STW – Garderners and allotment users – Friday chat

We've had a massive crop of lettuce we trim leaves off every night of a couple of plants and just about enough to do the same plants again the next night, some of them haven't even been touched. The other lettuce is ready too and took one out last night was rather nice, sweetcorn is growing at hell of a rate too and hope to see it grow cobs soon. Strawbs are in their first year so have been very poor and the spring onions failed. Still waiting for the chillies and toms to provide fruit hope I didn't wait too long for some stuff.

Ski – apple trees need quite heavy pruning to ensure year on year crops. Did you have a bumper year last time, and has it got overgrown?

Yes, I took on the plot late Sept. and there was a good crop, did not prune afterwards, what time of year do I need to hack it back 😉

woody, yes it had a great crop last year, did not prune it back afterwards? The other 4 trees were the same bet were fine?

When is the best time to get at them and hack them back a bit?

Winter time, once they're dormant.

See here – http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles1205/applepruning.asp

Ski, don't be downhearted.

As Woody2000 says your apple is probably biennial bearing, some varieties like Laxton's Superb are quite prone to this and can even fruit themselves to death if left unchecked. You can get round it by pruning, feeding it with liquid fertiliser and thinning the new fruits quite ruthlessly once they appear.

Tell your site rep about the problems with security and chavs nicking your veg. Most plots are kept fenced off and locked these days for exactly that reason. If chav family have their own plot then chances are it will be a rubbish tip interspersed with the odd vegetable, and this may be the excuse they need to kick them off.

Couch grass is a bugger to get rid of once it starts spreading. Try edging your beds with scrap wood, or trim the edges regularly. If you've got grass in your beds I would dig them over and start again, or you could try spraying very selectively with glyphosphate in autumn.

I have the opposite problem with my apple tree – it didn't drop excess fruits in June (as they would normally do) and so I've had to remove a load, as the branches were hanging over at crazy angles. One strong gust of wind would be all it would take to snap them. The other problem with lots of fruits all touching each other is that diseases spread easily – some of them had scab, hopefully I've caught it early enough to stop it spreading. I lost the entire ccrop last year – first scab and then brown rot due to the wet summer. Still, my hens seemed to enjoy them.

Jumped straight in at page 5 here sorry.
I'm looking for a perfumed plant for a shaded, sloping well draining garden.
We back onto wooded land and all the gardens have Buckthorn hedges.
Everything grows well but slowly.
Most plants I look at in centres that have a perfume require good sun.
This actually wanted as both our neighbors smoke and stink the garden out

Ski – that's outrageous allotment behaviour, stealing your crops. Can't you get all the old boys together for a lynching?

You've already got the pitchforks!

Could do chakaping, but I am not big into violence, not built for dishing it out tbh 😉

But after I explained to Dad how much a new sheet would cost him to the poly and that if he had asked for some veg, I would have giving him some for nowt, he soon shot off in his untaxed van with his feral kids!

MA – the site rep is great and all the incidents have been reported, within a week, most of my basic tools were replaced by other allotment holders, with offers of free use of motorised tools if I need it.

Thats the first thing that struck me when I started, is the amount of help and support and openness I have had from other allotment users. A week does not seem to pass without being offered free plant to use or produce, share and share a like 😉

how we getting on then folks?

all looking very good here. Most stuff has recovered form a massive aphid onslaught. sweat peas aren't cropping very well but everything else is looking good, sweetcorn plants are HUGE!

getting a few good courgettes but to be honest most of our crops will be later, everything just looks so GREEN though, it's really a great thing to see as you walk up to the house:

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spent a happy hour squashing cabbage white eggs on the broccoli the other day but looks like a second visit is going to be needed. I've never seen so many butterflies in our garden as i have this year and i felt terrible as i sat there my hands covered in bright yellow yolk with them fluttering around my head 😥

Please don't kill my babies:

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All gone a bit quiet here, so I've taken a few pix of my garden this week.

I have let things go a little, but still been getting a fair bit to eat.

