted frame for my cauliflower and broccoli.

@MaryIsA I'm afraid I don't know, ours was a housewarming gift. I suspect it was a Soulangeana but not 100% sure

Be sure to show us your results @Lovemusic33 I think I probably need to build another growing frame this year.

Here's my first frame, please ignore the surrounding mess 🤣

@Lovemusic33 and @crazycourgette really?! My first batch didn't even germinate! Where did you have your seeds, indoors or cold/heated greenhouse? Everything I read says they need to be kept very hot so I thought I'd just messed up the first time.

Ironically I don't even like chillis 😂 but I'm hoping to gift them to a few who love them!

@AppleJane germinated them indoors took a couple of weeks this time round I cannot remember how long it took last year, then transferred seedlings to kitchen table / shelf that gets a fair bit of sunlight. I kept the Big Jim chilli plants indoors last summer and will probably keep one or two plants indoors this year and try and grow the rest in Polytunnel or sunny spot on the allotment. I did grow a jalapeño plant outside last year, I bought it rather than grew it from seed but it did well in garden. It was very warm last year though!