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

Morning all!
Had a few tech problems, so not had much chance to post. On phone atm eek.
Wonderful pics tiz !
Isn’t it wonderful to have things to pick- and Knotty how wonderful .
I am trying to keep on top of hoeing, and tying up sweet peas. Also the dreaded asparagus beetles are copulating away - one of my plants is covered in larvae chomping away at the foliage, so I have sprayed with neem oil this morning. Forgot to look at the courgettes, as they have had flowers on for a while. Baby leaf spinach is ready to pick 😊

Afternoon @bookbook! Not sure where you are but it's absolutely chucking it down here and I've already pried two of the biggest slugs I've ever seen off my plants.

Well the rain over the last few days has been very welcome and our veg has exploded!

Definitely need to start eating more salads - we’re drowning in spinach 🤣

Afternoon all,.
notso - am in East Yorkshire ( the Wolds) 😊 . It has been good weather here- warm, with rain overnight -perfect for weeds! I tried to get weeded up to date , as cannot get to the plot for a few days. The greenhouse plants going well at home. Lots of tomatoes set, my first sweet pepper . And even ( if you look carefully) the first aubergine. Had a few cucumbers already.
Cavemum - this is when you start to get inventive! Spinach mixed with cheese and a bit of white sauce makes a lovely pie made with filo( or fill pancakes and top with mozzarella)

Ran out of garlic and so grabbed one from the garden, pleased to find we have cloves :-)

Discovered that a couple of my aubergine plants are infested with aphids, wiped off what I could and they've now been sprayed with diluted washing up liquid. One is possibly a lost cause but as the plant was still tiny anyway but hopefully the other one will be ok.

Lots of weeding round the soft fruit today, picked some rhubarb and a mouthful of wild strawberries

Hi everyone.
Can I join you again? I used to post on this thread regularly a number of years ago but haven't been on Mumsnet much for a few years. I've had my plot about 8 years. I was unable to tend to it last year due to covid. With the younger DC schooling from home and house renovations plus 2 of my sons got married in the lockdown I was barely able to make time to even get in the garden, never mind the plot.
This year too, I was abroad until mid May so made a late start. I've spent the past few weeks clearing the plot as it's turned into an absolute jungle. I've Alos taken on the plot next door which was unattended for a number of years and even as I type now, every bone and muscle in my body is aching from today's work.
I'm clearing out a bed at a time. Couch grass, brambles, dock leaves, buttercup, dandelions and more couch grass are thigh high. I'm using a cordless hedge trimmer to get it to ground level. Even that is hard work as I have to go over it a few times. Then clearing out the bigger clumps of weeds, then after tidying teh edges somewhat, I'm laying cardboard and trying out no-dig this time. Even that is back breaking. Packed up about 25 bags of manure from a local farm today, then unloaded them at the gate and wheelbarrows them down the long path to my plot. Tipped a few out but will carry ont on tomorrow. Heck, this allotment malarky is damn hard work! I can't wait to get to a stage where everything is tidier and I can hoe a bit here and there and enjoy the fruit sof my labour.

Anyway, I know I sound like I'm ranting but I do enjoy it immensely if I'm honest. Hope to take ideas and inspiration from you all here and hopefully post some before and after pictures before the summer is over!

Hi Luloo - I remember you (I've probably namechamged since you were last here and haven't poste much this year). Well done on all your hard work, taking on another plot is admirable!

I am fairly on top of things (for me!). I covered the plot in card and manure last autumn and it has made such a difference. The weeds are coming back now but are far more manageable. Also I treated myself to a small pointy hoe which is so much better than my old one which broke last year.

Everything is so behind! My FB memories for yesterday showed two years where I had made jam out of my strawberries already, this year they are still small and green. It also showed my cherry tree covered in glossy red fruit last year - again still just tiny green cherries this year. My sweet peas haven't made any progress at all yet. Lots of things have had a growth spurt this week though with all the rain and warmth.

@CaveMum

Well the rain over the last few days has been very welcome and our veg has exploded!

Definitely need to start eating more salads - we’re drowning in spinach 🤣

Eggs florentine. Like eggs benedict but with spinach instead of ham/bacon. Lovely way to consume a lot of spinach without even noticing

Argh! Something is decimating my broccoli - some of the leaves have been stripped I’ve looked over the plants and can’t see any obvious culprits, any ideas and suggestions on how to keep them off??

Afternoon.
CaveMum - most likely culprits are either slugs ( which hide ) and eat the leaf but leave the veins , or if you haven’t got them protected with netting, pigeons , which tend to look as if something has ripped bits off.
Lovely day here , and got back to the plot this morning to plant some more leeks, and hoe. Had a good look around, and I have 2 tiny courgettes set .
I have baby spinach ready to pick, and the first of the brokali stems too . Flowers are starting to open , and ready to pick - sweet peas, dahlias and gorgeous peonies.

The sunshine and rain have really made things at the plot look so different. Strawberries and lettuces are being picked every few days. The blueberry bushes are small but have fruit on them and the gooseberry bushes also. French beans are doing well.

