Anyone with an allotment?

Hardening off indoor grown sweetcorn, courgette, pumpkin and tomatoes this week. Temps mostly above ten, dipping just below at night and down to 6 on Thursday. Do we think I should bring them back in at night or just leave them outside?

I'm doing the same, but out in the day and bringing in at night. Feel as though anything below 8ish is too low for little tomatoes.

I have a feeling I shouldn’t have put the runner beans in the deep root trainers, they’ve gone bonkers leggy.

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Do we think I should bring them back in at night or just leave them outside?

There is no advantage to sowing all this stuff so early in the year.

Huh?

I’m making a concerted effort not to go too early on everything this year.
That said I’ve just germinated some sweetcorn and peppers.

Had a bit of a strim this afternoon along the neglected bit alongside the clubhouse building. It’s been a dumping ground for 30+ yrs for the whole site. I’ve been over it roughly once before and it’s finally the year to get it sorted.
Scraping off the top layer until I’m past the plastic is the plan for the week. The final bed will be about 2x8m.

Looking forward to getting rid of the last of the junk and finally getting those tonne bags out of there. Undecided what to do with the trampoline though. The hoop could become an ace pergola if I find some posts. It’s been useful for covering beds over winter as well.

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Nice, that’s a big old chunk of earth you’ve reclaimed.

I planted three each of my Tesco’s pear and fruiting cherry yesterday as an espalier experiment to bookend the plot. It’ll be a miracle if no one steals them.

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I have to leave a 1m path along the side of the building for access although I’ll be the first person to achieve this in decades. But yes, it’s a good chunk but it’s certainly in poor condition.
It’s a bit shady but thinking some trellis along the path edge and finally putting some berries in.

Big fan of your work, here. Looking 👌🏽

Too kind, thank you. I'm a bit of an obsessive and also quite stressed with life at the moment and there's something about compulsively digging for hours that's keeping me on an even keel.

I've just managed to get my first plot (5 pole).

I want to build a small shed 2m x 2.5m to store basic tools. The rules of the site don't allow for any paving slabs so can anyone suggest a way of providing support so the shed won't fail after a wet winter?

Plot rules tend to be elastic…! But any of the shed plastic grid bases you find on ebay etc would be fine; fabric underneath and infill with stones. I also have used a couple of pallets stacked to lift a small shed out of winter streams.

I normally compost the obligatory school bean that comes home but this year, thought I'd put it into the border which I've enlarged. Kind of an impromptu kitchen garden going on with some Rhubarb and chives.
The bean has been given a name "beanzilla".
It's managed to survive 4 days outside so far.
Anyone in London have much luck with beans?

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If you clad the lowest part of the shed, they won’t see the slabs.

As said below most rules are flexible. I built a 3.0x3.5m shed and was told it was too big once I’d finished it. That was 2 years ago. Once it’s done they seems less inclined to make you change said thing

Weird, we’re allowed paving slabs but not sheds :/

We need consent for a shed and they don’t grant it til you’ve been on the site over a year, only thing we can’t do is pour concrete for a slab or posts etc

I used pallets on our old plot

Not wanting to be all doom and gloom, but I'm holding off starting my beans until the end of the month. A late frost will knock it back a fair bit or kill it completely. Bloke who's taken over the plot next to me put his in last week and they already look a little scorched.

If the weather warms up and stays warm you may be fine, though.

I've deadheaded the Hydrangeas so there better not be any further frosts!
Monday and Tuesday look to be getting quite cold overnight again but hopefully not down to freezing again. Thoughts and prayers for Beanzilla.

I grow beans every year, seem to be the easiest and most fruitful thing to grow. You might need a bigger wigwam unless it's a dwarf one?

Ha, I just fashioned what I had out of some left over willow quite quickly as it was getting too large for the kitchen. I'll head out to get some more this weekend. What sort of height would you reccomend?

I can’t even articulate how much it annoys me that two adjacent garlic cloves failed to sprout. Not sure if it’s OCD but I’m going to have to buy some more just to fill that gap because it makes me deeply uncomfortable.

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Anything above 6ft is good

Do you know what variety of bean, looks a bit like a French bean in which case it may not be a mega climber….
Also your rhubarb by the end of the summer will be shading a large portion of that bed!

I hope it will be 😭 Whilst the soil looks shit from the top, there's now over 800l of homemade compost in that enlarged bed below the surface so once it gets going, it will hopefully REALLY take off.