Allotment News

an air rifle would do the trick with the piegons - free food at the same time...

anyone else having problems with carrots germinating?? mine are very very patchy - thought it might have been that the seed was too old (although packet said OK to 2012) but even the new packet is slow.  

I ordered some aubergine and pepper plug plants back on 1st April from a company called vegplugs.co.uk in Cardiff.  they haven't arrived yet and I am not getting replies to e-mails or messages left on a mobile number (main number just keeps ringing).  I suspect they have gone uptits - probably a result of that wet cold April/early May.  I've reported it to Trading Standards so what they come back with.

I can buy boring aubergine plants locally but those I ordered were either stripey or long thin ones which are better croppers outdoors - you can't get them from garden centres.  and too late to sow seeds for a crop now.  bummer eh??

in good news - everything else is growing nicely now altough salad leaves are starting to seed up in this warm weather

Yes to the carrots. New packet has so far produced all of 3 visible carrots. I thought the first row was due to being put out just before we had that frost at the end of March, but a second row put out has also failed to do very much.

I'm eating quite a lot of salad & so far have kept up with leaf production!

Hi FB, i've had the same issue with my carrots this year. They're just not growing as fast as normal.

My indoor tomatoes are coming on great guns but they're getting VERY tall (considering that I was assured that they were dwarf plants). Now i'm trying to work out what to do with them - does anyone have any idea how to care for tomatoes? This is my first year with Tomatoes!

similar story with our new rasberries 1 has flourished whilst the others range from deader than dodo to intensive care needed.

carrots don't seem to want todo anything at all, most of the early potatos haven't budged but mains are starting to show good signs of progress.

radish, cabbage, lettuce, broad beans, peas all doing well.

Seems there's a few problems with seeds and things. My tatties (swift) should have been dug up weeks ago. I lifted one today and had one half-decent size and about 4 that were not much bigger than marbles  What's going on? My leeks.... I reckon the seeds must have washed away. Planted them about 4-5 weeks ago and not a thing yet. Garlic and onions doing very well. I've just planted my runner beans. They like a lot of water right?

FB thanks for the tip off re the plugs. Hope you get some comeback.

has anyone heard of using porridge oats instead of slug pellets to keep the slugs away?

I was made some dough dolls with salt dough and put them out in the garden one sunny day and forgot to bring them in at night. The following day was the most gruesome mess I ever did see.

My peas have done sweet fa. I have one more packet of beans then that's it.  The squashes are flwerring so long as we can keep the slugs off.

My berries and current all look good but I'm still having to spray them and the damson tree is a sooty black mess despite repeated sprays.

I'm hoping to get around to actually clearing the space to plant the black currents that are living in pots.

Loads of raspberries here ...well sized too. Nought else doing though.

Slugs in abundance...my OH is out most nights with a torch and plastic tub collecting the slimey buggers.

Oh...and...it's raining again 

don't suffer to badly with slugs - snails are my biggest mollusc problem.   they go flying over the wall into the road where they get crushed under car wheels - "try coming back now you buggers!"

anyhoo - nematode treatments are reckoned to be the best method although I've never tried it, and I'm not sure how effective it will be in the wet weather.  maybe check the RHS website for advice??

Snails for me too.... they've eaten my coriander  Don't seem to like the rosemary, parsley, chives or mint though.

Christ, why is it that the crops aren't doing so well but the weeds are growing like wildfire! I give up!

potatos are finally showing signs of life.

radish, lettuce, peas and broad beans all tasting fab!

cucumber growing and tasting fab. lettuce doing OK.potatoes not flowered yet, but looking strong. Parsnips seem to be doing OK (not grown parsnips or potatoes before, so not entirely sure!) Do I earth up spuds again, having done it (as instructed) earlier?

Strawberries are over now but tasted ace - what I got of them. The slimies & creepy crawlies really got at them badly. Quite a lot of judicious trimming went on there!

Carrots looking most disappointing. the early june sowing is looking the most promising so far & I've just stuck another line in on the "may as well" principle. 

Tomatos also a bit of a disappointment. probably wrong varieties from the wrong source, as they've done better in previous years - one plant doing OK, the other two somewhat underwhelming so far. 

Plum tree survived planting - and that was all i wanted out of it this year. But it's a bit of a battle to get anything to do very much it seems. At least it's not just me... 

The wet also means that my lawn is more mossy than usual. So I've resorted to moss killer. Instrucions said "water in if no rain after 2 days" 30 minutes after I've spread it & it's tipping it down. Just hoping it's washing it in, not washing it off...