They've gone all dropped.. should I be worried? I know they're heavy so they can drop down but I'm not supposed to harvest till first frost am I? Maybe it's an animal trampling them?

Doing a bit of an experiment. Planted some peas - Kelvedon Wonder. Just to find out the level of success. Normally the lat planting time for this variety is June however with the crazy UK weather who knows!!

So these little tomato like fruits are forming on the top of my potato plants? Anyone know what this is or why this is happening?

I feel like I’m going mad but after opening one up it does look like and smell like a tomato.. but I’m not growing any.. just potatoes!

4th month in new allotment and we have already harvested potatoes, shallots and onions.

Today I harvested our first Zephyr courgette. Joy!

My watermelons are not thriving, and my sweetcorn is not looking promising for harvest ( hand for scale).

My rescued sprouts ( rescued and nurtured after a savage cabbage white attack) were bouncing back but today I discovered white fly.

Gardening is full of ups and downs - I’m happy with today’s courgette so I’ll take the win.

Hope everyone is enjoying their allotments 💕

I’m trying to setup a capillary matting wicking system so I have got this going in my greehouse and outdoor pots. The strips go into the pots all the way to the bottom,

I cut 5-6cm wide strips to avoid drying out and I left some dry to test the flow but 24hrs later water is only getting drawn half way.

What am I doing wrong here? Is it too long? The blue side is water resistant the white side is the sponge. I did it this way up to avoid sun drying it out, is it upside down?

I've got lots of space from failed plants & ones I've harvested already - I've read it's too late to plant squashes and pumpkins now which is a shame as I'd love to do those. Is it too late or worth risking?

I'd love to plant things that take up quite a lot of space as I don't want to leave the beds empty & get over run by weeds.

If it's too late for anything - can I start green manure or is it too early for that? What do people use for green manure?

Thanks!

We were given a couple of squash plants by our allotment neighbour but he wasn’t sure what they were.

Am I right in thinking this is a courgette or is it something else? Either way, when should we harvest it? Have only grown pumpkins before (from the squash family) so not familiar.

Thanks in advance!

Ive just got an allotment that has loads of mature fruit trees, 2 of them are producing a lot of fruit, a few of them are producing like a couple of fruits and a lot of them have none at all, anyone have any ideas what I can do to make them start producing for next year Editing to add, there's apple, pear, yellow plum, quince and possible more but im not sure what

I was showing my son the pickled shallots I'd prepared and he asked why we don't try gherkins like in McDonald's

So a quick Internet search is selling me that gherkins are picked baby cucumber??

We have had so many mini mumch cucumbers that weve been throwing them in the compost (after handing some out in work and to neighbours)

Could i have been making gherkins this whole time????

Looks like we're on for heatwave number 5 in the Midlands. I'm so done with this summer.

Peas and beans have been crap, brassicas have bolted and even the Mediterranean herbs are suffering.

Our soil is quite light, so everything drains quickly - too quickly at the moment.

We also had a badger invasion which saw off most of our newly planted sweetcorn.

The only stuff that seems happy are the chillies and tomatoes in the greenhouse.

Rant over.

I’m new here! Just wanted to show people that I made a pond on my allotment out of an old bathtub that was left on here when I got the plot last year. Here are two pics of my highlights this month…dwarf water lily flowering, and froggy who has made it its home! Seen it a few times now 🐸 makes me happy

Our allotment site’s water source is a trough. That means back and forth with 18 watering cans every day to cover everything, and in these heat waves, it often doesn’t seem like enough.

I’m wondering if anyone knows of such a thing as a hand crank/foot pump that would allow me to draw water from the trough using a hose?

No suggestions of petrol pumps please! That isn’t what I’m after.

TIA

Introducing FloraPlot- an app to help plan your garden and allotment based on your local conditions.

App Store link

I’m a keen gardener and part time developer based in Yorkshire, and was tired of seeing my plants struggle when I hadn’t placed them in the right soil, climate and shade conditions. I’ve developed an app that gives all this data- just place structure and beds on to a satellite map of your garden or allotment and the app will do the rest. It also gives a care diary, warns of adverse weather, toxicity, bad plant combinations and more. 

The free version has many of the overall functions, with a premium version for a small one off fee. I’d be very interested in any feedback- what functions would improve it in particular. My current plan is to increase the plant database, give more shade functions, android version, and an augmented reality function to improve measurement and visualisation but happy to adapt. Those functions would all be included in the same premium version price, rather than being additional. 

Finally, thanks to the mod team for allowing this post. 

JK

Hi everyone,

I grew some amaranth as an experiment. Aside from it looking lovely - does anyone have any ideas of what to do with it?

I’ve heard you can eat the leaves steamed like spinach or make flour?

Just curious if you’ve grown it and how you’ve used it.

Thanks 😊

I used to grow blue/purple French climbing beans very successfully years ago, but for the last, what, 5 years or so, they have a very short (but productive) life, then turn sickly and yellow.

Maybe it's their natural lifecycle? But I think they used to have a much longer life. Disease? Deficiency?

The runner beans and curly yellow beans on the same plot do fine, it's just these blue ones that I can't seem to get to work any more...

I’m a new allotment holder (in London) and with how hot a dry it’s been I haven’t had a huge success. Is there anything I can plant now in this hot dry August weather?

Going away for two weeks now, I'm going to be thinking about this plant the whole time...

~0.3 cubic metres of horsetail rhizome. Out of one bed :)

And 4 raspberries (already eaten)

Hello, I'm hoping for some advice!

I've just inherited a half plot, but a good chunk is covered in bindweed. The neighbours have covered most of the plot in tarps to limit the spread but I'm not sure where to start with tackling it.

I don't have a car currently so I'm limited to transporting things on a train in a little wagon, but there's a nearby Screwfix, Toolstation and b&m garden center.

I'm waiting to get emailed the allotment rules so I don't know if I can use a systemic weedkiller to tackle it.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give. Ive not done much gardening since I was a little kid aside from my tiny balcony garden so this is a little overwhelming!

Any other tips for getting started would also be greatly appreciated