What have you done on the plot today?

[pcolbeck]

Where I need to put them sown the side of the house is only about 1 metre wide. Reduces the choice a lot.

[pcolbeck]

Got 2/3rds of the drip watering system up and running today. will add the last 1/3rd during the week. It should use less water than watering with a hose or cans. One interesting side effect is that it really shows up which pots have compost that doesn't retain water very well. after about 10 minutes of drip watering a few already had water running out of the bottom when if you felt the compost it was still quite dry, the water was just running straight through. Those pots will get re potted when we get chance with different compost.

[Mrs Pingu]

I was looking out the window today pondering the various maple looking type saplings all growing out of the berberis and wondering how the feck I'm supposed to get them out without a full suit of chainmail.

[rafletcher]

Cleared the last of the French beans, and picked the first tomato of the season. This is the third year I’ve tried these “Big Daddy” outdoor tomatoes. Year 1 a squall flattened the lot as I’d only used canes to hold th3 m up, and we lost half the crop. Year 2 blight got the lot.

Big Daddies by Richard Fletcher, on Flickr

Other work included clearing the hollyhocks and wild sweet peas from the front of the house, plus pruning the bay bush and removing a clematis. Then another clematis in the back garden, and a load of phlox.

[Mrs Pingu]

We hacked the Mickey Mouse ears off the huge pieris during the week. Hopefully it won't curl up and die now, it was a bit brutal.

[MikeFromLFE]

It's greengage time again.
3 bucket loads today.

[Legs]

Picked the last of the blueberries, cut back the raspberry canes, and got a few handfuls of figs.

[L CC]

Took pallets to No2Son's new plot, compost bins for the making of. Weeded. Took plums as reward.

[The Family Cyclist]

I popped by today whilst on a gentle ride to get some courgettes and water the plot. Must have been more rain then I realised Thursday night as plot was still damp so for once didn't have to water it

[Mrs Pingu]

Rigged up some sort of trellis wire (it's not actually trellis wire but never mind) on the fence for the honeysuckle to grow up.
I've no doubt that next door's clematis, which has already started galumphing down our side of the new (May) fence will take advantage, but I'm sure Pingu will take great pleasure in hacking it back when it annoys him.

[The Family Cyclist]

Cycled up the allotment with the youngest who managed to step elegantly off her bike after she locked up the wheels onnthe gravel path and the bike crashed to the ground

Squashes are coming on well and got  cabbage and a courgette another plot holder had left out

The revelation was when got home for lunch and harvested the single cucumber from a plant by wife bought, I thought she had wasted her 30p as we don't have a greenhouse but obviously didn't bank on hottest summer ever. The cucumber was amazing, slight citrus taste and actually had flavour unlike the green sticks of water shops ssll

[Bledlow]

Still getting cabbages, cucumbers (ate one last night), lettuce, radishes, carrots, tomatoes & I think we ate the last sweetcorn on Sunday.

[Mrs Pingu]

Dug up the mini sunflower that the gastropods ate. Dug up 2 of the 3 lupins that the same little bastards also ate (the third one I couldn't even find any evidence of). Split a couple of chunks off the wild thyme and planted them where the lupins had been. Next to the sedum spectabile that the gastropods are also munching on.
Whoever said sedums are slug/snail resistant is a big fat liar.

[MikeFromLFE]

The revelation was when got home for lunch and harvested the single cucumber from a plant by wife bought, I thought she had wasted her 30p as we don't have a greenhouse but obviously didn't bank on hottest summer ever. The cucumber was amazing, slight citrus taste and actually had flavour unlike the green sticks of water shops ssll

Mrs M grows cucumbers in garden growbags and they are prolific and delicious.
They do need decent growbags and plenty of water it seems.

[Bledlow]

I give mine a barrowload or two of compost on top of the soil they grow in. That seems to do for several plants. They flourish. And have lots of flavour.

But yes, they don't like dryth.

[ElyDave]

On the veggie plot, squashes hardening off waiting to harvest, thes are grown in a compost heap and have done well this year. Courgettes poor by comparison. Toms very good indoors and out, cucumbers very good as well, in the greenhouse, and this years big success was melons in the greenhouse.

Chillies were very slow to start and now have huge plants but no fruit. Figs were a bumper crop, apples very early, and great flavour. Oddly, I now have winter lettuce to look forward to, as two trays that did nothing have miraculously started germinating.

