Anyone with an allotment?

Yeah I could do something like that easily enough but would rather have something a little more permanent looking so I can run wires up the wall for climbers.
I should probably just build something.

Put some lettuce, leek, peas and carrots in today. Felt cold today, keep thinking it’s almost time to put toms out but we’re not there just yet.

As in to replace the wooden planters with half-pipe?

Yes. The plan is to keep the pipe whole and using a hole saw cut out holes for strawberries and also drainage holes with smaller drill bit

Can I squeeze a tumbling tomato and a small chilli into a 12” hanging basket? Thinking one facing up and another poked through a slit on the front allowing it to drape.

it's been so cold and wet our committee aren't doing inspections until may! everyone's potatoes have rotted. in london

Wow, I’m in London too, spuds are coming along strong. I’m sure every site is different though, even with similar weather.
We’re at the top of a sloping site and we’re pretty exposed to the wind so we never get too waterlogged. I’ve been able to use a rotovator and chop stuff down to a fine crumb easily enough.
Just need the wind to die down a bit more than anything else.
We’ve not had much luck with anything direct sown so far.

I’m more worried about the cold nights knocking back my spuds first shoots. Was close to zero here last night.

-2 here the past few nights.

Onions in.

I still haven’t put in the first earlies yet. Must do that this weekend.

All apart from two of my broad beans have failed this year. I must have planted about 50 :(

🥶

Snowing now! Good thing little plants are cheap.

Same over here. Planted two packs, nuttin.

I’ve planted some peas. How much protection do they need?

Netting from birds?

The slugs like to get to mine as soon as they pop up. We’ve started using the plastic beer traps that look like machine gun nests. So far they’ve netted hoards of the slimy bastards and most of our young plants appear largely unscathed.
Never netted over our peas before.

Yeah our peas got mullered

Machine gun nests?

Had a message on the allotment WhatsApp to say there's fox cubs on the plot and they follow you into the greenhouse and tool shed so check before you shut the door. So bloody cute (I say that as the person whose plot is furthest from their den).

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Dakka dakka dakka

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Too cute! Spotted one on our plot last year but it bolted when we arrived.

Will invest

Slugs are a massive problem on our site. I’ve tried all sorts. I’m hoping some frogs or toads will start loving on the pond I built and that the bird feeders will bring some slug killing birds.

Well that’s adorable

So nice. Not at the allotment, but at home last year we had a family grow up next door, they all seem to have moved in now.

We had a den near our plot too, and sadly I think there was some infighting once they got older, and we found the results a couple of times. Not great after a few days in the heat…

Any tips on how to make my rhubarb less floppy?

It's in its 3rd or maybe 4th year now so is putting up quite a few stalks, but they are often thin and almost always floppy. Then when they're lying on the ground, slugs eat the leaves so they don't grow any bigger.

Apart from staking it with supports, which seems silly, what should I do? It's only being fed by whatever's in the soil and a bit of compost mulching, and only being watered by the (very abundant) rain. In semi-shade which isn't ideal but it's meant to be able to cope with that- it does get something like 4 hours decent sun (if the sun ever shines)