Hi Guys

Its the season for getting the allotment/garden planting going at full chat so what have you got planned and or planted ?.

Esp all those following the idave diet

Im planting my asparagus crowns this weekend. No harvesting for 2 seasons, but should be good for 15 yrs after that. Just sorting out a some sand and muck to mix in.

Shallots already in, and broad beans. I think Mrs S has plans for more stuff too.

Last weekend was 3x apple trees, 2 pears and a greengage. All planted in the field. Just trying to track down a particular plum variety we want too.

I’m trying for apple trees, although I just bought the wrong rootstock (MM106, not M9 as per regulations)so am having a bit of a battle to get that sorted! I gave up planting veg due to other commitments, like biking! Fruit is so damn easy! I just put in 3 Blueberry bushes, a row of autumn raspberries & blackberries, all to complement the gooseberries, red & black currants – we still haven’t stopped eating the frozen fruit from last year, there’s nothing like a fresh fruit smootie in December from your own garden 😀

forgot to add what we have on the go, theres more but she hasnt told me 🙂

peas
broad beans ,several types
spuds
asparagus
rubbarb
artichokes globe and root
goosegogs 3 types
onions
garlic
logonberry
tayberry
blackberry
black/red current (the birds get most)

Leftover from last year I have blueberries, garlic and purple sprouting brocolli.

newly planted last weekend:

elephant garlic
carrots
red and white onions
french beans
sweet peas
courgette
cabbage
tomatoes

Quite like the idea of aspargus. Wouldn’t mind some more fruit like rasberries, grapes and perhaps a small apple tree. oh yeah, and we have an almond tree growing in the garden though not really harvested it!

I started some asparagus from seed three years ago. Little spears are just poking through now, so may get a first tasting of them this weekend.

Got first earlies and various seeds in (salad, carrots, beetroot, celeriac etc) and tomatoes and chillis potted on ready for a good long season. Basil and coriander started off too.

Happy days.

sidney – planting asparagus (particularly crowns as opposed to seeds) is a bit of a science.

I have a photo copy of a useful couple of pages from one of my dads books I could scan and host if you like.

Stoner, you still have replant the crowns when you grow from seed.

Edit: You probably know that. I think I misunderstood what you meant.

sorry meant to say “specifically” not “particularly”.

Im hungry for asparagus so have bought crowns rather than bring my own seeds on 🙂

Bloody lovely stuff isn’t it.

I found some growing on the side of a bridlepath (must have been dumped there I reckon) and so that has fed us for the last couple of years while we waited for ours.

Yours will be worth the wait…

luckily my dad is an asparagus nut, so we get some earlies from him.

TBH, living in the vale of evesham, all we have to do down here is wait until the 3rd week of picking and they cost 50p a bunch down from £3 for the earlies.

Or sneak around the “hidden” fields down by redmarley with a carrier bag and a knife…but they do a lot of nightime picking so it can be tricky 🙂

Yeah, that’d be great stoner. email in profile i believe!

sidney:

@ stoner…

I’m still using ‘your dad’s book’, God I feel old.

edit – do a thorough weeding job

First year so a bit on the simple side.

Onions, scallions, carrots (the purple/white/orange ones), raddish, lettuce, white cabbage, peas, beans (them red and white ones), sweetcorn and have a gooseberry bush and 2 apple trees too.

Hoping the carrots are safe from white fly in the high raised bed, I can’t be bothered to use the bucket trick.

Put 10 tons mushroom compost and 4 tons topsoil into raised beds and since added nearly a ton of horse manure and lots of well rotten chicken pooh/garden bits/kitchen scraps from the compostor.

The weeds love it, hope the plants do too. Wanted to grow stuff last year but ran out of time to plant do to other commitments.

edit to say – anyone tried them nemotode things? We have a lot of snails and slugs, I have to grow the lettuce on concrete so we can get s decent crop. I like the idea of the slugs being eaten alive.

Put 10 tons mushroom compost and 4 tons topsoil into raised beds and since added nearly a ton of horse manure and lots of well rotten chicken pooh/garden bits/kitchen scraps from the compostor.

The weeds love it, hope the plants do too
So do I after all that effort!