Grow Your Own Magazine

wellie · #**2101** (**permalink**) 25-06-2007, 10:42 AM

I sowed some more cut'n'come again salad leaves in baby troughs for the Salad Bar. In between heavy showers, I harvested the last of our Bored Beans, and then cleared the bed for Mini Caulis, Calabrese and Swede plants waiting in the wings.

In the Grown-Up-Girls Greenhouse, I thinned out more foliage from the tomatoes, peppers and aubergines at soil level, which makes it easier to water, and allows more air to flow through.

Got an Allotment (!) and updated the Blog again.

Thank you for listening,

Farmer_Gyles · #**2102** (**permalink**) 25-06-2007, 12:54 PM

have been watering greenhouse stuff last few days - mother nature has taken care of the outside stuff
today potted on 3 rocket, 2 celery, 1 tomato - will plant rocket and celery outside when it's big enough to resist slug attacks
not much more to do right now - admired the seedlings popping up in the greenhouse then stood in the rain admiring everything growing outside ....

heebiejeebie · #**2103** (**permalink**) 25-06-2007, 07:06 PM

Just weeded a few handfuls and tidied up a bit today. Pulled up the remaining garlic to dry as one bulb was rotted. The rest were fine though. Staked the JAs. Looked at the wilting foliage on the Anya tatties and tried not to salivate.

The squash plants and the courgette are flowering nicely and I have what look like 4 teensy squash beginning to develop.

After the mr's efforts with the lawnmower, the compost bin is steaming and smells of silage. Added some rougher stuff and mixed it up a bit.

shirlthegirl43 · #**2104** (**permalink**) 25-06-2007, 07:32 PM

Stayed in out of the rain and howling northerly wind. Feels more like March or April than middle of June here today!

sewer rat · #**2105** (**permalink**) 25-06-2007, 07:55 PM

Watered toms and cukes in tunnel then put on my oilskins and planted out 1200 Tornado leeks. Am happy to report that that is all my leeks in the ground (until tomorrow when I'll have to replant some after the crows have pulled them out).
Checked my first early tatties (Lady Christl) - should be ready to bag and sell in about a week

Geo · #**2106** (**permalink**) 25-06-2007, 10:23 PM

My sunflowers were getting a batering from ....

gale force winds and rain...so got drenced to the skin..

Fixing them to stakes and cross poles

Geo..

Bren In Pots · #**2107** (**permalink**) 25-06-2007, 10:32 PM

Picked my first runner beans and peas today, was worth getting wet through for

Mrs Dobby · #**2108** (**permalink**) 26-06-2007, 10:24 PM

Got to the plot for about 11am this morning, first day without torrential rain of our hols, so took the chance to harvest the overwintering garlic and first of the overwintering onions! All these are now drying on the wire racking in the back bedroom!

We also harvested the Pentland Javelin First Early spuds, as the haulms had completely died back, not a bad yield of about 30kilos from 2.5kg planted, and most of them are in perfect condition!

Mr D then spent a good few hours weeding on plot2, along with cutting back the paths with his new shears, before he harvested about 1 1/2lb of blackcurrants!

I weeded, then weeded some more, then weeded a bit more, then did some harvesting fro tonights tea!

Took some piccies of the harvests and the plot, updated the blog wiht the harvesting piccies, now off to cook tea and then post some of the plot piccies on our blog!

waynebeddall · #**2109** (**permalink**) 26-06-2007, 11:29 PM

Went to allotment at 6.30am with the wife and kid. Me and the wife erected the shed and not a bad job either considering the way I dismantelled it from my mothers garden. Went home at 8.15 to get ready for work. Went back to allotment a 6.30 to sort the inside of the shed out, I even potted a few squash's ready to put into the ground in a week or so. Also took a couple of pics.

