Advice for a hopeless gardener

[jansman]

Weeds? I pull the worst,but I don’t stress. They always grow! .. This kind of gardening is not lazy. In fact for all the Climate Brigade who whinge on about whatever,this is actually an eco - positive ,as it cuts out real energy and provides it too!

So..... You're not going to scold me for not hoeing before the weeds pop up

I still wonder how you cope with weeds germinating alongside carrots. Mine are literally like step cousins, weed and carrot growing up side by side. Every time i try to pull a weed, a carrot seems to perish, so I really don't stress it, so long as a decent number of carrots survive. I didn't do too well sowing in neat rows. So no hoeing.

I sort of ration my time at cultivating and I can't get my head around how much time and effort and money some folk put into allotment or homestead gardening. Farmers seem to spray,dig, sow, spray, harvest. You don't see them fannying about hoeing or earthing up spuds or riddling out weed roots. Though they may use evil chemicals, they know that efficiency is not about getting the biggest or best yields, but rather the best return on investment. We home growers should take notice and cherry pick best practice. Actually, I think it would be some sort of OCD to get stressed out over weeds to the extent of trying to eliminate them. Spuds and courgettes have the best idea: Claim their area, and shade out the weeds. Peas and beans and tomatoes: Rise above them. Carrots are a bit dumber and try to signal us for help with their feathery distinct leaves
Nature will do it's thing: Weeds are natural: Critters are natural: We humans are the interlopers thinking we can reign over them. Pah! Not without being a slave to the hoe.
RETURN ON INVESTMENT. Same with any aspect of life.

I took weeds from the initial carrot growth. Now I can easily see the carrot foliage,that’s it.

[GillyBee]

Currently harvesting rhubarb, lettuce, strawberries, a few raspberries, mangetout and green plum thinnings.
Rhubard is currently making Jansman's chutney. Plum thinnings have made green plum jam, Mangetout went in the stir fry and the berries are just enough to make a small pot of jam.

[jennyjj01]

I took weeds from the initial carrot growth. Now I can easily see the carrot foliage,that’s it.

Thanks..... so. I'll have a go tomorrow, pluck out the obvious ones and tuck in any disturbed carrots. They are just about big enough to identify,

Weeding day tomorrow, weather permitting.....

Gor to think about sowing some more spuds. tempted by Home bargain which has two tater growing bags plus half a dozen each of two spud varieties for £2.99

[jansman]

I took weeds from the initial carrot growth. Now I can easily see the carrot foliage,that’s it.

Thanks..... so. I'll have a go tomorrow, pluck out the obvious ones and tuck in any disturbed carrots. They are just about big enough to identify,

Weeding day tomorrow, weather permitting.....

Gor to think about sowing some more spuds. tempted by Home bargain which has two tater growing bags plus half a dozen each of two spud varieties for £2.99

Bang some spuds in now. We use chitted shop spuds if that helps? The second growth from seed spuds is quite good.

You have an allotment,and work is there. Avoiding it is better. Good luck and enjoy it too. Enjoying it is great,and I’m sure you do.

[jennyjj01]

Bang some spuds in now. We use chitted shop spuds if that helps? The second growth from seed spuds is quite good.

You have an allotment,and work is there. Avoiding it is better. Good luck and enjoy it too. Enjoying it is great,and I’m sure you do.

I've an area of about half a bed more or less cleared. I also have some chitted shop spuds I'll lob 'em in, rough and ready weeded. Why.... Cos' I really have little time this week.

I don't do troughs, just bang each in a hole 6" deep seems to do the trick. Earthing them up, maybe once.

