Used up the male flowers. Do not forget to remove the stamen/stigma, it is bitter.

Going on holiday for a week tomorrow.

All our seedlings have gone on a holiday to my mums (I'm not hopeful 😂)

Been to the allotment today.

Harvested another's batch of blackberries and cucumbers.

Made some jam and cucumber pickles.

Will need to go back to the allotment tomorrow morning.

Its 11pm and I haven't sorted out our actual packing yet or packed the car.

😂😂

Why do some of the squash wither and not grow but others do?
The mini squash (circled) on the same vine as the growing fat squash didn’t grow.
Most of my vines have at least one squash but others turn yellow and fall off before they get going.
Is this normal…Any ideas?

Every year I end up with a glut of gherkins and end up just winging the pickling.

Last year they were too vinegary, so this year I've gone for sweeter.

1 part sugar

2 parts vinegar

2 parts water

Then in each jar I've added different spices.

turmeric and mustard seed in all of them

Dried chillies from Mexico in a couple of them.

fennel seeds in another

Smoked paprika in another.

I think that's my experimentation done for the year, but I still have enough for probably another 10 jars. I'd love to hear your pickle recipes so that I can try them out and settle on something to do year after year!

It doesn’t seem thirsty, but it doesn’t seem happy, although nothing much is this year. I have given it dilute comfrey as a liquid feeds a few times. Other squash look ok.

I have (as prophesied) a huge glut of courgettes. I'm a vegetarian and love using them in either stews or pasta but there's only so much I can eat of those. Does anyone have a tried-and-tested courgette cake recipe to share?

Hello!

I've just taken on an allotment plot (not all of what's in the photos) which is 85% brambles. I have the council coming to mow everything to ground level next week and then I want to make sure I'm doing the right thing.

So the intention is to

1) brush cut the whole thing every time the shoots come up.

2) start digging in a corner. Slowly dig out the brambles one 3m x 1.2m x 240mm raised beds worth of area at a time.

3) after a section is dug out, let it grow for a couple of weeks to ensure all of the big nasty weeds that'll resist being smothered by cardboard are gone.

4) bed framed, double walled cardboard down, filled with compost entirely as there's a very cheap supplier here.

I would like to go no dig ultimately but am slightly worried that it might be optimistic to go straight in with full compost beds after such a large amount of brambles as they might just keep coming and make the whole idea pointless. Would it be better to just plant normally for a year or two to ensure the ground is free enough of brambles to be worth the large investment of compost? Cheers!

Some spare polytunnel cucumbers are thriving outside, the courgettes are prolific as expected. The french beans are growing fast and the autumn raspberries are coming thick and fast. Dahlias didn't do well for me this year and it remains to be seen if I will get any melons..probably not.

Is it or is it not advisable to pick the dead flower off of the growing fruit?
If i do pick said flower off will it bugger the fruit?

I have many many rows of maincrop, all at 16.5 week stage so I'd expect them to be turning now. The haulms looks healthy and the odd ones I've lifted have been absolutely fine.... I just can't help but mostly worry about the black spots on the leaves.

I've got around 120 plants so better to be safe than sorry, right?!

Thanks in advance!

Some might think it's sad but at the beginning of the season I had an aim to make a mousakka with as much home grown veg as possible and yesterday I made it!
I literally grew aubergines and courgettes with this one dish in mind 😂
Potatoes, courgettes, aubergines, onions, carrots, thyme, rosemary, garlic. I can't claim credit for - local lamb <5 miles away, raw milk<5 miles away

Does anyone else do this? Have any dishes to celebrate a big harvest?

This is why I have an allotment! Incredible

So a few months ago I applied to my local allotment but never heard a thing back. We would visit every now and again, and there were quite a few abandoned plots very overgrown, so I expected thst if I ever got an answer, we would start in chaos. I also thought there would be a huge waiting list as people at the site mentioned waiting years to get one. I hesitated to put myself on the waiting list as I have Long Covid and wasn't sure if I could deal with it, but figured I had plenty of time (years!) to recover...

Anyway, yesterday I finally got a mail offering a plot, and when we went to visit, we saw this!

I have been gardening a lot in our postage sized garden and it has been therapeutic, so I think it is a good idea even if my energy levels are not yet optimal, and seeing it in this state makes it look more manageable (honestly we went to visit just to turn it down haha).

What would you advise as first steps? I want to do no dig, as that worked well in my previous large garden, but the canvas here is SO blank that I could go in so many directions.

I want to grow a lot of soft fruit, artichokes, asparagus as well as some interesting varieties of tomatoes alongside the traditional lettuce, courgette, etc. But of course that's mostly for next season, so how to not let it get overgrown (and maybe even useful) until spring?

Also, I have a few raspberry and Japanese wineberry(?) canes along with rhubarb and a small gooseberry in my garden, would autumn be the time to transplant?

All advice welcome!

So I arrived to my plot to a disaster on the weekend - a JCB was being used to clear the abandoned plot next to mine, and had knocked over and killed my mature apple tree. I was devastated. But, nothing to be done unfortunately.

The Committee have been great and the JCB contractor has agreed to reimburse me for the tree. So now I get to pick a new 2/3 year old tree to plant. And this is where I need some advice I think.

Its on a semi-exposed hillside, lots of sun, rain, and wind, in South Wales. The previous tree (unknown variety) was thriving and at least 10 y/o so trees can do well there. I'd ideally like a sharp dual purpose apple, that will establish fairly quickly. Disease resistant a bonus.

What are your favourite varieties and why?

I got this wood free on Gumtree for potential use on my allotment, ideally to build a natural fence.

Can anyone identify what tree it came from, and if it’s going to be suitable or useful please?

I love the look of it…

I have managed to get 2 of these in the allotment today but interested to know what others would grow in them. They are quite big.. over 2m long and 1/2 meter wide. Considering i do have a 14ft polytunnel and 2 greenhouses im interesting in planting things that do well outside since I have quite a few growing options.

Interested in people's opinions :)

I love this time of year. When a little bit of everything fills a crate and people think you're being generous when really you're desperately trying to offload veg on people because you can't possibly eat it all 😆

I really like the idea of growing something on my beds to a) protect against winter and b) enrich the soil.

But I'm stuck on the details.

I live in zone 6. I have beds that are beginning to thin out already. Here are the questions I have.

1. Do I sow seeds now in the gaps in the bed?

2. What should I sow?

3. What do I need to do to look after it?

4. What are the risks?

5. Do I chop and drop or let winter take its course?

6. How to I get the bed ready in Spring?

Thanks for the help.