Nookie Bear
Striker
Put them out and drape with fleece - they’ll be fine
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High Entropy
Midfield
Put my tomatoes in the polytunnel over the weekend with some bell peppers. Used shop bought basil, separated it and split/planted that out inbetween too. Also trying a couple of melons, honeydew and watermelon.
So begins the watering cycle.
It's been so dry that a lot of my direct sow root veg is not doing too well, carrots are a no show, beetroot are sporadic.
So I've started my brassicas a bit later, just pricked them out over the weekend.
However my berries are looking great, honeyberry almost ready to harvest!
Strawberries and doing fantastic, could be eating them in a couple of weeks which is early. Gooseberries/blueberries/raspberries/blackberries/currants all looking well. Fruit trees were full of blossom this year.
Peas finally starting to show some growth.
Potatoes all coming along nicely.
Luckily we have water on our site, I can't imagine having an allotment with no water supply, they must be really struggling, it's been so dry and I must have soaked the entire allotment 10 times over the last 6 weeks and it still looks like dust the next day.
So begins the watering cycle.
It's been so dry that a lot of my direct sow root veg is not doing too well, carrots are a no show, beetroot are sporadic.
So I've started my brassicas a bit later, just pricked them out over the weekend.
However my berries are looking great, honeyberry almost ready to harvest!
Strawberries and doing fantastic, could be eating them in a couple of weeks which is early. Gooseberries/blueberries/raspberries/blackberries/currants all looking well. Fruit trees were full of blossom this year.
Peas finally starting to show some growth.
Potatoes all coming along nicely.
Luckily we have water on our site, I can't imagine having an allotment with no water supply, they must be really struggling, it's been so dry and I must have soaked the entire allotment 10 times over the last 6 weeks and it still looks like dust the next day.
Wild Card
Striker
Aye, it's been a challenge with the lack of rain. My blueberries and pears doing well, well the tree which hasn't been blasted with the bairns football is doing well anyway. I have zero pressure in my outside tap so have been having to fill a can and do runs back and forth.
Does basil do well around tomatoes and bell peppers? I havnt grown any tomatoes this year, missing growing them to be honest.
Thought I had killed my fig tree by cutting it back a bit but it is loving life at the minute. Come back stronger than ever once it generated leaves again.
Beau Peep
Striker
Tomatoes cucumbers chillies peppers and strawberries and herbs have been in the greenhouse for a week or so and other than a dead basil plant establishing well.
My vegetable patch was very unproductive last year other than a couple of good beetroot at the sunnier spot, and the potatoes which always grow well. I've got some well matured manure dug in now but due to house and family stuff I've not even put in my first early potatoes! They've been chitting for 8 weeks! I'll pop them in this week, along with my second earlies, although I'm going to save the sunnier spots for the beetroot. My carrots didn't even come up last year due to the same problem, dryness and shade, so I'll do a few carrots and onions in planters/pots and just grow the beetroot and potatoes in the ground.
How big do broccoli leaves get!? Planted some in raised beds with my salad leaves and they're taking over with no sign of any broccoli heads yet
I use a gravity pump watering system in my polytunnel and greenhouse at the allotment. It basically drip feeds them 2x a day and I only have to fill up the bin every few days.
I got one similar in 2021. It took me and the wife all weekend to get most of it put together. Didn't help that my right hand was swollen from a run in with a traveller fella.
It was very complicated and you had to be a nuclear physicist to understand the assembly instructions which were a bit vague to the point where it had to be taken apart and re-assembled when we had a gable back to front.
Even when it was done that sliding door made the whole front end pretty weak because there just isn't enough support under the door.
Anyway it looked pretty smart when it was done but never felt very strong. Then in February 2022 we got those 3 storms one after another. The first one loosened it, the second one bent it out of shape and the third one just mullered it. Never again.
A few months later we bought a timber framed greenhouse locally. It was assembled and installed by the firm we bought it off and it was half the price and it is as solid as a rock.
Georgewhitt
Winger
Solid as a rock marra.
Will still be there when my house is gone.
Very very happy with it.
DaveH
Striker
Similar here. Most of my garden is pretty late. I didn't do much with the garden last year because of other projects and a lot of failed seedlings and mistakingly I just let it go to rot. It has been a major job reclaiming the wilderness of weeds this year and don't have as many seeds in as I should. Parsnips I usually get in in March are going in this weekend and hopefully will still do something.
Carrots and peas have gone in one bed with onions. The onion sets are sprouting and the bloody bind weed keeps coming back, but nothing from what I want to grow there.
High Entropy
Midfield
I have an annual fight with bindweed and horsetail aka marestail. I'd take bindweed over marestail every day of the week. Marestail would survive a nuclear blast I reckon.
Glyphosate sprayed on leaves of bindweed, or mix with wallpaper paste and paint it on leaves (if it's intricately amongst your plants) got rid of a load of mine, I still get the odd bit coming back but its mostly small/weak bits.
DaveH
Striker
Thanks. In a few areas I have been able to keep on top of it by constantly pricking it out as it grows. Eventually the roots die back.
But there is one area where it is pretty thick and not helped by my neighbours letting it grow wild behind their shed. They are not really gardeners, so I can't blame them for not weeding behind their shed. I might spray a bit of that behind when I know they are out, stop the roots coming under the fence.
gasman
Midfield
My corns coming on canny, just make sure they’re weed free till about 6inches up then they’ll look after themselves.
Georgewhitt
Winger
Got mine in plugs ready to plant out at the weekend.
Hansel
Striker
I've done it several years. Did really well. The variety was "incredible". Just needs planting in blocks as it is wind pollinated. Room to plant other stuff between the plants as well
DaveH
Striker
Plant in a grid so they pollinate each other in the wind. Mine have always done well like that. I did some in a row around my veg patch border once and they didn't do so well.
I've tended to dig some manure into the bed I'm putting them in (I do that to most beds anyway) and might chuck something like a bit of growmore into the hole I'm planting them in.
Georgewhitt
Winger
Always plant mine near the greenhouse.
Provides shade for the gh, and they get the reflected heat.
Always get a bumper crop.
Incredible is a good one. Really sweet.
All my stuff is flying other than one crimsonplumb tomatoes plant that does, weird as the other 5/6 from the same seed packet are thriving. The Mrs garden centre bought sweet basil is looking really rough anarl mind, I’ve planted a few trays myself which are through and looking good, I’ll harden them off and hopefully they take and grow.
I built a new herb garden today using some over priced concrete style pots we bought a few years back and haven’t been used much.
I’ve planted onions absolutely everywhere that there’s a bit space. Even filled some old 30L pots and spread them around full of them too. Can never have to many onions
First cucumbers appeared over the last few days too, they are looking very strong this year so hopefully have a good amount!
I built a new herb garden today using some over priced concrete style pots we bought a few years back and haven’t been used much.
I’ve planted onions absolutely everywhere that there’s a bit space. Even filled some old 30L pots and spread them around full of them too. Can never have to many onions
First cucumbers appeared over the last few days too, they are looking very strong this year so hopefully have a good amount!
