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

Oo thanks BookBook - love hummus so will try that!

Have achieved courgette glut! 6 today, to add to the 6 in the fridge. I feel very satisfied.

Oh SweatyBetty that’s awful. Travellers arrived at our local leisure centre and pitched 7 or 8 caravans in the car park on Thursday. The leisure centre sent emails out late last night to say they have been forced to close this weekend “due to the behaviour” of those that have arrived recently. So all the gym classes, the soft play centre and kids swimming lessons are shut for the weekend.

I’m drowning in courgettes too, I think there are at least 9 in the fridge right now (I’ve used up at least 6 in various recipes!) and there are a good 4 or 5 that look like they’ll need picking in the next few days! I’ve been given a savoury courgette loaf recipe so will try that out today, and the courgette cake with lemon icing went down a treat with the kids so will have to make another this weekend.

Fingers crossed the heavy rain some of us have been forecast isn’t too dramatic, I’d hate to lose anything to hail damage.

Nice glut @13luckyblackcats What variety are the pale ones?

Not quite reached a glut here yet

@CaveMum
I like the sound of the Courgette cake with lemon icing! Could you post a link, please? 🙂

This is the courgette cake recipe I use - thepinkrosebakery.com/2015/03/17/courgette-lemon-cake/

Unless for an occasion I usually make in a loaf tin then freeze it in pre cut slices.

Trieste half white from Real Seeds @tizwozliz they are brilliant! Never had any problem with them and they are lovely to cook with. Am going to try that cake recipe, thanks!

@Pottedpalm this is the cake recipe I used, then I just mixed up some icing sugar with some freshly squeezed lemon juice for the icing.

www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/courgettebread_85718

Hello everyone,
I'm a very lapsed poster from allotment threads from ages ago. I still have my plot and in fact I've been allowed to extend to a full plot (my plot neighbour left, and the site committee allow an adjacent half-plot-holder to expand to a full plot if we have behaved ourselves and shown we have kept the half plot in good order).
It's been an odd year for growing, the very cold May has really knocked my tomatoes for six and I have only had about a dozen off three plants (grown outside). Also I didn't plant broad beans before winter, so this year's plants didn't get a head start on the blackflies and have been completely destroyed by them. Not a single broad bean off them.
However I've had a bumper year for currants, loads of black- and whitecurrants (have never had more than a few whitecurrants before but truly have a glut this year), my autumn raspberries are looking promising and I had some pretty good rhubarb from the newer half of my plot (had been there for ages but was very neglected, so I manured it and it has done very well). I had a lot of loganberries but the pigeons seem to have pinched them all, the pigeons are also snapping bits off my blueberry plants in their eagerness to get the berries. I don't net fruit but am now starting to reconsider this.
Sweetcorn isn't developed yet but the plants are looking good, my courgette (only one this year after 3 plants and a huge glut a couple of years ago) is also starting to pump out courgettes. First and second early potatoes are just starting to show blight so I'm going to dig them up in stages over the next couple of weeks.

Today's harvest above, and I was also given a bunch of sweet peas from one of my plot neighbours. I love sweet peas.

[quote CaveMum]@Pottedpalm this is the cake recipe I used, then I just mixed up some icing sugar with some freshly squeezed lemon juice for the icing.

www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/courgettebread_85718[/quote]
Thank you!

Unexpectedly sunny day yesterday (heavy rain was predicted) so dragged my Mum and daughter up to the plot.
Brilliant day harvesting the rest of the broad beans and some potatoes (good this year). Rhubarb flourishing.
Planted spinach and dwarf French beans.
Courgettes have been eaten by George the resident rabbit but the pumpkin is going strong and flowering. Lots of beetroot which has grown like a weed.
Leeks have flowered - so I hade beautiful purple flowery things on stalks that look like Pom poms - hoping I can dry the seeds and plant them.
Trying to decide what to plant now...

Hi everyone, is it ok if I join? A friend and I put our name down on a waiting list in august last year and were called up in April. I went to view and chose a 130 square metre one because there would theoretically be 2 adults and 3 children up there if we all went at once!

Turns out, my friend has been twice and that’s it so I’ve done it all myself really. I had a knee injury the first two months so couldn’t get much done, but I feel like I’ve learnt so much in this short space of time that next year will be totally different.

There was an established strawberry patch that produced loads and now there are runners everywhere… would you pot them and replant a bit later? I don’t want them settling any and everywhere but don’t want to upset them either.