Corgettes taking over the greenhouse…

Italian pink beetroot and carrots doing well, as are the weeds…

More bay leaves and sage than I could eat in a lifetime…

Pumpkins coming on nicely…

Sunflowers and spinach living happily together, wonder if my sunflowers will flower though…

Most of my (many) basil pots have gone yellow and bitter, which makes me sad…

Got my eye on this fennel for dinner tomorrow night, with courgettes and a bit of creme fraiche, yum…

Best year for cues yet, found three hiding among the undergrowth this last week…

Second crop of peas failed utterly, most of my onions rotted – and I can't seem to catch the courgettes in time to stop them becoming marrows. Even my mum's sick of eating marrow now and she loves them.

looks great

got a few more pics to put up when the camera has charged. butternut squash has gone a bit 'day of the triffids'

tomatoes mostly rotted on the plant, seems to be the story with all our neighbours/friends toms too. Saved a few for green tomato chutney though.

carrots and parsnips are fantastic, so very tasty. Onions have done well and will lift them soon. Peas died after a fairly small crop.

everything else is doing very well but the cabbage whites have been rather busy with the calibrese and kale

Most of our toms have rotted on the vine too! Courgettes have done well, as have the spuds. Slugs are huge, mostly from my pointed cabbage 😯

😀 tomatoes, spring onions, spuds, lettuce & carrotts

😥 beetroot

Courgettes are trying to come back after that soggy spell of weather. Tomatoes are going red now – we get some for lunch most days now. I have two prized butternut squashes, one of which is getting quite fat 😀 1st early spuds were lovely, going to lift the main crop this week. Winter spuds are in and growing like the clappers.

What do people do for feeding crops when it's been raining lots? All my stuff is in tubs or grow-bags and I worry about water logging them if it's rained, but then they probably don't get enough food.

Can't decide if I should pull the spring onions out now or leave a bit longer…

MrMW: Were your onions overwintered or spring-planted?

cxi: I don't really use feed apart from the odd sprinkling of growmore when things are young and then maybe a watering can with diluted worm juice a couple of times a season. Possibly why my results are a bit hit-and-miss.

If we can resolve the possible part-unsupported chimney stack, the rewiring, the lead water pipe, the Japanese knotsweed, the rising damp, the shonky roof tiles and the need for a chemical damp proof course, I'll hopefully be able to join in this thread with my new garden soon:

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(click to enbiggen)

Mike that garden looks amazing, hope the deal goes through for you.

My allotment is looking a bit neglected, due to having two weeks away, weeds are taking over big time.

Its amazing how things have come on though.

Runner beans, are in full swing, freezer is now full of them!

My Courgettes are coming to an end, leaves are going mouldy, but had an amazing crop this year.

Made 30-50 jars of jam from the plum trees on site, now trading like mad for other produce.

Had another theft, someone overnight cleared one of my apple trees, must have been organized with ladders as there is not a single apple left!

Will take some pics and post.

Bonus – guy next to me says I can have all the grapes off his vine this year, so, ski will not only be making Cider/Perry but Wine this year!

Happy days…..

Quick question – bindweed, any decent organic/environmentally friendly ways to get rid of this stuff?

got those pics up now:

The Garden had been busy over our holiday

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PINK!

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Well another great year.

Carrots are still on the go from pots…. much more successful than planted in the ground, so I'll be doing the same next year 🙂

Potatoes, we adequate. I got alot of wireworm damage, but it's the first year I've grow them, so should be better next year.

Runnerbeans have been great and along with everyone else the freezer has it's fair share now.

Onions are plated and hanging up in the shed. Enough for winter I hope 😉

Leeks are coming along nicely. Bloody slow to grow, so I'll be patient again next year.

Cabbage has been ok. slugs and butterflies have been a constant pest so netting next year I think, as the bloody caterpillars have got right on my nerves.

In general, it's been another great growing year. Next year I think more chickens and a bigger chicken run maybe the route to more self sufficience 😉

hello folks

happy spring 🙂

where we at then?

Winter cabbages and turnips are going strong and now the closhes are off.

kolrabi is not going to do anything i think but provides a bit of colour

perpetual spinach has been a real winner, has been providing a bit over winter and is now going really well

spring onions we sowed in autumn have done very little but have survived under fleece so should come on nice and early once the growing season starts.

