The Potting Shed - come on in, the kettle's on!

[Deleted User]

I have a 225l butt and am floating a net bag stuffed with comfrey in there. I think the bag is about 12" x 10". At the moment we are just using the water undiluted. I will be making the concentrated comfrey liquid in future ie leaves stuffed into a watering can and then the gooey liquid will be diluted about 1:50. I don`t have enough leaves yet as the plants have only been growing for 3-4 months. I cannot take more than a few leaves off this year. I have 7 plants

I need a rain dance, arghh. That so called rain is skirting us yet again. Premium meteo shows the wide blue band moving diagonally upwards, missing us and moving NE. That`ll be a lot of cereal growers in more trouble then as it was `promised` and wont arrive. I even cleaned out my empty butts yesterday

cootambear

annie123 wrote: »

I've had 4 with a big bowl full ready in about 48 hours:D

Knowing your love of strawberries I thought you'd be the first.

I am too far north from the soft southern climate, and too far south from the gulf stream kissed coast of scotland.

I have some lates like mara so if I cant be the first to pick, I hope to be the last

The last berry I picked last year was dec 12

Primrose

Went away for 4 days over the Bank Holiday and CAN'T BELIEVE how many weeds have sprouted since we left. We have a strawberry bed in one of our front garden borders and when our car drove back home into the driveway we discovered ripe strawberries all over the lawn with small bites taken out of them, and one very guilty blackbird sitting on the fence watching us.

The climbing beans I planted out before we went away have really suffered in the strong winds. I've planted out a second batch this afternoon and hope they will fare better. I recently sowed a tray of yellow waxed dwarf French Beans (sonesta) and to my disappointment only one of them has germinated. Understand they need at least 20 degrees to germinate so will have to start again as I am determined to have some yellow beans in my mixed bean salads later in the summer.

I've been using New Horizons peat free compost for my sowing this year and have mixed feelings about it. Anybody else using it? The surface seems to dry out very quickly. It's difficult to gauge whether the compost lower down is sufficiently moist or not and I suspect overwatering to compensate may be the source of some of my germination problems.

diddly74

I have been up the allotment this afternoon, between showers - and completely reorganised it. The way I had laid it out was really wasting a lot of space - not a lot of stuff planted in there yet anyway - so I moved some of the raised beds around and marked out where the other beds are to go. Yep it looks a fright now, but I am much more happier with the layout. I have been watching a series of videos on you tube by a Patti Moreno (garden Girl TV) and she gets so much stuff out of her plot.

mutley74

DAK know how long it takes to grow lavender plants? I germinated some lavender seeds from Wilk, after a few they sprouted, but they have grown only about 1.5" in 2mths, they seem very slow in growing compared to some other plants, is this normal?

compost - i have used Wickes 4 bags for £13 stuff....seems very good and easy to use (better than last years Lidl stuff) and quite fine for seedlings. But in one pot the surface went all green on the top...weird.

kazwookie

I dug up my first lot of spuds last night, about 9lbs in total so well happy, as I never planted any this year any way, must have missed some from last years dig!!

Keiss_21

kazwookie wrote: »

I dug up my first lot of spuds last night, about 9lbs in total so well happy, as I never planted any this year any way, must have missed some from last years dig!!

Well done kaz, it's a great feeling isn't it! :T

We didn't plant potatoes this year either, and have pulled up a few volunteers (ones we missed last year that have grown on) as they were in among other things we had planted.

Try to make sure you do clear out everything this year, and pull up any that come up next year though. Potatoes can harbour loads of pest and diseases, which is why it's good to rotate you crops, so not having the same veg (or related ones) growing in the same place every year. I try to have as big a gap as I can for potatoes in particular. This is one of the reasons I haven't grown any this year, giving the garden a break, and a chance to grow lots of other things!

Hope everyone else is enjoying all the fruits (& veg!) of their labour in the garden....a very rewarding time.

Dustykitten

Thanks for bringing the thread back to life Kaz, I was thinking about it today whilst doing garden jobs I'd been putting off! I did the following

Planted out most of the catnip I'd grown from seed
Rinsed out the wormery over the french bean bed
Fed all the pots, toms and squash
Planted out 30 more leeks - I've run out of space now and still have some left
Tied a few things up
As a treat picked some of the stocks (which are flowering the best they have every done in 10 years) and a few bright pink Dahlias - I worked on the principle that the heavy rain forecast would wreck them.

[Deleted User]

I am glad this thread is up again.

I have been very busy preserving what I can for winter. We have only had the allotment for 12 months so no real fruit yet but plenty of veg. I have been dehydrating potato slices and turnip slices so that I can use them in soups and casseroles, I`ll just use them as they are or sqash them and I had a go with beetroot leaves and they dried well, I do like some in soups for the flavour. The overwintered onions have gone the same way and overwintered and spring sown shallots and garlic are hanging in bunches or braids

fine envoronmesh has been ordered for next year as flea beetle jumped into action and I am surprised that my lovely petrowski turnips grew as they did, their leaves were like net curtains

Always trying to plan ahead and have just pricked out some spring cabbages but will be very strict with final numbers as my brassica beds are bursting at the seams. Tundra and red drumhead have grown enormous and 2` spacing wasn`t enough. The red cabbages are growing large solid hearts and look great

I was really takem aback last week when I saw a cabbage white under the environmesh in one bed, it was the large one and I couldn`t find any egg clusters but I took off several outer leaves anyway. Days later the cabbages had regrown and no more sign of damage so everything is crossed. Good cabbages too and they will heart up and then stand firm for 4 months to dec, when tundra will start to take over for eating

I am starting to pick sungold tomatoes and am keeping a record of weight as tbh I want to know if/or not certain tomatoes are good value re space and cost and how many plants to grow etc. Alicante are looking very promising indeed but not alaskan fancy which were/are a waste of time. They have fruits but not a lot compared to gardeners delight , alicante, sungold and principe borghese. The latter I am growing purely for dehydrating

Life was very tough re keeping seedlings alive this year and I am determined to have learnt lessons ,so will be setting up a notebook soon for next year wrt numbers etc

The last of the second earlies came out yesterday as the haulm had been cut off two weeks previously, my neighbour was twitchy over a few signs of blight on her plot and anyway my potatoes were already big. They skin had toughened nicely and the potatoes got dry very quickly on the soil. I think they will last nicely to sept when the maincrop will be ready. Anyway a nice pile of spuds and no damage. I think slugs will be out in force next week after the rain

My comfrey plot has developed marvellously, loads of strong leaves so I have cut far more than I thought I would. It is amazing stuff for perking the plants up

Not much to do at the moment, just bean courgette and marrow picking and phacelia sowing as well as resowing some salad things. I am thinking of getting the winter lettuce and endives sown soon. It feels autumnal already

dogstarheaven

it's started over here in notts - rain!!! at last it's come. was meant to have watered the lotti this week at some point, but when i heard about it coming, i just prayed...