Grow Your Own Magazine

heebiejeebie · #**3641** (**permalink**) 30-05-2008, 08:13 AM

Took the fleece off the second sowings of beans & peas (meteor, borlotto & broadies longpod). Weeded a bit and provided twiggy sticks for the peas and canes & string supports for the beans. Something has munched the peas under the fleece so I left the fleece off to let the birds get the slugs. Sowed mystery peas (from a friend) in the remaining space reserved for them & french beans in a handy gap next to the maincrop tatties.

Planted marigolds and poached-egg plants randomly around and amongst the beans & peas.

Potted on basil dark opal, pricked out cauli grafitti (2nd sowing - the first lot are waiting to be potted on).

Noticed a volunteer potato plant that is beginning to flower

how on earth did I miss uprooting that! Might as well let it live for another couple of weeks then see what it produces. From where it is, it could be desiree.

Snadger · #**3642** (**permalink**) 30-05-2008, 07:40 PM

Dug over a bed and planted 22 clubroot resistant caulis, Clapton! Tied up and sideshooted all my tomatoes. Was given a couple of melon plants but until I decide where to put them I've just potted them on to a bigger pot each.
Done loads of hoeing weeds along with handweeding paths.

SarzWix · #**3643** (**permalink**) 30-05-2008, 09:31 PM

Planted half a dozen tomato plants in the tunnel on Plot B, and watered them, a lot. Planted 4 Cranberry Pole Beans in bed1, a courgette plant (Tristan), a butternut squash plant (Waltham) and a dozen sweetcorn (Northern Extra Sweet) in bed5 on Plot A. Helped Milly to plant 6 sweetcorn (Minipop) and a couple of sunflowers in her patch, and Sam to plant his pumpkin (Jack of All Trades) in his. Weeded round blackcurrant, redcurrant & blackthorns, onion bed, pea & bean bed. Tried to make a frame for more climbing beans & realised I'd used the 7ft canes for tomatoes by accident, leaving the 6ft ones which are too short... D'uh!! So that's tomorrow's job - go buy some more

Jez did a lot of cutting down of brambles, mending & painting fences & burning rubbish on Plot B, it's looking good

Waffler · #**3644** (**permalink**) 30-05-2008, 09:56 PM

Gave in to temptation and bought 1 chilli plant and 1 pepper plant - just to get me started until mine are all grown up! They have been planted in the greenhouse border. Also bought some leek plants as I'm running late. Hopefully will get some ground ready for those in the not too distant future.
Sowed more lime basil, sweet basil, purple basil and coriander.
Did a bit of digging on the patch: still rather too wet and sticky, but needs must.
Planted out my 5 courgette plants.
Watered susceptible plants with slug solution and everything else with water.
Fingers crossed for a dry and productive day tomorrow!

Flummery · #**3645** (**permalink**) 31-05-2008, 09:44 AM

Yesterday, went down to lottie for a bit of hand weeding and to plant out some nasturtiums around the tomato bed - just because I like a bit of colour. Noticed that there were 2 gorgeous bicoloured flowers on my Lancashire Lad peas. Went home for the camera to put it on my blog! Took Himself in the evening to see them and there were about a dozen out by then. I would grow them just for the flowers.

deezyb · #**3646** (**permalink**) 31-05-2008, 08:34 PM

planted out Kabocha and Jaspee de Vende squash, courgettes and another two Butternut Sprinters -weeded a bit and pottered about the garden.! great to see the sun!

Newbie · #**3647** (**permalink**) 31-05-2008, 09:08 PM

Weeded my one & only flower bed which for some reason has filled itself with buttercups & maple tree seedlings recently, pulled millions of the blighters out, however thinking about it i should have potted them on & had myself a forest.

Also went to the garden centre for hanging basket inners & hanging basket plants. Arrived back & planted up said baskets & put in their final positions. Also planted up a hanging basket in the greenhouse with 2 Gartenpearl tomatoes & 2 of those smelly orange flowers who's name escapes me at this moment!

Revived a semi-dead standard fuscia from last year by lopping its head off (it had started sprouting again from the bottom but the top had snuffed it) and re-potted another trailing one. There was plenty more to to but just not enough hours to do it.

