Anyone with an allotment?

Haven’t got one but they seem popular on our site as well for almost every situation.

Anyone had any luck planting sweetcorn in a row not a block?

If thought to be an extremely bad idea as sweet corn needs to self pollinate I believe is the phrase. So alway always always a square.

Never tried it, alwasy gone for a block. As Edded above mentioned I think it ensures good pollination. There's a few gardening 'rules' which can be roughly ignored but I'm not sure this is one.

It's wind not insect pollinated

thanks both just wondered if I could ignore it. Have a nice strip along a fence that would be great. Loath to give up a block of bed.

Loath to give up a block of bed.

Worth it. Fresh sweetcorn is a wonderful thing. You can grow any number of other things in a long strip.

Was more that the fence is ugly and would be a nice cover it!

Does it get much sun? Espalier!?

Nice idea! South facing. Its a temporary fence really, untill i can make a nice wittle one. Just to stop the dog.

I did it in a 6 x 6 plant block last year, all pollinated well and didn’t take up too much space.
We grew fancy multicoloured heritage ones last year which weren’t juicy or delicious and got attacked by tiny caterpillars.
Back to modern variety this year so hopefully will do better.
You can always chuck a squash in the middle and some beans round the edge to make best use of the space the corn takes up.

I'm gonna be putting mine among a load of menthi and flower seed that I've chucked down.

Popped into see the farmer where I works personal polytunnel and ‘allotment’ today. It’s a commercial poly about 20 x 8m, about half of which is for his fruit n veg, along with a further 8 x 8m cage outside made of steel mesh to keep the birds out(it’s on the edge of a corn field).
It was a balmy 35° in there today, he’s already had 2 crops of large lettuces and his toms and beans are already miles ahead of anything I’ve seen. It has some passive venting and watering all made with bits lying around the farm, all gravity/bimetallic powered. I’ve been in before but never noticed that under his work/seedling benches are troughs of rotting compost/manure which are sealed so they heat the seedbeds above. Genius.
I would take pics but he’s slightly mad and pretty advanced in years so wouldn’t want to offend.

Got a bunch of lettuce and bean seedlings in return for a bit of forklifting this morning and he’s put aside a dozen or so tomatoes for me once the rain eases up along with a bunch of cucumbers. He also provided all our seed potatoes this year.
I gave him a bunch of chilli seedlings but apparently they’re ‘a bit foreign but I think the grandchildren might eat them’

Pays to keep yer workshop landlord on side.

Sounds like a good bloke to know, what variety of seed potatoes is he giving you? I thought I heard about the hotbed thing and sure enough, Charles dowding has done it before:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhPh4sYCW5Q

Also seem to remember a video he did where he built a hod bed and grew carrots outside in the middle of winter.

Ahh my bad, thanks for correcting me.

Honestly couldn’t tell you what variety he gave me, just a big armful each of some earlies and main crop. Back when actually farming was the way the farm made money(as opposed to renting out barns as workspace) he was a commercial potato farmer so I’m guessing they’re good. I know he’s been buying from the same supplier in Scotland for well over 50yrs though..

He’s a useful person to know as he’s chock full of advice and obviously as he’s our landlord you have to humour him but unfortunately he’s also a massive racist bastard. Chalk it up to age or isolation in his own little world but he comes out with nasty shit sometimes :/

Small harvest & cargo biking stuff to plot

4 Attachments

I bought a solar pond aerator. Found this amphibian having a jacuzzi in the heat today

1 Attachment

I keep forgetting to harvest the asparagus. It’ll be 3ft high and rising when I go tomorrow

When I was back there this afternoon two more had grown to cutting height. It is 4 to 6 weeks of manic harvesting then a summer of letting them go bonkers.

Then and now, March 2018.

2 Attachments

Great work! I hope I can look back at similar progress in a year or two’s time.

Quietly pleased with how much has germinated at home ready to plant out. Got more plants than I have space, really. One thing that hasn’t done anything is the climbing beans. Had them covered in a plastic greenhouse shelf unit thing but no signs of anything, too cold? Guessing they’d be better off on a heat mat indoors.

In my experience, climbing beans only really get going when it gets properly warm. So yes, probably too cold for them so far this spring.

The back of my plot is tricky as it backs on to quite a wild part of the surrey canal path in Peckham and is a bit shaded by trees. Was thinking about sticking a small pond in and just got a text to say someone found frogs on site today so definitely doing that now.