Garlic and onions look great after spending Jan and Feb under fleece and snow

how about everybody else?

time to start a few things off in the mini greenhouse i think?

Oh and we had the last parsnip with our sunday roast a couple of weeks ago, after all that frost it was one of the tastiest things i have ever eaten

We moved into the new house with the garden pictured above in November. The garden's been kept reasonably tidy, but there's a lot of tidying up to do and the snow and ice over the winter, followed by work now, have made it slow growing. We're going for tidying it up this year, and throwing some stuff in the ground to see what works. We'll get something properly planned for next year.

We now have: a small orchard with apples and pear trees; a better home for the four chickens; a nice-sized area for veg growing; a dome-shaped greenhouse; and a bit at the bottom we can leave messy for wildlife.

Seven minute camera phone video tour from just after we moved in: http://qik.com/video/3288717 We've done lots of cutting back since this, filled in the pond, built Chicken Villas at the bottom of the orchard by the tack room, etc.

nice Mike, you've got your work cut out there! hope your kids are old enough to be put to work.

that greenhouse is a little interesting!

Same as mike, moved in september, this year will be mainly getting things sorted, hopefully be able to get some stuff in back end of summer.

The greenhouse looks ace when backlit by a USE Joystick when the wife's down putting the chickens to bed 🙂

The kids are 4 and 6, so they're "helping" rather than helping.

it's crying out for a cheap LED colour scrolling kit from ebay/on line djay supplier, UFO tastic

"helping"

take them to a coal mining museum and show them what kids their age did in darlington 150 years ago

then threaten them with the same treatment, take out your sun lounger, grab a G&T and watch the garden clear itself 🙂

Love your greenhouse Mike, how cool is that!

I have taken on more land on with my allotment, my neighbour who I had never seen, gave up and I managed to secure a bit more land. Polly lost its sheeting again, so been replacing that, someone somewhere keeps picking on my plot to nick stuff, which is a bit of a pain, lost a few tools last year and some git cleared two of my prize apple trees of their apples!

This is before the dig 😉

& a few hours latter!

Test driving a second hand rotavator I bought this week for £150! Cannot belive the the prices you pay for rotavators.

Got loads of seeds on the go at home, peas & broccoli are first to pop their heads through.

BTW – Bought my seeds from here:

http://www.realseeds.co.uk/about.html

The website is nothing special, but the service and quality of the seeds is very good, worth checking out if you are looking for a non-hybrid/GM supplier.

Moles is the other suppleir I use, do great prices on bulk seeds.

http://www.molesseeds.co.uk/%5B/url%5D

We've now got the first raised bed in place in the bottom veg garden. The edges were put in by my father- and brother-in-law, made of reclaimed paving slabs topped with wood. It's about 18' by 10', and raised 10".

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The river which is currently nicely in its banks beyond the fence behind our bottom garage reaches about 2 feet into this bed when it floods, so raising it is rather essential. We're going to use this bed for non-root veg, for the same reason.

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I've also dug down to create a level area for a paved path next to this bed, beside which will be three small square beds, edged with sleepers, for our two kids (one each) and their friends (the other one). The soil under here is like blancmange as it's below the water table, so I'm hoping some rubble followed by a dry sand/mortar mix will provide a stable footing for the slabs. I might also hammer some more wooden pegs in, to act as piles (those pictured were just to get the level).

What are your weekend gardening plans?

I'm hoping to get the slabs laid in the path I levelled off last weekend, but may need to rethink levels, as it's under a couple of inches of water are the moment…

Will also try to get the Big Bed™ levelled off, so we can start planting.

Trying to sort out the veggies for this year. I am mostly interested in strawbs and tomatoes, maybe green beans. A pumpkin or two would be nice to if the slugs didn't eat them all before they were 1" across. Considering some kind of cold frame for the toms to help stop them getting too wet and blown around.

I'm tempted to scatter raspberries on the waste ground next door, so I can eat them but don't have to deal with them 🙂

What are your weekend gardening plans?

