Grow Your Own Magazine

wellie · #**3886** (**permalink**) 15-08-2008, 02:38 AM

Okay. I've really, really, enjoyed myself today. I've spent HOURS on my particular Show Entry for next weekend. Then I looked at how very many Courgettes needed picking in our Potager Garden, so I phoned a very lovely Landlord of a pub we like, and asked if his chef wanted some. And he did, which was cool.....

With having phoned my Entries through to The Show Secretary last night of The Bream Show, I am now committed to entering those categories, which was itself a weight off my shoulders to have done that, as if I hadn't, I'd of missed entering, as the last entry was close of play today. And HRT or no, it WAS a possibility that Wellie MIGHT have forgotten to do that toady.
Thank you for listening,
X

sewer rat · #**3887** (**permalink**) 15-08-2008, 09:40 PM

Well, yesterday was the local Highland Games (Tain Highland Gathering as sponsored by Glenmorangie Ditillery), so I put up my stall on Wednesday night, went home about 9:30pm and made yet another batch of soup, got up at 4am on Thursday and picked a heap of veggies for the stall, drove to Inverness at 6am to collect organic milk, cheese and fruit for my box deliveries, back to the field at 8am, picked all the leafy veggies, drove back to Tain, grabbed a cup of coffeee then spent the day on the stall at the games. Business was slow in the morning (nobody wants to lug vegies around all day, but it was pretty much non-stop in the afternoon. My soups, chutneys and rowan jellies did well, so pretty happy. Even Tony, local Environmental Health Officer bought two soups (Golden Courgette & Bell Pepper and Cucumber & Mint) - phoned me today to say the Courgette & Bell Pepper soup was ace (chuffed as I made this one up myself). Anyway, finished and all packed up at 6pm, home for bite to eat then off to fields again last night to start picking veggies for my boxes which are delivered on a Friday.Got too dark at about 10:30pm so came home, went to bed, up at 4 this morning to pick more veg and make up my boxes, then spent the rest of the morning digging up tatties (in the p*ssin rain) for tomorrows Farmers Market, picking broad beans and courgettes, applying my predatory mites to the beans and cukes in the tunnel that red spider mites are attacking, watered tunnel, came home. Going out to work again tonight (door steward), will get home at 2:30am then back out at 4am to pick vegies and load van etc for Farmers Market. Home at 7am for a cuppa then off to market.

Snadger · #**3888** (**permalink**) 15-08-2008, 10:22 PM

Collected seven eggs from my ten chooks today. A couple of weeks ago I wasn't getting any. So proud of my girls!

Snadger · #**3889** (**permalink**) 16-08-2008, 09:31 PM

Spent all day at the allotment today. Got 7 eggs this morning then after a protracted racket this afternoon another was layed in the nestbox.
Mixed up my own variation on John Innes compost and potted up my 9 chrysanths into large pots.
Planted out some savoy cabbage and Spring cabbage. Tickled and raked one bed that had had alliums in it and sowed four rows of spring cabbage.
Took the netting off my caulis and put it over the cabbage. Weeded another brassica bed with Calabrese and cabbage in it. Weeded the PSB bed. Collected a few Crimson flowered broadies for next years seed.
Accepted the offer of a couple of corrugated glass fibre sheets to make a lean-too on hen hut.
Put hasp on run entry door and chicken coop and fitted new locks. Cleaned out chooks and gave them lots of weeds and brasica leaves throughout the day.
Left the allotment with a smile on my face, content that I had achieved what I set out to do.

bubblewrap · #**3890** (**permalink**) 17-08-2008, 08:20 PM

Dug up 2 rows of potatoes filled a wheelbarrow 4 rows to dig.

theresa2 · #**3891** (**permalink**) 17-08-2008, 08:27 PM

hiya any idea what nut shells can be used for

Newbie · #**3892** (**permalink**) 17-08-2008, 10:45 PM

Spent three hours in the flower bed, pulling out, chopping down, moving, dividing. Looks MILES better now, nearly died off though when i was rummaging around pulling up weeds & a huge toad appeared out of the earth under my hand!!
Also Harvested a few bits & pieces for Bro & Sis in law (beetroot, cucumbers, chillies, garlic, courgette).

petal · #**3893** (**permalink**) 18-08-2008, 04:55 PM

pulled up bindweed, husband dug up valor potatoes - bumper crop! started to create new pathways as we harvested produce. picked sweetcorn and yellow courgettes, runner and dwarf beans.

