Allotment/Veg patch Thread 17 - onwards and upwards

[bookbook]

Wow - cannot believe we are on thread 17 !
As always , pull up a garden chair and join in with the joys and woes of growing you own .
Previous thread HERE

Ah what do I do about mice? Not plant peas?

I started them off netted in the greenhouse, then planted under netting so think can rule out pigeons. Sadly.

Unlikely to be mice if they were already reasonable sized plants when you planted them out. Mice are after the nutritious seed. The way round mice is to sow them in the greenhouse and keep mice out.

Caterpillars? They can strip plants (they eat for more quickly than slugs) but you do notice the plant slowly getting less.

Ha! I've found you again. I made it to the plot this afternoon and harvested courgettes, I am only growing the yellow ones this year as they seem to develop more slowly and you don't seem to get a glut. Blackcurrants picked and I am looking to make coulis to put over vanilla ice cream. Mange tout and the last of the broad beans. I'm picking gooseberries tomorrow.

I have a silly question, if a flower falls of a growing courgette, does that mean it needs to be picked? Or will it keep growing? I have one about 4" long and the flower fell off today, not sure if that's normal

Hi all, glad to see the good harvests coming in. I picked more courgettes and a glut of peas last night.

Definitely learnt where we have gone wrong with our first attempts this year - we’ve had next to no strawberries as we planted them too close to the courgette plant which is covering a HUGE area! Planted too much salad leaves too, we just can’t eat it fast enough!

Stay cool this weekend everyone!

@notsogreenthumb

I have a silly question, if a flower falls of a growing courgette, does that mean it needs to be picked? Or will it keep growing? I have one about 4" long and the flower fell off today, not sure if that's normal

It will keep growing if the pollination has been successful. At 4 inches, it sounds as if your courgette has been successfully pollinated. It’ll carry on until it gets marrow sized (courgette is french for little marrow). But you’ll want to pick it a lot smaller, both to eat as a courgette while the skin is still tender, and to encourage the plant to produce more fruits in its quest to produce viable seeds and reproduce.

Morning all!
Dear me it’s hot…..
No such thing as a silly question on here notso they will keep growing until you get it to a size you want ( or bigger )
CaveMum - no such thing as a glut of peas.
Talking of peas - could you perhaps have rabbits coming to graze? I am at a loss otherwise.
So yesterday was more fruit picking. Still another blackcurrant bush , a couple of branches of white currants, and about a quarter of the redcurrants to go……
Today was out very early to get a bit of weeding done before it got too hot ( well, even hotter) , picked my first beetroot, some brokali , a small calabrese head, and yes, courgettes. The peppers , tomatoes and aubergines are getting there ( maybe another week) so cannot wait to get going making tomato and veg sauces for the freezer.

Proof that no matter how old you are you're never too old to learn something new.... saw what looked like a tomato growing on my potatoes and discovered it is a potato berry, full of potato seeds.

Off to YouTube to see how you grow from true potato seed!

Today's harvest: 392g of purple podded peas (which yielded 168g of peas), 3 courgettes and some sweet peas (about my 4th bunch ).

I also have a couple of Sungold tomatoes in the green house that look like they're nearly ready, as well as some green de Cayenne chillis (still to turn red) and sone purple Hungarian chillis. There are also a few peppers forming on my Californian Wonder pepper plants.

Thank you and @MereDintofPandiculation and @bookbook. I was worried that it might be a sign of blossom end rot. I was over fretting.

Forgot to mention the big bowl of broad beans . Still to pod and weigh them - and I only picked half of them

Did the watering this morning and it is sweltering! My cucumbers are all here for it though . They're growing at such a rapid rate. The ones in the greenhouse are still yet to flower surprisingly.

