Trowel and Error

[Mountain Goat]

Ooh, which type? I'm not sure whether to leave the tinus and see, or try to move it now. There's a spot that would likely be healthier for it but it needs clearing/possible soil improvement first. I'm wary of stressing it by moving it if it's actually fine; it's a bit like trying to decide whether to take a mildly off colour cat to the vet or not. :)) On the positive side, I got it from a local nursery I discovered just a week before they shut for the winter, they grow them themselves and the pricing is excellent for quite well grown healthy plants, like £7 I think?! So replacing it is not £££. If it was from Sarah Raven I'd be out there singing it comforting lullabies.

Ooh. I need to have a good read around potatoes, I don't have much potato space so need to optimise cropping (or not do potatoes if that means not so nice ones). Borlottis are a definite point of interest, my new for 2024 planters will be against a wall so good opportunity for climbers/tall plants without them adding any extra shade, and I'm not a massive fan of green/runner beans (I don't actively dislike them but if I had a glut I'd grow very tired of them), so broad and borlotti, both of which I love, are on the radar. Did you get a good crop? I don't know black futsu squash but new types of squash are always interesting. And definitely nets! I need to figure out my netting skills next year, I made a right mess of the one I tried to do with canes and netting, the pop up one is good but they are so much more expensive than just netting, if you are not cack handed, which you are not. :))

[baargain]

Broad beans take up a lot of room for not much bean. I only started growing them again when I got the allotment. I'm trying borlotti next year too! You can also grow those Greek gigantes ones, the big white butter bean types. Potatoes are tricky too, if you don't have masses of space. I did have some decent success with ones in bags, usually new potato types ones, rather than main crop, they don't need quite as much room.

Netting with hoops can be cheapish, the plastic plumbers pipe stuff. Just bang rebar/metal posts in the ground and slot the pipes over them, or stab the pipes into the ground maybe, then put netting over that. Make sure the netting holes are under 5mm, or the butterflies will get in. If the plants touch the netting then they'll lay through the holes, and the pigeons will peck through.

I have big cages for my brassicas, which do cost money though, and take up a fair amount of space. They're lasting well though, the one at home is a fruit cage, and the allotment one is a polytunnel frame with netting.

[Mountain Goat]

Ooh, thank you. I won't do broad beans in that case (and you need so many pods to get a decent volume of beans, if there also aren't many pods per bean plant it would be pointless). Gigantes is interesting. And maybe not spuds.

I just got into a massive tangle trying to cut the right size of netting and arrange it over my canes. :lol: I think that's a me thing though, I struggle with whatever skill that is, something around coordination and three dimensional objects. Also: with my pop up, it has a handy zip so it's easy to access stuff and then secure it again. When you just use netting, what's the best way to access inside without unravelling everything, do you plan an easy access section that clips up or something (?) or is this just another me-problem? :)) (occuring to me that I should sometimes ask for help with things I can't do by myself, who would have considered that).

[baargain]

My hoop netting had to be unpegged from the bed and lifted, that was a bit of a pain. The majority of my stuff is in the giant walk in cages, so that's not terribly helpful for you :)) I did find the hoops were OK, they're less stabby and tangly than canes.

[absley]

Wrt potatoes, we rarely eat them, so a small crop that I use as a treats here and there works well for me. Things like using a couple on pizzas, or in a green bean and pesto pasta, or in a ribollita. I found the pink firs delicious for that sort of thing.

I was happy with my borlotti crop, but again have enjoyed them a bit here and there rather have the sort of runner or green bean glut my neighbours had.

Eta. No idea about the viburnum, but I'll ask

[baargain]

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Here is what I was trying to describe. Please ignore the misfit, and the shit peas that got eaten by a beetle, not the pigeons :lol:

[Mountain Goat]

That looks doable. I think what I need is just someone with better spatial awareness to help me, and to hold one side while I arrange the netting. J can help, I just don't think to ask. Walk in cages sound like the dream though. :))

That makes a lot of sense abs. I can't fulfill all my veg needs with my own stuff so it should be things that are useful and grow productively in a small space (lettuce, courgettes, tomatoes, leafy greens) as a backbone, plus things that are a bit special and hard to buy locally, like the pink fir apples or borlottis. So far I've been mostly just shoving in what is available and relatively low maintenance, but I should give it proper thought - everything needs to win its spot. :))

[absley]

The next door viburnum is tinus, Goat - it's a huge plant now, and really lovely. Is your other one the type that flowers on bare stems? My neighbour was raving about them.

And apparently my daphne with shots is a Jacqueline Postill, and known for that type of behaviour!

[Mountain Goat]

Oh, was she? That's good - yes, it is! I am pleased it has secured approval, I thought it looked interesting. I have that one, a tinus (the one I'm concerned about) and also a roseum (snowball flowers, a bit hydrangea-esque) -they're all so different it doesn't feel like three of the same plant.

Is that info on your daphne from your neighbour? They know their stuff. Also bodes well for its babies staying healthy if it's normal behaviour, I'd have thought?

[absley]

She definitely knows her stuff - and is generous with sharing her experience when asked (which I do a lot!). We really lucked out with them!

