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

We are trialing wool plant collars for the strawberries this year, tried wool pellets surrounding the cabbages last year but the cabbages outgrew them. I think the strulch barrier works well, and am using it on the raised beds, but didnt want it near the strawberries.
Ive also ordered a rain chain to link one of the shed roofs to its water butt, its pretty and apparently gives a lovely sound when its raining.
parsnips, spring greens, dwarf runner beans(for a container) all going in this afternoon, and going to dig in some home grown compost into the green bean bed, they will be going in in a couple of weeks.
The onion and shallot beds are very weedy, so they need to be done, we had lots of rain yesterday so I think the weeds will be rampant.
Spuds (Charlottes and Maris Pipers) are looking good, and a neighbour gave us a tray of chitted Kestrels that we'll put in a potato tower, not sure how well they'll do as they should have been in weeks ago , the neighbour ran out of space and people to off-load them, we are several plots down so it took him weeks to find us lol

.. my first sown carrots have finally germinated but still only showing their baby leaves, I'll sow some more now its warmed up a bit.

@Seaitovertherepeas already! How was the taste?

@tizwozlizyour lot is looking really good! @Sproutlingsounds good!

I keep looking on YouTube but I’m not sure when things are ready/to harvests my first early potatoes are about 25 cm tall. I know I need to hill them up again, but I might have planted them too close together. I have no flowers, do you wait til flowers? My first carrots, the green bits are about 12cm to 15cm- when should you pull them up? And my peas are chest height with flowers- waiting for peas! Trying to identify what my fruit trees are. A neighbour told me my plum is a cherry plum, but the plums are long and thin and not round. Maybe a Victoria, but they’re already 3 cm long. I know I probably just need to wait, but patience isn’t a strong point!

@Sproutling our carrots have only just germinated too after about 3 weeks!

@tizwozliz , that looks great, love the dead hedge!
@Sproutling a rain chain is a good idea, be interested to know how that goes. I think the spuds will be fine.
@january1244 I think I would wait for the potatoes to flower and the tops die back a bit. With carrots they usually get to the stage where if you scrape a bit of soil away you can see the top of them.

Allotment weeded and mowed and neighbour kindly chopped back the reeds on the bank by water. Pond is starting to clear again which was good to see. Oca planted out, lettuce survived, chucked in bean seeds and will see what happens, also some carrots. No sign of my parsnips which is a shame.

Sowed a load of nasturtium, black poppies, cornflowers, pink calendula, Californian poppies and a seed mix. I say sowed, I mean chucked. Planted a toadflax, small bit of Geranium Rozanne and some baby foxgloves out.

No idea about my mystery tree and plum tree planted in December still only has a couple of green shoots at the bottom.

The dead hedge is the best thing we've done. There was a fairly rotten wooden fence when we got the plot which got destroyed in the storms last year. We looked into planting something but really needed an immediate barrier as otherwise the dogs go wandering. We weren't sure if we'd have enough material for the full length but we managed. And then this year, anything that's too woody to compost can just be put in the hedge.

It’s lovely to read everyone’s allotment plans! I spent a good bit of time there this weekend, everything is strimmed and weeded. My friend with an allotment gave me a few raspberries they didn’t want, to fill in some of the gaps in my raspberry bed. A very kind stranger walked past (there is a public footpath that runs through the allotments and mine borders it), we chatted a bit and he admired the dog. I made a joke about her sitting on my blackcurrant and killing it/snapping it. He went home and came back 10 minutes later with a blackcurrant cutting from his garden! It’s a bit late but I’m hoping it will take. I also took the children to the garden centre to get some bonemeal and we bought a “pink lemonade”
blueberrry which I have planted next to my other blueberry. And a lovely strawberry coming along nicely.

Disaster has struck. Frost overnight. Courgettes, tomatoes, aubergines outdoors are dead. Also dahlia, borlotti beans. What a kick in the gut. If the BBC weather service forecast it , I just have missed it.

Oh no @TheGander 😥

Oh no @TheGanderwhere are you? Hopefully they’ll rally. Do you have some fleece for tonight?

I've seen a few posts from people caught out @TheGander so I'm not sure it was widely predicted. Our last frost date hasn't passed yet so everything here is still tucked up inside luckily. I had courgettes killed on the 18 May one year :-( potatoes got caught too but they recovered.

It shouldn't be too late to get courgettes started again. The first year of our allotment we didn't get the keys until a week into May and we still managed to get things sown and in the ground. Beans can generally be sown into June.

