TPD's allotment thread

ThePrettyDamned

Mega efforts! Forgot photos but they'll come later...

Got a bunch of peppers, tomatoes, sweetcorn and tomatillos in. Between sweetcorn I have mini lettuces, to crop in the meantime before they really take off, and some dwarf beans around the edge. 

Pumpkins and courgettes have been in for a week of cold nights, but made it through and are starting to get green again (they did yellow a bit). 

Basil, dwarf stocks, rudbeckia and marigolds interplanted here there and everywhere. 

Some globe artichokes went on the border - 4 of them. May be a bit much though, and too close to next door so I'm half expecting to compost them if they do well. 

Lastly, some purple kale planted in a new bed (cardboard and some compost on top of grass). It's only in a couple of inches of compost but I've had success before. Sprinkled some fast growing salads around them and watered in - kales are slow to get going so I should get a few salads out of the bed before they really hit their stride, and the salads will hopefully help control the weeds. 

Amazing weekend. 

Roland

I love this point in the gardening year. The spring digging is done. Most of the crops are planted, but haven’t yet suffered the depredations of slugs, blackfly, mildew, rust, frost, etc.

ThePrettyDamned

Roland said:

I love this point in the gardening year. The spring digging is done. Most of the crops are planted, but haven’t yet suffered the depredations of slugs, blackfly, mildew, rust, frost, etc.

Absolutely! 

I've got a lot of work to go on the new plot, but the first is decent. Harvested a butter head lettuce which was nice, but did lose quite a few leaves to slug damage... Can't beat the slugs, though. 

I do seem to suffer much less slug damage than others around me on site - whether this is because of my selections of lettuce, the size I plant them out (smaller than they do, so I doubt it...) or the not digging thing, or something completely different... Who knows? Gardening can be quite the enigma. 

ThePrettyDamned

There is a second row of asparagus behind the first, but it's only sown seed this year so it'll be a couple of years yet... 


Broad beans, with pumpkins or courgettes to grow once they're done. 

Peppers following garlic. Some basil and flowers dotted about. At the back is rhubarb, some French bush beans and tomatillos. 



Freshly transplanted globe artichokes. Cardboard over grass - it's a new bed. Compost on top to keep weeds down and hopefully condition the soil over the next year or so. 



Sweetcorn with gem lettuces in between. Very young, but no slug damage yet... Starting to get established. 

 

Bronze fennel! And other herbs struggling to keep up. 

 

Geum starting to flower. Lavender growing up a bit. 



Flower border, weeded yesterday. Bed is mixed salads, netted as some kale and cabbage is under there, as well as some carrot. I've sown carrot around the onions and tomatoes to the right as well, to see if there is carrot root fly. You never know! Yarrow at the back, with peonies (establishing) and stocks. 

 

Second plot coming along. Trees were twigs but now producing shoots. 

 
Kale and strawberries. Again, new beds. 

 
My forsythia - a dwarf variety. A sing cosmos in front, because why not. 

Not much, but I'm excited the raspberry canes seem to have taken and the trees are coming along! 

ThePrettyDamned

Just got back from an after work sesh at the plot.

Planted a new dahlia - eveline - where another was, ahem, mistaken for a weed by ladyprettydamned. To be fair to her, there were a lot of weeds... I have a few more dahlias to get out, just need to dig some holes on the new plot - not easy, on this clay, but I'm determined to have some beautiful cut flowers later in the summer. 

I did manage to get a redcurrant and a mulberry bush in the front. Digging holes was very difficult, but they're in with some bagged compost mixed with soil, and mulched with some more to keep moisture in. 

I also turned the compost heap into the other bay. I love doing that. It's a small heap, under 1m cubed (it only gets about 70cm high, 90cm long and wide) so never stays hot for long. After a turn, it often gets to 60 degrees for a day, then returns to 30 - but I'm always amazed. All that has gone in are kitchen scraps, the brassicas from winter, some grass clippings and weeds and some cardboard from amazon boxes and loo roll tubes. On the top is a dry mix of these, in the middle was a slimy mess, but the bottom 30cm or so was glorious smelling, wonderful, crumbly compost full of worms, woodlice, centipedes and plant-growing-goodness. 

I've found that, when I mulch with home made compost, it disappears into the soil within a couple of months - contrast with bagged compost, which does go down but seems to take a year. All I get left on top of the home made stuff is the woody bits and the soil underneath becomes crumbly and lovely. Often it also leads to volunteer potato weeds and a butt load of pumpkin, tomato and pepper seedlings to weed off but it's super worth it. 

