The Vegetable Patch 2024/2025

[MereDintofPandiculation]

Come and share your triumphs and failures in your vegetable plot or allotment.

Hi ginger cat . It should make apples although probably not many and they won’t be the same as those of the parent tree. It’s genetic lottery as to what kind of apple you get. Also, be prepared for some of the little apples to drop off, usually in June, before they reach maturity.

Thanks @TheGander we aren't expecting anything much. It was a random apple from the fruit bowl. He was really little, and it was just for fun.
I was delighted it finally had some blossom. It's about 8 or 9 years old, but was in a pot for years.

@gingercat02 your apple tree sounds lovely but you won't get apples unless there's another apple or crab apple tree in flower at the same time somewhere in the neighborhood. Crab apples are popular ornamental trees so chances are you'll be ok. Bees do the pollination so the more bee friendly you can make your garden, the better. But whether you get apples or not, the blossom is absolutely lovely.

It's definitely more sentimental than useful, but DS is nearly 16, and it still makes him happy, so it's worth it's keep, even if we never get an apple, as you say the blossom is beautiful

Definitely an achievement to have nurtured it this far!

We have marble sized apples

Yay! It seems brutal but remember to thin them out to one or two of the bigger fruit per branch. I didn't do mine last year and my tiny tree was bent over to the ground because of the weight! I've learned my lesson.

I've finished planting out my butternut squash today in any spaces not already taken! It's getting harder to find room now. And I've picked my first lot of perpetual spinach for tonight's stir fry!

I've planted out some rocket and given my tomatoes and chillis a feed. I did buy another chilli plant from the garden centre (chocolate habanero I think) because I just can't help myself. I really, really do not need more chillis. I still have loads in the freezer from last summer but I just love growing them. I'll have to start giving them away at this rate!

Saw some grafted aubergine plants in Waitrose last weekend and pounced, even though I already have 6 ( non grafted) from Thompson and Morgan . They are doing well. Today planted on french beans, tried to caterpillar- proof my cabbage netting, watered the raspberries, watered apple, plum and vine. Also sowed some purple sprouting broccoli and borlotti beans, hoping it isn’t too late. Also applied comfrey feed to my tomato plants. It’s been a good day!

Busy couple of days at the new allotment,
cutting down a lot of brambles (I know I will need to dig up the crowns but needed them out of the way for access first)
pruned plum tree which is in a right state and has lots of dead wood and crossing branches etc.
sawed down a few self seeded willow and sycamores
cleared rubble from soil in greenhouse and put down a couple of large bags of manure. Watered generously but needs more manure.
brought lots of cardboard to the allotment and realised ‘a lot’ is nowhere near enough even to cover the weeded area to start my first no dig bed.
sowed more sweetcorn and moved them to a lighter area of conservatory.
planned the first (and only) veg bed I will attempt this season - 3 sisters. Even that will be a push, the plot is very overgrown and looks like it has been neglected for 2-3 years plus.

Tens of cucumbers are growing , this is the biggest! Tomatoes have started growing too with lots more flowers on the way and the leeks, carrots and onions are coming along nicely. The raspberry bush looks suspiciously like they're not ripening, however we have had the first few strawberries of the year and they've been delicious!

🥒

I’ve got two types of cucumber, the last seed from last year, and two plants of Diva, which are really living up to their name. They don’t like the weather, they don’t like the soil and they don’t like the one slug that got into the greenhouse.

My cucumbers are not growing at all but equally they haven't been eaten. Not sure how I should feel about them really.

La Diva is my cucumber of choice but I agree they are fickle. I usually sow 3 x the number of plants I need. They die if you look at them the wrong way. I read somewhere that all cucumbers have a death wish bit Diva has it in spades. Tastes excellent though (if you can get them that far).

Incidentally following my earlier post about sorting my cucumbers from my squashes, I'm so behind this year that the plants are 10-15cm tall and still in pots, and there's a noticeable difference in the growth pattern that wasn't there earlier. The cucumbers are much straighter, the squashes are more like a zigzag. One of the former cucumbers has been reallocated to the squash group as a result.

