Hello

[mcdood]

Hi,
I've been gardening with flowers and shrubs in my small house garden for many years but never veg other than a very brief dabble 30 ish years ago. I took on an allotment this year mainly for veg growing and I love it. Some successes and many failures. I hadn't realised the degree of pest problems I would encounter as I have never faced too much of that in my house garden other than vine weevils chewing on my heuchera/heucherella and the usual aphids, slugs and snails. On the allotment it feels a bit like guerrilla warfare, many of the beds need nets to stop pigeons, cabbage whites, carrotfly and my biggest annoyance of the year, allium leaf miner. Not to mention the swarms of whitefly in autumn on all the brassicas and the rats eating some beetroot (they left the skin behind, bless their delicate palates). I've used this forum for information all year ,thank you, so thought I should join and see if I can contribute in any way.

[burnie]

Welcome to the war on pests lol, sure you'll get some friendly advice, where is your lottie?

[bario1]

Welcome Mcdood, glad to hear you've found the forum helpful so far... some of what's said on here is utter garbage of course.

Good luck with your new allotment, they're very addictive!

[veggiechicken]

Hi Mcdood and welcome
I don't know what bario^^^ means by "utter garbage" - probably meant to say compost. We often talk compost and a load of manure.

[mcdood]

Hi Burnie, based in Wolverhampton, I understand from what I've read that we kindly introduced the allium leaf miner in these parts, fine work
Hi Bario1 I'll look forward to developing my own form of garbage advice on here

[Scarlet]

Hello Mcdood, welcome aboard I've been plague with allium leaf miner for some time. Enviromesh will stop it if you can keep it well pegged down. Though I've given up on lots of stuff I have to net and mostly like to grow beans.....then this year I had hardly any rain and empty water butts so that crop didn't come to much either....but there's next year to look forward to

[mcdood]

Thanks Veggiechicken I'm fluent in talking manure.
Or should that be effluent.

[mcdood]

Thank you Scarlett. I've put some Enviromesh on my Christmas list as I lost onions and leeks but the missus refuses to buy "bloody netting" for Christmas
Also loved beans this year, dwarf french beans were great. I wasn't so keen on my stringy Enorma runner beans so I let them dry and have used them in chillis, very nice. And I have now bought a shed load of french bean seeds for next year mostly varieties from advice I read on here.

[Small pumpkin]

Welcome to the vine

[veggiechicken]

Thanks Veggiechicken I'm fluent in talking manure.
Or should that be effluent.

You'll fit in well here

[bikermike]

remember, plant twice as much as you need, then the bugs will go "it's a trap" and not eat any of it, and you'll be knee-deep in courgettes, tomatoes etc

If your wife doesn't want to buy netting, how about some aluminium poles/hoops (to hold the netting up)...

[mcdood]

I've got hoops and scaffold netting just need the enviromesh, maybe I'll tap the kids up instead of them buying me some tat. She did buy me some grow lights for my birthday in November. not sure if she realised they'll be over the top of onion seedlings on a window ledge in a couple of weeks time

[SarrissUK]

She did buy me some grow lights for my birthday in November. not sure if she realised they'll be over the top of onion seedlings on a window ledge in a couple of weeks time

haha I like it! I'm enjoying having every single window to myself this year, and all my furniture near said windows will be covered in plastic, then I'll pile the seed boxes on Yay for early plantings! Only a few weeks away now!

[SarrissUK]

Oh, and welcome to the vine

[muck lover]

Welcome aboard. Maybe after this year you will get an increase in beneficial insects to help against pests. Hang in there!