What are you up to on your plot?

[jlottie]

I have just spent 4 hours down on my plot and thoroughly enjoyed my self, though it was a bit warm. As usual just me and the birds. My plot is 1 of 5 surrounded by housing and 3 of the plots are hardly used so it tends to very quiet.

Planted my spring cabbage (don't know what variety, because as usual left it a bit late to get seeds sown) after rotovating in loads of home made compost and chicken pellets. They are tucked up under netting as I have a problem with pigeons.

Planted 2 rows of Sweet William and collected lots of seeds from Cosmos, Marigolds, Rudbeckia and Sun Flowers (Moulin Rouge).

Picked butternut squash, beetroot, carrots, courgettes, sweetcorn and mixed salad leaves, my plot is still so dry that I haven't had a decent crop of anything yet.

I planted a few rows of dwarf french beans a couple weeks ago and was surprised to see that they has sprouted, I don't know if I will get a crop from them as they were a bit late.

Still got loads to do so will back toworrow - could get used to not working, shame its only for a week though.

[sweetleaf]

Well done!, Ive only just got the last (hopefully) of my spuds out of the ground, have limed the soil ready for brassicas but as yet none have gone in, broad beans to be planted, and still picking runners courgettes tomatoes, radishes, mixed salad leaves, have planted Onions and Pak Choi, (but dont know what its like) any Ideas for what else to plant over winter, will be appreciated. ;D
Im covering soil with canvas/black plastic as I weed it, and am collecting timber for my new raised bed projects. Whats your next project going to be?

[jlottie]

Hi Sweetleaf,

I'm not doing broad beans this year as no one is that keen, I've got my plot divided up in to 12 different sections, its at the end of the plots and its huge. Got fruit in both sides and the middle bit (a bit like a large triangle) is split into various size sections.

i77.photobucket.com/albums/j59/jlottie/allotment/DIGITAL1006.jpg

I've got to get loads of manure and seaweed (OH willing) as my plot is full of cornish slate and gets very dry (no water on site). I am having trouble getting Japanese onion sets this year. Looking out for garlic to plant next month, and will soon be digging my bean trenches when the weather cools down a bit.

Got Jerusalem Artichokes in any ideas what to do with them?

[skarloey]

Hi Jlottie,

You have been busy!

I've done a lot of standing and staring and I'm trying to work out how I'm going to set my half lottie out.
I've started manuring the empty bits but I've still got some of MILs spuds in part of it.
The only things I desperately want to get in before winter are onions and garlic. I grew 20 onions in my tiny garden plot this year and they are rapidly running out.
I will be off to the horse field on Friday to bag up a load more manure from the crap mountain ;D and collect the last of the already bagged stuff.
Oh and I need to get the glyphosate on the bindweed up the chain link fence that we are next to so I can grow some sweetpeas next year.
Enjoy the rest of your week off,

Skarloey

[skarloey]

Bloody hell Jlottie, I've only got half a normal sized lottie and that seems daunting at the moment

I have to say, your lottie does look fab!

I'm very envious. ;D

[jlottie]

Hi Skarloey

Its taken me 3 years to get there and its just getting to the stage where dare I say "nearly manageable". I only get down at the weekends and my garden at home keeps me busy during the week. I invested in a Mantis earlier in the year and it is brilliant, been using it in the garden as well as the plot, should have got one when I started.

I am only growing what I think we will eat (apart from the Jerusalem Artichokes, never tried them) OH is a bit fussy about his veg and is hard to get him to try anything different (whats a butternut squash - you had it in your mash for tea ), I end up giving loads away at work as the freezer is full.

I split my plot up with fabric which was a freebie and has been brilliant as I find smaller sections easier to work and "plan". ;D I did put an asparagus bed in when I started, only 10 crowns but well worth it. If you are thinking about fruit you should be able to buy bare root stock soon.

I need to find out about green manure so will be starting a new thread for some advice, still learning but its great fun.

Did you see Margi's thread on the beeb about bindweed - mixing glyphosate with wallpaper paste and using disposable rubber gloves smear it all over the bindweed and then cover the weeds with the glove - brilliant idea


jl

[skarloey]

Hi Jlottie,

I started gardening last year and found I had a HUGE bindweed problem. I have had great results with growing it up canes then unwinding, gently stuffing it into clear bags and then spraying it to death with glyphosate. Leave it to wallow in the bags for a week or two and when its brown, collect it all up and stick it in the bin.

I have no idea what I'm going to do next year or how I'm going to do it. I'm sure I'll make plenty of mistakes but as long as I harvest carrots, sprouts, onions, potatoes (earlies) tomatoes, beans, beetroot and salad, I'll be happy.

I'd love asparagus but don't think I'll have the room and I might look into sweet potatoes as we love them.

I'll be back soon for advice......

Skarloey.

[sweetleaf]

This page has some suggestions for your Artichokes, and a few interesting factoids too!
homecooking.about.com/library/weekly/aa102300a.htm

I`m planting all sorts of things next year that Ive never tried before, hopefully theyll become new favourites, but if not, at least I`ve tried them!
OH loves swede and I cant stand it, last time he brought one home I accidentally gave it to the kids to kick around the garden (oops)
I suppose I can grow him a few...... eeewwyuk, but I wont if it doesnt work out!

[jlottie]

Hi Sweetleaf

Thanks for that link, there lots of ideas for all sorts of veg recipes, working out a way I can feed it to my lot without them noticing

jl

[Deleted]

My plot's a smallish patch (33' x 25' max) at home, but I cheat by using ornamental borders and lots of containers too.

