The Veg Plot.

[redtrummy]

Ground still cold here. Soil very heavy so I have planted loads of seeds in pots in the utility room hoping things will get warmer, placed in a large box with a tray heater underneath. onions shallots have been set outside and the last years planted garlic going strong. However the earth is too heavy to turn. I could not keep on top of the garden last year so it now needs digging as twitch has taken over

[garynortheast]

I now have a bench full of pots with sprouting seeds in my greenhouse. At long last my tomato seeds have germinated. I'm going to need a day spent potting stuff on shortly.

I started pulling compost out of my oldest pallet compost bin this afternoon, and mulched one of my raised beds, both greenhouse beds, and piled a load up around my rhubarb. I shall leave the worms to do the work of incorporating it into the soil for me. Hopefully I can get the rest of the beds mulched over the next few days.

Everything is starting to sprout like mad now. My elephant garlic is now showing above ground. A few more sunny days and it'll take off.

I'm still eating last years garden produce from the freezer and have also been eating the re-awakened swiss chard as well as purple sprouting, and white sprouting broccoli. The leaves off the broccoli make tasty greens too, and my red russian kale is still giving my a small harvest. I'm hoping to have even more produce over the next twelve months as I now have the beds properly organised and a functioning greenhouse.

[Sir Trev]

My spuds are now in but my flip was the ground soggy! Thankfully the forecast is good for a few days so with luck it'll warm up a bit to reduce the risk of the tubers rotting off before they start growing.

Will get some beetroot seeds sown this coming weekend it it's dried out a bit, and sow some pumpkin seeds in pots. The leek seedlings have been *****ed out/potted on now and the tomatoes have proper leaves. The onions all seem quite happy but as usual thd local moggies/badger/fox have been digging holes in the bed I sowed with parsnips. Every year the same - always the parsnip bed! May have to sow more in pots to catch up and fill in the gaps.

[redtrummy]

Help! Anyone with any advice on how to get rid of Moles? Humanly, (without killing), I had success with Jeyes fluid down the hole in the past but this blighter I think has manned the barricades and refuses to budge. Been and prepped a bit of ground for a row of carrots and parsnips - now having a beer. Ran self levelling compo over the new conservatory floor this morning so little energy left for today. Think I will have another beer just to keep me occupied.

[Sir Trev]

Seem to remember Jasper Carrott tried a few suggestions... Have a look on YouTube as it's bound to be on there.

[redtrummy]

!Remember that! Saw JC a couple of times at a local Folk Club, seem to remember cost 35p to get in - he was so funny in a small room. Sister fell off her chair from laughter - she was the brunt of a lot of jokes after that Now where did I put that 12 bore !

[garynortheast]

Well, a long overdue update. The veg plot has come good again, with the added bonus of a 6' x 8' greenhouse.

Lots of spuds this year, including some which came up again from last year. Just cleared the random spuds to make room for dwarf French beans. I've just potted on eleven DFB plants ready to plant out in about a week when they're a bit bigger.

It seems like although stuff has been growing, it's only the last 2 or 3 weeks that it's all got going properly; pretty much everything is galloping away now.

This year I have in the front garden beds tomatoes, climbing and ground level courgettes, sweetcorn, and butternut squash, mixed in with marigolds (Calendula), Cosmos, Rudbeckia, and French marigolds (Tagetes). I recently harvested my first early spuds from the front beds; nice potatoes but not a very big crop. The mixed, native species hedge I planted around the front garden is now over 4ft tall and has lots of wildflowers growing at its base.

The back beds have my 2nd early spuds (Charlottes), which I've started harvesting. There are lots of them so they should keep me going till I lift the maincrop (Sunset) around the start of October. I also have runner beans, climbing French beans, carrots, parsnips, beetroot, onions, garlic, elephant garlic (which I've now lifted) Swiss chard (Rainbow), and lots of salad stuff, rocket, various types of lettuce, radishes.

In the greenhouse, four different types of tomatoes, more lettuce, cucumbers, aubergines, and cape gooseberries. I also have sweet, and chilli peppers in pots, and various other seedlings like pak choi and kohlrabi.

I had a few strawberries off the plants in the fruit bed, although not that many as the plants only went in this year. Rhubarb has done well, blackcurrant and gooseberry bushes have settled in and hopefully will give me fruit next year. The cooking apple tree has put on some growth and looks happy so I've started training it on the wires as an espalier. Again, I'm hopeful it will flower and set fruit next year.

I think my aim now is as soon as one crop is harvested, to mulch the ground and have the next crop ready to go in. That should help to keep the ground covered.

Slugs were a bit of a problem earlier on with all the wet weather, but a combination of beer traps and an application of nematodes seems to have got them down to a manageable level. I also seem to have a healthy population of leopard slugs. They eat other slugs so I've been encouraging them onto the beds.

Feels like the effort of the last 18 months is paying off now. The next project is to build my workshop.

I'll try and get some pictures of it all tomorrow.

[redtrummy]

My garden has been possibly the worst year ever! Set 3 lots of some veg. Gave up on chilies, marrows and melons. Spuds surprisingly clean although I only set Charlotte this year. Got a couple of servings of broad beans off yesterday to have with Sunday dinner but only a third of the plants survived from what I origonally planted. I am somewhat handicapped now with my limited sight and suffer total exhaustion if I try and do to much in one go.

The good news ! Tons of redcurrants harvested and frozen (perhaps my favorite British fruit ). The apple and pear and plum trees are loaded, but the fruit seem very small

I have covered a lot of the unused veg plot with card board to try and suppress weed growth until (hopefully ) I have recovered sufficiently to dig it properly

[garynortheast]

It has been a strange gardening year so far, cold and wet. All my crops aside from roots, have been sown in modules and seed trays, then potted on before being planted out. I have a much better success rate with them that way rather than direct sowing.

I've just had a big bowl of salad and new potatoes for lunch. Everything except the tomatoes and red pepper was from the garden.

[Sir Trev]

Sounds like great progress indeed Gary.

I agree it has been an odd year. My onions, leeks and spuds are all fine and now it's a bit warmer the runners and pumpkins are now motoring. Same for the tomatoes that are finally setting fruit in the GH.

Will have to be organised and order nematodes next year as the slugs took my entire sowings of carrot, lettuce, beetroot and parsnips. Even the ones kicked off in modules. Little baskets!