I managed to plant the kale under netting today. No idea where I am going to put the Brussels sprouts, which are still in pots but need planting out!

Peas have been a disaster. Four sowings and the ones planted out are hardly an inch high. The one spinach plant that grew is doing great, but I forgot to sow more! And one tomato plant has black marks on all its leaves.

Azure not too late to sow more spinach or, rather, chard.

No idea where I am going to put the Brussels sprouts, which are still in pots but need planting out! Bigger pots?

Strawberries for breakfast two days in a row. Peas for dinner on Tuesday, peas, kale and turnip today. Plus I'm making chutney from winter-planted onions which bolted after the cold spring. It's lashing rain here, we have the lamps on and the smell of roasting pork and simmering chutney is making me feel very autumnal

Next year I need to plant far more peas and more strawberries. I didn't think I liked strawberries but freshly picked ones from your own garden are a different story entirely. I'm hoping to get loads of runners from this year's plants. Might try some different varieties as well though.

I've got some cabbages starting to make nice heads as well, and my salad bed is coming along fairly well, though for some reason my lamb's lettuce will never germinate. It's my favourite leaf but I can't grow it.

Evening.
Yes Utterly, things are a totally different . Sweet corn was the revelation here😊
Had the quickest pop to the plot to pick veg for tea -spinach and brokali , and found my first ripe strawberries.
Need rain here!!!

Thanks @MereDintofPandiculation - bigger pots it is!
And I will do the spinach tomorrow - as the one plant has done well.

And so many strawberries to pick now, we are having them for breakfast too @UtterlyUnimaginativeUsername - although the toddler has enjoyed eating as they pick them!,

We had a spot of colder weather and one of my chilli plants in the greenhouse has dropped all it's fruit and leaves.

Does anyone know if the plant is likely to recover? I still have a couple of healthy plants.

We have rain - so happy!

@AppleJane How cold were you? Mine have been in an unheated porch ever since they came out of a propagator. The only time they drop their leaves is winter and then, as long as the stems remain green, they can re-shoot.

We’re having alpine strawberries for breakfast and normal garden strawberries for tea.

I was just pondering how wonderful my Asturian tree cabbages are. Long, long stems with crown of big leaves, which I pick about 2-4 at a time. And they just carry on, year after year.

@MereDintofPandiculation the thermometer said 6c but I think the very hot days beforehand were just too sharp a contrast.

Interesting, the affected chilli was in the corner of the greenhouse on its own while the others were more central and surrounded by other plants so I'll chalk that up as experience and learn by it for next time!

Thanks for the broccoli advice @bookbook. Could be either slugs or pigeons to be honest! Can’t get to the garden centre for nets/slug pellets until the weekend so for now I’ve put some leftover straw from my strawberries down in the hope that it will deter slugs at least!

Our courgette has gone nuts, I can see at least 9 developing fruit on it. Strawberries and raspberries are a few days off being ready - so looking forward to them!

@MereDintofPandiculation, did you plant the alpine strawberries this year? I'm just wondering if mine would be expected to fruit at all this year; the plants are tiny still.

Asturian tree cabbages sound great - I'm away to google!

[quote UtterlyUnimaginativeUsername]@MereDintofPandiculation, did you plant the alpine strawberries this year? I'm just wondering if mine would be expected to fruit at all this year; the plants are tiny still.

Asturian tree cabbages sound great - I'm away to google![/quote]
No, I've had them years and years. Not sure whether they're actually alpine - they have runners - but they're rather big for the english wild strawberry. They're in the beds under my apple trees. Every winter I either pull out all the strawberries round the edge of the beds, or all the strawberries in the middle, and mulch the cleared ground. Then by strawberry time they've always completely occupied the freed space, and I'm picking strawberries from across the whole bed. They have a long season (through to August) so you may be lucky.

Asturian Tree Cabbage: www.realseeds.co.uk/

@MereDintofPandiculation, I’m interested in the Asturian cabbage. Is the taste good and similar to standard cabbage, or is it something different? Thanks.

Hello all, things are moving here too. Tomatoes have set and are growing, a couple of aubergines are showing and my potatoes are ready to be pulled.

My strawberries are succumbing to some brown rot as soon as they begin to ripen, not sure what it is but none are edible so far . They're hanging too so it's not from moisture.

Also I have to ask, do I need to kill aphids? My broadbean flowers are just dying and falling off without many pods. They're laden with black fly, and now the fly are on my runner beans too. They're everywhere. I've been trying to remove them when I can but it's doing nothing to them. I'm wondering whether it's time to buy a pesticide

The taste is good, not as sweet. It's a bit more robust - I usual cut out the central rib. It's probably the nearest thing to the Portuguese couve tronchuda (I've now got some seeds of that so may be able to do a better comparison) which is generally used cut very fine in soup, and cutting it very fine works well for adding to stews and casseroles. Realseeds describe it as being more kale-like, and that's probably right.

For me, it's real advantage, is that it's always there when you need it. All year round. The advantage of being a perennial.

Ah yes that makes sense. What they use in caldo verde? There is also the green Brazilians shred and add to feijoada, maybe it’s also something like that?