Encouraging the pregnant Mrs North to think about what she wants to plant in the newly dug over front garden, what can be rescued that hasn't died in the bacxk yard and what veg etc. we need to get planted.

Mainly, my gardening is at two ends of the spectrum: labour or consumption.

😀

I am all action stations this year. Moved into my house last May and was far too busy with everything to plant much, but I got 4 beds dug approx 18x4ft, a greenhouse put in and cleared away all the hedging and shrubs from both gardens to maximise space. 2 months ago I also secured a plot about 5 miles away on some private land with a large polytunnel and have spent some time digging beds. Planted 300 onions sets last weekend and a hundred or so potatoes. Going up today to plant more tatties.

In the greenhouse I have some herbs growing (chives going strong about 4 inches high, french tarragon from last year sprouting new shoots a couple of inches high, mint/oregano in pots coming through), also doing some onions from seed as an experiment. I have a 50% germination rate with those. 3 gutters of peas, some pots with coriander and parsely, a planter tub with garlic now 12" high and waiting for a summer harvest and a few other bits and bobs.

Indoors I have a dozen tomatoes of various types (including a wonderful santini mini plum I got from M&S lasy year) and a dozen marigolds to accompany them (beautiful little seedlings so they are!). These plants are 6 inches high and have good leaf growth so far. Also I have just sowed courgettes, sprouts, cabbage, purple brocolli, sweet peas and globe artichokes.

The plan is to set up a large crop of tomatoes and aubergines at the allotment, then chilli plants/grapevines/cucumber under cover at home (one greenhouse and a mini greenhouse). I have a permanent bed big enough for 30-50 asparagus plants. I haven't bought crowns yet but aim to do this in the next couple of months when I see a good offer.

I have also been doing a spot of random flower/bulb planting in the front garden along with some fruit canes and a family apple tree and a viccy plum tree. The daffies have been up since the end of Jan and I just planted a dose of wild garlic and bluebells I acquired from a garden I work in.

The cut back honeysuckle has nice fresh red buds all over it. I'm so excited about everything! Will try get some pics and get them up.

I love this thread.
Planning on planting out end of next month. Mainly potatos, beans, raspberries until the new raised bed is dug.

This morning I found frog spawn, wasn't sure how the frogs faired, as over the winter the pond's been mostly iced up, so was pleased to see our future generation of garden helpers surviving.

Today I've been replanting shrubs from the back garden into the front garden to make way for our new extension….

We've removed the chickens from the terraced vegetable beds where they were overwintering and we're preparing the ground ready for planting out….

BTW, the chickens are now dead due to a fox or badger visit a week or two ago 🙁

Meanwhile in a now vacant hole in the back garden (formerly inhabited by a red hot poker plant) my son has an unofficial pond making project on the go. Bloody guerilla gardeners 😉

That's quite a slope you're on there slugwash!

My path ended up being a bit more heavy duty than I thought 🙂

On the mud blancmange at the bottom of the pit (I hit the water table) I put a layer of bloken slabs and filled the 2-3" gaps between them with soil. On top of that I put a layer of bigger broken slabs, with the gaps filled with sand. A thin layer of sand went on top of that, with the slabs on top.

First slab done:
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Hopefully that lot will sit happily on the wet underneath – I pushed a metal stake down 3 or 4 feet with no effort so it's a bit boggy. Hopefully all the moisture will mean we don't have to water too often…

glasgowdan, are you planing outdoor tomatoes or do you have a polytunnel/greehosue on the allotment? Outdoor tomatoes will get hammered by blight!

Lazgoat there's a big polytunnel on the allotment and I have grand plans! Been very lucky actually, got it through landshare and the owner is happy to pay for the new polythene for the tunnel. Small greenhouse on the site too, be good to fill it up with seedlings come May.

Windowledge space runs short very quickly when doing early sowings doesn't it?

Sounds great. I'd love a polytunnel on my allotment but as I'm close to the city centre and next to a main road I imagine it'd soon get peppered with holes and empty beer bottles, traffic cones etc etc
I had some tomato plants last year and they were ok till September and I had to get rid of them. Still got bucket loads of tomatoes though.