Anyone with an allotment?

If you can get it try straw (not hay as it is essentially grass seed). A good layer of straw is good for keeping weeds at bay and helps with water evaporation. Straw is hard to find at the moment though

What seeds should we put straight in the ground over the next week or so? Got a few things germinating in the polytunnel.
Can carrots go straight in now?

Yes

Carrots and Beetroot can go in now (going to leave my beetroot for a little while, though).

Cool, obviously beetroot can get in the fucking sea but good to know!

In other allotment news it looks like I’ve completely lost the strimmer section of my 3in1 tool. Lord knows how as it’s 3ft long, has a big plastic guard on it and I live in a very small flat. Clearly I left it out on the plot and someone’s swagged it.
Need to find/borrow one ASAP as the nettles are sneaking up and the edges need doing...

Anyone else struggling to have anything grow this year? Last year we had loads of life by now, but our veg patch is bare at the moment. Nothing planted in the soil has come up & everything we have planted out seems to have been killed by the unending frosts :(

Fresh beetroot is a wonderful thing!

I’ve got a few things growing on the plot but have only started seeds inside. Even the little greenhouse shelving thing we have is too cold at night for most things. Mate tried to harden off some tomatoes outside in full sun and the windchill killed them.

Our onions and carrots are going fine, garlic is presumed MIA. Who knows what the potatoes are doing...

Of the seeds we've planted over the past few weeks the only real signs of life I've seen are some nice reddy-green bits of spinach. Is this the sort of thing I should be covering so that it doesn't get eaten?

(Also some onions and rhubarb that went in late last year, doing nicely.)

Our spinach is nearly baby spinach harvest size, radishes will be done by the weekend I reckon. Early spuds are showing themselves above ground, garlic looking strong, overwintered broad beans are flowering but pretty short. No idea what’s normal exactly, as it’s our first year with an allotment and our plot is exceptionally sheltered

I’m considering leaving a shitty push mower in the shed and just mowing in between the plants

I got roped into an allotment competition at the end of last year - iceberg lettuce (Barcelona). Sowed some seed with my daughter a few weeks ago and have germinated precisely 0 lettuces to date. Found the packet to re-sow today and there were about 5 seeds left. Put them in today and hoping for something to show for the 4th of July (weighing date). Anyone been involved in one before?

I used to take part with my dad and grandad when I was a kid. My grandad eventually became the president of the local RHS and a national judge. We always did the heaviest pumpkin competition. Not taken part as an adult.

Nice! I’d really like to try and grow a stupidly huge pumpkin some time. Kids would love it.

The rules here seem to be, whoever wins the previous year’s competition chooses the veg and administrates the following year’s. I’d probably have avoided getting involved but allotment neighbour Doug won last year’s. He was really kind to us when we first got the plot, gave us a load of his produce and was generally very welcoming, so I felt duty bound to participate.

If you grow a massive pumpkin be prepared to only care about that pumpkin and nothing else in your life. We've got loads of photos somewhere of me and my cousins sitting on the pumpkins, it's great fun.

Haha, that’s kind of what puts me off. And I like other squash a lot. Gotta be done one year though.

I was on a zoom with a mate in Scotland last night, he’s just dug a pumpkin terrace. Essentially it’s an 8ftx2ft bed at the top of a short slope around 30° angle. The slope is covered in a sheet of membrane with a rope net over the top.

In theory the pumpkins tumble down the slope and can easily be given a nest of straw etc as they grow.

He’s not tried it before but has found previously that growing them on a bit of a slope worked for him.

Will get pics once things are growing there.

We’ve got 2 spaghetti squash seedlings, should 6ft x 6ft be a big enough patch for them or go a bit bigger?

We’ve got 2 spaghetti squash seedlings, should 6ft x 6ft be a big enough patch for them or go a bit bigger?

Not sure about spaghetti squash (never grown them) but that doesn't sound too unreasonable - they're a fairly small squash, right? The winter squash I'll be putting in say 4-5ft between plants.

We put about 7 plants in approx 6x6 last year, it worked ok, but was def too many and got a bit confusing at times. I didn't really know what I was doing, but basically just kept cutting back foliage after a few fruit had set on each and we had tons of squash. This year we are putting 4 plants in a similar size space.

Guy I work with suggests putting squash and sweetcorn together. As the squash spread they climb the corn plants. I might try that this year to save space.

Ooo I’m up for that too, sounds good

Our plot neighbour suggested whacking the squash plants right on the boundaries, to clamber through our pallet fence. I think we're gonna give it a shot, if we get more fence built in time. Will report back!

I'm doing this, think traditionally you put beans in to climb the sweetcorn and squash to provide shade on the ground but I've got a small climbing squash.

You're right! He mentioned beans as well, but I had conveniently forgotten as I never grow beans, but love sweetcorn and squash. Found this online: https://www.victoriananursery.co.uk/How-To-Grow-Sweetcorn-Beans-And-Squashes-Using-The-Three-Sisters-Method/