2026 Allotmenteers - have we lost the plot?!

[Seaitoverthere]

A thread for those of us with new allotments to discuss progress and swap ideas. All welcome , established plot holders and wannabe plot holders too!

@blackheartsgirl
@hockityponktas

Am considering that too, as my garlic are looking near ready to harvest.

Loads of options, just avoid putting other alliums in the same space.

Leafy greens, beans, cucumbers, courgettes or root veg such as beets, as you say, or carrots.

I plan to enrich the bed, top up with compost, mulch before new plantings.

My garlic is out, peas will be soon and broad beans plus have pulled up bolted chard so I have gaps. Have put a globe artichoke and a cucumber where the chard was. In the greenhouse I have a few leeks, Florence fennel and spinach just germinated germinated plus some blight resistant tomatoes so will put those out in time.

My parsnips didn’t germinate so may try some of those and see what happens and hopefully another plot holder is giving me sprouts.

I think my potatoes will be ready in a week or two and by then my peas will also be out. I can’t decide what to put in their place? I have a few brassicas but then I would have to sort hoops and netting. I have 3 rows of potatoes and I between 2 of the rows I sewed beetroot and spring onions and they won’t be ready for another month. I sowed kohlrabi in the polytunnel today and wondering what else I can sow for a latter crop?

Picked my first bowl of raspberries today from the garden and have eaten them already.

harvested the first of my broad beans, strawberries, and some spring greens, my chard has finally exhausted itself and is up, the sprouting broccoli was poor, i'm going back to calabrese next year. I'm toying with trying a melon in the shallot bed once they're up- looks like it will be the end of june, i think you can buy ready to plant melons, as ive totally missed the sowing window, pumpkins and courgettes are coming on, i have three courgettes on my bigger plant, i have about 4 baby cucumbers , but
my tomatoes are very slow

My local garden centre has melon plants and squash. I will likely do the same when my onions come out. I think my cabbages are going where my peas are.

I keep loosing brassica, they seem to die and when I put them there’s no roots, but I can’t see any insects/grubs, maybe it’s too much water? I keep replacing them with spares that I have and hope they survive. Just planted 2 more cauliflower and a purple sprouting broccoli, I have no idea what’s what in that bed now, it will be a surprise.

One of my pumpkins was eaten, the other is yellow as are beans and sweetcorn. Will take seaweed feed down. Saw a tiny newt in the pond which is settled well into surrounds.

My brassicas are doing badly also, and really being eaten. I need to get a better netting system. Had to pull all my kale, even the flower buds were getting a bit tough. Chard and perpetual spinach doing well, and the mangetout and peas are still going, but I’m guessing they will finish in another couple of weeks as the flowers are slowing down.

Now like others I have space for new things and I’m not sure what - haven’t got anything ready to go. Will try to direct seed some greens.

Aubergines and tomatoes are in but I’m not sure if they are on track or not. Tomatoes are varied but I have a few small green tomatoes and flowers. Some one foot tall, some two foot tall.

Carrots doing great but potatoes have been eaten by slugs under the ground

Our earliest potatoes are only just coming into flower and peas and beans doing well but not flowers yet so feels like we're a long way behind some.

Leeks also looking good and sweet corn coming along nicely.

Courgettes and squash looking a bit sickly at the moment, not sure what's going on there.

Beetroot also seems to be struggling to get going.

Apples look quite blemished already.

We were away this weekend and the warm wet weather has really brought on all the weeds!

Super late to the party with planting. Got down today and planted everything out.

Soil is in incredible shape though! So happy with that

Lovely photos @tizwozliz 😊
It hadn’t occurred to me that bastard slugs would eat spuds underground. Mine were from the fridge and bunged in where previous plotholder had compost heap . I put cardboard down by it and manure to expand it a bit and bunged them in. I was going to earth up with grass clippings . They have just flowered.

My leek seedlings are rather pathetic. I still haven’t sown attempt 2 of parsnips and really do have to do something about yellow squash and beans. I’m thinking of chucking out of greenhouse my excess tomatoes and only 2 aubergine plants plus possibly peppers and planting them in allotment. Some are blight resistant so maybe I’ll stick with them.

Loads of borage and my dwarf water lily had 5 pads now which makes me very happy. What I thought was a thornless raspberry has red fruit, any ideas? Wondered about a Tayberry?

@Seaitoverthere is it growing up like a raspberry or spreading by like a blackberry? I couldn’t tell from the photo but looks a bit like my loganberry.

I have put in some slug traps to try and protect my pumpkins, hope they like beer better than leaves! The strawberries have little collars with copper in which seem to be doing a good job to protect them from slugs but the lettuce has been annihilated by a rabbit I think.