moggssue · #**2110** (**permalink**) 27-06-2007, 11:00 AM

Took advantage of a wee bit of sunshine after work to sow the last batch of spinach, picked and ate some of the previous batch of spinach (stuffed into chicken breasts with soft cheese and garlic - yummy!!), fed half of my tatties in containers and left the other half to see how they fare, repotted my basil and ikkle chilli (cant compete with Mr and Mrs D there!!), had a feel of my broad beans but still can't feel anything inside the pods but fed them just in case. Finally, ran indoors ahead of the black clouds and started thinking about what to plant so I can carry on picking into the winter.

shirlthegirl43 · #**2111** (**permalink**) 27-06-2007, 11:14 AM

Yesterday, I chopped all the tops of my tatties - not worth trying to keep them going any longer. Think I might have to do the same with the outdoor tomatoes but will wait a bit before doing it - keep hoping that the blight will stop! Put up my new windbreak netting round my 'brassica bed' to keep the cat and the bugs out. Pond netting as a roof should keep the flutterbies out (I hope). Determined that we will get stuff we can actually eat this year. Dusted everything with a bit more Derris to stop the flea beetle having a scoff. Admired my six asparagus spears

Wished the rain would go away and the sun come back out - it is cold!!!

Heidi · #**2112** (**permalink**) 27-06-2007, 11:38 AM

Last night after work OH and I went to the lottie and put up our second large (homemade) clouch around our second brassica bed. The first bed and clouch are doing well - a few holes in the fleece, but are now bug-free and happy and healthy looking. The brussels are going great guns, and we're starting to get the first broccoli flower heads developing on the purple sprouting broccoli

We also did a bit of much needed weeding!
We have a few baby beans developing and some tiny baby courgettes are appearing. So hopefully we'll soon be able to eat something we've grown!

Hazel at the Hill · #**2113** (**permalink**) 27-06-2007, 02:17 PM

I went to the Hill and pulled up about half of the onions (we've had eelworm, and these ones still look a bit stunted) in the hope that it will give the others a chance to swell. Sowed the sets too close!

Did a load of weeding of the onions (and generally), and today I've updated the blog and will be sobbing onto the chopping board later when I chop and freeze 50 onions!

pigletwillie · #**2114** (**permalink**) 27-06-2007, 04:49 PM

As there was no rain this morning, I managed to lay two runs of membrane under the new fruit trees and into that planted the last 3 crown prince pumpkin and the first 5 butternut squash. Two more runs of membrane will see the job done and the carnival squash in.
Also on the planting front, 40 swede plantlets were planted out as were some lettuce (French Varieties) and the last runners went in as fillers where plants had failed or been eaten.

Strawberies, razzers, red currants and another huge trug of broad beans were harvested. I see a summer pudding coming on for the birthday party.

wellie · #**2115** (**permalink**) 27-06-2007, 07:59 PM

Oh, don't cry Hazel....
Piggy darling - you're scaring me! Could I have my Summer Pudding without the Broad Beans? And given that I've got to sleep with him, they give Trousers terrible wind.....

Well now, I called into my NOO allotment site this afternoon, not knowing which one it actually is? Bear with me, it's a self-inflicted 'guessing game'. I am to meet the current plot-holder in the morning, and I just wanted to try and guess which plot I've got from the description he gave me over the phone. And, I think I've got it cracked!

It also gave me the opportunity to source the site of the water to all plots, and to talk to Pat, who says that some people use hosepipes (!) and no sheds are allowed. I'm wondering just where on earth the 'Little Girls Room' may be?! Get real Wellie girl...

So, after that in the morning, I'm calling round to the Site Administrator's house to pick up a copy of The Rules, and no doubt, I'm sure I'll have a few questions of my own.... I am SO excited!

I picked about 8 ripe Sungella and Sungold tomatoes this evening for a smoked fish salad (if you ever find a tub of Smoked Mussels, buy them, you won't regret it...) along with a cucumber and little gem lettuce. Mmmm.

Thank you for listening,

wellie · #**2116** (**permalink**) 27-06-2007, 08:16 PM

Oh, and the other best bit of today is that Admin Dave is going to send me a complimentary copy of 'Let's Grow Veg' magazine, to say "Thanks" for linking GYO to our blog. Which actually, blew me away. Thanks Dave!

(Have YOU seen that White Fiver lately?!)

