Howdy, Stranger!
Categories
Options
Allotment News
The materials in this website are in no way intended to replace the professional medical care, advice, diagnosis or treatment of a doctor, qualified personal trainer, therapist, dietitian or nutritionist Runners's World, Part of the Hearst UK well-being network © Copyright 2017
Comments
Swiss Chard. Vast quantities.
Also the hybrid spinach. Been eating it every day.
Enjoy your gluts
Blueberries are fab plants. I have mine in pots and they're doing just dandy
Been repotting all the Strawberry runners. Got another 25 or so plants scattered around the garden now. This years crop have been amazing.
But the beetroot has been very disappointing. Lots of leaves but no beetroots developing bigger than marbles. Any ideas why? I normally use Bolthardy which are yummy and very good growers but changed this year. Really regretting changing
My beetroots are exactly the same, Happychap - I've pretty much given up on them TBH.
I think the changeable weather is to blame.
wish I could say the same - mine have been shite this year (very poor growth) and what leaves have developed have been attacked by leaf miners so I've thrown a lot away. I wonder if it's the seed - it's a couple of seasons old so may have lost it's viability. I'm going to buy a new packet and plant some more up - should be fine for Autumn/Winter if it comes up OK.
we're about to drown in courgettes.....
Glad you said that about your beets. Mine are the size of small bullets. And I cared for them so well.
Strawberries are very good, and my tomtoms are coming along great. I'm going to be living off tomatoes in August. Pasta sauce, roasted tomatoes, chutney....
When you manured your plot, veg plot ? Did you dig it straight into the ground or scatter over the top first?
Scattering a 2" layer is the better of the two options as the goodness is allowed to wash into the soil more evenly over a couple of months of rain and worms. If you turn it straight over you may get clumps under the top soil that your plant finds too acidic/strong so won't feed and grow properly because of it.
If you have to fill your water butt at the lottie with a hose from the supply, may I suggest a spade of manure or stinging nettles allowed to lie and rot in the bottom of the butt for at least a week or so. Best done while we have a few rainy days so butt not used. This not only gives you a fertiliser, it also balances the PH of the water.
My beets are great
Sorry 
Don't ask me what variety they are though cos I don't know! I'm not very scientific with my gardening, I shove the stuff in and if it grows it grows, if it dies it dies.
I have, however, got those little white mite/moth things on my sprouts
Not many toms on my plants but apparently I didn't take the side shoots out soon enough!
My onions seem to be coming up at last, although they look like spring onions at the moment but hopefully they'll improve. Now digging up some nice tatties and my beans are growing quite well so all in all quite satisfied
How do I know when the garlic is ready? The leaves are starting to go brown on the tops, so does that mean I can harvest it now? It's been in for months!
Welcome!
We've been really crap with using our stuff.
I've had morning sickness (Morning?!?
Try all fecking day and night! 
)) so haven't always been up to doing much, and hubby's very down in the dumps about on-going unemployment...
However, spuds have been great so far.
We've really struggled to use up all our lettuce in salads, which has resulted in a lot of it bolting - however, I've discovered a solution for this: soup.
Not bolted lettuce as the main ingredient, obviously. But I made a fab soup yesterday with frozen peas, fresh mint, garlic, ordinary onion and spring onion, and added a load of lettuce to this. Regardless of whether it added much flavour or not, there are a few extra nutrients in there, and the soup was certainly tasty.
Anticipating a glut of courgettes fairly soon: more soup, then
Blackbirds and sparrows keep finding ways of getting to our raspberries, though
- we keep having to buy more and more netting!
Strawberries aren't brilliant, TBH, but it's the first year they've been in and to be fair, the weather hasn't exactly been ideal...
Rhubarb went through a pathetic stage, but is doing fantastically well again now.
Climbing french beans still look pretty crap, but the dwarf ones are doing really well
- first year I've grown them in containers (with copper tape around the outside to keep away the slugs). They're really healthy (far healthier than they were in the ground in previous years), and I now wish I'd grown loads more of them. 
Oh well, next year...errrm - how about now?? it's "what shall we have with courgettes tonight" time here.
anticipate plum toms could start ripening in the next few weeks - that will help with the courgette glut
You're a little further south than me, FB - I'm on the top of a very windswept hill in Yorkshire, and things move a little slower.
There are quite a few fruits forming right now, though, so I expect the glut will probably hit us in about a week or so's time...
Oh I was told one of the weeds was hard to get rid of, I think they called it mares tail.
Sounds good, si!
You're right about the mare's tail, though - it is a 'mare to get shot of. (sorry - couldn't resist the pun)
Not sure of the right weedkiller - Google results seem to suggest amicide or glyphosate.
One thing for sure, though - do not go digging about unless you're absolutely sure you've killed the whole lot. It can sprout up again from even the tiniest root shards.
Gardener's World has advice here.
Thinking about it, that's wise words from Poacher, actually.
Our back garden (nowhere near the size of an allotment, obviously!) was a complete overgrown mess when we moved in. Weeds up to waist height.
Our house used to be a student house...