Magic! 

Roland

Can I pitch in? This picture was taken last week before I finished forking over and planting. The netting is to keep out local wildlife.

ThePrettyDamned

Roland said:

Can I pitch in? This picture was taken last week before I finished forking over and planting. The netting is to keep out local wildlife.

Of course! All about celebrating growing our own. 

Impressed with your structure, I need to think of a way to protect our fruit trees and bushes when they start fruiting. I wonder if it'll be something like you've built, but with a roof...

Super tidy! 

Roland

In the back of the picture is my fruit cage. Metal tubes with plastic side and roof netting. 

ThePrettyDamned

Everything is just starting to really take off now. Lost a couple of early lettuces to slugs, owing to the wet cool early spring. Dry late spring means no damage on the new batch which is fantastic. 

Planted a couple of dahlias, still a few to go. Broadly happy with the first plot, need to get more mulching for the second going on so more cardboard happening at the weekend  

Strawberries are sort of getting going but not very happy. No idea why, but hopefully they'll get there in the next few weeks. Sweetcorn is properly getting going now as well, beyond ankle height at least  

Hoping to harvest broad beans at the weekend, some are just about ready but they are definitely a bit behind where I'd like them to be. Nights are still cool so tomatoes, peppers etc are a bit slow and peppers are a bit yellow! Oops. 

Nitefly

I was thinking about this thread yesterday, and it struck me we hadn't had an update for a while - hope all is well, TPD?

ThePrettyDamned

Had a bananas year of work so the allotment took a bit of a downturn!

But an update - 

Strawbs survived. And multiplied. Everywhere. 

All my beds are full of couch grass, but garlic, broad beans and coriander is thriving over winter. 

I'm nervous about the trees I planted, but can't wait to see them (hopefully) spring to life soon.

I have a few cabbage to harvest still, and some tree cabbages that should last a couple of years. 

Once we've had a dry spell, I'll get the plots weeded and put down some fresh compost. It's a total waste of time now though, it's all clay so you take your life into your hands when visiting! 

ThePrettyDamned

Well the dry spell has only just arrived here in cambs, and it hasn't been particularly dry!

Planning to get out this morning to collect some seed potatoes and a couple of bags of compost. Our plot is now horribly covered in grasses, especially couch grass, as we've been unable to weed it through winter. It's been mild and wet, perfect to make huge amounts of weeds and grasses! 

So, I'm abandoning not digging this year. It simply won't work fast enough. Today, I'll be digging over a couple of beds (no small task - remember, we're on pure clay soil, you probably could pot with it if it wasn't for the stones) and chucking some first earlies in with some compost. 

I'll also be planting out a few cosmos that need planting on, sowing some beetroot direct and possibly sowing some other bits and bobs direct - chard, spinach maybe. But the main task is digging. Sigh! 

Roland

My patch has been too wet to fork over this spring. I managed to get some broad beans in a couple of weeks ago, and they’re just showing. It’s a bit of a surprise because I was expecting the seeds to rot, and had bought another packet. We’ve got a few seeds planted in pots in the greenhouse. Everything else is waiting.

I did get the fruit cage re-netted last week.

ESBlonde

We got notice this week that our private landlord is ending the allotments in Sept 2025 which means we have two more growing seasons for most things. A real bummer as we’ve got this no dig down a treat, the soil is fantastic friable and fertile, we are ahead on making all our own bulk compost with about 15 wheelbarrow loads in stock after prepping this years beds. All the hard work seemed to be paying off with easy weeding etc.
Need to find a new patch to scratch, or convert the tiny back garden.

ThePrettyDamned

ESBlonde said:

We got notice this week that our private landlord is ending the allotments in Sept 2025 which means we have two more growing seasons for most things. A real bummer as we’ve got this no dig down a treat, the soil is fantastic friable and fertile, we are ahead on making all our own bulk compost with about 15 wheelbarrow loads in stock after prepping this years beds. All the hard work seemed to be paying off with easy weeding etc.
Need to find a new patch to scratch, or convert the tiny back garden.

Wonder why the allotments are ending. Maybe they can make money from the land? 

I am not much looking forward to removing what has essentially grown into a 10 inch tall lawn today but it'll be a long overdue workout... 

ThePrettyDamned

Oh my word I'm only about 20 percent through a bed and I'm dying. These grasses and so matted and well established after this winter.

Lesson learned - get black polythene on unused beds this time.