Grow Your Own Magazine

Today me and Iona did loads
We planted out cabbage "Minicole" and cauliflower "Idol" and protected with ginger bottle cloches.
Planted row of red onions that were started in pots in greenhouse.
Sowed carrots - "Early Nantes 5" and "Paris Market" (cheers Nick), parsnips "Gladiator" and Tender and True", beetroot "Boltardy".
Sowed a length of guttering with maincrop pea "Alderman".
Potted on PSB and broccolli "F1 Hydra" into 3" pots.
Planted some aquilegias that were getting under my feet in the greenhouse.
Repotted a Hosta "Blue Cadet" that was overwintered in greenhouse.
Was going to cut the grass but it started p***ing down so didn't bother.
Still have loads to do - greenhouse full of leeks, PSB, various Lettuces, CCA salad leaves, calabrese, climbing french beans, runner beans, sweet peas, tagetes, calendula, chives and parsley, not to mention two lengths of guttering with peas and 12 buckets containing earlies and second early spuds.
Some of what I did today was maybe a wee bit premature, but don't think I'll get another day like today til beginning of June - and Jax says I have to plant my french and runner beans then !
Oh yeah - and me and Iona went for a walk for a couple of hours along a local beach - seals skulls are a funny shape - found one washed up at the tide line.

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Rat

British by birth
Scottish by the Grace of God

Blog updated Wednesday 17th September

Got half of my maincrop tatties in (picasso) just got the Maxine left to do. then I've got a row of brussels & a row of Cauli's to drop in tommorrow hopefully.

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ntg

Never be afraid to try something new.
Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark.
A large group of professionals built the Titanic

http://grief-encounters.blogspot.com/

I was mainly at work. but I sowed some more cucumbers, squash and french beans. Had some good(?) ideas about beans and composting. Will report later.

concentrated on the garden over the w/e. pressure washed the whole patio - very ungreen with the water shortage, but we are allowed to do it still, and as I have been watering the veggies by hand... cut all the grass. weeded lots more. gave up on spanish bluebells and creeping buttercup, and put tumbleweed on them where they are in huge areas. planted various new plants. today am planning to start some more seeds off - different salady types.

Not done much in the garden as O.H. dragged me out over the weekend, but I did get to a garden centre at Port Sunlight on the Wirral & bought a couple of trays of bedding plants.Posting a few photos of the Harrogate Show- I got another goody bag from the Bayer/Easy Gardening Roadshow there after asking about my patio lemon which is looking a bit pale & has chewed leaves. I asked if it needed a specialist citrus feed & they said no- probably because they didn't have one in the range they were promoting

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Into every life a little rain must fall.

Its May, so now safe to start (hopefully!). So sowed runner beans, gardeners delight toms, peas, and got a few pots of dahlias and cleome in the propagator. Yesterday, got my early spuds in (still got loads left, think I went a bit overboard.)

Ordered a greenhouse from Wickes builders merchants. It should arrive Thursday. My first "proper" greenhouse. Had a poythene one from poundstretcher last year.

Today I celebrated my birthday and because the weather was so bad I did'nt get a chance to do any gardening. My daughter-in-law gave me the best birthday present ever. She and my son had a baby boy at 8;.30 last night (2nd may) my birthday. Baby was due on April 20th and arrived on m birthday.Am over the moon.

Happy birthday Bramble!!

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Shortie

"There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children; one of these is roots, the other wings" - Hodding Carter

Shortie, thanks so much, am on ahigh after waiting for baby since April 20th. Recon it was worth waiting for and on my birthday too.

Happy birthday & congrats on becoming a grandparent Bramble -bet that was a lovely surprise!
The sun is shining here today although it's still very windy.I've just sown some runner beans-dwarf & 'Red Rum' & poked about 110 small summer bulbs into pots & spaces in the front & back garden.

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Into every life a little rain must fall.

Congratulations Bramble - what a lovely surprise! Are you planning the grandchildren's garden patch already? I got into gardening at a very young age as my granny (Nana) gave me a small piece of ground in her veg garden and my first crop was radishes apparently at the age of three (so they tell me - can't remember that far back!)

many congratulations Bramble - hope they are all getting some sleep!

have just been trying my new (birthday present today!) compost stirrer. not the most enjoyable of jobs, as millions of little flies burst out, but I think the compost might be going to do something. have bunged on a load of compost accelerator plus a layer of grass clippings (the heat from them was amazing!) and will keep at it.
am pondering the idea of a wormery though, for kitchen waste, and just using the heaps and the dalek for garden debris. anyone got a wormery?