Sorry to hear that @SweatyBetty20. I hope the eviction order comes soon. What abhorrent behaviour!

A small harvest here today, broadbands (finally after the aphids attacked most the plants. They're now attacking my runner beans), some tiny tiny courgettes as my plants aren't getting pollinated and some cucumbers and tomatoes. Lots of kale. Aubergine was shrivelling up so I just cut it off to salvage what I could. Do wonder whether it was just the heat causing it to do that or whether I've done the right thing. Who knows?!

One is Cobra, and I am picking the beans, one is Blue Lake with loads of flowers, no beans as yet. I wonder if that's why Blue Lake has fallen out of fashion? It's the variety my Mum used to grow, 60 years ago. I love it. But I get the best crops from Cobra.

Betty that's awful. We had them turn up on our park a year ago but the Council got them moved on within 48 hours in a dawn raid. Even without the side effects, the fact they're parking on a park is taking a green space out of commission for everyone else.

There was an established strawberry patch that produced loads and now there are runners everywhere… would you pot them and replant a bit later? The theory is that strawberry plants start cropping less after three or four years, so you pot up some runners to take over. I wouldn't know - my current plants are 4 years old, grown in pots, repotted in new soil every year, and have just given the biggest crop ever, so apart from potting some runner last winter for a friend (which are fruiting this year), I've not had to try out the theory.

Evening all
welcome AlohaMolly - and good luck with the plot :)
I do a strawberry patch as an old timer suggested . First and second year , just leave alone , but only allow 1/2 plantlets from each runner , let them root further along in the bed . Third year , let them all fruit , dig up oldest 3 year plants after fruiting . If you are relatively organised, you can get them to 'move' along the bed , clearing out the old ones behind for other things , but always having some 2 and 3 year plants to fruit . ( I hope that makes sense ... )
hello again timtam - great news , with lots of work ahead !
I have been weeding and harvesting . Still no rain here , so have had to start watering the courgettes .
DH and I turned over a compost heap , and sorted a compost bin the other day too, so thats one more job out of the way . It has been so hot - my calabrese has all been coming at once , and whilst in the brassica cage , I noticed a head forming on one of my sprouting broccoli - about 2 months early ..
you may well be right Mere about the beans . I have always grown Cobra , great one for me , but the germination was a bit poor this year for me , and didn't get enough , so I bought these already germinated to make up the numbers . We shall see when/if they get going.
I cracked and picked some more redcurrants for a friend on Saturday , and now sweetheart cabbage are ready for picking , along with beetroot :)

I've grown blue lake before but never found them as productive as the purple variety I grow.

First beetroot picked today, some gooseberries, a single round carrot and more courgettes.

Our tourists have left thankfully. They got on the move as soon as the eviction order was served. The council were really good actually - they had two bin lorries waiting by the entrance who swarmed all over the park as they left, and a Friends of the Park group came and litter picked anything they’d missed. Apparently Appleby horse fair has been moved to September so it looks like they are slowly making their way up there. Hopefully all over for another year and we can get back to normal.

Good news Betty.

I've not reported for duty for ages. Thank you bookbook

A 19 degree winter day climate change or what? got me digging out the useless strawberries in one bed. I manured, rock dusted and egg shelled 3/4 of one bed. It is now a perfect cat toilet. I will plant rainbow chard and radishes. An experiment with land cress has been successful. Now I need to find a use for it.

One aspect of the patch is that parsley seeds freely, all over the shop, so I can pull it out of the patch, leaving room for others.

I'm thinking of abandoning the dictum of grow the unusual, and go for what I actually use. Will become more of a herb bed. I think. :o

I'm thinking of abandoning the dictum of grow the unusual, and go for what I actually use. Compromise? Limit yourself to one unusual thing a year? Who knows, one day you may find an unusual thing that you do actually use.

We have harvested our first tomato 🍅

I was a bit concerned about the plants as we've had hail and torrential rain but they seem to have escaped unscathed.

Yes Echt, I thought I would grow the unusual (for me) on the allotment a few years back - which was radicchio and Jerusalem artichokes. Ate neither (think the idea of a 'hairy choke' put me right off) and have stuck to broad beans, rhubarb, beetroot, garlic, onions, mint and apples ever since. Happily.

I'm definitely into courgette glut territory now. I need to check the cucumber variety, I thought I was growing mini ones.

I made the mistake of not checking on the courgette plants for a few days as I was so busy with work. Rookie Error! I discovered this bad boy this morning, clocking it at 39cms