The Vegetable Patch Mark 2

[MereDintofPandiculation]

A continuation of the thread for those of us growing edibles, to share triumphs and failures, swap expertise and solve problems

@AlisonDonut that's interesting. And always good to know it's not necessarily something wrong that I did!

By coincidence I have just been up to the plot and a neighbour proudly showed me a full size butternut squash. He said he'd only got one and never managed before, so it was unusual.

So mild. I have been weeding in a teeshirt and was still very warm. No veg to harvest at the moment but the plot is overrun with self seeded cosmos and calendula and looks fabulous.

Hi all, hope it's okay to join im new to all this and just come across your thread.

Background, new house this January with loss of outdoor space, hubby built me six raised beds which I have filled this year with an assortment and I think I've done really well, although I've learned I will amend next year to things we eat a lot as I've given away so many cabbages and leeks so far.

I would really appreciate some advice on Tomato plants, do people usually grow from seed and transplant out or buy plug plants?

@tizwozliz your chillies look incredible, did you grow from seed or plugs? Our chilli plant did well this year but was already established when we bought it so I feel like I cheated on this one.

I bought cucumber plugs this year but they failed, I read they do not like full sun, maybe this is where I went wrong.

We are south facing and do not have a lot of shade.

Any tips would be very welcome

@veggiefirsttimer They were grown from a mix of seeds and plugs. I normally just grow from seed but I was really late planting (mid may) this year so bought 4 plug plants in a cheap variety pack.

I did the same with tomatoes this year, but my plants grown from seed were much more productive than the bought plants.

Chillis and tomatoes both sown inside and then grown in pots along the south facing rear wall of our house

Thank you @tizwozliz

Couple questions

Do you have any recommendations For both chillies and tomato varieties?

Growing up the wall, is this for warmth/ shelter/ stability for the plants?

I'm wondering Would they grow in a planter with a fence behind them.

Also when to sow!

I do apologies I am quite clueless at this!

Up against the south facing wall is for warmth mainly.

For tomatoes I really like sungold, a cherry tomato - they were recommended on one of these threads some years ago and I've always had successful crops with them.

Chillies I like the Hungarian black (the black ones in my photo) - they actually turn red eventually but heat wise they're similar to a jalapeño

Second sungold - it is an excellent tomato

This was my first year growing tomatoes & did well with cherry varieties

here is my list -

H = heritage so can keep the seeds to grow next year. The F1s are hybrids do won’t grow true from saved seeds. All planted out pretty late (end May/June) in London (& in good sized containers). I brought last few plants inside a few weeks ago &’still getting tomatoes

Tomatoes

• Tigerella- ok

• indigo blue berries -,ok, took a long time to ripe.

• Gartenperle (h) - think I got a bad plant

• Tumbling Tom yellow- doing well. Started early & STILL producing. Think it’s a hybrid

yellow pear drops - excellent and still producing

• Cherry falls (h) - a red cherry tomato; it fruited well & is still going : might grow again

• Black opal (h)- Took ages to fruit, taste average, won’t bother again

• Sweet aperitif (h) - Average

• Honeycomb (f1) - similar to sunbaby /sun gold - excellent
• Sun gold- excellent and is not a hybrid so saving seeds for next year

I also grew:

• aubergine money maker
• Aubergine :patio Baby

both were excellent & v productive

• pepper : redskin - slow to start but are producing well now & ripening inside
• Orange bull horn (heritage) - got 1 pepper off it which was disappointing!!
• Orange snacking f1- good plant, about 6 peppers off it
• Red Thor F1 - but disappointing for me
• Peppers: bell boy - disappointing

I will grow Redskin peppers from seed next year, trying to keep my aubergine plants alive over winter for a second year (they are in my porch)

On the tomato front , I saved seeds from most of my plants, will try to grow

• yellow pear drops
• cherry falls
• sungold

should give me a nice mix of yellow/orange/red cherry toms

Re Sungold, I also propagated some new plants by potting up some side stems when potting on (I think early July); this has given me a new younger plant which is producing well in a pot on my front steps so is worth doing to have some late season tomatoes too

Chillies: no varieties to recommend but they tend to be more successful than bell/sweet peppers as mature faster. Family grow ten from seed every year

@veggiefirsttimer : Usually it’s March & April for tomato plants, but as they grow in pots inside to start you can hedge your bets and try a v few late Feb, a couple if sowings in March, a couple in April

The plants go outside in May so you can select the best seedlings at that stage & give away/discard the second tier & rejects - this is my plan at least :)

@veggiefirsttimer I sow my chillies first on Valentine's Day and then follow my plan for the rest. Over the winter I buy seeds and make a spreadsheet of intended sowing dates. I love growing from seed!

I use the website Gardenfocused dot co dot uk. You enter your region and it calculates your predicted frost dates. Then go to the Fruit & Veg calendar, enter say tomatoes, and it will tell you exactly which week is best in your region for sowing, planting out etc.

For the first couple of years I kept notes so I could make changes if things didn't work. But saying that, most problems seem to come from the weather which is beyond our control! My garden is south facing too and my cucumbers were fine this year but they are very thirsty plants 😊

Thank you @PoseyFlump @BlooberryBiskits that's all really helpful. I'll get researching for February!

