Grow Your Own Magazine

It's raining again here today so I have been in and out...picked more beans...dug enough potatoes for supper, picked the last of the kale and weeded..weeded and weeded...did mostly some clean up and tying up of tomatoes..cleaned up all the debris in the beds and sorted through some new seed I bought while vacationing in FL...

Went to see how the crops are doing, came back with 3 lettuces and plans for the cauli that's big enough to pick. Think it'll keep better on the plant for a couple more days rather than in the fridge. There are 4 courgettes that should be big enough in a couple of days. One squash plant (on ex-tattie plot) has two fruits on it, the other (on ex-bean plot) has at least 6 and more flowers!

REALLY need to weed.

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You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
Max Ehrmann, Desiderata

blog: http://allyheebiejeebie.blogspot.com/ and my (basic!) page: http://www.allythegardener.co.uk/

On Tuesday I mostly strimmed and mowed all the site paths.
On Wednesday I mostly went looking for some fencing for my front garden and also bought some garden centre brassicas.
Today I mostly dealt with the after effects of an idiot driving into my nice shiny new car and consoled myself thinking about the "Best Kept" Judges who were out Wednesday and Thursday evenings in the rain.

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Always thank people who have helped you immediately, as they may not be around to thank later.
Visit my blog at http://podsplot.blogspot.com/
I support http://www.hearingdogs.org.uk/

Harvested some spring onions to go in a salad for dinner (laser), admired my little baby chilli plant that is fighting to survive, updated the blog, rearranged ll my pots, and dug up the patio...all in a few hours.

Rain, rain, go away...

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Vegmonkey and the Mrs. - vegetable gardening in a small space in Cheltenham at www.vegmonkey.co.uk

Today was a washout. It cleared for about 30mins in which time I picked a dish of raspberries. Don't know how they're ripening considering how little sunshine they're getting but I am able to pick a dish ful every day. Watered all the peppers and tomatoes in the greenhouse. Could'nt get out to do anything else.

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And when you're back stops aching,
And you're hands begin to harden.
You will find yourself a partner,
In the glory of the garden.

Rudyard Kipling.

Whilst it was windy today the rain held off allowing me to harvest the last (very full) trug of broad beans and clear the haulms away.

Amazingly the ground was friable enough to rake over and plant with cavelo nero and swede modules. With them both being brassicas and there being pigeons about, the whole lot were netted over.

Over on the fruit plot, several pounds of very ripe gooseberries were picked as were some blackcurrants and raspberries.

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Kindest regards, David.

http://pigletsplots.blogspot.com/
updated - Sunday 19th at 2100hrs

Had first courgettes yesterday & first runner beans & fennel today.

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I cook with wine, sometimes I even add it to the food.
W. C. Fields

The gooseberries mentioned earlier are now "bottled" in 0.5 litre bottling jars in sugar syrup and are cooling, the raspberries are now muffins, the broad beans frozen and best of all:-

7 x 75cl bottles of rhubarb schnapps have just been filtered, filled and corked and a large batch of limoncello is now being made, 80 days till bottling that though.

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Kindest regards, David.

http://pigletsplots.blogspot.com/
updated - Sunday 19th at 2100hrs

Put all my hanging basket toms outside on frames, built compost bin round my well seasoned cowsh*t - planted spare courgettes on section that I won't need to use for a couple of months. Started hoeing brassicas, sold some more spuds.

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Rat

British by birth
Scottish by the Grace of God

Blog updated Wednesday November 13th

Did a bit of shopping: a packet of tomato seeds (alicante) and a packet of turnip seeds (best of all) from www.brownenvelopeseeds.com and then bought 2 terracotta pots from a hardward shop when we went out for a drive, they were only €1.20 each, bargain!

cropped loads of tatties, a few peas and a couple of caulis. Took some pics and updated my blog

__________________
You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
Max Ehrmann, Desiderata

blog: http://allyheebiejeebie.blogspot.com/ and my (basic!) page: http://www.allythegardener.co.uk/

Well, WHAT a gorgeous day! The sun shone through bedroom window and nudged me out of bed at 7ish (luckily, there was a mug of tea beside me to make the transition more gentle....) and, because I'd bought the August issue of GYO in AlFresco yesterday, I was able to spend a whole hour in the conservatory not talking to the cat or himself, until I'd properly woken up.

At which point, him and me attacked the garden/potager. Trousers took 'shed loads' of foliage off the Wisteria between the Potting Shed and the Little Girls Greenhouse, because Thursday's winds took the trellis and downpipe away with it all. Brilliant Job Trousers.....
Wellie picked more ripe white, red & black currants, and simply loads more Blueberries.
I decided to harvest all the Banana Shallots lunchtime as well, rightly or wrongly. I've noticed that there's new growth beginning to happen in the 'growing point' and I don't want that.

And I just couldn't stand looking at the powdery mildewed leaves of the very first sown courgette plants any longer, so I cut a lot of them off. There are other courgette plants in other parts of the potager to 'take over' ( I successionally sow courgette plants, because of this).

And then as the days' sun was disappearing, I persuaded a very reluctant Trousers to photograph Fert & Liza practicing for the Wimbledon Finals. Thankfully, my cat was really enthusiastic, which kind of lead Trousers into a false sense of security. By the time he'd finished the photos, he was as giggly as I was from the start. Bless my little cotton sox....!
Thank you for listening....

