TPD's allotment thread

ThePrettyDamned

roundthebend said:

We're starting our 3rd year on our ¼ plot. Nearly got evicted last year due to not doing much with it, but some better scaffold boards and help from my retired parents got us sorted. We chucked some garlic in from the fridge which appears to be doing ok.



I grew some Butternut Squash on the window sill from reclaimed seeds from a supermarket squash. Crap photo, but 5 very healthy plants.



And then the cauliflower we bought to fill out the beds and pass our inspection last year has decided to grow again. Is that normal? Is it going to be edible? Tasty?

Wow! Only one way to find out... Looks edible! 

ThePrettyDamned

Some nice progress made. Just about done all the bed prep in general, there is one more to plant out - that will have a three sisters planting (sweetcorn going in tomorrow or Monday, then sowing climbing beans a week or two later and finally planting squash/courgettes around the edge). Also have some space at the front bed for a couple more pepper plants. 

 
Netted area closes to camera has purple sprouting broccoli plants. I'll need to use a bigger net soon! The net keeps off butterflies and flea beetle. I'll interplant these with some cos lettuces, radishes and maybe some beets. These are faster cropping, and will benefit somewhat from being a bit shaded and kept cooler in the summer to slow bolting. 

Immensely proud. Can't wait till it really gets going, as it will now the nights are warming. 

PolarityMan

I sewed dragons teeth in mine...I'm hoping for bumper skellingtons in sept.

ThePrettyDamned

Going to get sweetcorn in today I think. I have 15 out of 16 sowed, and may just pop a couple of seeds in any gaps to see what happens. That should be plenty enough! Some of my seedlings are a bit damaged, but I'm hoping they recover once in proper soil... 

benmurray85

At the risk of derailing @ThePrettyDamned 's thread again.......

We finally harvested and ate some of the produce from our kitchen garden this weekend. Ok, it was just a small amount of lettuce and spinach but honestly it was so fulfilling to know that we had done it and got some use out of it. Super buzzing today, looking forward to a nice spinach curry tonight

Roland

We’re having asparagus tonight. As you say, so fulfilling.

ThePrettyDamned

We've had quite a good time recently - several beets, lots of radishes, some lettuce leaves. Kohl ravi starting to swell, broad beans finally getting going after being nibbled by pigeons and mice...

Sweetcorn went in last week, but not expecting much on such heavy soil this year - I reckon next year, after a full year of being mulched and used, it'll be much better. I'll be planting out some turnips in free spots as a catch crop in empty spaces, then sowing French and runner beans in the resulting free tray to go between the corn plants. They'll plant out quite soon, maybe 2 weeks, then the pumpkins and courgettes will go around the edge.

Side shoot some tomatoes today. Smells delicious! 

roundthebend

The 5 butternut squash plants I grew from seeds recovered from a supermarket bought squash got planted out into our allotment a few weeks ago. They appear to have died. I've no idea why, perhaps a frost still? Or maybe the soil change has shocked them. Similar happened last year and they did eventually recover and fruit, but too late to be of much use.

We've got potatoes beginning to grow. Our Spinach from last year has really shot up, and our Rhubarb too. Strawberries and Raspberries beginning to look decent. We've also replace another bed. It's coming together, but we do need to get some food in the ground.

benmurray85

Our strawberries are coming on a treat and the first one seemed ready yesterday. I thought I'd have it with my breakfast this morning as a celebration, went outside to grab it and it had been demolished overnight, I assume by birds! So this weekends task is netting up all the fruit. Not easy this gardening malarkey is it!!!

roundthebend

benmurray85 said:

Our strawberries are coming on a treat and the first one seemed ready yesterday. I thought I'd have it with my breakfast this morning as a celebration, went outside to grab it and it had been demolished overnight, I assume by birds! So this weekends task is netting up all the fruit. Not easy this gardening malarkey is it!!!

We get some good strawberries too, but they always get slugged. We need to put some straw under them, and maybe nets to stop the straw blowing all over the allotment.

Our raspberries have also started to fruit. Those were cuttings from a neighbour which looked pretty dead but we just shoved them in the ground and hoped for the best. They look pretty crap but there's a decent crop on them so who cares?

Butternut Squash that I grew on my windowsill using seeds harvested from a supermarket squash.....they were lovely and healthy with huge leaves. I planted them carefully in a bed and they've died. No idea why. Very disappointing.

