Allotment News

Thanks FB.

Got a mountain of Swiss Chard as well,take a chance & plant it out ?

No problems mate.

Can post you some plugs,if you would like any?

Woohoo!  Ate our first carrots yesterday!

I'd sown an early variety suitable for 'finger carrots' - whilst most of our soil is absolutely wonderful, there are a fair few stones about so thought it best to keep 'em small to avoid forking/weird shapes.

Germination from the first sowing was a bit erratic, although successive sowings mean there are plenty more to come.

Just pulled several out of the ground, gave them a cursory scrub and ate 'em all raw (seemed a shame to spoil the crunchiness).  Absolutely delicious - small but perfectly proper-carrot-shaped, and so, so sweet!

I have really have had a tomato disaster of the highest order.

Most of my plants are beyond redemption due the bruising they have suffered from the rain.

Lost most of my crop & what has survived has been turned into a chutney,for fear of losing them if they were left on the plant.

Really annoyed

Then to cap it some blighters have only gone & eaten most of chard & sprouts.

Oh no, BRT - that's awful!

I've got two out of three Brussels sprouts plants still intact, but some little buggers have gone and nibbled the middle plant to smithereens too.

I've had very much a can't be arsed attitute over getting rid of it because of the rain and working really long hours this week - hopefully this weekend I'll face up to the damage and remove the offending plant before the others are affected...

My tomatoes are still (just about) okay - only one fruit is showing any signs of ripening though, and that one's on the most pathetic-looking of all my tomato plants!

At least you made use of yours as well as you could - I may yet be doing the same...

Definitely not a good tom year LP.

I have acouple of tons of manure coming next week which will need barrowing about 100 yards before digging in

The Chard rustler you've been rumbled FB,I'll send my mate Gary G & his sidekick DM to pinch it all back & sort you out.

Even on the plants that are in my poly tunnel I do not have a tomato near the ripening stage,all bloody huge but green & as hard as conkers.

Erm  how do people get rid of the drownded slugs swiming in the beer?

The buggers have been at my strawberries which qualifies for a drowning but I don't know what to do with them after

Something's been eating the inside of my chard leaves - some kind of leaf mining caterpillar perhaps? But most of them are thickening up nicely.

The runner beans are better this week than last week, it's been quite good for them.

Tomatoes? We're still buying them, despite 24 plants.

The apple tree (James Grieve) looks absolutely fantastic. It's on a small root stock and usually we struggle to get enough water to it, judging from results. The apples look good enough to harvest already, 6 to 8 weeks early. We'll wait though.

are you still in sheltered accomodation FB?

i've been pondering converting a rather tatty lawn into a vegetable patch. the previous owners had a dog which basically used it as a toilet....should i do something to the soil or will it be ok with just adding some fertilizer etc.

i'm thinking i'll be digging it over and preparing for next year....any suggestions for the types of veg for the numpty would be appreciated