Susie Q · #**3648** (**permalink**) 31-05-2008, 11:13 PM

horticulturally inclined - is that grdening on a slope
__________________

Love it Nick! I'm new to this forum but do enjoy hearing about others escapades! Well hubby and I managed to get out in the garden today, the weather was lovely and sunny, he planted out his courgettes and butternut squash, I potted my radish seedlings, and planted some more lettuce, got some beetroot in the coldframe so keeping an eye on them. I did soome bush trimming in the garden and some weeding (never ending job that one!) apart from that not much else, hoping to get out there again tomorrow (weather permitting). Hope you don't mind me joining in?

wellie · #**3649** (**permalink**) 31-05-2008, 11:18 PM

There's something rather lovely within my brain when someone tells me that the weather forecast is THIS. And then it isn't.......
Apart from Wednesday, when I truly got either depressed or inspired enough to take 240 softwood cuttings, with a bigger picture in mind.....

We live here in a kind of Bermuda Triangle: we've got The River Severn, The Monnow, The Wye.... shed loads of rivers all converging, and the result 'weatherwise' is normally a complete box of spanners!

So today we went to our lottie and planted Sweetcorn, Butternut Squash and Borlotti Beans.

Trousers did an amazing job zapping the weeds that still insisted on growing where we'd rather have Brassicas, and we got to spend the rest of the day 'sunning it' in our gorgeous garden. Well Trousers did -
Wellie had work to do!........

jackie j · #**3650** (**permalink**) 01-06-2008, 06:19 AM

Yesterday went to allotment shop and bought 11 large paving slabs for 60p each to put outside shed, then went to Endsleigh garden centre near Plymouth to get net tunnels that were on offer but they had sold out and no more coming. Went to tesco at Lee Mill OH bought me an I pod.
Went home for lunch, finally got to Lottie at 3 ish weeded strawberry bed and put down new straw, picked first one daughter ate it later. went home at 6 pm.

Two_Sheds · #**3651** (**permalink**) 01-06-2008, 08:42 AM

I spent another three hours just weeding. Bindweed is coming up everywhere now the couch and nettle has gone. millions of annual weeds too, but they're easier to deal with.

My carrots are growing superbly under their net curtains. I picked a bag full of new chard (with blackfly), radish (with sluggy nibbles), one beetroot, onions (bolted) for tea. Got lots blackfly on spring sown Broads...picked out all the tops and did lots of squishing.

Planted out my celeriac, but forgot to protect them from slugs

Had a furtle under my Arran Pilots: only got one worth eating though.

Gave my French Beans a talking-to, because they aren't even trying to climb up their poles. Planted out another courgette to replace the one the gales killed. Planted out Mars pumpkin and Butternut anywhere I could fit them.

Applied grass clipping mulch to potato bed, and raspberry bed (they love the moisture).

piskieinboots · #**3652** (**permalink**) 01-06-2008, 08:49 AM

I too spent three hours at lottie, some of which was given over to the sodding bindweed picking!

I make three more small beds and have onions, carrots and yet more broadies in them.

Had three sit-downs on my lime green £4.99 picnic chair and three cups of tea - so that averages one an hour

Came back to home garden and tidied all the sweetpeas up and promised them warm things to come cos they are sulking and dropping the buds. I then made plans for what I should (would) be doing in the home veg plot for today

Mrs Dobby · #**3653** (**permalink**) 01-06-2008, 08:49 AM

Didnt get to the plot until 2pm yesterday, as Miss D wouldnt get out of bed after a late night chatting with friends, (I swear I am going to remove the modem from the 'puter at nights!), so I spent the morning planting up the growbags in the back yard greenhouse, 10 more toms and a watermelon and a normal melon now growing away happily!

When we finally got to the plot I rotovated 2 beds and got them ready for planting, cut cardboard to fit and then planted 190 leeks thru cardboard in one of the beds, then watered everything! Miss D did a fantastic plan of the new plot, before finsing the heat too much and deciding that she'd be cooler sat inside the MINI with the radio on! (no aircon and no fans on, so it was even hotter than outside, I think she will learn one day! lol!)

Plans today are to get the final bed of sweetcorn and squashes in, plant up a bed of carrots, parsnips and turnips and hopefully move a bed of brassicas from our first plot into the new plot, in readiness for laying some more cross paths into the largest beds on our first plot (so its more like the new plot!)

Snadger · #**3654** (**permalink**) 01-06-2008, 11:27 AM

Eventually I managed to get eight rows of maincrop carrots sown. Last year I had the rows 8" apart with idea that this would give me enough room to hoe in between rows and do any thinning that was required. What really happened though was that I only lifted the enviromesh once mid season to thin the carrots and I hand weeded at the same time.

This year I've made the rows are only 4" apart which should in theory double the crop from a given area and I should still be able to thin and hand weed in between them!

