Anyone with an allotment?

If that's what they are, then yes! Not really paid much attention to them at this stage between toddler wrangling and breaking my back. There are 6(!) water butts that have been thrown into the bushes below us, all in various states of disrepair.

Anyone made horseradish sauce before? Had some growing so dig a tuber. Put it in the blender, took the lid off to check... Fucking hell, my eyes. So. Hot. Won’t need much of that as a condiment.

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Is it too late to prune fruit bushes? Had planned to sort ours out this year as they are a but of a mess, but some have tiny buds already! Was loathed to do it before because of the possibility of frosts.

Edit: reading about it I think I'll just chop them all right back as they're all a bit old and tired going on how little they produced last year.

I don't think you'd lose anything from pruning them, plus a lot of fruit bushes (raspberries, gooseberries, blackcurrants) tend to produce fruit on new growth only, so cutting them back is exactly what you should do.

Do summer raspberries fruit on last year's growth so it has to be left?

Too late now anyway, I pruned all of the things. We only got a few blackcurrants last year so I'll not be losing much if we don't get anything this year, and hopefully they'll grow stronger for the long term.

Summer rasp's fruit on new growth so can be cut right down each year. Autumn ones need to be left.

Can some recommend me a good place to buy potatoes? I've no idea how much to buy but would like to have plenty of potatoes through the year.

I'm aware there are earlies and second earlies are there other earlies? winters?

It's the other way round Summer off last years growth and the Autumn from the new shoots though to be honest a lot depends on the season and the position of the raspberries

I'm aware there are earlies and second earlies are there other earlies? winters?

Maincrop and late maincrop are your other options. I got mine from thompson and morgan - got a 20% discount and they were doing free postage. JBA and Suttons are other options or you can head to a decent local garden centre.

Anyone know anything about apple trees? Do you need two together to cross-pollinate? Aldi near me are selling Cox’s Orange Pippin trees for a tenner.

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Sorry don’t know why photos uploaded from my phone always appear rotated 90 degrees.

Anyone tried starting seedlings under LED grow lights? I have a bit of unused counter space in a dark corner of my kitchen, and not a lot of window sill space. Would potentially be good for the rest of the year for growing bean sprouts / small salad leaves / basil etc.

I gather more than one is always good.

Can some recommend me a good place to buy potatoes?

Just seen seed potatoes for sale in Aldi.

I got mine from Parkers

I’ve done this for starting pepper plants early and growing cut n come again crops.
We used cheap generic led grow lights from amazon but although they worked great for seedlings etc we decided they cost more to run than we gained in veg. We ended up passing them on to my folks.
I’m sure a better quality light would work out far more economical and was a fun little project. As you can see from the pics the large propagator tray, led panels and generic garage racking is a match made in heaven.
The faint pinky purple glow in the lounge was also fun :)

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they cost more to run than we gained in veg

Thanks, I figured this might be the case. I'll have to cost it properly at some point. I have some LED strips and a 12V transformer already, but they'd probably be the wrong colour and power to use alone.

Basically it’s def viable but not with the absolute cheapest lights on offer. The main thing is it works.
I’m sure if you were growing a less than legal crop the lights would pay for themselves 10x over lol.

.https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/commentisfree/2020/mar/15/think-the-world-is-ending-grab-a-shovel-not-a-shopping-trolley

First proper outing to the allotment yesterday.
Only there for a few hours but got a good amount of the ground turned ready for onions and potatoes. Picked a bunch of purple sprouting and kale. Tulips are starting to come up. Croscus and Dafs in full swing. Basically just a sodding good day! Missed it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HATC3rG6NbQ

My mum has been urging me to watch this and mrs cyoa is smitten with the idea. My issue is - isn't it a bit late to be mulching ahead of this season? We'll get faster results this season by digging / clearing, which we've nearly finished, no? We've started planting some bits in what we've done / the greenhouse to get things to sprout.

TBH my main focus is now the structure of the terraces. The wood is all rotten, several are collapsing and spilling into the next. I wonder what's the most resilient, long term solution for keeping terraces solid with minimal intervention in future. I could get new wood but seems like a lot of effort and would shirley only get rotten again in a couple of years. Don't like the idea of using plastics. Like the idea of bricks but feel that it's probably more complicated to lay brick and dig in proper foundations on a clay hill than I'm giving credit for.

My issue is - isn't it a bit late to be mulching ahead of this season? We'll get faster results this season by digging / clearing, which we've nearly finished, no?

It is a bit late, but I did this last june/july with a small raised bed. Covered the ground with cardboard and a mix of homemade compost and second hand stuff I got from work. It did carrots, beans, beetroot, radishes and some lettuces pretty well. So it all depends what resources you have at your disposal.

First earlies went in on Saturday

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Been holding off on mine, but may get them in this week I think