Potatoes have flourished, hopefully some good crop from those.

Garlic - growing and multiplying but the bulbs are just tiny and useless.

Cauliflower from last year that we harvested the "flower" from has now shot up and gone to yellow proper flowers. I'm intrigued to know if we'll get another floret from them to eat.

boogieman

Got a small greenhouse put up and sorted now and put some veg seeds in, even though it was actually a bit late. Every single tomato seed we planted has sprouted, we’ve had dozens of the buggers come up! Gardeners Delight, Marmande (beefsteak) and cherry varieties. We’ve potted up and then planted on as many as we’ve got room for, gave some to neighbours and put the rest outside the house for people to take free. Likewise we had cucumbers and dozens of sweet pepper plants and did the same. These were all from DT Brown Seeds, I’m very impressed with the quality of their seeds, way better than the Suttons or Thompson and Morgan’s varieties that we’ve grown previously. 

ThePrettyDamned

For good seeds, try realseeds. Lots of advice on saving your own too.

I have not touched the allotment this week as I'm on holiday. Will post an update Sunday! 

benmurray85

More strawberry deaths this morning B*****DS!!!!!

ThePrettyDamned

benmurray85 said:

More strawberry deaths this morning B*****DS!!!!!

Mesh? 

You'll not defeat pests like birds or slugs. I use haxnicks ultra fine on carrots and brassicas and it seems to have kept out slugs, flea beetles and root fly. 

boogieman

We did strawberries in bags once… dunno what the proper term is but the bags were long cylindrical tubes with slits in the sides to put the strawberry plants in, then a loop at the top to hang them up. Worked really well to keep the slugs off. The only issue was our Labrador at the time used to pick them himself and eat them. 

benmurray85

ThePrettyDamned said:

benmurray85 said:

More strawberry deaths this morning B*****DS!!!!!

Mesh? 

You'll not defeat pests like birds or slugs. I use haxnicks ultra fine on carrots and brassicas and it seems to have kept out slugs, flea beetles and root fly. 

We’ve just been out this morning to buy some ultra fine mesh. Hoping that will do the trick? 

ThePrettyDamned

benmurray85 said:

ThePrettyDamned said:

benmurray85 said:

More strawberry deaths this morning B*****DS!!!!!

Mesh? 

You'll not defeat pests like birds or slugs. I use haxnicks ultra fine on carrots and brassicas and it seems to have kept out slugs, flea beetles and root fly. 

We’ve just been out this morning to buy some ultra fine mesh. Hoping that will do the trick? 

It'll reduce damage. With berries it can be hard to know what's eating them - slugs can target them, as can other insects, but so too do small mammals and most birds. Mesh is a good way to protect loads of crops - like I said, damage to my brassicas (which are absolute magnets for a range of pests) has been quite low, with only a few holes in leaves, likely slugs that get lucky and flea beetles that managed to find a suitable gap on the floor.

Contrast to the first year I grew them - absolutely full of flea beetles, and pigeons ate all the outer leaves. 

roundthebend

We've slowly been sorting out our small plot. We needed to get some more crops in - that's the whole point right, and because they do inspections to make sure you're not hogging sought after space for no benefit.

We also needed to get some tidying up done to get rid of rotten wood from raised beds, and to position an IBC to use as a water butt.

So, last night we spent a couple of hours there. Adding some compost to empty beds and sowing seeds - beetroot, salad leaves, courgette, edible Viola.
Then we moved all the rotten wood from beside the shed, stacked some pallets and lifted the IBC into position. We're beginning to get things looking tidy and maintainable.









This is a before image. The IBC was recently sitting where that raised bed was, nearest the shed. The bed was rotten so we removed it. The IBC got dumped there temporarily but was really in the way.

ThePrettyDamned

Looks way better than mine! I don't like using wooden sides I've decided and will remove mine when the peas come out...

Potatoes. Looks weedy, but in front is the path. Now strimmed, but I'm not allowed to do much to it! 

 
Peppers, courgette, marigold, nasturtium. Soil too heavy and wet, so peppers struggled! 

 
Bronze fennel, mostly for beauty, but also tasty as a garnish and will produce nice flowers.
 

roundthebend

Looking good @ThePrettyDamned ;
I wanted to use metal corrugated sheets for our raised beds, but the association won't allow it. Ironic, because they allow metal sheds and our neighbouring plot had 2 get destroyed and blown across the site by strong winds.