The Vegetable Patch

[MereDintofPandiculation]

Now bookbook has sadly left us, and stirred into action by @DobbleDobble, I think it’s time to start a general thread for those of us who try to grow edible produce, fruit, veg, herbs, to share successes, failures, questions and answers

@PoseyFlump “waves hello” I took over my allotment in October and have transformed it to raised beds now.
Deffo cardboard in first, water well for a day then manure and soil over top.
I’ve put 5 8ftx8ft beds in plus two small ones but I won’t be using all at one time as too much .will rotate using each year.
Am just about to seed sow into the first bed this weekend, whilst other veg are starting from seed in greenhouse.
Exciting times

Thank you @Leaningtoweroflisa I'm going to have 'pleasant foe' in mind when I tackle the brambles now!

Hey @DobbleDobble! How was your allotment when you took it over, was it overgrown? I'm so excited to get started. I really thought I'd be waiting at least another year or two so feeling pretty lucky

I waited a couple of years.Yes it was overgrown but with old veg, grass and had become a dumping ground.
I chose it over some even though it’s in the middle, I liked the fig tree it had!

Oohh a fig tree! I have no idea when it comes to things like that so I won't be rushing to take anything out until I know what it is. There's an aluminium greenhouse on the plot but no glass. I had to buy a single pane for mine last year and it was very expensive so don't fancy doing that. I think I'd rather have a polytunnel on the plot. I think mines been used as a dumping ground too @DobbleDobble so that'll be a trip to the tip or two!

@DobbleDobble

I waited a couple of years.Yes it was overgrown but with old veg, grass and had become a dumping ground. I chose it over some even though it’s in the middle, I liked the fig tree it had!

Excellent choice! I hope your getting plenty of figs.

Brambles - they have a “crown” at ground level where all the shoots come from. If you can cut below this (sometimes easier said than done) they can’t regrow from roots

Brambles have a crown. Got it! Thank you all for your help!

charles dowding is the no dig guru. You will find a lot of his blogs if you google.

Thanks @dreamingofsun I think I saw one of his YouTube videos yesterday

Morning all. I'm wondering about sweetcorn. I've had success with sweetcorn but I'm curious about growing glass gem corn for popcorn. I know that corn is wind pollinated so I'm assuming if I plant both varieties the cross pollination could end up with me having no great corn of either type so should just stick to one?

style - correct. Instructions say you should only grow one type. On saying that plotholders at the allotment grow different types, so if you had enough space that you could grow them some distance away from each other it would only be similar to different plot holders having different types. I'm growing mine by direct planting the seeds - interested if this works for anyone....it says you can on the packet.

Day One on the allotment- a small dent made in the brambles. We're allowed bonfires (and there's a water tap right next to my plot) so maybe I'll burn them once dried out a bit?

@DobbleDobble chopping brambles is good for 'the rage'

That’s probably easier than numerous trips to tip them for sure !
The rage…. Grrrrr

After work today I did my indoor seeds - tomatoes, courgette, aubergine and squash. Just a few of each as it's still quite early so I've got time to try again if they don't take! I'm already excited though...

So excited to hear about your allotment @PoseyFlump.

Still no sign of life from my rhubarb. Beginning to fear I have been done for a third time with duff rhubarb 😔.

On the plus side I've planted out some spinach, a winter savoury cutting and some newly sprouted broad beans in a large tub and sown trailing nasturtium seeds round the edge. The blueberries look promising and I've pruned them for the first year.

Thyme, beetroot and coriander have germinated along with lobelia and Erigeron. I planted out all the home grown wallflower and honesty plugs I've kept in the greenhouse over winter (some plants did better in the ground outside but some have done much worse too; not sure what's best for biennials).... Hoping for lots of pretty flowers and bees 🙂.

Oh and my last year's garlic seemed to die back prematurely last year so I didn't plant any this year in case there were nasties in the soil. But I think sone has regrown this year. Whether that will translate into a crop remains to be seen...

