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How's you allotment going


Davyo
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Well just been round to feed the hens & ducks and that bout of rain has really got the veg looking well.Hows your crops going and what's doing well & what's struggling.Only thing I've had bother with but they are starting to strengthen up was my French beans.

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Edited by Davyo
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That looks fantastic! I've left my radishes in too long, so will sadly be composting them. Spinach nearly all done. Potatoes and carrots are doing nicely, but my beetroot leaves look a bit manky. Apparently it wont affect the roots. Tomtaoes and cucumber getting there slowly.

Cheers

Aled

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Mine was a lot of hard work to get it where it is today.I keep on top of it simply by picking out weeds every day I go round to feed the ducks and hens.So it's only a 5/10 mins job each night,Once a bed is finished I simply pen It off( use that green mesh stuff you see on building sites) and let the chickens and ducks in for a couple of days.

In the winter if I have no crops in I cover the beds with rolls of that black membrane after spreading on maure, so very little if any weeding to do in the spring.I actually ended up with the allotment as my son put his name down & after 7 yrs he got one and I got lumbered with it lol.I do enjoy it though and as being part retired I spend quite a bit time round there if I'm not out on my permissions.

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Mainly good except for peas and beans for some reason, peas my favourite veg have been sown thrice and still poor. This year I have added a large amount of sharp river sand and this seems to be helping drain the heavy clay soil. So here may lie the sprouting pea problem of ground to dry.

 

Blackpowder

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This year is my first proper year. Last year I only had five beds cleared and planted. Have managed to get about three quarters of the plot cleared and planted up this year.The new potatoes are doing really well but need them up shortly to get my leeks in there place. Salad is thriving. Courgettes have just started producing along with the broad beans, peas just filling out and sweet as. Have also pulled a few beetroot, turnips and carrots, carrots that taste carroty, whats all that about.

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This year is my first proper year. Last year I only had five beds cleared and planted. Have managed to get about three quarters of the plot cleared and planted up this year.The new potatoes are doing really well but need them up shortly to get my leeks in there place. Salad is thriving. Courgettes have just started producing along with the broad beans, peas just filling out and sweet as. Have also pulled a few beetroot, turnips and carrots, carrots that taste carroty, whats all that about.

That's just it mate,carrots that taste like carrot lol,even the organic stuff you buy theses days is no where near as tasty as your own.My favourite is beetroot,I have 180 in one bed and I will have bright purple pee for months.Warm beetroot on crusty brown bread & butter Mmmmmm.

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There is something very satisfying about eating home grown veg. Last Saturday we ate a brown trout (caught by me) home grown spinach, lettuce and radish, with my father in laws new potatoes. Very enjoyable and spiritually satisfying meal!

Cheers

Aled

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Sadly, the Seagrave veg plot was sold with the last house, and there's not even room for a window box here in London's Fashionable Notting Hill.

 

However, this won't stop me giving you my two penn'oth!

 

The one thing I think all home growers should plant is chard. There are some absolutely beautifully coloured varieties out there, and as long as you treat it well and keep picking it, it goes on giving. We had some yellow-stemmed that my mum gave us the first year in July, and that was still producing new leaves deep into the winter.

 

It's bountiful & beautiful, but also one one of the tastiest vegetables you can grow IMHO. It's not grow much commercially, as it doesn't have a great shelf life once picked.

 

The other two I would mention are a Polish turnip called Petrowski (sp?) which produces sweet leaves (ideal as bonus veg when you're thinning them out - you can even eat the leaves raw when they're young) as well as a big creamy non-bitter root; and a broad bean called Wizard, which are a bit smaller than average (but you get more in a pod), but very hardy (sow in November), and deliciously flavoured.

 

The turnips need a good sandy soil to form nice roots. The broad bean (in my experience) appear to grow in any old soil. I sowed them one year (albeit with a surface mulch of manure) in the sub-soil spoil from my runner bean trench and they came up on cue. The Wizard variety was selected from a soil improver (field bean) rather than the home gardening varieties which are bred for big beans and pods.

 

LS

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The Blackfly is a nightmare this year - broad beans ruined.

BigRob, do you sow your broad beans in the winter? I don't know whether it's a varietal thing, but my winter-sown beans were never too bad (Wizard and Aquadulce) however, my spring-sown beans (Crimson Flowered) were trashed by blackfly.

 

Incidentally, I never tired of seeing bees mounting broad bean flowers! A big fat bee astride the saddle, ferreting away for nectar, always makes me smile.

 

LS

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allotments looking bloody lovely mate :good:

 

ive spoken for years about putting my name down for an allotment, my village has five sites, one in particular is very well run and stands miles above the rest. during our annual council inspection in june i mentioned to the chairman of the site i have always fancied one and he said dont think do i.. and went straight in and put my name on the list.. something tells me he was keen to have a coucnillor have a plot on the site :)

 

all i do now is wait... that sites waiting time can be 2 to 8 years to get a plot

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Gave mine up years ago! Turns out I was only feeding the local foreigners, who think everything is fair game!

 

They blighted the allotments with thefts of fruit and veg, snapped the local cherry tree branches to get at the fruit, stole the herbs in the council flower pots and were found sleeping in some of the vacant sheds. I just gave up. I now have a bit of my garden as a shrub border, but thats it.

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I grow everything in tubs , last year i had 17 bags with eight diffrent types of potatoes and loads of leaves ect having them at the back door your just a minute away from cooking them and you cant get any fresher than that . this year ive filled every tub and bag with a second early potato Appachee because i liked the look of it and it can be cooked to cover most meals i planted them in the bottom of the tubs ect and earthed them up three times and the shaws are three foot over the top of the tubs and bags im hoping theres a few potatos in there and there no just all shaws but as there nearly in flower i reckon i wont have long to wait

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