The roseum looks lovely, is it also perfumed? Much better than a hydrangea if so!

[baargain]

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I tidied and mulched all the darker beds today, I had to crack my way into my compost heaps :lol: I also mulched the uncaged veg bed at home. It's so cold out there, I warmed up after I got started but I was regretting rolling to the allotment for a while!

[Mountain Goat]

Well done! Is that everything put to bed for the winter now? My dahlias finally succumbed to the frost on Nov 30th, which feels crazy (maybe not, I've never grown dahlias before but surely that's late!) and are now mulched up in dahlia graves like yours. :)) And then I mulched most other things too, just to be on the safe side. I've probably mulched over bulbs actually, might need to rethink that...My salvia amistad are fully frost floppy now but Monty said to leave the stalks on them to protect the plant, so for now they're looking a bit of a mess, and my winter flowering stuff at the back is too little to take over yet (but doing well, if you walk round to look at it).

Is this weather the end of the various brassica pests too?? :fc:

I've heard tell that there are plenty of free allotments down the road and am tempted for the long term. For now my hands are absolutely full getting my own garden up and running but once plants are established in a few years I will be itching for more space, I think. If there are any then.

[Disco]

I was supposed to mulch my globe artichoke in its first year...oh well.

[Mountain Goat]

It might not be too late!

[baargain]

I am still pulling leeks, cutting kale and cabbage, waiting on sprouting broccoli, and am definitely pulling parsnips :lol: I've started a bunch of garlic, and I'll need to do winter pruning soon. So most things are put to bed!

I hear you on the brassica pests, I'm hoping that they've all frozen to death now.

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So proud! Largest one is 1.2kg.

Fingers crossed for the mulched and the unmulched!

Allotments are a lot of work, but if it's work you like, then go for it! :lol: maybe once the garden is stabilised. I have got over 250kg of veg out of the garden plus allotment since March, so I don't really have to buy any anymore!

[baargain]

It might not be too late!

True, I just mulched the allotment dahlias, so all is not lost!

I haven't grown dahlias before, but they only really give up in the frost, so I think if the frost doesn't come til late, then I guess they last freaking ages!

[Mountain Goat]

Yes, they were still shooting out new buds/healthy flowers until that one frost happened and that was the end of them. I wish I had picked the flowers before it hit.

Those parsnips! :lol:

I definitely have too much to do at the moment with the garden (and the house) but in a few years that will have all settled down and will be routine maintenance. But, I go in cycles with the things that interest me, at the moment I'm all about the garden and think an allotment would be good, by then I may have discovered a temporary but consuming love of drumming or chiropody. :))

I forgot about veg, I'm still picking cavolo nero and chard, and have cauliflower and purple sprouting in (possibly just one of those two, about a quarter of what I planted survived the caterpillars and I'm not sure what the stuff that's left actually is).

[absley]

Those parsnips, Baa! :lol: Does the size affect taste/ texture much?

I've not done much for weeks but managed a few hours of tidying and leaf sweeping yesterday, between rain storms. Having an empty bin the weekend before bin day, was making me twitchy! :ella:

I have a few plants I'd really like to get into the ground and would also like to move one of my rhubarbs from under the gooseberry bush, but don't know if it will dry out enough that I can face clearing the spot where I'd like to move it too. I'm full of cold so being outside has v little appeal atm.

[baargain]

I didn't reply about my parsnips! No, they seem to taste just as good even at ginormous size! I brought some to The Bf's parents for Christmas and we ate one between 4 of us :lol:

I have just placed an order for oca, little tubers that look like grubs and taste like lemony potatoes. I'm hoping to take over part of the allotment with them, they got a bit overwhelming in potato bags, so god knows what they'll get up to now!

It's so soggy out there, I don't think there's any jobs I can do without getting covered in mud or trashing everything. It's all just pull parsnips, trim leeks, cut kale, repeat :lol:

[Mountain Goat]

Oh my god, that's a lot of parsnip! :lol:

What garden plans do we have for 2024? I'm trying to get a few jobs done while the garden is "quiet", like organising a proper potting area in the garage (this may involve some actual DIY - I have a perfectly good chest of drawers which has had many different lives and is garage storage now, I reckon if I fix a pegboard on a frame to the back and a shelf on that I can have a decent potting bench/system. Or, I could chuck it and buy one.) I also need to sharpen tools, but don't have the...sharpening tools yet. :))

Garden wise my hellebores are out and cheerful at the front. Daffodils are starting to poke up but no snowdrops. In the back, my winter flowering clematis and my mahonia are flowering away but are still too tiny to be very visible (back of the bed). And my rudbeckia is still zombie-flowering throughout, even though they're all pretty much bereft of leaves and their flowers are a bit limp looking. :lol:

I got some Niwaki flower scissors for Christmas (which also means the secateurs can now live in the garage/upcoming potting system rather than always be in the house when I need them in the garden and vice versa) and a flower press, after watching someone pressing flowers on Gardeners World. And I've dug out and started using a 5 year week by week garden diary that I got years ago and never used.