Anyone with an allotment?

^^ this. don't plant them out of tubs unless you want them to take over everything. They're like f-ing triffids. They look ugly, they steal light and water and you'll never get rid of them. Plus they make you fart in return for a couple of good meals.

How have I missed this thread!

We have had some great warm, sunny, showers and you can almost watch things grow.
We have just ridged up our Potatoes, some are flowering already!! Our early Peas are looking good and should be the sweetest reward soon. Taking a risk against the possible late frosts is going to be well worth it. Will get the onwards in soon. Been cutting Hazel out of the hedges for sticks, which is taking forever, but once done will be in place each year. Aww man, I love Peas!!! and the mint is back doing its thing, perfect!
Onions are up, Beans are up, Carrots, Parsnips, Beet is all coming along. Nursery bed is a 95% success, with the exception of the leeks, but they can take a bit longer apparently.
Got the ground ready for some Sweetcorn. The Tomatoes and Squashes are going mental in the greenhouse and the Peppers and Chillis are sprouting. ACE!

In our case and kept at a distance, the Artichokes are a working as a handy wind break and barrier/garden wall.

@BRM - would like to hear about the Blueberry bush (if you still have it) and any tips. Looking to get some land ready for fruit soon.

Haha, no they are not contained! They are planted in the middle of a jungle.
My MIL's garden has been left wild for 15 years so it is 100% weeds with a few trees on the border. I spent 2 whole days digging out an area enough for 16 sweetcorn and 20 artichokes. The ground was full of broken windows, pipes, steel bars, bricks etc. I'm not too worried about a few artichokes spreading as I will have to eventually dig up the whole garden anyway.

^^ wow what a lovely looking bit of garden
it has potential and sooo much space

http://www.capitalgrowth.org/home/

Might be of interest to some of the folk here with plots or involved with community gardens, etc.

I only found out about it a couple of days ago and am looking into what's involved but there seem to be some nice benefits.

How do I do it? Do I need to buy one of these little greenhouse things?

^ 7.99 from Wilkinsons
you can get quite a bit in one of those, i had one last year and managed to get some huge weeds growing where my tomato seedlings should have been :-(

they can get a bit hot in the midsummer heat so leave the flaps open or you'll vapourise the plants growing in there

Leave the flaps open... lol

no euph meant
it was an honest gardening tip

That is genius - wish I could get those here!
The garden is beautiful - it is a shame that they let it go to waste. The soil is very good too - it is just full of junk at the moment.

I just tried a trick that the Aztecs used to do - planting maize with beans in between. The beans nitrogenate the soil with their leguminising nodules, helping the sweetcorn to grow, and the woody stems of the maize provide a living cane for the beans to climb up.

That's the theory, anyway...

I'm wondering if anyone can give me a little advice on clearing my MIL's garden - I just spent 2 weekends clearing the surface, and I'm not sure what to do next - Should I hire a rotavator, a digger or go over by hand?
The garden is completely overrun with weeds and tree stumps and at one end there is a lot of building rubble underground, which makes me hesitant to use a rotavator. Would it cope with pieces of tile underground? Does it spread the weeds about?
The digger is quite expensive to hire but could remove all the underground rubbish.
By hand would be a nightmare as I am alone - noone wants to help me.

I forgot to take a photo yesterday after I cut everything down, but this one is from last year after it's first trim. There is now only two inches of vegetation on the ground and all the bushes have been cleared.

That'll take weeks to dig by hand. I was surprised at how effective a rotavator was, but was using it on beds that had been turned over a few months before. For something like that I'd think you'd need a digger to take the surface layer off, then rotavate once you've done that.

So, for the past few years I've occasionally been down to help with the grandparents veg patch.
This year I've been a lot more involved, mostly because the patch is really starting to work- and needed a lot of effort.
I got told that bees had set up a hive in the garden, and had been transferred to a makeshift hive.
That was quite exciting so I headed down this weekend.

We (under professional advice) carefully exchanged as much of the natural comb for prepared waxed and wired sheets, and this was quite exhilarating, lifting the lid off the hive and hearing that sound.... but our bees are pretty placid things, and ignored us totally. This should allow us to do some health checks and stuff. The colony's only been there for 3 days or so post swarm, but the honey found in the removed comb was ace! Proper excited about more next year.

Anyhow, here are some pictures of less than 10% of the produce of the veg patch, and other stuff- like our makeshift hive and chickens.
Hive:

Purple peas (not purple when podded though- very tasty):

Stuff:

Chickens:

I've got to come up with some serious recipes for chutneys and stuff.
Not pictured is mongolian purple garlic, and some tomatos and chilis that are in the greenhouse (not my domain) and some globe and jerusalem artichokes (mostly 'cos we ate them immediately).

I can't really take any credit for the growth or the skilled planting, but I've done some of the more manual laboring parts of it, and its nice to see it really work.

Also- about fartichokes- we planted them at the edge of the patch to try and block the sheep from getting too involved with the veggies.
they haven't spread too much at all, tbh.

^excellent Bees are brilliant. I wish I had the space (and balls) to keep them.

Nice crops too. I pulled up some massive beetroot the other day. Pickled it so need to wait a few weeks before I can eat it. Spuds have been amazing too.

Thought with the dry spring we'd have a rubbish crop ut everything is looking great.

gonna resurrect this and ask before I post up a seperate thread.

Looking to make some chilli oil, and was offered some from an old friend. Thought I was going to get loads, and got a handful. Anyone got an exceedingly bumper crop, they want to share with me.

let me know..

gonna resurrect this and ask before I post up a seperate thread.

Looking to make some chilli oil, and was offered some from an old friend. Thought I was going to get loads, and got a handful. Anyone got an exceedingly bumper crop, they want to share with me.

let me know..

How many do you need? Do they need to be fresh or dried?

Not many at the moment as the plants are just beginning to flower - everythign is a bit slow this year it seems.

i have seriously neglected our garden this summer.. the apple tree (cox's) looks good though.. i may have to abandon a few weekend rides before winter and get it back to some sort of reasonable state, alot of bare patches in the lawn and weeds everywhere.. also my plan to move shed and build a bike store never happened either,

i'd better build me a doghouse instead :(

I've just been given control of the family allotment - which means that although I would love the huge garden I was trying to control before I will have to let it go back to being a little wild.

My MIL did not organise the digger she had promised which has pretty much ended my contract with her to tidy up the garden.

The allotment is a fantastic substitute and is 5 mins from my house (my MIL lives 25 miles away)
It has just enough space for all the veg I need and a few trees - 2 apples, 2 plums, 2 sour cherries and a giant sick looking pear tree.

Not really sure what to do with the trees as they cast quite a bit of shade over half the land. I'm sure the pear will evetually have to come down as the leaves are covered in orange spots.

The whole plot has been taken over by wild strawberries and a few flowers and luckily, even fewer weeds, so I am looking forward to clearing it for next year.

olaf, I need as many as you can give me, I'd prefer dried, but will take fresh.

Let me know how the crop goes...

and thank you

Dude, just buy chilli flakes from the market or get some dried chillis from the deli...

Our chillis have been and gone, more and more tomatoes are ripening by the day and they're absolutely delicious... Gonna go all out next year and plant a few more things, it's been a lot of fun...

Slain I will be purchasing dried chillies, but wanted to make my own, which is why I'm trying the allotment/over grow route.

Oh I've go dried ones from last year. About a big jam jar full. They are a mix of red ones that dry red and orange ones that dry brown (so don't look as nice).

Where are you based?

Oh and if you want a plant or two of your own just say.