Anyway they are now all sown with a sprinkling of sand along the rows, watered and covered. Enviromesh is nailed down over a frame work giving them 2 foot headroom.

I dug over a small bed incorporating manure and planted about 20 sweetcorn plants.

I was having a chat with one of the other plot holders at the greenhouse door when I had to tell him to stand inside for a mo so as not to spook my resident blackbird with a gob full of worms waiting to get to her brood in my shed. Once he was out of the way she flew into the shed and fed her young!

Mrs Dobby · #**3655** (**permalink**) 01-06-2008, 01:24 PM

No fair! Torrential rain today! Got to the plot and hoed the greenhouses, then sideshooted toms and fed everything, toms are flowering nicely, and the 2 cucumber plants in the big greenhouse are flowering, with small cukes visible behind the flowers! One of the melons in the lean too has vanished tho, no slime trails visible, so I'm not sure whats had it (tho the polythene door wasnt weighted down, so it could be that wabbits have been in there!)

The leeks that were planted yesterday look fine, as does most of everything else, just a shame that I wasnt able to get the 3 beds rotovated and plante dup, ah well, perhaps it'll be a bit less wet on Wednesday!

middlefield · #**3656** (**permalink**) 01-06-2008, 06:02 PM

Due to two days off work on Thursday and Friday I've had a long-weekend mostly at the allotment so got loads done and can say that we're about on schedule now. The biggest thing we've got done is clearing a bed for all the pumpkins, squash, patty pans and courgette - with 20 barrows of pig and cow manure we prepared the bed, then covered in plastic and planted through holes that we cut - a method we used last year with success.

Despite a lack of space brassica's are now starting to go in, with the sprouts first and doing well so far.

On top of that we've done lots and lots and lots of weeding, with seemingly bucket upon bucket of small weedlings (is that a real word?) going in to the compost bin - past experience has shown us the importance of getting on top of weeds early and there is a real pride in getting the rows pretty weed-free.

Now we've got an allotment that we are really proud of, and I've been looking at new camera's today to capture images of the plot!

heebiejeebie · #**3657** (**permalink**) 02-06-2008, 06:52 AM

Didn't get much time on the lottie yesterday - promised to spend some time with the OH instead (if only he'd take up gardening...)

Did a bit of weeding. The bindweed is struggling to find daylight amongst the tatties! The earlies are nearly all showing flower buds but I resisted furtling because it's waaay too soon - another couple of weeks and I could have new potatoes

Picked lettuce leaves and PSB to make salad for dinner. Eyed up the overwintered onions but left them alone.

jackie j · #**3658** (**permalink**) 02-06-2008, 04:55 PM

I have now had three good days at the Lottie. Spent most of the time weeding today it was the turn of the cabbages, so took off the net weeded, found a few slugs hiding remade the netting Picked one small and one bigger cabbage put netting back on.
Picked 4 strawberries but must get some more netting to cover them with but will have to wait til thursday for some money.
Planted some spuds that have seeded will see how they fair.
Thinned out lettuces and swede.
Its raining now.

Newbie · #**3659** (**permalink**) 02-06-2008, 07:14 PM

Pottered in the greenhouse for an hour or so after work; Sowed some more Neckar Gold climbing french beans in modules (getting terrible germination rates this year, and its new seed), "Parmex" carrots in a trough, "All Year Round" lettuce in modules, Garlic Chives, and "Orelia" courgette - its third sowing with no success yet, this is its last chance before getting binned! Don't really need more courgettes as the 2 "zucchini" plants i have will suffice but i am determined to get some yellow courgettes this year!

Mrs Dobby · #**3660** (**permalink**) 02-06-2008, 09:15 PM

Had to work today, but managed to get home for 630pm, so got changed and straight to the plot to plant out the last of the 2 sisters beds (squashes and sweetcorn) thru the cardboard I fitted to the bed on Saturday. Stayed till 9pm, then home for tea, I'm starving!!

Mr D was at the plot early this morning, he's weeded the broadies and cleared some more paths on our original plot, plus planted out another 2 small beds of trench celery! He also harvested more rhubarb and made a rhubarb crumble, with the words 'love you' scribbed on the top!

Snadger · #**3661** (**permalink**) 02-06-2008, 09:38 PM

Bummed off work to meet a tree surgeon who kindly donated a pile of wood chippings to the allotment Association. Persuaded him to deliver another load on Wednesday as I know that as soon as the vultures see it it will be like snow on a hot tin roof!

Watered the indoor plants and scarpered to do the shopping!