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

In the greenhouse the tomatoes are just about finished, still picking chilli peppers. My “volunteer” tomatoes in the garden are still flowering their socks off. Won’t come to anything, of course. I tend to leave chillis on the plant as long as possible. They don’t come to any harm (they dry out eventually), and they look pretty. But I always have far more than I use, so I can afford to be cavalier with them.

@CuriousEats Very impressed! I can’t imagine being that orderly

@MereDintofPandiculation thats DH, not me! He does the groundworks, I do the plants!

I have just been up to look at my plot, it just looks like a patch of long grass between 2 other plots, my plot is against a barbed wire fence which backs onto a field (lovely views). I am going to speak nicely to my dad at the weekend and see if he can help me strim it down to see what’s underneath, luckily it’s mainly grass growing on top, no brambles and not many weeds. The soil here is quite heavy with clay so it may need a lot of work, luckily it’s easy to get hold of manure and a local farmer is on the comity and often just delivers a load to the allotments.

I'm spending today clearing a mini polytunnel and planting it up with some greens for the winter, onion sets, I'll put garlic in, and lettuces and some kohl rabi and stuff.

Remember I'm in France but I've harvested some ginger today. Originally bought from Lidl as a normal ginger root it started to shoot so I just planted it [I planted 3 and 2 grew]. I then grated some into a curry I was cooking for lunch and wow! We both feel like we've been punched in the face.

@AlisonDonut jealous!! Did you plant it outdoor or undercover?

@Lovemusic33 No-dig works well on clay. You just plant into the compost layer and dont disturb the soil. Saves your back and allows the mycorrhizal(?) fungi to flourish.

Just checked on the broad beans and the mice have had them all out of the trays! So irritating.

Polytunnel. I brought the poly with me after buying it just when we went into lockdown in 2020, putting it up for 2 seasons, taking it down and put it back up in Feb this year. Growing more tropical stuff, if you can call it that, than what we could grow in the Midland of the UK was a key factor in moving here. I've also got turmeric in there, that is 3 ft tall. I'm going to keep growing from these for as long as I can.

I used to pre germinate in a zip lock bag with some vermiculite and then plant out. When we got here I got all my bags of broad beans and sowed them all into one bed, there were about 100 from different varieties and the whole lot was either eaten or rotted. So I'm going back to per germination in a ziplock bag for my next sowing, which I'll have to buy seeds for as I have none left.

They should work ok in my oven of a conservatory then. Its reached 60°C in summer in there before. Do they like it damp or dry?

Nothing was damp here this summer. So dry.

@AlisonDonut I don't know why, but I was astounded to learn that freshly harvested ginger doesnt have that papery skin. Proper gobsmacked 😂does turmeric? The only time I've seen that in the shops, it did.

The bits nearest the growing shoots don't on either but as the root gets further from the growing shoot it does form a skin. After harvest that skin does thicken up. I pulled a bit yesterday that did have the skin but a piece of turmeric I pulled at the weekend didn't it was lovely and smooth so I replanted it to see if it shoots again. It is all experimentation.

Thats amazing! I'm going to stuff some in a pot in spring and see what happens.

I am making a start clearing my plot today, managed to pick up a 2nd hand strimmer in market place, please prey that it starts. I’m going to strim it back as low as I can and cover half over for a couple of weeks in hope to kill any weeds. At the moment it’s hard to plan or picture what my plot will look like as it’s just a patch of over grown grass. Ideally I would like to get it all up together before spring and be using the whole plot (it’s not huge but a good size). I am not sure wether to plant broad beans now in the greenhouse in hope to transfer to my plot after Christmas? I have a feeling my soil will need a lot of work and a lot of manure before I consider planting. I was hoping to move some of my fruit bushes to my plot but I am unsure the best time to do that?

I picked my last French beans today. The year is officially over, and tomorrow will be next year.

@Lovemusic33 Now will be fine to move fruit bushes, dormant is best. Don’t skimp on the size of rootball you take with them

Broad beans - in Yorkshire I find autumn sowings flower too early and don’t set well.

Thanks @MereDintofPandiculation I was just trying to find this thread a few days ago! Fingers crossed, I'll be joining you all next year so I'm hoping to read through for veg suggestions.

I picked a whole trug of autumn salad leaves (radicchio, mustards, spinach, hardy soft leaved herbs and the last decent marigold flowers to sprinkle on top) and some winter radish on Thursday. Green Luobo and Watermelon. I'm impressed with the watermelon but I thought Luobo was more mooli sized. Perhaps I sowed them too late.

I am now considering doing no dig 😬. At the moment my plot is half covered in hope the grass will die back, had issues with the strimmer. It’s been covered for 2 weeks but I am now thinking if I cover with cardboard in a few weeks, a layer of pony poo and compost it will be much easier than digging? I need to get part of it ready to move my fruit bushes in. Wondering how’s best to buy compost and poo in bulk? My plot isn’t easy to get too so I shall be asking for a wheelbarrow for Christmas so I can transport poo to my plot.

Has anyone else done no dig on a full plot?

My plot is only about 60-70m² but we do no dig on the lot. You can order green waste compost in bulk (i think from the council?). Its generally delivered still hot so needs another few months of ripening before its ready to use.
We get our horse manure from some local stables who are very happy we take it as they pay per skip load for it to be removed.
If you're going the horse poo route, make sure the horses were bedded on straw not sawdust/shavings because they just take so long to break down.
In your situation, I'd put cardboard down across the whole plot. I'd use good quality bagged compost from a garden centre for the planting holes for the fruit bushes, and cover the rest in unripe compost or sawdusty horse poo. It will ripen/rot down over winter and will be ready to plant into in the spring.
I'd also cart enough horsepoo to fill a big compost bin or 2 so its got a year to rot down so you've got some decent compost to spread this time next year.

If you've got access, beg, borrow or hire a trailer so you can transport decent quantities of manure at a time. We've used those canvas garden bags and filled our boot with them but its a bit of a faff.

What I learnt in a decade with an allotment.

a - couch grass and bindweed grows through everything. No dig will just give it loads of extra nutrition. Yum yum.

b - you cannot just blindly accept manure as if it is contaminated that's your plot done for, for a few seasons.

@AlisonDonut
I got rid of couchgrass and bindweed (and am nearly there with horsetail!) by doing no dig. Yes it will grow through the mulches, but you simply lever out the top 6 inches with a trowel, disturbing the soil around as little as possible. It took 6 months to really weaken it, and perhaps 1 year to be rid of it fully. I have been really religious about keeping on top of the horsetail and we have virtually got rid of it after 2½ years, though it is still all over neighbouring plots. I am now just very vigilant on the paths to stop it from encroaching back onto our plot. I probably give them a good weed once a month.

And yes, do test your manure and any bought compost before you put it on your plot. Take a couple of plant pots full and sow beans and peas in, alongside a pot of earth for a fair test. If the compost or horsemanure contains aminopyralid or clopyralid weedkiller, the growing tips will curl inward, and the general growth will be stunted. Peas and beans will germinate in fresh manure (although not particularly healthily) so you can test before you waste a few days labour carting the stuff!
And its also worth checking with the stables if they spray the field the horses graze in with weed killers. Even then its still worth being careful as the the hay they buy in might contain it too.
I've had garden centre compost affected by it too, so unfortunately you're not safe, whatever you use, unless you make your own compost from scratch. More information on it here and .

Recommendations for your favourite medium sized tomato to grow from seed please!

By “medium” do you mean “not cherry, and not giant beefsteak” or do you mean something between cherry and salad?

Gardeners Delight is small (might be my cultivation) but not cherry and has a very good flavour