Anyone with an allotment?

Lesson from today: you can’t freeze raw potatoes… and then expect them to be edible when you cook them.

No but par boil them before freezing and you can roast from frozen.

Yeah a quick internet search confirmed why my moussaka-style fish pie had failed so badly.

Nice example of 3, well, 2 sisters planting I spotted at the plot today. How’s yours getting on @edmundro ?

Tempted to try it next year.

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Raspberry ahoy at the plot today. So many raspberries. I’ve started to take the runners and repot them into big 20l pots so I can manoeuvre them around the plot until I build a fruit cage.

Sweetcorn coming on pretty well. As far as ‘taste the difference’ allotment produce goes it’s well up there. Kids wolfed it.

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Harvested our melon.
One melon.
Lemon for scale.
Shan’t be bothering with them again.

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Relatable. What variety?

Oh. Well, I’ll take that!
I have no idea what type. Galia?

Did you do any pollination at all? One of the old boys reckoned they need a lot of cajoling last time we tried - had a roughly similar output.

From what I’ve heard/read they’re as needy as squash from a feeding/watering perspective but need more heat.

I was thumbing through an RHS allotment book earlier and the section on "don't bother with these" included melons as too low yield. CSB, etc.

Tried 'em once and none of the seeds germinated. Bastards.

Harvested our last pink fir apple spuds and some are in the pan now :). Just wondering what to do with the empty raised bed. Only second year growing them and last year just let the bed grow some weeds.

I’m all in on green manure this year for coverage through to the colder months.

Planted and ignored so shouldn’t be surprised as a result ha ha!

Thanks, will have a look at green manure and see if it's too late in the season.

Kids wolfed it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh5MDvbL8fo

😎

I think the best melons are those grown by 'accident' from kitchen waste chucked on the compost heap or via something's digestive system 😉 .

Seed saving - Anyone saved their own sweetcorn seed or replanted their own garlic?

Accidentally picked our big squash. Nipped up the allotment quickly to grab some sweetcorn for tea and thought I’d shuffle the squash round to get the sun to a more shaded side. Overdid it (stem was also a bit mushed from slug damage) and it snapped off. Had to quickly load it into the bottom of the buggy (in which my youngest was asleep) and rush off to collect the eldest from school. It’s heavier than the 2yo - about 16kg.

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Impressive!

Finally getting the raspberries in order

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Trombone squash/courgette getting yellow spots and some brown crispy edges on the leaves - is it something to be worried about?

Also is it too late to feed things like squash if they are still fruiting?

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IANA Allotment Expert but with squash don't you generally let the tops die off arouns this time leaving the fruits to ripen for a bit?

FWIW my squash are starting to similar signs of coming to the end. I haven't bothered to water them at all though apart from then they initially went in :|

Is it a winter squash? As Arducius says, the leaves will start to die back around now - at least on a winter squash. I've stopped watering my squash as much as I was and I'm not bothering feeding them any more. Just leaving them to ripen off.