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With Love,
Wellie

Give it some....

http://hollycottagegarden.blogspot.com
BLOG UPDATED Sunday 2nd November at 19.30hrs

Wow, what a day! First of all the sun has shone all day (still windy though) - wahey! Secondly, my turnips have sprouted and they were only planted on the 3rd July!! Way to go - hope they carry on growing as fast

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Happy Gardening,
Shirley

http://www.honeyjukes.co.uk

Well, we only had one shower today, but I've not been as busy as I should have been. Went to the lottie this afternoon, though, pulled lots of weeds but still lots more to go. Picked last of bored beans, more mangetout peas, 1 courgette and some more potatoes.

Found my parsnips!

Spent 2 hours weeding. That means the swede bed and the parsnip/lettuce bed contain, respectively, swedes and parsnips & lettuce. I removed the netting since everything is big enough to cope with the pigeons and that will encourage me to pull up weeds more often as I no longer have to wrestle with the removing and replacing palaver.

Admired the first tiny developing romanesco. The snowball caulis seem to be doing well and the JAs are now taller than me.

__________________
You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
Max Ehrmann, Desiderata

blog: http://allyheebiejeebie.blogspot.com/ and my (basic!) page: http://www.allythegardener.co.uk/

After a couple of weeks of not getting to the lottie much - away on a course last week, awful rainy weather etc., this morning the sun was shining so I headed off to the plot!

Started off by using my Nemaslug - that'll teach them for eating my plants!

Planted out my brassicas - have lots of early PSB, and a couple of other calabrese, and arranged a net tent over them - I know it won't keep the cabbage white eggs off, but I haven't got anything else sorted yet they were covered by a fleece tent until today.

Put some better pea supports in - the twiggy prunings were nowhere near up to the job, planted some cucumbers out, replaced the tomato canes with taller ones, then took the shears to my very overgrown paths. At some point soon I hope to get them weeded again, and then get either membrane & bark, or slabs down.

Strawbs are disappointing - look lovely & red, but not very sweet or tasty (and I have 3 different varieties, so it's not the type) - I'm assuming the lack of sun & warmth has hindered the ripening / sweetening process.

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Si hoc legere scis, nimis eruditionis habes

http://viks-garden.blogspot.com/

Did a grand demolition job today with my much beloved. Bashed down and pulled apart the burnt out sheds and cleared the area that the chicken run is to be extended into, should double the size of it and give my girls much more room.
Came home absolutely rotten, black from top to toe from all the ash and dust. Lost count of the amount of times I bashed my head on bits of metal and Steve got stung to bits when he inadvertently disturbed a wasps nest, thankfully no nasty reactions to the stings apart from swearing!
Going to pop a quick update on the blog, tomorrow going to take pics of the new run once its up and the girls are in.
Plants fairly happy doing their own thing at the mo, which is just as well really! Harvested shallots today, little ones to be pickled and bigger ones to be stored for cooking. Quite a good yield. Lifted garlic too, not brilliant size wise but I'm sure it'll taste fine.
Spotted first teeny baby french beans have formed. Yay!

Kirsty

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I'd rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself than be crowded on a velvet cushion.

http://hollandsroadparadise.blogspot.com
updated 14 May 2008

www.bradleyroundtwo.blogspot.com

Yesterday did some much needed maintenance on my toms which have been stuck in the greenhouse at back of the garden with no water for the last few days as it was too wet to get to them, they seem to have survived ok as have the french beans which were in there with them, the beans have even flowered and are producing baby beans. They are now out in the garden for a couple of days to get some fresh air, rain etc before going into the big greenhouse.

Planted some more broadies and peas inside in propagators along with some more peppers, chillies and courgettes in the hope I might get a crop later on as the rain has all but drowned the courgettes and I dont hold out much hope - you can but try.
I need to pot on some more toms, peppers and chillies.

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Kim



http://kimbos-veggies.blogspot.com

I love harvest time! Loads of peas (Markana) broad beans, courgettes and new potatoes with more mangetout and the first french beans in the offing. Weeded loads and Mr F 'mowed' half his wildflower meadow which now looks like a bad haircut! When it's settled down he will strim it. Made 'Sleeping Beauty' for the village scarecrow competition. She goes out tomorrow. Try for a pic.
Sowed a couple of Gold Rush courgettes for when the Zuchini run out of ooomph. Have a nice day.

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Earth laughs in flowers. Ralph Waldo Emerson

www.vegheaven.blogspot.com

Updated November 30th - Mr Stinky's Excellent Adventure (and a Christmas Cake)

I was at work, but Piglette bless her, spent all day on the plots, watering the tunnels and tieing in tomatoes.

After that job, well we do grow lots of tomatoes, she harvested some 10kg of tomatoes which will make a batch of red tomato chutney and several Kg each of red and black currants. It must be the rain but the blackcurrants are huge.

Labelled the limoncello and dated it for 40 days time for stage 2.

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Kindest regards, David.

http://pigletsplots.blogspot.com/
updated - Sunday 19th at 2100hrs

Dodged heavy thunder showers, picked mangetout, dug up the last of the Lady Christl potatoes, harvested lots and lots of sweet peas (the whole of downstairs smells gorgeous, and did valiant battle against ground elder on the new plot. Got very, very, very wet.

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http://inelegantgardener.blogspot.com
Updated 13th September

We planted out the broccoli today, some left over beans, peas and sunflowers (might be too late for them, but couldn't throw them out )

We had plenty of broccoli left over, so we took them over to our friends plot, and got some lovely new potatoes they were digging up, yum, can't wait to try them and grow my own next year

We also put in the much needed cane for some beans and the tomatoe plants.

It rained for me too, just as we had finished planting what we needed too