Snadger · #**3894** (**permalink**) 18-08-2008, 07:50 PM

Harvested my onions grown from sets. Tops were still geeenish but they were starting to bend over and with all the dampness I thought they would be better off drying in the greenhouse.
About 8 oinions out of maybe 120 were starting to rot and had slug damage. I don't think it was caused by the dreaded white rot, just the crap weather. Burned the 8 in my woodburning stove though just in case!
Dug up the last of my early tatties. Winston were huge and the tops were still green on my Duke of York
Raked over soil and dibbled in Musselburgh leeks where the tatties had been.
8 eggs from the chooks today (one of them a double yolker!) Fed them some cooked broad beans, soft tomatoes and some satsumas as well as corn, cauli leaves and worms that were evident when digging tatties. Tried putting some corrugated fibreglass sheet over part of the run to give them another dry area, but dismantled part of it again as I thought it looked a bit of a mess!
Came home with 8 eggs, 3 caulis, loads of toms and new tatties. Need to find out what to do about a tom glut and an egg glut!
Got some of my plum tomatoe's drying in a slow oven as I write.

matt44 · #**3895** (**permalink**) 18-08-2008, 08:58 PM

Spent a quick 20 minutes before the rains came digging some horse manure into two of my vacant raised beds whilst trying to keep my 2 year old son from playing with it!

FionaH · #**3896** (**permalink**) 18-08-2008, 09:17 PM

Got 8 bags of well rotted horse manure from a friend today. Shes moving fields so I had to stockpile.

I have a knackered elbow, (too much digging!) and shes got a dodgy back so got eldest son and his mate to help. I told em it was a known hangover cure. Paid em with a cooked breakfast and free rein with the remote control for the olympics

sewer rat · #**3897** (**permalink**) 19-08-2008, 10:51 PM

Planted up another 50 or so strawberry runners and cut the same number again off the parent plants to sit in pots of water to root before potting into compost. Moved all strawberry plants to just outside the tunnel door to start hardening them off in preparation for planting.
Continued planting my leeks - only about 1000 left to do now !!! Such a boring job that I can only do a row or two at a time - there's about 300 to a row.
Sowed the following in cell trays in the tunnel in preparation for when the French beans and cukes are removed in about a fortnight - lettuce (two varieties), raddichio, spinach, pak choi.
Picked approximately 200 courgettes - have missed acouple of days so also now got about 30 or so proper marrows (I have one variety that is dual purpose courgette / marrow).
Checked my Hurst Greenshaft - dripping with pods which should be ready by the end of the week I reckon, and the latest sowing is now germinating and looking good too.
Strimmed the paths between my last four double rows of broad beans which will be ready to start picking next week - or as soon as I or my customers have cleared the existing seven double rows.

Jameslovell · #**3898** (**permalink**) 19-08-2008, 11:21 PM

Tonight I collected four pallets from a kind donator, fixed three together to form the sides and back of a compost bin.

I also moved some raised bed frames I put in the wrong place the other week. The ground was really water logged so building the raised bed should help. Hopefully the raised soild will drain easily to the lower clay soil below and not drown all my plants. (Haven't even sown them yet and have saved them from a a fate worse than Chinese water tourture. he he he)

I am aiming to over the next few weeks to create raised beds all over the plot and sort the soil out in them. Plant green manure and sow my winter crops of garlic, onions and carrots, and under glass for a few weeks/months broad beans, peas and maybe some other goodies.

My new compost bin without the front.

