Allotment/Veg patch Thread 17 - onwards and upwards

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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

Still picking tomatoes although the plants look like they're on their last legs, courgettes showing no signs of slowing down. Cleaned up the garlic that has been drying in the shed since I pulled it up. Think my late sowings of beans and mange tout are going to produce nothing unless we have excellent weather in September.

Need to make a plan for what I'm doing with the beds over the winter

Have strimmed the borders and got rid of weeds and can actually get into my shed now.
The place looks neat and tidy - and a bit bare.
We have planted kale, Brussels Sprouts and cauliflower. Leeks and beetroot still growing and the mint and rhubarb have been more or less consistently good all season.
Next step is to dig over the unoccupied beds.

Not been on here for a while. I was back to work today so managed to give a shed load of beans and cucumbers away . A funny thing has been happening to my sweetcorn, I keep finding half eaten cobs all over the plot. I thought it might be rats or mice, Grumpy Ron has found the culprits. It is rooks who fly at the plants to shake of the cobs and then feast! I need to find a solution for next year as I will have very disappointed Dcs this year. GR's corn is untouched, may be because he has it between two rows of beans.

Tomatoes ripening nicely, last of the courgettes and cucumbers and a few squash growing but not many pollinators with the cold and I don't have time to always go out and hand pollinate them. Pumpkins sit green at the moment

Ok I just went out again and harvested properly. The rubber beans are never ending

@notsogreenthumb

Ok I just went out again and harvested properly. The rubber beans are never ending

You mean you can stretch them indefinitely?

Is anyone growing celeriac? I’m tidying up my veg patch today and have pretty much left the celeriac to it up until now and they have got a bit covered up by the chard that’s now bolted, so I’ve cut everything back and can now see them 🤣, I read that I have to take some of the stems away to encourage the bulb/root to grow bigger? Is this correct and when do I do this? The bulb is forming but they are not very big yet, I’m hoping now thy have more light they will grow better?

Also, can I chop the purple sprouting broccoli back a little, some of the leaves have been munched on due to them growing close to the netting they were under, if I trim the nibbled leafs off will they grow back?

Afternoon all!
Still full on with other stuff, but today I weeded the asparagus bed, so it doesn’t look like a jungle! Harvesting carrying in, and greenhouse at home is doing well, but have picked all but a couple of aubergines snd peppers now. Tomatoes still ripening steadily.
notso - rubber beans
Lovemudic - mom I grow celeriac, but in truth I leave them alone to their own devices, and hope for the best. There should be new leaves coming on the

Well, thought I had lost that post halfway through!
I would just leave the broccoli leaves alone tbh, unless it’s caterpillars….
Harvests from greenhouse and plot today

Just eaten my first and probably only corn on the cob it was delicious, I only hope the crows appreciated it as much as I did. Funnily enough I weeded my asparagus bed today too Book.

Well, DS said to me yesterday that we are forecast a mini heatwave this week, checked and he's right, the ground was already.pretty dry so I went up to the plot and watered it this morning. My raspberries are starting to fruit a bit more, they are usually finishing by about now, pumpkins are also behind and I've got quite a lot of sunflowers still in bud so hoping some heat will give them all a boost. Cucamelons only just starting to swell too.

Oh and I picked my first corn on the cob too. I sowed two varieties and for one of them only one seedling survived, it didn't pollinate very well so the corns are a bit patchy but will taste OK. The other variety aren't quite ready yet but lots of cobs.

I've found my people!

I can't freeze courgettes quick enough and I've now taken to pudding my French beans (cobra) and using as flageolets.

NONE of my brassicas (broccoli and calabrese) have produced anything so far, despite having been sown in Feb. Am I doing something wrong??

I also don't know if I have summer or autumn fruiting raspberries- they're inherited with the plot and harvest has been pretty dire since, so not sure! Any way of finding out? Do I just leave ALL the canes in this autumn and see what happens next year?

Welcome @Evvyjb. I inherited my raspberries with my plot at this time of year and it took 2 or 3 years to work them out. When I got the plot they all looked dead so I chopped them all down, it was the wrong thing to do. Now, I cut them all back in March every year and they fruit in August ("autumn fruiting"). I usually leave a few uncut and they fruit in July.

I would suggest leaving half of them and cutting them back to the ground in Feb/March, the other half I would treat as summer fruiting and cut back all but 2 or 3 healthy looking stems for each plant now. Then see what happens next year. Sticking a load of rotted manure round them helps too.

@MereDintofPandiculation that gave me a chuckle- exactly what I meant !!

Managed to pick up a compost bin in Tesco today, reduced to 7.50 from 30

Evening all!
welcome Evvyjb - take a garden chair :) . raspberries - , Essentially has it - you may have to wait and see, but up here in Yorkshire the autumn raspberries have not really got going yet , but look to see if you have any flowers/buds , or if the canes are looking brown and sad . Re brassicas - well, the calabrese should be well and truly grown and harvested , so not sure what has happened to yours - is it just lots of leaves? The sprouting broccoli will be getting going over winter , unless you have an early variety ( could your seeds be mixed , and the calabrese is also broccoli?- sprouting broccoli is almost waist high here now , whereas calabrese is much lower growing - ) .
Bargain Tiz !!
I have just been so busy with other stuff , the allotment has definitely been on the back burner the last few days , but I did manage to go and do some tidying . I pulled up the sweet peas , and weeded . Also took out the wigwam of Cobra French beans , as they have gone . Still got the Blue Lake ones though . Cut a lot of leaves off around the squashes , to give them some air to ripen.
The sweetcorn has been amazing , just got the secondaty cobs to go , and I don't know if they will totally swell up , but they have been worth it this year :)
Cut the last 2 cauliflowers until the autumn ones curd up .

Forgot the photo!

I picked up some gooseberry and blackcurrant bushes in B&Q for a pound each last year. Fruited beautifully this year but I have discovered that all three are standard bushes which makes the bed look quite sparse. What can I grow under them as otherwise it feels like I'm wasting space! All suggestions welcome - I thought about strawberries?

@hoveringhobbit

I picked up some gooseberry and blackcurrant bushes in B&Q for a pound each last year. Fruited beautifully this year but I have discovered that all three are standard bushes which makes the bed look quite sparse. What can I grow under them as otherwise it feels like I'm wasting space! All suggestions welcome - I thought about strawberries?

Alpine strawberries would certainly work. I have then ubder gooseberries and under apple trees. They’re not so happy under rhubarb

Oops

Ooh good luck @tizwozliz !! I've uprooted my green courgette plant as that had run its course and had died back. My yellow courgettes however are now having a second surge in reproduction. Will see if I'll get any depending on the weather.

Tomato galore over here. Saw some signs of blight a few weeks ago but it's been kept at bay. Today found 3 more affected tomatoes and one affected branch. Will just have to keep pruning and keeping the area airy. The plants are still producing plenty of healthy tomatoes though.

Cucumbers have also had a revival with this warm weather. The plant had stopped flowering and was dying, but now suddenly it has 3 mini cucumbers growing. Hope it stays warm till mid October .. here's to hoping 😂

Lastly I patiently await my pumpkins to turn orange. It's slow, but happening.

Raspberries ripening nicely now, a few autumn strawberries and my first cucamelons of the year! My sunflowers are doing really well this year and Cosmos now in full flower. Glorious day here today.

🌶🥒 🍅 🍆