I lost a courgette plant, a pumpkin plant and my runner beans. The temp here was meant to be 3c last night, i contemplated going to cover up my plants but decided to take the risk. Luckily I have spares in my greenhouse. My potatoes got hit too but they will recover. It’s pretty rare to get a frost this late in the south. The allotment was a sad place this morning and not just my plot.
All my other plants are tucked up for the night. I will wait another week before planting anything else out.

I’m in London. Weirdly colder nights here than up North at the moment. They say pride comes before a fall- I was congratulating myself on having the earliest tomatoes on the plot. As it turns out, because no one else was silly enough to put them out this early. I’m chitting courgette seeds now and have re sown the botlotti. Tomorrow I’ll be doing a work visit near a garden centre so I’ll go in and also buy some courgette plants. I’ve ordered tomato plug plants online.
Other than that I put manure and nets in the potatoes and what’s left of the dahlias today 🤞

I’m sorry @Moonlightfrog and @TheGanderits so frustrating when you’ve put in all the effort of raising the seedlings.

I’m working in the office this week so haven’t had a chance to get down and see the damage at my allotment yet. I had planted out my pumpkin and summer squash, and half of my tomatoes were under a fleece in a cheap plastic tunnel so might not have done too well.

There are actually some amazing looking aubergine and pepper plants at Waitrose - grafted and twice the size of my Jan sown ones. And like PPs said, you can resow some of the beans and courgettes maybe

Have had to rejoin Mimsnet-no idea what happened to my previous account, anyway, Ive had our inspection yesterday, our plot is fine (more than fine actually -preens-) hoever when I asked about the neighbour's abomination was told he gets a 'free pass' this year because he's waiting for an operation.
So how come he's had a free pass for the past 12 years? its a joke when there is a waiting list of more than 60, that he's allowed to let his plot become a weed jungle and affect his neighbours. grr

Thanks @january1244 fingers crossed for your tomatoes.

Interesting about Waitrose. Our local one has a v disappointing selection ( for an allotmenteer) just bedding plants and a few random pots of herbs. Years ago I got their grafted aubergines and I agree they were amazing. I have quite a few indoors, not planted yet so at least I’m ok for aubergines this year.

Suddenly my account is back?!?
I have cucumber and courgette seedlings which I cannot tell apart- labelling failure!
My neighbour reckons the bigger one I put into its final pot (which I'd eany-meany -miny-mo'd as the cucumber) is the courgette, and the smaller one is the courgette, which I had just potted on until planting out time. Hey ho. I also have two mystery seedlings which were in with the baby sweet peppers. They look like beetroots, but I havent sown any, I'm letting them grow until something recognisable evolves.

smaller one is the cucumber! no wonder I cant tell them apart lol

@Sproutling that’s exciting to see what grows as bonus crops! My kids direct sowed a few so I’ve been using AI to identify them.

I popped down last night and my things seems to have survived, however we’ve just had hail, and so god knows what’s happening with the mid may weather at the moment

If you sowed them at the same time I'd agree with your neighbour: I find courgette seedlings grow bigger in the early weeks, and cucumber will have smaller leaves for its age and be a bit leggier?

I've planted parsnips with the intention of planting rows of leeks between the rows of parsnips- (the leeks are a bit puny at the moment). I've put collars on the parsnips to deter carrot fly, I'm hoping once the leeks go in they will be a natural deterrent . I've got sweetpeas at the end of the bed, I'm hoping they all behave as I want, and I dont have a 'natural' disaster 😃
I'm putting some of my puny leeks next to my puny carrots too- there is elephant garlic at the end of that bed which should be ready in a few weeks. Not sure if I'll cover that bed or leave it open, like the parsnips.

@Sproutling I was told if you plant stuff over 2 foot high carrot fly cannot get them. We did, got no carrot fly, still got shit carrots though

@Breadcat24 I planted some last year in a container that was waist height- yup no carrot fly, but the little gnarled twisted things that grew were only enjoyed by the hamster! lol

I have sewed carrots between my onion sets, one for came up and the other didn’t, my onions don’t seem to be doing great either, I am considering growing them from seed next year. I have leeks ready to go out but nowhere to put them as I was hoping to plant them after the peas finish (my planning is pretty awful).

The rest of my French beans have been hit by they cold, hopefully the ones I sewed a couple days ago won’t take long to grow.