Bramble
Belated birthday wishes and congratulations on becoming a granny.

__________________
Rat

British by birth
Scottish by the Grace of God

Blog updated Wednesday 17th September

So...what's it like being married to a grandpa then????

Can we ask you if you still think he's great after you've babysat him for a weekend

Happy birthday for yesterday & congratulation to you & the proud parents

__________________
ntg

Never be afraid to try something new.
Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark.
A large group of professionals built the Titanic

http://grief-encounters.blogspot.com/

I was at work for a long time

i went to college, came home, checked the potatoes, checked the sunflowers to find one had been chewed so i covered it with another bottle and changed all of their bottles because they seem to be taking off really quickly now theyre finally free (i planted them out because i was taking over the conservatory with all my pots and tubs ), i did some dead heading to find some pansies have also been chewed checked the toms who are all starting to grow rapidly checked the seeds i planted the other day...no sign yet *fingers crossed* and planned to get some other seeds very soon, cant wait until all this planning pays off

Just want to say thanks for all the nice birthday wishes and congrats on becoming a granny, and yes, grandad is still doing ok. Have three other grandkids and hoping to make a gardener out of one of them at least. A good idea to give a piece of the garden to them and start them off young.

Helped re glaze some broken glass in a neighbour’s greenhouse.
Earthed up the Red Duke of York spuds in tubs. Watered the greenhouse plants. Planted a new raspberry cane given to me by a neighbour.
Built wigwams for sweet peas. Mixed compost with vermiculite. Split a Bay up into eleven smaller pots.
Ate another meal from produce grown by my fair [worn callused] hands. OK it was only salad leaves and radish with beetroot leaves but it tasted fantastic.

two more tulip suicides, it must be some sort of insect eating its way through the stem as I have ruled out wind and animal damage. I watered the plants in the greenhouse. I have some herbs in those degradable pots on the floor and I noticed some woodlice in my coriander - will they do any harm? My peas, beans, sweetcorn, sunflowers and squash have all germinated and I will begin hardening them off in a couple of weeks. Aubergines still small and I have yet to pot on my peppers and chillies. I have one set of tomatoes to pot on (tumbling tom). Somehow I have ended up with 100 tomato plants, I don't know what to do with them all. My potatoes are still chitting as I still haven't room for them. My onion and shallots have been in the ground for about 3 weeks and are growing away well, as is the garlic. I will be sowing leeks, cabbage (Andrewo, I haven't forgotten I owe you some savoy seeds, PM me your address as I'll be opening the packet this weekend), brussels in seed trays and hopefully making first sowings of carrots, parsnips and beetroot straight in the ground - still haven't finished digging yet though...

My carrotts, parsnips and beetroot have been sown directly into the ground. I bought some really cheap cauliflowers, lettuce and beetroot like plug plants from a highland show over the weekend and planted them lastnight. These are all under fleece at the moment but I am trying to construct a fleece tunnel so these can over the top of them.

Potatoes - earlies are up so I keep covering them with soil. When do 2nd earlies and maincrop start showing?

Plenty of blossom on the £2.99 fruit trees I bought from Netto (apple, plum and cherry) - will these actually provide fruit this year bearing in mind they were in a cardboard box only 10 weeks ago?

Planted some comfry last year but thought I'd lost it over winter - nope, its resurfaced and growing very well - once a well established plant, cut off leaves and place on top of water, wait for it to break/dissolve down then OK as feed?

Finally, wigwams erected for runner beans....can I directly sow my beans into the ground or is it best to start them off at home and transplant?

Thanks.

Amanda-Good grief you'll have to open up a stall selling your tomato plants! The woodlice shouldn't do any harm they only usually eat dead material & I have loads hiding under my pots in the garden & they don't seem to vandalise anything.
Simon, if you're in a fairly sheltered area it should be O.K. to plant into the ground but I usually start beans off in pots first as you can lose the seeds to mice etc. in the ground & sometimes slugs eat the young shoots as soon as they come up & you wonder where they've gone-it's easier to keep an eye on a slightly more established seedlings.
I've just been taking photos of all the lovely flowers which have suddenly appeared in our garden & watching all the butterflies & bees. Sown a few nasturtiums, sunflowers & pumpkin seeds.

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Into every life a little rain must fall.