Thanks @deplorabelle! Apparently it's 400 square metres. 399 of that is brambles

Oooh you've cracked on with sowing! I feel behind now. Think I'll bring the tomatoes forward a week than I'd planned now my chillies have been evicted off the heat mat!

@deplorabelle which variety is it? My Victoria is still underground despite the first stalks of my Timperley Early being nearly ready to pick.

Whereabouts do you live?

@PoseyFlump sounds like you've got a lot of hard work and fun ahead of you! We have an area of our garden that we're turning into a sort of secret garden (planted a copper beech hedge around it in the autumn for screening) and it is full of brambles but I want to get it ready for planting by the autumn so I will be battling with you!

I like the sound of a secret garden @StyleDesperation!

My plot neighbour has a bit of a secret garden at the top end that looks nice and I think they've got beehives in there.

@StyleDesperation

Morning all. I'm wondering about sweetcorn. I've had success with sweetcorn but I'm curious about growing glass gem corn for popcorn. I know that corn is wind pollinated so I'm assuming if I plant both varieties the cross pollination could end up with me having no great corn of either type so should just stick to one?

Generally the cross pollination affects the next generation rather than the current one, ie not a problem unless you're planning to save seed.

But because it's the actual seed of the corn that we eat, it looks as if you would be better sticking to one:

www.thriftykiwi.co.nz/2016-2017-garden-blog/the-pollination-and-cross-pollination-of-corn-varieties

@StyleDesperation it's Fulton's Strawberry Surprise which went in as a budded piece just after Christmas and Timperley Early went in in early February, so it's a bit soon to be worried yet. I've just been trying to grow rhubarb for two years and feel no closer to a crop!

@PoseyFlump no you aren't behind! I have such a small growing area that this is the only time I can feel like a gardening bigshot - when the plants are all smaller than my thumb so I start early and give lots away to friends.

Not veggy related, but yesterday I popped into a local garden centre & managed to get lots of spring bulbs reduced. Planning to get the kids to make up two pots of bulbs for their grandmother for Mother's Day & the rest will go into our garden - got daffodils, narcissus, tulips & cyclamens.

Nice work APurpleSquirrel. And you have to keep feeding the bees so they're around to fertilize all our beans etc later in the year, so it all counts 🙂

Morning everyone, well I can proudly say all of the raised beds are built on the allotment and I’ve direct down some salads and few veggies.The rest are coming ok in the greenhouse.It’s been a work in progress since oct, ground clearing, painting etc. now I just need to wood-chip between beds which will take a long time.
Going to sow some marigolds, cosmos today.I’ve got dahlia tubers and gladioli to plant out but believe it’s best in April ??
Gardeners world on last night , glad it’s back !

Well done @DobbleDobble 👏🏻 that's encouraging. How did you plan out your allotment? I need to have a good think how to do mine. Need some inspiration! My plot is narrow and long and most of the plans I see online assume they're square. Thanks for the heads up about Gardeners World, my planner didn't pick it up.

That sounds very industrious @DobbleDobble. Impressive progress.

I would leave dahlias and gladioli till April personally. Unless you want to start the dahlias in a greenhouse and take cuttings off them (or grow them a bit bigger away from slugs before planting out)

I've had a massive tidy up and weed in the main veg bed and also potted up some lily of the valley pips I bought yesterday. I think I've got broad bean shoots finally showing from the ones I sowed in the ground. AND (drum roll please) there are possible tentative signs of life on both rhubarb. Just the tiniest colouration where I think a leaf tip is emerging, but it's a very promising sign after so much rhubarb disappointment.

The raspberry canes and blueberries are starting into life and there are new flowers on the woodland strawberries. The fig tree is looking a bit neglected (because I neglected it) but probably not dead. Quince and cherry have very promising buds. The neglected cordons are about to start I think. New pears and crab apple are still asleep but I'm not worried about them.