2023 - the good, the not so good but hopefully not ugly of growing your own!

kacie

Very late, but joining you this year. 

I got a half plot in October, made a start clearing it, then broke my wrist New Year's Day and everything stopped until March. Back to it slowly, getting it all cleared. 
Got some garlic, carrots and beetroot planted so far, as well as blueberry, blackcurrant, red currant and raspberry canes. 
In my windowsill, I have leeks, cauliflower, celeriac and cherry tomatoes. Also courgettes and squashed, all unheated in propagators. I have purple sprouting broccoli that has been potted now, completely covering my desk! 
There's no beds as such on the plot, just all one area, but I'm trying to clear and cover it bit by bit. 

KajiKita

Random question I’m hoping someone might be able to help with.

I was pruning back a sage bush that is taking over the world yesterday and underneath it found some onions that didn’t get lifted last year. (I was ill last year so the veggie patch COMPLETELY got away from me!) They have survived the winter and are now resprouting. 

Do I leave them in the ground and let them do their thing (I will deep prune the sage on that side if that is the case, to give them more light and air) or will they be useless and should be hoicked out? I’d be interested in your thoughts or experience of this. 

KK

carinjo

Welcome @kacie, sounds like you very organised! 

First day back on allotment after covid and illness. Ms C and i turned over the asparagus bed, hoping to plant tomorrow, just need to pick up some compost.
Mr Peter the potato man, have only put in 2 rows of potatoes, also says too wet still. 

Soontobeoap

So today I planted on 7 pepper plants. They all just about have 4 leaves so I think they were ready. I was concerned about them bolting! Alongside the 10 cherry tomato bush plants our windowsill is getting pretty busy.
I had hoped to prepare the garden and plant some more seeds in trays before the grandchildren come next week but we are still washed out with covid doing small tasks here and there so that will have to wait. It was lovely to take a little walk out in the garden and see the shoots appearing on the raspberrys I planted last year. Plenty of strawberrys  are looking healthy  too. The apple tree is covered in a horrible fungus! I have spent the last 2 years scrubbing it off and spraying with soapy water so much that the neighbours wanted to know why I was washing my apple tree permanently! 🤣It is also infested with so many greenfly and ants farming them! It is only a tiny tree and although I have managed to get small apples form on it they have dropped before reaching full size. It is 5 years old and DH would like to try and save it because he loves trees and thinks we should be kind to them. I am of the opinion that I have tried most things and spent longer on trying to save that tree than any other plant in the garden. I dont even think Monty would be dissapointed if I gave up on it. Any views of what to do would be welcome. If I had a big garden I would leave it as the hoverflies that come for the greenfly are amazing to watch and it is obviously good for nature. However in our tiny garden the greenfly are really affecting my climbing roses and veg. I had hoped that given time nature would sort itself out but it hasnt. I dont want to use chemicals either. 
On another quick note I was very excited last year to have regular visits from a humming bird hawk moth to my lavender. 

MissRikkiC

So whilst everyone is asking for advice and now if the time, how do I know that I need to cut my my raspberries? They’ve gone nuts anyway which I’m glad about but there is 1 stalk which has lots of new growth. I’m not cutting that down right???

carinjo

MissRikkiC said:

So whilst everyone is asking for advice and now if the time, how do I know that I need to cut my my raspberries? They’ve gone nuts anyway which I’m glad about but there is 1 stalk which has lots of new growth. I’m not cutting that down right???

I'm assuming it a summer fruiting raspberry, since it growing already? If that is the case, leave it be for now (except for sickly looking canes). 
Once it finished fruiting end of summer, cut down the fruiting canes and leave the ones that didn't fruit till next year. 
I used to have raspberries, but not a fan, but kept my notes!
The canes dry well and i used them for propping up all sorts on allotment.

carinjo

KajiKita said:

Random question I’m hoping someone might be able to help with.

I was pruning back a sage bush that is taking over the world yesterday and underneath it found some onions that didn’t get lifted last year. (I was ill last year so the veggie patch COMPLETELY got away from me!) They have survived the winter and are now resprouting. 

Do I leave them in the ground and let them do their thing (I will deep prune the sage on that side if that is the case, to give them more light and air) or will they be useless and should be hoicked out? I’d be interested in your thoughts or experience of this. 

KK

I would try and take some out to check they not rotted. If you don't need the space, leave the rest and tell us what happened! Just remember you won't be able to use that space for alliums next few years. You could also move the sage to a more manageble space at the same time.

carinjo

Soontobeoap said:

The apple tree is covered in a horrible fungus! I have spent the last 2 years scrubbing it off and spraying with soapy water so much that the neighbours wanted to know why I was washing my apple tree permanently! 🤣It is also infested with so many greenfly and ants farming them! It is only a tiny tree and although I have managed to get small apples form on it they have dropped before reaching full size. It is 5 years old and DH would like to try and save it because he loves trees and thinks we should be kind to them. I am of the opinion that I have tried most things and spent longer on trying to save that tree than any other plant in the garden. I dont even think Monty would be dissapointed if I gave up on it. Any views of what to do would be welcome. If I had a big garden I would leave it as the hoverflies that come for the greenfly are amazing to watch and it is obviously good for nature. However in our tiny garden the greenfly are really affecting my climbing roses and veg. I had hoped that given time nature would sort itself out but it hasnt. I dont want to use chemicals either. 
On another quick note I was very excited last year to have regular visits from a humming bird hawk moth to my lavender. 

I don't know much about apple fungus, but on my pear tree where i've had problems with spores, i've cut out severly affected branches over winter and also removed all fallen leaves from the ground. I'm also planning on using a garlic spray on my plum tree which have had serious bug issues last year, apparently it also good for aphids and fungis. I've read an article recently that squashing aphids release a chemical which atracts ladybirds. I can confirm that, i sprayed my dwarf beans once with soapy and olive oil water last year and then not again because i noticed ladybirds on several plants. 
I hope some of the above helps.

MissRikkiC

Thanks @carinjo I did think that, we didn’t get much from it last year really, maybe a handful of berries so will cut back this year 

Soontobeoap

Thanm you @carinjo unfortuunately the whole tree is affected. It is only a miniature tree and has gone all gnarly. ☹️