Have harvested the results of the thousands of carrot seed, though I'm not sure it was sufficient to count as one of the 5-a-day portions! Sweetcorn is in full swing. Still got a few turnips and beetroot left. Have eaten our first ever brocolli. Tomatoes have been prolific and am now at the tail end of the harvest. chillies and sweet peppers are okay. Plenty of Spring onions, beans, cucumbers and courgettes to go. Waiting for radishes, lettuce and such to bulk up. Borlotti beans to mature. The last of the peas and Spring greens/cabbages sown in modules are ready to be planted out.

A few strawbs should be ready soon. The grapes, butternuts can wait another month. Later we'll eat winter salads, chard, leeks parsnips and hopefully sprouts. I must do the first earthing up of the Xmas spuds in old compost bags soon.

[oldmoleskins]

CC, that's too good an opportunity to pass by: get hold of a copy of Geoff Hamilton's "the Ornamental Kitchen Garden" BBC 1990. Possibly the only gardening book you'll ever need (if indeed you do need one) and a book you can read again and again just to bask in the warm, practical delivery of old Geoff.

OM

[Deleted]

Thanks OM - I keep meaning to get that book. Not sure when I'll ever get time to read it though!

[jlottie]

CC

youv'e just encouraged me to get more organised next year, I was thinking of trying some peas a few weeks ago but thought I was far to late. Think I had better get my books out and start reading again

[Deleted]

Things are on the change right now, and so my activities are reflecting that. Most crops are either harvested, or being pulled in. Also there are winter onions to plant - the garlic was done last weekend.

Many areas are very weedy now, but I am skimming all the weeds off and stacking them to be used as mulch in the spring - one quarter of my plot will be 'fed' in this way, using a rotation system, allowing natural feeding through rotting and worms etc. The mulching system should inhibit most weeds too, note that I do say 'should' That's the theory anyway, no idea whether it will work, but we can but try ... Part of the fun of an allotment is being able to try your own methods ...

[sweetleaf]

Went to my plot yesterday and found that some of the harvesting had been done before I got there,
The sweetcorn which was almost ready last time i was there had been stripped and they even nicked courgettes, and picked some of my flowers. Most of the ripe toms had gone.


On the plus side there was a frog in my newly dug pond ;D and the shed had been left alone, the footprints in the courgette bed werent small BTW so it was not small children attracted by the plum trees.

[jlottie]

Oh Sweetleaf how annoying, I would be so cross if that happened to me. Do you have any kind of fence around your plot? I have used iron angled posts and green windbreak fabric 1.5 m high and I have a gate with a combination padlock, thankfully my plot is tucked away so i haven't had to deal with that kind of situation. I hope you get to find out who it was and make them ashamed of themselves.

[4pygmies]

Sweetleaf, that is really terrible. If it was me I'd be dreaming about cameoflage huts and gatling guns - usually reserved for the rats! I'm pretty sick of the human race a lot of the time but to pinch someone's produce off an allotment is really low. Why don't you stick up a sign somewhere with the appropriate abuse on it? I don't think the gatling gun is legal anymore.....

[sweetleaf]

Hi Jlottie and 4P, the council started to put up security fencing a couple of years ago but never finished the job, the site is a peculiar shape and has 5 sides so far only 2 have this fencing which makes the padlocked gate a bit of a joke! the other 3 "sides" have council housing so the thieves could have just strolled on from their back gardens, picked my corn, flowers, and courgettes and been home in 5 minutes or less.Until the local allotment authority.. headed by Eddie Campbell gets on with the fencing theres not a lot that can be done. "Our" Eddie has minor celebrity status having been at GW Live and Kings Heath Park, and seems to spend a lot of time away from his real job.
This is the first time this year that anyone has noticed any losses, although last year someone lost a couple of rows of spuds and some cabbages, this was blamed on an ex-plotholder, but never proved (the man in question now deceased so has been eliminated from my list)
I wont let this put me off, I have had a good return this year for my efforts despite the weather,bug bites and a bad back, and hope to do even better next year.

[jlottie]

Hi Sweetleaf its good to hear that this episode hasn't put you off, Our Council did pay for a security fence for the plots across the road a couple of years ago as one of the boundaries was a main road and the other a very busy public footpath, and they have had no trouble since.

I am still trying to get a water supply, when I went to my plot yesterday some of my leeks have started to bolt . I was hoping to have a good supply this year but the second lot I planted are looking sorry for themselves. I became a member of the NSALG this year (£15 a year for membership) and I heard recently that a representative will soon be in contact and proposes a visit to the site to hopefully give me some advice.

Had a busy day yesterday clearing wheelbarrow loads of slate and stones from one end of my plot and am now debating whether to go back today or tackle the mountain of ironing. It looks like more rain so I think it will have to be the ironing

I went to the GC yesterday afternoon and got my overwintering onion sets and garlic does anyone know when its the latest I can get them in? its far too dry at the moment.

[sweetleaf]

Onions and garlic can go in as late as october, (I read that only last night on the GYO website) so you still have time.
I thought about joining NASLG but havent, as yet, wasnt sure what benefits there may be, OH has joined loads of things, and only seems to get an occasional mag, a bit offputting.
Good luck with the I word , Perhaps if it rains the rest of your Leeks wont bolt, cooler temps will help too.
I wonder if theres any way you can recycle the stone and slate? Perhaps as a drainage medium in large containers? watch out though, have cut myself on slate before.