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This week in your Kitchen Garden.

That cold weather's fucked everything up, all happening at the wrong time now. Tomatoes are still tiny seedlings, runner beans still thinking about germinating but I'm already planting out cucurbits and got chillies out in the garden.
 
A lot of the stuff I planted outside hasn't really done anything, not really seeing much sign of onions, think may have a couple of parsnips. Even the radishes haven't really germinated. Beetroot and a few of the Cabbages/greens have come up.


Though with this last week or two of rain the weeds are doing fabulously well and have really started to take over places so I really need to get a good day or two of weeding in when things dry up a bit.
 
Which isn't going to be till the end of May, Artaxerxes. It really is a bit fucked isn't it. I can hold off watering in the greenhouse (although nothing is growing much) but I sow most veggies direct so the sweetcorn and curcubits will definitely rot in a cold, wet fortnight and I haven't sown any of the fast growing annuals such as zinnia, cosmos, red flax and tagetes.
Grimly remembering 2012 (worst allotment year ever).
 
campanula said:
Which isn't going to be till the end of May, Artaxerxes. It really is a bit fucked isn't it. I can hold off watering in the greenhouse (although nothing is growing much) but I sow most veggies direct so the sweetcorn and curcubits will definitely rot in a cold, wet fortnight and I haven't sown any of the fast growing annuals such as zinnia, cosmos, red flax and tagetes.
Grimly remembering 2012 (worst allotment year ever).
Click to expand...

May seems to be shaping up to be the Joker of the UK climate deck these last few years, either much much to wet or much to dry which isn't a great look for crops.
 
One good thing about the cold weather is the tomatoes I planted out at the allotment last weekend hadn't grown tall enough for the wind to do much damage. Winter-sown soup peas are starting to flower now, direct sown seeds are coming up well and rabbits/slugs haven't decimated the runner beans yet. Even the raspberries I thought I'd killed by planting out in a snowstorm are mostly showing signs of life, at last. Planted out squash and courgettes yesterday - now just need to leave space for them to grow and resist shoving loads of stuff in the gaps between.
 
Coming on now!
IMG-20210603-192619.jpg

IMG-20210603-192417.jpg
 
I’ve had the broad beans , cabbages and broccoli , the onions and garlic , new potatoes , courgettes and cherry tomatoes . It’s milder than last year but I’ll give it a month before it’s too hot and then that’s it over here untill the autumn. Oh forgot blackberries / grapes in July/ August .
 
Planted out two more cucumbers the other day. They were only at cotyledon stage but it's pretty warm now and there wasn't really room to keep growing them on in pots. One has disappeared so I assumed it got eaten but there's now something that looks a lot like the cotyledons of a cucumber growing about a metre away :hmm:
 
iona said:
Planted out two more cucumbers the other day. They were only at cotyledon stage but it's pretty warm now and there wasn't really room to keep growing them on in pots. One has disappeared so I assumed it got eaten but there's now something that looks a lot like the cotyledons of a cucumber growing about a metre away :hmm:
Click to expand...

It could be any of the squash family, courgettes, cumbers, squashes all look the same at first and you have to squint a bit with the leaves to...

Be a nice surprise in a month :thumbs:
 
Artaxerxes said:
It could be any of the squash family, courgettes, cumbers, squashes all look the same at first and you have to squint a bit with the leaves to...

Be a nice surprise in a month :thumbs:
Click to expand...
Cucs' cotyledons are usually smaller though ime. Was wondering if it'd been dug up by birds and managed to set down new roots where it landed...
 
Got millions of tomatoes germinated everywhere too from seeds in the compost :rolleyes: I've given up weeding them all out, will just wait and see how they turn out...
 
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Me too - appearing in all the pots from last year's greenhouse plants. Along with cosmos...which grew to immense proportions, towering over everything in the garden, falling over and generally becoming a nuisance. O, and nicotiana. It pains me to throw these seedlings away but but I have not a shred of space anywhere.

Dwarf beans eaten by mice (in 3 rows, there are a measly 5 plants. Have resown and covered with fleece. I am also thinning apples...which are just astonishing - bunches of up to a dozen on every spur! I have a few cider apples on the wood edge so maybe brewing, this autumn.
 
Mine are just showing some colour. I ate one on Saturday but it was a couple of days early (just couldn't help myself). I have 4 cultivars so should get a coupla months of picking. No everbearers though because I don't really rate them that much. Hard to choose the nicest between Cambridge Late Pine or Tenira (which I have kept going for 15 years or so from replacement runners, every 3-4 years) - also have Norfolk Nectar and Cambridge Favourite.
 
I went to put some dry grass under the strawberries (in prep for thunderstorms) and decided to chop back my philadelphus to allow extra light. Normally, I can't see over the massive rose hedge and have no idea what is going on the other side...but to get to the philadelphus, I had to hack down a huge stand of grass on my (absentee) neighbours side...which also meant getting a glimpse of the 'path' next to me...except there is no path whatsoever, and a fucking mountain of cleavers, wild oats and bindweed has merged with my enormo roses...all about to run to seed. Eek! I spent 3 furious hours, pulling it out of the roses. In some flimsy frock. My arms are sore and aching, (feeling scoured and shredded), I have a million grass seeds stuck in my socks. I did fling it all back on my neighbours...not that you could tell because his entire plot is just a total jungle, I have never seen him actually harvest a single thing (in 8 years).
 
My new allotment neighbour was getting annoyed about nettles and bindweed invading over the path from the overgrown plot on the other side of his, and we both know the current tenant, so we're thinking of offering to share it between us all :D
 
iona said:
My new allotment neighbour was getting annoyed about nettles and bindweed invading over the path from the overgrown plot on the other side of his, and we both know the current tenant, so we're thinking of offering to share it between us all :D
Click to expand...

Ugh, I've only got a half plot and the guy on the other half basically only turns up once a year and covers it with tarp. Not so bad you say? Except he misses a good chunk next to mine and the edges of the damn thing are massive to because the allotment doesn't cut right to the edge of the walkways.

Fuckers been unpleasant since I moved in as well, I'm 90% convinced that he nicked the fork that went missing when I first started, discovered an exact clone put away on his patch 3 years later.
 
Too dry here now for slugs and snails thank heavens but I’ve noticed a few cabbage whites just about every day so end up inspecting the brassicas .
Ive got a glut of courgettes still , always look forward to the first ones but running out of enthusiasm for new recipes . Got loads of cherry tomatoes , lettuces and carrots to get through as well
 
davesgcr said:
So annoying when you put so much effort into it , - slugs etc have devoured my beans , sunflowers and are now working on my purple sprouting broccoli.. :mad:
Click to expand...
I wouldn't mind so much but the little bastard actually sits there crunching away (not even bothering to eat the pods, just opening them up to get to the peas inside) right in front of me. Zero fucks given. Nearly managed to catch it by hand earlier so at least shooting it shouldn't be much of a challenge.

Not had any issues with slugs and snails, touch wood, or leatherjackets which have been a nightmare for other people nearby this year. Ants and their aphid farms though :mad:
 
I'm scared by how many apples there are on the tree. Never bothered thinning before but think I'll have to this year or it's going to applemageddon later
 
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