Mrs Dobby · #**2117** (**permalink**) 27-06-2007, 09:27 PM

Got up to a grey, rainy and windy morning, so spent some time side shooting, feeding and watering the toms in the plastic greenhouse in the back yard, whilst Mr D did some potting on.

Rain stopped for about 11am, so with lunch made and a hot flask of coffee we set off for the plot, and have just this minute got back!

Between us we've dug over the 2 beds that we've harvested early spuds from, dug over another 15' by 4' bed, weeded the 9' by 30' brassica bed, fed and watered inside the greenhouse, and done some planting!

A total of 12 sunflowers, 54 assorted brassica seedlings, 29 celery seedlings and 290 leek seedlings were planted out, bringing our total of leeks growing to 330 and our total of growing brassicas to about 100!

Squealed with delight also today, after spotting the first two of our cauli's with edible curds! Bent the leaves over to protect them and weeded round them, one if about 4 mouthfulls big and the other about 2 mouthfulls, but hopefully they will soon be a bit bigger!

Plot1 is once again full of growing crops, and plot 2 is full apart from 2 beds, which (if the rain holds off for a bit) will be planted up this week!

Now its time for food, both starving after 9 hours on the plot!

shirlthegirl43 · #**2118** (**permalink**) 27-06-2007, 09:35 PM

Harvested all my blighted spuds, got enough for maybe 3 meals!! From 30 buckets that is tragic.

On a more positive note, I finally conquered enough of the bramble patch to sow a row of kohl rabi. Not much really but it feels like an amazing achievement. I have attached a picture so that I can look back and see the progress. The kohl rabi is under the carpet so the cat can't re-sow it!

This time last year the brambles (behind the peas in the picture) covered the whole area in the photo - to a depth of 6 foot.

kirsty b · #**2119** (**permalink**) 27-06-2007, 10:49 PM

Fitted a new gate on the chook run. cut down the nettles at the front to make space for the rubbish I'm going to stack up there till I take it to the tip.
Got a marmande tom getting bigger (my only on of those so far), put some young leeks back in their hole where birds have pulled them up. Going to sow some more carrots and beetroot tomorrow when I've cleared enough room.

Mrs Dobby · #**2120** (**permalink**) 28-06-2007, 07:55 PM

Weather looked nice when we got up, so after a quick trip to pick up the piccies of Yo and Bob's wedding we went straight down to the plot! The plan was to finish the weeding on plot1, sort out the herb bed and plant it up with seedlings, dig over the 2 unused beds on plot2 and plants some more swede, turnip, carrot and parsnip!

On arriving we were approached by one of the other plot holders and asked if we'd like some cauli and cabbages that she'd got spare, so of course said yes, then found ourselves with another 40 brassicas to squeeze in! As one of the spare beds on plot 2 had kale in it when we took the plot over we decided instead to try and sort out the asparagus bed (which has done almost nothing this year, apart from 3 ferns of asparagus that are visible), sacrificing the little asparagus we have (if needs be) to plant out the brassicas!

Mr D started to dig it over, its been sadly neglected with a lot of thistle, dandelion, bindweed and couch in it, and did manage to safetly remove the asparagus, also finding another 3 crowns that hadnt grown, so then the problem of where to plant them?

We decided that as there was only the 5 crowns that we'd put them into what was going to be the herb bed, which has been covered over with weed control fabric since we transplanted the 2 foxgloves into it (after double digging) back in November. On removing the weed control fabric it was to find lots of weeds, so I started to dig it over, then as I got half way through it started to pour it down!

So, we finished digging, raking, compacting the soil and planting the brassicas out in the rain! So, a productive day, even if we got nothing that we'd planned done!

sewer rat · #**2121** (**permalink**) 28-06-2007, 10:37 PM

Sowed the final two drills of carrots, two of beetroot and one of Swiss Chard.
Sowed 10 double rows of late peas, then planted out some Charita Lettuces.
Started to clear the weeds from round my brassicas as they are beginning to get smothered.
Came home, shower, supper the took Iona to see Red Arrows at our local Gala.