I'm really determined to plant things we will use this year, we've eaten beetroot weekly and I've still got lots left for pickling and chutney

Thanks again for your advice!

Hi @veggiefirsttimer : I’ve found lettuce & spinach to be particularly worth growing . Possibly time still to plant spinach & kale out

Hi everyone, haven’t posted in a while, work, covid etc! Been great reading through.
ive more or less shut down the allotment for winter now, am not growing anything winter wise but planning for next year now.
I’ve been given an old swing seat frame I’m ecstatic about as can grown my peas /beans up it.
its been an interesting return to allotment gardening for me with the storms that came in feb and then the drought!
hope you are all enjoying planning ahead?

Hi,I’m very happy that I have a greenhouse full of salad leaves and baby perennials. Salad I planted outside in Late August/ September, germinated but then sulked. Brassicas I planted at the same time have properly romped away, and aren’t getting eaten by anything. I normally tidy up fallen leaves and spread compost on my beds in the winter. Guess I will have that to do in February instead. My favourite tomato is an Italian variety called ox heart( but in Italian!). Needs to be eaten when very ripe for full flavour . I was taught a salad with beef fillet, onions, green beans and balsamic vinegar. Think field mushrooms would substitute well for vegans.

That salad is with the ox heart tomatoes !

Hey @DobbleDobble hope you're well! A swing frame for beans is a good idea - can probably get old ones for free on FB marketplace <adds to the list>

@Zebracat I love a tasty field mushroom. Will look out for ox heart seeds. I was given some large, black cherry toms in the summer and they were delicious but I don't know the name.

@PoseyFlump yes, it was a good find by a neighbour dumping it!

Decided to cut my one watermelon in half today before throwing it out, but to my surprise it was ripe and tastes amazing. So surprised it actually worked. 😊

@Bumblebeefriend oh how lovely!! I lost all of the six melons I planted in the drought here in south east:-(

I have so much to catch up on but just awoke to serious damage to my greenhouse from the gales 😩. Hope everyone else fared ok

Help wise people.

I have been on the group for a few years but not had an allotment, been growing fruit/veg on a small scale in my garden. Yesterday I managed to get an allotment plot on the allotment near my home (literally next door). I thought the plots were small but they are actually quite a good size. The issue is I have chosen a plot that hasn’t been grown on for a few years, it’s basically a patch of grass/weeds but not massively overgrown. How is best to tackle it? I don’t have much man power (just me), I was thinking of just strumming it back and covering for the winter, or should I rotavate or dig before covering? The plot next to me has sprayed there’s with weed killer and covered it I don’t really want to use chemicals on my plot.

@Lovemusic33
Hurray! You lucky beast!! I'd strim the tall growth, make sure there's no membrane or any other random crap lurking beneath the growth (sometimes can be hidden under a layer of soil) and move the strimmings to the compost heap.
Check the soil is level - that'll need correcting, then if you can get hold of compost/non sawdusty horse manure in large quantities then Id follow this method: No dig - Get started

Theres also a specific page for allotments
Allotments

He also has a very informative youtube channel showing how to set up beds, and individual videos on different veg. Highly recommended.
Charles Dowding Youtube Channel

In the greenhouse the tomatoes are just about finished, still picking chilli peppers. Put in some broad beans in pots in divided trays in the greenhouse a few days ago and they are coming up, hope to plant them out in a week or so. I haven't grown these before but hoping for an early crop. Also planted seeds for winter leaves, don't know how long they will crop in the greenhouse, another experiment.

Most things are finished in the garden, we still have spinach, swiss chard and black kale to pick, but will soon be back to buying most veg. Purple sprouting to come later in the season hopefully.

We invested in 'proper' pigeon netting a few years ago, not cheap but lasts very well otherwise the pigeons get anything green!

@Lovemusic33
Also find out how finickity your allotment committee is. They have weird quirks depending on who sits on it. We had one with OCD who hated it if our beds and paths were the slightest bit wonky. He didn't care whether you grew anything on it, so long as it looked neat and the paths had woodchip on!! Thankfully he's left now so its a lot more easy going.

Heres some before and after pictures of our plot.

We've just taken over another sliver of land, and are going a bit easier on it this time. DH built some low frames out of pallet toppers and stapled weed membrane to the inside. Then we filled them up with fresh strawy horse manure (the sawdusty type takes about 2 years to break down. Strawy takes just months), and topped them off with 15-20cm compost /well rotted horse manure.
Once I've harvested the last pumpkins growing in there, we're going to lift the frames and put them behind their existing position, refill with fresh manure, and spread the now well rotted horse manure out a bit to fill in the gap by the paths. Its worked a treat, suppressing most of the bindweed, couch grass and horsetail. I've not had to do much weeding in them at all, and Ive actually been quite enjoying the raised aspect of it. Hopefully by the end of next year, this entire section will have deep rich fertile soil!

My main section was riddled with couch grass and horsetail and before I found out about no dig, I spent weeks digging the 1st bed to double the depth of a spade and fishing out the smallest bits of root. Within a month or two it was all back. After 2 ½ years of no dig, apart from the edges where it creeps in, I have no couch grass, and very little weak and spindly horsetail, thanks to being vigilant during my 1st year with weeding.