Allotment/Veg Patch Thread 16 Weather weirdness prevails !

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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

It was -5 overnight here so everything inside for a while yet. I'd intended to get my potatoes out, but I'm going to wait another week. They were caught by a late frost last year but survived. I might sow some in my bags as these can be moved into the greenhouse ( that currently doesn't exist) if necessary.

Tomatoes popped up over the weekend, along with my crown prince and a courgette and some dwarf French beans.

I'm a bit stuck garden-wise. We've beautiful blue skies but it's icy! I've finished the winter pruning, I just don't fancy weeding in this weather though I need to do it. I could sit in the lovely warm greenhouse sowing seeds, but it seems more sensible to wait a week till it's warmer again, and I've re-potted everything I can find to re-pot.

What did you choose, Mere ? I hope you sat in your suny greenhouse even if you weren't starting seeds!

This afternoon I've potted on some tomatoes. I'm having that thing where I SUDDENLY feel behind. I've still not sown any beans, corn, courgettes or squash. I've totally run out of windowsill room and I'm fed up trying to ensure my cats don't knock my pots over or decapitate my seedlings.

It is soooo cold at nights still! I really want it to get warmer so I can start moving stuff out, and sowing more.

I've never been so obsessed with frosts! I've got 4 more nights of frosts and then just maybe I'll be able to sow seeds direct.

Does anyone know, if you've got a few 10c days with -1c nights whether sowing carrots, spinach etc will be okay or best to wait?

I sowed 52 pumpkin and squash seeds today DH wants loads for a halloween party (covid restrictions allowing, of course) and I had bought loads of varieties (over-enthusiastic first-timer!). I have no idea how I'm going to pot them on, or fit them in the ever-more-crowded patches of sunshine in my house.

We'll be living on tomatoes and pumpkins for the whole year unless I fuck it up and we don't get anything.

My very canny grandfather always used to use radish seeds as an indicator of whether or not the soil was warm enough to sow seeds, on the basis that radish seed is cheap, germinates quickly (if the temp is ok) and doesn't "go off" so a packet lasts you a couple of seasons. Still too cold here.

I have carrots out already and a few little gem lettuce because I have loads of back up in the greenhouse, radish will be going out this week too. My peas and broad beans have survived the last few cold nights.

Ooooh I've got loads of radish seed. I'm going to try your grandfather's trick! @didireallysaythat

I've been sorting out my seed box today, I've sown all the out of date seed (oldest was dated 2014!) Rather than throwing it away as a one last chance. What's the betting I end up with 15 courgettes or similar

What did you choose, Mere ? I hope you sat in your sunny greenhouse even if you weren't starting seeds! I did indeed. I looked at my list of jobs and realised I could re-pot the strawberries. And then it turned into one of the highlights of the year - I ran out of compost, refilled my trug from the compost heap, and found I'd used the rest of the heap. So time to choose one of the two maturing/filling heaps, and up-end the still-rotting stuff into the now-empty heap. I always love doing this. And it was so warm! well above body temperature. And full of worms great spaghetti-like handfuls, just as it should be. So I carefully put all the hot stuff in a compact heap and surrounded it with a good layer of insulation. Meanwhile the robin was yelling at me "just get out of the way and let me deal with those worms" and by the end of the session I had a whole chorus of impatient birds.

I always enjoy being able to turn one of my heaps. It feels like progress, I always reckon the main product of my garden is compost, the plants are just a by-product.

This afternoon I've potted on some tomatoes. I'm having that thing where I SUDDENLY feel behind. that happens to me in May. At this time of year I always feel "This is the year where I'll be completely on top of the garden", then suddenly in May it all falls apart. Probably it's me being in the north and the growing season being a month behind.

Does anyone know, if you've got a few 10c days with -1c nights whether sowing carrots, spinach etc will be okay or best to wait? I'd have thought they'd be OK. Carrots are a UK wildflower after all. My radish are through in the pots outside, but possibly warmer in the pots than they would be in the ground.

Thanks @MereDintofPandiculation I think I'll go for it tomorrow!

My early potatoes in bags have just started peeping through. We are not big potato eaters so I've been following the method in the below link using one single chitted potato in an 8L bag. I also added a few comfrey pellets at the same time as planting and I've been moving the bags into the shed when there's a frost due (a lot recently!)

https://www.thompson-morgan.com/how-to-grow-potatoes-in-bags

Hi all. I have achieved a good germination rate with my beans and peas, but only one of each kind of tomato and a few tiny basils. I'm going to get the peas and beans out into the garden soon (we don't get frosts in the back garden, only out the front, so they usually survive OK from this time onwards) so will try some more toms when those spaces are freed up.