@tealandteal it spreads like a blackberry, long low canes, not very thorny.

I meant I thought it was thornless blackberry not raspberry !

It might be a loganberry, mine is thornless. I think a tayberry grows up like a raspberry whereas I have been training my loganberry as it spreads out.

Ah ok, loganberry it is then. Thank you 😁 What is best to do with them?!

Was watching YouTube earlier where a guy used an old Waterbutt with holes drilled in bottom (bricks and chicken wire inside to weigh down and act as filter then stood on bricks with collection trough under and filled with nettles. Lovely black liquid feed. Think I may look at doing similar in the long term.

I have a tayberry and its growth habit is just like a blackberry as well! It's hard to tell tayberry fron loganberry but just googled and tayberry fruits a few weeks earlier so might be slightly more likely to be that?

Oh it could be a tayberry maybe as my loganberry has lots of fruit but not ripe yet. How do you tell? I just let the kids eat them all last year as it’s quite small even though they are quite tart! There is a few more this year so I might try to make jam?!

Hello all, hope it's ok to post here. I've been reading along for a little while as this is the first year I'm trying grow things.

Those of you who have aubergines growing, how are they doing? Would you mind posting a photo? I'm worried mine are way behind even though I started them in January inside on heat mats with grow lights!

@Growing2026mine are in the ground but a similar size, but it’s my first growing year too so I’ve no idea if that’s right!

I think I will call it a Toganberry then, thanks 😀
@Growing2026 Aubergines need a long growing season and aren't very quick so I think that's fine.

Thanks @Seaitoverthere @january1244 - I saw the big ones in B&Q that were already fruiting a month or so ago and wondered if mine would ever get to the fruiting stage!

Things in B&Q etc have often been pushed a bit so ahead of what we’ll be growing at home.

Have spent a good few hours down there today. Picked rest of broad beans and pulled up plants. Lots of weeds in that bed including horsetail as beans were large so weeded and have planted out very pathetic looking leeks.

Was going to put parsnips take 2 where the garlic was but opened new pack of seed only to find it empty. So swede have gone in instead, a few red cabbage. Sowed butternut squash directly after slugs took off last lot and more dwarf borlotti beans plus planted out a squash .

Organised a dahlia cutting swap with someone down there and came back with shallot scapes, blueberries and Toganberries, some peas , loads of of broad beans and a mix of sweet peas and ox eye daisies. Gave everything that looks yellow a feed of seaweed.

Things that look sad - globe artichoke , marketmore cucumber, pumpkin, sweetcorn and all my beans. Hoping feed and heat may help things.

Has anyone pulled their onions yet? I lost a lot of mine this year to leaf miner, but the ones that have survived are huge and almost bursting open. They haven’t flopped over yet, so I am guessing they are not ready? I thought they were a small pickling variety but they are now huge.

I am struggling with flea beetle again, last year I lost so much to them. I am trying nematodes to try and save my cabbages, sprouts and cauliflowers. I am starting to wonder if growing brassicas are worth it.

Blackcurrants are doing really well, picked 1kg already and loads left on the bushes. Strawberries are doing well too.

i have cut my poor aphid assaulted tansy down to 6", hoping the roots are strong enough to regenerate- the ladybirds and their young did their best but it was a really severe infestation- every time i touched the leaves it looked like the plant was hemorrhaging, about 8 ft away the other stand of tansy is unaffected.

@Moonlightfrog I was going to lift my shallots and some of the onions this week, but its been thundery showers and i really wanted a dry spell to start curing them.. dont want them in the shed as its so small to spread them out really. A few of the onions are huge and starting to flop, the rest are still swelling, the shallots are going yellow so are ready now.

The broadbeans and strawberries are giving me enough for a harvest every day or so. the spring greens are lush, my baby chard planted to replace the plants I over wintered and exhausted this spring.

I inherited about 5 mystery berry plants, only got one or two berries last year, tasted raspberry like, now we've cleared all the bramble the little thornless bushes are gaining strength, and one has several berry clusters, not rip at the minute. I'm mulling over whether to lift two that are randomly placed and put them in the same bed as three we rescued from the brambles- wont lift them till winter when they are dormant though if we do decide to move them.

Spent 4 hrs there today- weeding, planting some yellow marigolds and nasturtiums to companion the french beans and mourning my lovely crop of lush, sweet gooseberries that the blessed pidgeons nabbed- they got under the fruit cage and scoffed the lot!

@Sproutlinghow many strawberry plants do you have to give you a harvest every day?