Spuds, I have quite an assortment randomly on the go. About 15 Desiree from Lidl's 19p offer: About 12 Pentland javelin from seed: 10 Unknown seed from Wilkinsons: 2 more Pentland Javelin in boxes of Coir. 2 Pentland Javelin in a box of old compost: 4 more randomly strewn in my raised beds and 15 of variety unknown from allotment neighbour. Looks like half a dozen growing from peelings and rubbish in my Tardises
So. I've rather lost track of what's early late etc and what's where. I'm eagerly waiting for some to die back and get harvested. A quick rummage revealed that there ARE golf ball sized spuds to be had. Will probably harvest at sub-optimal time, but it's great fun.
Absolutely no idea if I'll get them eaten fast enough or stored well enough. I expect too many.

Work: Apart from initial ground prep and subsequent marestail pulling, I'm doing little. About an hour every other day.

Whoot Whoot. A couple of pea pods have formed in my bucket plants. Going to sow more tomorrow.
Need LOTS more peas and carrots. Lots and Lots and lots.
Marters have finally started to flower.
Onions looking good. Praying I don't get any nasties.

No sign of rats since I laid my trap.

[jennyjj01]

The fruits of my neglect...
First harvest of 135g of Raspberries. These were from 3 sq m of plants that already existed on my plot. The only attention they had was lopping them down to a foot tall stumps. They are now big and bushy, with not much sign of fruit or flowers. I think some of the raspberry bushes are interlopers: I already removed one tree sapling.

My patch of White Lisbon Spring Onions. These have been in the ground a year and I think they've gone a bit wild. Some have bolted. Most are about an inch in diameter and spherical. I just pull one out as required. I wonder if they are spreading by dividing. I wonder how long they will last.

And finally, the bI006y mess that's one of my potato patches. At least every seed took and they are fighting it out with assorted weeds. Maybe I should be hoeing, but instead I'm only plucking the Mare. Though there are LOTS of weeds. the spuds seem to be holding their own.

Pics to follow. struggling to upload

[GillyBee]

Your raspberries may be the sort that fruit on last years growth in which case you won't see fruit this year if they were all cut right back last winter. First year fruit types wil fruit later in the season - late July onwards but old canes of this type may give you a handful now.
If I am only getting small amounts of fruit/peas etc I bung them in the freezer until there is enough for a meal. Most of my growing is small scale - small garden so this lets me get a few meals out of small numbers of plants. Everyone says salad for small space gardening but my lot dont much like salad. It is the one thing i will have to throw if I ever buy any.

[jennyjj01]

Have a chuckle at my expense.....

So. I'd plonked 4 spuds into a couple of plastic recycling boxes. Two in Coir and two in a mix of coir and soil

No real attention. I tried to stop them totally drying out and added one feed to each.

I've been desperately waiting for some of my spuds to die back and two of these won the race.

Wow! What a crop! NOT.

2x teensy Pentland Javelin spuds from one and twoof the scabbiest spuds I ever saw.... Plus one so small as to not count.

Oh hum. While rooting them out, I disturbed a bigger, non-scabby Spud.

Anyone care to diagnose the scabby ones?

I hope it's NOT fungal..... But I suspect it is. Had a similar warty crop last year, but put that down to bad watering..

[jennyjj01]

So. I'd plonked 4 spuds into a couple of plastic recycling boxes. Two in Coir and two in a mix of coir and soil

Anyone care to diagnose the scabby ones?

I hope it's NOT fungal..... But I suspect it is. Had a similar warty crop last year, but put that down to bad watering..

Dammit!
I dug out under the other two spuds. Not a pretty sight.

I'll be discarding the spuds AND the two tubs of compost, in case it's a fungal Wart disease.

Now, I'm bricking it in case I've spread infection to my allotment soil or to my compost bin, where spuds are growing frantically over three beds!!!!

[GillyBee]

It's scab. RHS guide here:

https://www.rhs.org.uk/disease/potato-scabs

Scab is worst on dry or alkaline soil. Guess what I have? The pot of earlies in the greenhouse that I failed to water consistently got it. The volunteers in the compost heap are uaually fine while the ones behind the greenhouse are usually iffy thanks to the chalk soil.
Common scab organisms are everywhere so no point worrying about keeping it out of the compost or the allotment. Just have to grow resistant varieties and water more carefully than I did.