My Sunflower has finally decided to show it face.

J

Little Miss Knuckles · #**3899** (**permalink**) 20-08-2008, 12:41 AM

We had a baby at the beginning of the year hence our garden took second stage. But today ive attempted to clear the garden of junk, weeds and stuff thats just filtered in over the months. We have laid the base to our second hut and are well on the way to errecting our duck n hen house.

The big queston is .......does anyone have an idea of any veggies i can put in now that will grow as weve got nothing at all except some strawbs, rasberry, blackberry, gooseberry and herbs....

Yep im flapping ooodles xxx

thanx

sewer rat · #**3900** (**permalink**) 21-08-2008, 12:43 AM

Lifted, pulled and cut various veg, then sowed 600m of Spring greens.

FionaH · #**3901** (**permalink**) 21-08-2008, 02:12 PM

Planted leeks, spinach and cabbage

amandaandherveg · #**3902** (**permalink**) 22-08-2008, 11:41 AM

The rain went off for a hour so I took the dogs for a walk then squished caterpillars. When I went to bed last night and closed my eyes I saw the damned green wriggly things.

miss_corerupted · #**3903** (**permalink**) 22-08-2008, 01:49 PM

omg the amount of things you all manage to do scares me!! i don't think i could ever manage to do all that

helly · #**3904** (**permalink**) 22-08-2008, 09:37 PM

Yep squished aswell,then jetsprayed the cabbage in hope that they might get the hint and not come back...then so chuffed with oh, he put picket fencing around the plot. Got some water piping off ebay £4 for 45mtrs bargin, so next job to make mini polytunnels over veg beds for winter

FionaH · #**3905** (**permalink**) 23-08-2008, 08:24 PM

Sowed salad and radishes, planted out strawb runners as they were too big for their pots. planted kale

sewer rat · #**3906** (**permalink**) 23-08-2008, 09:43 PM

Today my daughter Iona came and helped me - we lifted 25kg of Lady Christl, 25kg Charlotte, 15kg Red Duke of York and 30kg King Edwards. We then started clearing the first sowing of broad beans which is coming to an end (perfect timing as the second sowing is just about ready to start picking) but Iona got fed up after we had pulled about 20kg. Then we put more supports on the 6 x 25m double rows of Hurst Greenshaft peas as the weight of the crop was bending the existing supports !!

Then Iona went off and played wit the pup whilst I watered the tunnel and started to remove the red spider mite coated French beans, and dismantle their frames.

Snadger · #**3907** (**permalink**) 23-08-2008, 11:01 PM

Went to the allotment early today with a bit of trepidation for an urgent committe meeting I'd called because of complaints by a local resident.
Hopefully problem is resolved!

Turned over a plot that had my onion sets in and filled the bed with Redbor curly kale seedlings. Took the supports and netting off my clubroot resistant cabbage and utilised this over the redbor seedlings.

Dug up some Kestrel 2nd early spuds which are supposed to be slug resistant and there wasn't a slug in sight. They look a bit like King Edwards with pink eyes and I look forward to seeing what they taste like and how they cook. If they are OK I think I may pencil them in as a required aquisition next year.
Pulled a large swede as requested by 'her who must be obeyed' and the chooks made short work of the swede tops. Swede tops seem to be there favourite greens so I'll have to grow a lot more next year!
Mentioning chooks, I had my first 10 eggs from 10 chooks today and one of them was a double yolker!

I needed to get rid of all these extra eggs so I've set up a little sales kiosk at the allotment entrance 'Fresh eggs @ 80p a half doz' I've left an honesty box (an old moneybox) and had to put a 'sold out' notice up when I left after selling 4 doz eggs in two days!
Whoever is buying usually just chuck a quid in the box......which I certainly aint complaining about!
One project is to build a box with a perspex door and an integral sign on top. Paint the lot matt black and just use chalk to make the sign and change it as required.
The reason for the perspex front is that a magpie thought it had more right to the eggs than anyone and pecked a hole in the top of one of them!