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

Gosh, wet and cold here. Left the one big cucumber plant by mistake in the greenhouse and it managed at 4C, but not planted tomatoes or cucumbers in the ground yet. A soil based greenhouse.

Thankfully things were slow to germinate, so nothing too big yet except the beans.

Here’s to some warm, dry weather,

Another week of rain according to my weather app! Sadly our cucumbers have had it, we might get a few more plants but keep them inside till it gets warmer - if it ever does! Thankfully everything else looks good so far, though I’m still waiting for our seed potatoes to sprout in their egg box in the utility room before they get planted out!

I planted everything out yesterday so fingers crossed it didn’t go that cold last night. Most of my cucumbers didn’t survive hardening off either.

Do you feed all of your plants with tomato feed or a general all purpose fertiliser? I’ve got tomatoes, French beans, cucumbers and courgettes in so far.

Afternoon
well, it has stopped raining at least . But breezy and cool .
I chickened out , and put all my hardening off plants in the greenhouse last night , and brought the cucumbers indoors .
Today , went to the plot and picked the very last of the sprouting broccoli , then dug the plants up and prepped the area ready for planting leeks . Picked asparagus too - and weeded the bed - the rain has really supercharged weed germination
I got the strawberry bed weeded , but ran out of time , so will have to straw it another day - I saw my first one set :)
This afternoon has been all about potting up into bigger pots in the greenhouse - aubergines , peppers and cucumbers moved up a size . I noticed flower buds just appearing on the cucumbers - hope it is warm enough to get some insects in a few days time !

I managed to avoid the rain today. I put in some cucumbers, gave Grumpy Ron a rice pudding and he gave me some bean plants in return.

I've don't nothing much this weekend,gardening wise. it has rained, SO MUCH. And it is cold. And really windy!

Instead, I've mostly fretted over the tomatoes that I've planted out, even though I have replacements galore. And I am hardening off my sweetcorn and runner beans so they'll go out soon.

Spuds seemingly growing well though. They're obviously happy with this horrid weather. As is my rhubarb.

Spuds and rhubarb growing happilybhere too, also broad beans (directly sown) and onions. I haven't planted anything out yet though due to the foul weather. Frustratingly I have woken to clear blue sky and sunshine today but got to go to work in an hour so no plot time today.

My weather app is showing better weather from Thursday onwards with average night time temperature of 9c. The wind has battered my calendula plants but they're just hanging in there.

Just going to chime in about the miserable weather. They should be called May Showers this year, not April!

My cucumbers died and I've pulled them out, 2 of my courgettes are really trying hard to hang on but have lost all their leaves (yet have managed to flower.. will be interesting to see what happens with that as they're absolutely tiny!), my broad beans are doing ok and seem to be growing and my potatoes. All else has just paused.

Purple sprouting broccoli isn't dying but isn't growing. I managed to pull out one carrot yesterday while all the others didn't germinate, and my squash plants have also frozen in time (stuck as tiny seedlings).

I really hope something grows this year!!

Just repotted my aubergines and bell peppers, hopefully the bigger pots encourage them to move on from the seedling stage. I don't have a proper greenhouse so they're still on the kitchen window sill.

I also accepted my fate and deweeded my veg patch while getting absolutely drenched in the rain . I only get a chance when the husband is home and so far he's been home on the days it's chucking it, so no more delaying, I just had to do it.

Just had a potter around the garden between rain showers, I still can’t do much outside due to surgery so I’m kind of pleased the weather isn’t great.

I don’t think my cucumbers are going to be very successful, I think I have 2 surviving plants, one has a few tiny cucumbers on it, the other has loads of flowers but no cucumbers, hoping my cucamelons will be more successful but not getting my hopes up. Courgettes have been battered by the weather and are now dead, I will replace them later in the week with the spares I have, lettuce has bolted, strawberries are doing great, French been looking pale but runners looking healthy.