Evening all

• another week of this by looks
  I haven't started watering at the allotment yet , just at home in the greenhouse , thank goodness ( having to do it twice a day though ) Morning trip to the allotment - pulled up and harvested the second row of peas , picked broad beans , then went and checked on the French beans - I hadn't realised they had started to set ! Started to dig over the bed where the peas had been , ready to prep up for the autumn cauliflowers . Cut a load of sweet peas , watered my NDN's polytunnel as they are away ( like a furnace in there ! ) , and managed to get home by 11 - it was ridiculously hot . I did not go and check on courgettes ( naughty me ) - I have a serious number in the fridge waiting to be used !

Well into cropping now, and having about 5 things from the garden each day - typically alpine strawberries on breakfast cereal, lettuce and other salad greens for lunch, followed by raspberries and ice cream, courgette /beans/peas with tea followed by yogurt and garden strawberries or loganberries and Tayberries.

Morning!
Fabulous time of year isn’t it Mere
Did an hour first thing - have finished picking the whitecurrants, started picking the second black currant and picked more red currants. I have had more than sufficient of those, so I am leaving the rest for the birds. Will roll up the nets this week for them.
Well, silly me , not picking the courgettes yesterday…..

Phew it's hot. Pleased to find my DIY self watering systems for my tomatoes appear to be doing a great job and first tomato has a hint of colour.

Picking courgettes, mange tout, french beans and new potatoes every day at the moment. First cucumbers are set. No sign of any flowers on the aubergines yet, although the plants look healthy enough.

Going to reposition some onions this evening when it's cooler and attempt to retrain my trombocino squash to climb the fence behind it rather than over the leeks.

Hi All
Can you help?
Am I too late to plant French beans?
In the South-West of England.

I've definitely had crops from dwarf French beans planted at this time of year, think climbing varieties take a bit longer to crop.

Ginger - definitely worth a go - they will set right up to the frosts ( don't know if you get many down there mind! ) . If you have a chance , see if you can find some already germinated and getting going - you may be lucky :)

Thanks Book and Tiz!
I'll give it a go this weekend. X

I sowed some dwarf French beans at the weekend in loo rolls in the greenhouse at the weekend (greenhouse, on a shelf, to try to evade the mice, slugs and snails ).

Had 2 days off , so of course I had the odd courgette or so ,,,,
I picked the Last of the blackcurrants , and rolled the nets up, cut so , so many sweet peas, and picked French beans and calabrese. I did need to water the beans today. It is interesting that I have 2 wigwams of French beans - 2 varieties, treat exactly the same. One is Cobra, and I am picking the beans, one is Blue Lake with loads of flowers, no beans as yet .
Must get weeding tomorrow!

Bit of a rant from me - travellers have fetched up in the park next to our plots. They arrived a week ago and now number about 150 vans. I know they have to go somewhere but it’s just chaotic - they’ve bullied one of our older plot members into running his hose under the fence for a water supply, and just scale our 10m fence every night and ransack the plots. We’ve had sheds broken into, tools and produce stolen, and rubbish just chucked over the fence. The park is full of rubbish, vans, quad bikes, horses, dogs and human excrement everywhere. As I arrived to water tonight a young woman was squatting having a crap in one of the railway arches. It makes me want to cry. The council haven’t managed to get an eviction order yet so it’ll be a few more days at least.

On the plus side we have a beanstalk. Just waiting for Jack to come and climb it. Not bad for a strip of plug plants a few months back.

Hello all - new poster here.
This year I planted broad beans on my allotment and I now have an unexpected glut.
I've made broad bean risotto, broad bean soup and broad bean salad (with potatoes. I've frozen some and given some away...
Has anyone any suggestions for recipes?
Many thanks

Evening!
Welcome Gingerwarthog 😊- you can make a nice hummus dip thing with broad beans- I am pretty sure Hugh F-W has a recipe, but bound to be others. They freeze well too, but best if double podded.
How horrible for you all SweatBetty*. - it does take time to go through legal eviction , which allows such a lot of destruction and mess
Well, it had rained just a bit over night, and was a lot cooler, soI got on with weeding this morning. Got a lot of it done, then picked more courgettes, beans and calabrese, and pulled some baby leaf spinach . I should have picked sweetpeas, but don’t like to do it when they are wet.