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

carinjo

Planted asparagus! Ended up having to use lots of bought compost, soil i dug out yesterday was solid clay consistency. Most expensive bed in our allotment i am sure! 
Here's a question: can i still use the edges of the asparagus bed to plant things like radishes this year? There 40cm on each side of the asparagus mount. 
Mr A recommended we wait with planting potatoes another 2weeks. I invested in a couple of bright yellow builders tubs for the potatoes at home we'll grow to salad potato size. 
Rest of this weekend will do the "big seeds" in pots. Squash, pumpkin, courgette, sunflowers. 

KajiKita

Planted a new Rosemary this afternoon, after the last one was knobbled by the sage next to it! It’s next to an old butler’s sink with bits and pieces in, on the corner of a path, in full sun, so hopefully it will do better than the last one. 

Put my first earlies in this afternoon too 😊 It really is starting to feel a lot like spring now …. ❤️

KK

Nobbie1967

Kantankrus_Mare said:

@Nobbie1967.....Thanks for that info.......just what I was looking for! Have watered again when I went down this morning. Weather glorious for a change!

So Im guessing dont pick anything at all this year......next year just a few and then 2025 as much as I like?

I’d probably go easy in 2025 as well and then pick for 6 weeks after that. The danger of picking too much too early is that the plants never get really strong. Give them a good general purpose fertiliser like Growmore and a top dressing of compost in spring as they need plenty of nutrition. I’m lucky to be on a rich clay soil which they seem to love. My dad is on a much lighter soil in a dryer part of the country and has really struggled to get his established.

Suffolk_lass

Kantankrus_Mare said:

@Nobbie1967.....Thanks for that info.......just what I was looking for! Have watered again when I went down this morning. Weather glorious for a change!

So Im guessing dont pick anything at all this year......next year just a few and then 2025 as much as I like?

No spears this year (and usually next - you want the root system to develop and grow stonger). A good idea to only cut down to stumps, it stops you accidentally digging them out.

And picking is restricted to just the new green  "berries" on the fronds before they go red - if you want to risk it. Various people tell you they are toxic but I eat them when they are green and they taste like asparagus and no harm in 7 years here - and no runny tummy

KajiKita

carinjo said:

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.

I had a furtle and they were a bit gammy, so out they have come! 

KK

alicef

Another lovely day - been weeding again but also planted out the crimson flower broad beans and sowed a line of radish plus sowed the parsnip seed that had germinated.

The OH discovered this in the poly tunnel whilst tidying....

so we have a no disturb zone in place now!

Suffolk_lass

alicef said:

The OH discovered this in the poly tunnel whilst tidying....

so we have a no disturb zone in place now!

Ooh, they look like dunnock eggs (hedge sparrow). How lovely! We have wren nests in several places in the flower part of the garden but they are quite tolerant and we just pretend we cannot see one another!

alicef

@Suffolk_lass I think you are correct re. Dunnock.  I'm hoping the nest will be okay as we have quite a few feral cats roundabout and it is situated in the rosemary bush about 1m off the polytunnel floor.

More seed sowing today, I think, as it is raining.  I'll have a rifle through the annual flower seed packets. 

leftatthetrafficlights

Finally got the first of our veg seeds sown! Despite it being late, I'm pretty sure everything will catch up - the first year our veg beds were constructed we started at the end of April and it was all fine 😉 still have lots to do but weather has been rubbish since Sunday- hopefully the weekend will be good so that we can get some of the bigger jobs completed! 

ancientmum

I went to the shops before the rain and wind hit (up to 50mph gusts here apparently), bought a gro bag from W1ko  which just about fitted into the granny trolley, and have been potting on some of the veg.  Now the window sills of my flat are crowded with pepper plants, tomatoes and brussel sprouts waiting for the weather to warm up so I can start to harden them off, along with some of the flowers.
The forecast looks better after the weekend so I'm planning some allotment visits to plant potatoes and get other beds ready. Seems like Spring is a long time coming this year!