Of course this means that I now have only 2 cucumber plants so I'm keeping everything crossed that one of them makes it to production. Any magic spells, good thoughts etc welcome.

@MereDintofPandiculation I'd be interested to hear about your anti slug regime, this has been such a bad year everywhere that you could make a fortune selling something that actually works!

I had huge success with cucumbers on the allotment last year, harvested about 75 of them from 6 plants, I've never seen anything like it. This year's plants are small and sturdy, no flowers yet, I have only planted out half so far.

I've never tried Diva, but I've had a lot of success with the Wautoma cucumber from Real seeds, and would have ignorantly described cucumbers as very robust, so I must have got lucky with the first variety I tried.... It happily grows outside in my garden, and is completely ignored by the slugs (like my courgettes but unlike my poor bean plants and strawberry fruits). Last year my courgettes did miserably with the weather, the cucumbers coped fine. They do give prickly cucumbers, but you just rub the spikes off under running water before eating them.

Everything is on a go slow here, I have one courgette that has some flowers on the way but the rest are still tiny. Debating whether to plant them out anyway, I normally like them to be a bit bigger to withstand any slug/snail attack.

I've got some beetroot to plant out today and probably some weeding to do.

@MontyDonsBlueScarf I'd be interested to hear about your anti slug regime, this has been such a bad year everywhere that you could make a fortune selling something that actually works! Sorry, I don’t have one that works!

I try to keep the greenhouse as a slug-free zone. I check every pot I take in for slugs. I escort out any snails that make their way in. I used to escort slugs out, now I take them out and stamp on them. If there’s any slug evidence, I lift all the pots in the vicinity and try and find the offender, then scatter Ferric phosphate slug pellets in and around the pot.

i start everything in the greenhouse, and let them get large and tough before moving them out - easy for me to do because I grow all my veg in pots. So runner beans don’t go out until they are at the top of their poles and the flowers are about to open. Courgettes have started cropping but are still inside (greenhouse windows are fully open as are the doors, so plenty of insects for pollination). Lettuces will stay indoors - they grow very nicely one to a 8in pot. They’re at the shady end, next to the door.

I’m always nervous letting people see my greenhouse in case they think I’m batty

La Diva is my cucumber of choice but I agree they are fickle. I usually sow 3 x the number of plants I need. I’ve done well to keep 2 out of 3 then

I’m harvesting big lettuce leaves from butterhead and from a pretty red-splodged variety. First courgette has reached harvest size. Peas and broad beans are flowering - broad beans for some time. Runners and French just beginning to climb. Tomatoes in full flower. Yorkshire. Our season is nearly a month shorter than SE at both ends

Not called La Diva for nothing. Cucumbers are little princesses.

@MereDintofPandiculation sounds as if things are coming along really well ! I am South Coast and courgettes are only just starting to flower. I don't have a greenhouse or poly tunnel though so all started in the conservatory at home or direct sown. I think the best way to protect from slugs is to get things to a decent size before planting out.
Over run with Mange Tout, picking cavolo nero, curly green kale and rhubarb. Other brassica coming along slowly but surely. Tomatoes are loaded with flowers and some tiny green tomatoes showing. Cucumber also in flower as are dwarf French beans. Runners about 3 ft tall and starting to show some flower buds (and black fly - but lots of lady birds this year 😀) Just about to finish the last of the pak choi (i find it bolts in the Summer so only grow it early or late). We've eaten a few lettuce already (Beer traps have worked a treat) I'm trying really hard to remember to succession sow this year so we don't have 10 ready at once and then none for the next month ! Carrots are really slow this year but finally starting to show as are beetroot. Potatoes doing well. Also have spring onions, radish and land cress (a cross between rocket and water cress).
I picked my first sweet pea at the weekend... just the one but hopefully they will start coming thick and fast now. I do love the house being full of sweet peas over the summer (apart from finding greenfly climbing up the walls 😂)

@Lakeyloo Your peas, beans are way ahead of mine, ditto encumber, andtomatoes a bit ahead. Sweet peas exactly the same! - ie I have one flower too