I tackled it over a period of about a year, doing nothing but heavy digging to remove it all - I've never used any weedkiller, myself. It does mean I get some recurring dandelions, but I can just about live with that. The soil itself is now lovely.
Luckily I didn't have any mare's tail to contend with. But Poacher's right - do it bit by bit.
Sounds like you've got a nice lot of fruit in there already!
use glyphosate repeatedly - use it as soon as they reappear - and also cover the soil with an old carpet/black pond liner/similar to block the light out which helps kill them. does take a time though
Hi Si,
Join the allotment association, you may be lucky and they will have a rotorvator to lend. Or hire one for a day, after the first turnover rake the top sods into a pile in a corner and let it dry for burning later. Rotor a couple of times more to get as many weed roots as possible. Any small white bits are bits of mares tail so collect them up for burning.
When you have finished turning over, cover the soil with black sheets of plastic. Now you can do a bit at a time without getting over grown with weed in between.
Oh yeah and lots of SHIT, you can never have enough shit.
Hello again all, been out of the loop for a while! Great to hear of successes, and comiserations for those crops not going quite so well.
My gardening experiment is....pleasing, I suppose, overall. I now fully appreciate the need to prick out the growing tips of tomato plants (my shed started to look like it had been invaded by tryffyds). Had a few handfuls of Gardener's Delight toms off - going to passata them this weekend.
Had one beetroot up and boiled it to eat straight away - lovely - the rest are being left in the ground until I get enough to make some roasted beetroot relish.
Had a few small carrots up - really more thinnings than anything.
Lettuce - crazy. I will second the suggestion for lettuce soup with a pea base - it's really quite tasty.
Sweetcorn are just ripening up now - quite excited about this! I have been surprised how apparently easy they have been to grow, in that they really have taken care of themselves quite nicely. Hope they taste as good.
Potatoes have been lovely, just working our way through them now. Sweet potato vine is going nuts - anyone know when to lift sweet potatoes?
Runner beans are predictably starting to go crazy now.
This has been my first proper year of doing this gardening thing with any interest/earnest, and I have really enjoyed it - had a couple of unexpected dinner guests the other night, and it was lovely to be able to nip out to the garden and dig up a few extra spuds, and complement them with a few freshly-picked beans.
.....to this in April
But luckily the only nasties were dandelions - declare war on perennials and ask them "do you feel lucky?" before you break their hearts. Si it sounds like you have inherited a fruity bonus - very nice
Basil - sweet pots sound nice - are you growing them very far south in a relatively warm climate?
Poacher & FB I will definitely be doing it bit by bit to make it more manageable. There's a couple of other plots that are in a similar condition as mine so it will be good to see how other people tackle them.
Nicko there was I rotorvator in my garage when I moved into my house and I told the old owner I didn't want that or the greenhouse so he could keep them! Luckily he has 2 plots on my allotment site so he might let me borrow it.
I can't wait to get my key, I went up yesterday and nobody was there so I couldn't get in. I nipped onto wilkinsons yesterday afternoon to look at spades and other tools I will need and there was a 75% sale on some of the gardening stuff so I spent about £11 and it should have been £47, I might go back today!
Morning all!
Nice before and after pics, Poacher!
Great weather this weekend for me to be out in the garden - did a lot of clearing of stuff that had bolted etc. Sowed some bulb fennel seeds, planted some Little Gem lettuces, and have attempted to pot up the myriad of strawberry suckers - I haven't cut their 'umbilical cords' yet; I'll wait until the suckers have properly rooted and established.
Rhubarb is going crazy - loads and loads of the stuff. We also now seem to have adequate raspberry supplies for both humans and birds.
Finally the French bean plants appear to be looking healthier again. Dwarf bean plants look fab.
And the courgette glut is on the way...
sibyrne - a tip on tools - car boot sales. bargaintastic!! you don't need new and some of the old ones are frankly much better made than new so will last a lifetime (as they already probably have!)
in good news - some of my toms are ripening now and we are seriously drowning in courgettes. I mean, seriously.
We have a badger at work who has been merrily digging up all the veg. The chives are upside down and I don't really think it was worth all the effort I put in to replanting the carrots. Do badgers like corrots?
We also have a fox, I hope he / she doesn't go for Arthur, I noticed yesterday that his cage hadn't been bolted.
I have one red tomato.
Poacher - Agree with everyone else - looks very good. The entire veg plot at work is about the size of one of your beds. Still I have a spade.
trumped you - we have 4........
don't know specially about badgers and carrots but they're omnivorous so it's likely they'll root up veg for a tasty snack.
Cheers folks. Waiting lists for allotments are a big issue - I was originally told 12yrs but after a year a new secretary took over and simply rang round - turned out that people had moved away, lost interest etc and in no time 5 plots were released for new tenants. Might be worth befriending your local secretary. Plus, sites which do 1/4 plots can fit more people on - it's worth asking. Mine is just 15m x 7.5m and that's quite a manageable size for a busy person although self sufficiency is not possible.
Nice bargains si, doing it on the cheap is a badge of honour for allotmenteers.
Something's burrowing down to the root of my courgettes and broad beans - mice? Little blighters