On the rest of the plot, we had a very poorly, very large blue spruce taken out, lots of wood, excuse for a big axe  . Now 40 years of needles to deal with, new tree to buy and space to fill.  Its a very dry, sunbathed patch, so lots of crocosmia, iris and verbena in there over the weekend, lavender to follow, intent is to make it Mediterranean, bee attracting etc. Another bed in the back, raised, dry as hell, stripped more crocus ian, red hot pojers and a peach tree out of 8t, with an intend to refurb it and filling with succulents and alpines I have growing from seed. I'm told I can even gro things like mother in laws tongue outside, which could be interesting.

[Mrs Pingu]

I mowed the lawn.
What's so interesting about that? I hear you say.
Well, it's only the 2nd or 3rd time I've mowed it this year. And despite doing no mow May, and June, it hasn't needed mowing. In fact despite me trying to let it grow to be more wildlife friendly and get some diversity in there even the grass is barely growing.

There are now a few patches of self heal and clover popping up, but they are mainly growing at the edge of the lawn out into the flower beds. I don't want them in there, I want it in the lawn...

[The Family Cyclist]

A rare occurance but drove to the allotment today. Even I can't carry 20 bags of manure on my bike. Took the whole family as a beautiful early autumnal day

We had a uncovered soft fruit area maybe 3 x 3 metres which wasn't very productive other then feeding the birds. Flattened this, covered with card and piled the manure on to mellow a bit over winter and will add some compost and maybe some chicken bedding over the winter to start a no dig bed

Harvested some squashes, a cabbage and a carrot

Then bit the bullet and ordered charles dowdings no dig book as after rotavating the plot last year looked at the soil and was just crap. Had asked for the book for a couple of Christmas/birthdays but our local bookshop couldn't get and he's just launched a new one.

[MikeFromLFE]

Paid the allotment rent (see Utilitarian adventure post) and spoke to the Plot Steward about the teenager we caught on the trail cam nicking our pears. Apparently there have been other thefts of fruit near us. There's CCTV going up at the gate at our end of the plot. Not good for a secure site.

[Mrs Pingu]

I had 2 goes at propagating lavender this year. The first was a total disaster (probably too early) but the 2nd lot all died off after a promising start. Oh well, buy a new one or wait til next year.
Most of the lavender in the garden is fine, but there's one particular plant which has been allowed to grow without pruning (before we bought this place) and so is about 3 feet of dead wood with a load of green at the end.

I also had to cut all the mint back because it was covered in powdery mildew. Need to find something more resistant to grow in that area, the rosemary and sage seem to do ok.

[Ham]

Still harvesting raspberries  , damn courgettes don't know when to give up, either  .

[ElyDave]

I had 2 goes at propagating lavender this year. The first was a total disaster (probably too early) but the 2nd lot all died off after a promising start. Oh well, buy a new one or wait til next year.
Most of the lavender in the garden is fine, but there's one particular plant which has been allowed to grow without pruning (before we bought this place) and so is about 3 feet of dead wood with a load of green at the end.

I also had to cut all the mint back because it was covered in powdery mildew. Need to find something more resistant to grow in that area, the rosemary and sage seem to do ok.

And by complete contrast, I took 30 cuttings, all struck, ready to go out next year.

My effort this week was a bit ofvlight pruning, and I drought in the remaining outdoor tomato crop. They won't ripen outside now that the temperature is starting to drop. Greenhouse toms left for now

[Flite]

I also had to cut all the mint back because it was covered in powdery mildew. Need to find something more resistant to grow in that area, the rosemary and sage seem to do ok.

Mint likes moist cool conditions, powdery mildew is worse if hot and dry
Rosemary, sage and lavender like sunny, warm, well drained conditions
As you have found out....

[Mrs Pingu]

All those plants are next to a 5' fence which is east facing, not sure I can get much cooler and moister than that. I think it's just been a powdery mildew sort of year with the weather we had. A load of other stuff on the east facing fence got the powdery mildew too - scabious, monarda, catnip.

[Flite]

load of other stuff on the east facing fence got the powdery mildew too - scabious, monarda, catnip.

Sadly I gave up trying to grow monarda due to mildew, but scabious and catnip should be OK in a more normal year.
I find stuff on the east side of a wall or fence often gets dry, as most of our rain is driven by a W/SW wind,so  the plants are effectively in a rain shadow! Depends how "dense" the fence is of course.
May I suggest re-planting the mint in a pot/tub before it takes over the entire bed? You can plonk it on a saucer full of water if needed.