DD’s broad beans are starting to flower, haven’t got a clue what I’m doing with them, I don’t like broad beans 🤣

Well, by the time I got to work the sky was black and it was hammering with rain again. A bit sunny again now but I'm not going to have a chance to get out till at least Weds eve.

Heard strawberries are doing well this year (based only off anecdotal data from my gran, a poster above and me!). Hopefully going to end up with about a dozen fruiting from my small pots which have set already.

Afternoon !
well, I spent a good couple of hours this morning at the plot . It has been sunny , though we are due rain later on

So I planted out sweetcorn , and the first of my cutting flower seedlings ( cosmos so far) , and strawed up the strawberries . I threw around a lot of chicken pellets too - we have had so much rain , I wanted to give the sweetcorn ( and the asparagus ) a bit of a boost . Picked asparagus . Dug up bindweed ( a never ending task ...) At home this afternoon , pricked out the smaller flower seedlings - asters , scabious etc . The pots were waterlogged , even though I tip the water out of the trays every morning .
Next up , later on in the week , the courgettes , squashes and perennial spinach are going to be planted out .

Those growing strawberries are you growing them outside or in? I've got a hanging basket but it's barely had the seedlings come through. I've still got it inside but not sure whether it'll fair better outside

Mine are outside Notso - they are a tough as old boots . Never had them inside - established plants in a raised bed in Yorkshire

@Notsogreenthumb don't despair, my strawberries took a while to establish themselves last year then thrived as soon as they properly got going :) maybe they are waiting for some more sun.

Thank you @bookbook and @crumbsnamechange ! I sowed these this year so I'm too wary of putting them in this windy wet weather too soon. Maybe I'll leave them indoors for another two weeks or so.. xx

Hello everyone..the weather has been horrible lately hasn't it ☹ my strawberries have loads of flowers on so should have a good crop this year hopefully 🙂

Just need some sunshine to fetch things on.🌞

@Notsogreenthumb oof, you sowed strawberries from seed? Never tried that; my strawberry roots came through the post, took about a month to get going even when we had that lovely warm weather last Spring.

My strawberries are ok in a raised bed, planted last year.
The other day I found strawberries with derp pink flowers in a local garden centre and had to buy some, they are so pretty in a terracotta pot 😍

@crumbsnamechange as you can tell by my name I'm beyond a rookie ! After posting my rather sad post last week, off I went to bnq and bought myself some spare seedlings of all the plants that died. The cucumber and courgette seedlings were really tiny and not in the best of health but it's better than nothing. And yes I didn't know people bought strawberry plants (so silly of me I know ). I treated myself to a couple of strawberry plants too so hopefully those give me some fruit at least. I had no idea bnq did such a large vegetable range, if I'd known I would have saved all the hassle and just bought everything as seedlings rather than going everything from seed 😅. You live and you learn!

Growing from seed can be really satisfying, @Notsogreenthumb but definitely more challenging in many ways hope your plants enjoy the sun we've got coming!

Crumbs I'm quite proud of myself that I grew my rhubarb from seed.

Evening!
well - it was warm and sunny today

Notso - no shame in buying plug veg plants . If you look at the right time , you can get them in a lot of places :)
Went to the plot this morning to plant out some more stuff . I dismantled the cage around the last couple of overwinter caulis ( will they ever curd? ) I ended up weeding properly , and planting dahlias and asters around them - seemed a shame to dig them out , just in case
When I got there , some kind soul had left me a pot of good size leek seedlings ( I had chatted a couple of weeks ago about my poor germination rate) . So I got on with planting those -( over 60) , the ground was perfect for dibbing , but my back aches a bit ... I am going to have a lot of leeks in winter - mine should be ready to plant in about another 10 days or so.
My courgettes and squashes were looking so sad , I ended up repotting them at home - the compost was utterly waterlogged around the roots , no wonder they looked washed out . I gave them a bit of feed too as a pick me up , so hopefully with the sun today , they wil perk up by the weekend .
So much weeding to be done though - the rain has a lot to answer for .
Picked perpetual spinach , but it is starting to go over , so nearly time to dig the plants up .