We have limited windowsills this year because the dog likes to look out the lounge window and will knock stuff down, the pest. Giant dogs are lovely and annoying.

Does anyone have any magic tricks for dealing with big clods of soil? I've been breaking them apart by hand, which I really just don't have the energy for.

If I dump a whole pile of wormy compost on top will that do the trick? Our soil is a little bit clay-y.

I don't really know if there is much that works for clay, other than amending it with organic matter. But that takes loads of volume of stuff, and loads of time. Some people add 'claybreaker' which is gypsum iirc, but I think it is not great for the microbionta of the soil.

I find that there are windows - small ones! - when the ground is the right level of wet to dig. So I avoid digging, and just keep on adding mulches! With big clods, when I first got the allotment, I did have to break them up my hand, and pull out all the couch bit by bit and that was awful. I still ended up with a load of big clods. I tend now to shove them out the way of small things and they'll break down eventually.

I just try and remember that clay is horrid in lots of ways, but it does tend to have lots of fertility and it holds onto water under the surface.

I've just checked my weather forecast and I i have -4 for the next 4 nights

I always enjoy being able to turn one of my heaps. It feels like progress, I always reckon the main product of my garden is compost, the plants are just a by-product.

I LOVE this sentiment! I'm so proud of any speck of compost that I make!

Hello everyone, Didn't know this thread was here.

I have just been down to weed my allotment and found a random bit of rhubarb in the undergrowth. Rescued now and safe and comfy in a new bed. I now have 4 rhubarb plants on my plot. I do love it though.

Hello @marthastew rhubarb is lovely! Another thing to add to my new to growing list!

I like watching Jessie at plot 37 on YouTube and in her latest video she was making rhubarb cake with crunchy brown sugar topping. Looked delicious!

@GrouchyKiwi we're the same with our dogs. My DP broke our tv once moving it because 'the dog wanted to look out the window' 

@TheSpottedZebra I've got the last frost tonight for over a week, so excited, hang in there!!

Well, I am about to try soaking peas in chilli - yep, looks like we have mice in our garden!

Is anyone keeping French beans in the greenhouse now? Still low temperatures at night but I have no room indoors to keep them. I only have 6, so do need to sow more.

Have sown more courgettes and cucumbers with the children today, as only one germinated after first sowing. They have my last windowsill space! No issue with dogs on windowsills here - just children’s Lego!

Afternoon all!
I see everyone has been busy ( me inckuded :) )
Welcome marthasrew - :) we have been plodding along for a few years now . Whereabouts are you -North/South/East/West ? ( just nosey!) . Love a bit of rhubarb here - my thug rhubarb is now in full production , its lovely to have something to pick so early in the season .
So I have been carrying on digging grass out of chicken wire and the edges of the grass paths ,. Nearly there now , thank goodness .
I have planted out the hardened off sweet peas.
For all the frosts overnight ( was -1.6º here last night in my greenhouse ) , things are starting to move . The first succession peas I direct sowed have popped up . The first 2 cucumbers have germinated from the ones I sowed last Friday , and signs of a courgette or 2 trying to erupt too , so pleased about that .
As the first peas have germinated , I am sowing some in plugs now as a second succession , and I have also sown some more back up broad beans too .
I am also just about ready to prick out the first lot of brassicas I sowed - all the sprouting broccoli , and the first lot of calabrese. Sprouts are all up too , so its a bit all go :)
I am still holding off sowing french beans/sweetcorn and squashes until next week , so my windowsill is holding up for space :)

Hello!

In West London so we still have slight frosts for another week or so. My allotment is in a bit of a frost pocket but I've got Uchiki Kuri, French beans and spinach ready to go out. Went to London Zoo today and got hailed on. Can't wait for warmer days.

Will also be sowing lettuce and carrots shortly.

I'm getting fed up with the cold too, I'm near the south coast but in a frost pocket, we can get frosts until the end of May but if you leave it that late to plant out and then it's a cool summer you don't get enough growth. Two years ago we had a very hard frost right at the end of May, some at the plots had planted out things that got scorched and I hadn't, I felt quite smug and planted my stuff out but actually theirs soon bounced back and were bigger and stronger than my carefully sheltered seedlings.

I bought celeriac seedlings today from the garden centre as mine looked a bit pathetic, they were outside at the garden centre so am I ok to plant them outside tomorrow? Hopefully frosts are gone (for now) here in the south. My beetroot survived outside last night and my pak Choi have been hardening off during the day.