The Potting Shed - come on in, the kettle's on!

rhiwfield

Morning all, dull and damp outside. Checked the ph of the newly cleared potato bed yesterday, just 5.5 so I gave it a lime dressing and thats been well watered in as we've had over an inch of rain since. Managed to get in 3 rows of swiss chard in another bed before the heavens opened.

Ah well, got to hang around house today as freezer repair man coming at some point. Still, freezer playing up forced us to try new preserving methods and we picked most of the remaining blackcurrants yesterday and bottled them. First time weve done this so we'll be waiting to see if the seals have held

Just got enough blackcurrants left to try the cassis and vodka recipes :beer:

Lotus-eater

Morning, we ate the first courgettes yesterday, two each from three plants, strange, because one plant was well advanced in growing, but they still all fruit together. We also ate broad beans and peas.
I started tidying up the garden ready for the best kitchen garden competition judging that will be next week.

As usual I am swimming in lettuces, the chickens are eating loads. The leeks are almost ready to be transplanted,
The bosenberries have come in this year and are now cropping everyday, they are as nice as I thought they would be, my fav berry so far. Mind you the Joan J raspberries that we are starting to have, are also excellent.

Gigervamp

Morning all. First time posting in this thread although I've been following it since the start.

We got a 210 litre water butt and fitted it the other day. Checked it the day before yesterday and it was full to the brim already! We need to get another one to put on the other corner of the house. Not only will I be able to water my veggies with nice rainwater, it also means that less water is going down into our cess pit which we currently have to get emptied about every 3 months at a cost of £165 a time.

My courgettes are starting to get flower buds as well as my cucumber. I've never grown cucumber before so I'm looking forward to seeing how that goes.

Not got many flowers on my tomatoes though. I never seem to do very well with tomatoes despite my trying every year! This year I've got them growing in my mini greenhouse as they were an unknown variety picked up at Homebase reduced.

Primrose

It's proving a good summer for soft fruit, isn't it? I've been rather overwhelmed with fruit from 3 gooseberry bushes, and my 2 red and 1 blackcurrant bushes. These, together with my strawberry bed are all planted in borders in my front garden as there is literally no room for them in the back garden. However, as the past 3 weeks have seen me regularly on my knees in the front garden picking fruit, they're probably decided that I've become a religious convert. But two wood pigeons are nesting in the tree next door and have cottoned on to what my activities are involved in, so I now have competition for the rapidly ripening fruit!
I just love this time of year and hate being trapped indoors. We now have our gazebo erected on our patio, so even when it's raining I can sit outside under cover and enjoy a book if I can't do gardening.

Lotus-eater

This is my pea crop from this morning.
http://s293.photobucket.com/albums/mm72/moneysaving/?action=view&current=pea.jpg

Tell you how much they weighed later, atm I've only been depodding them for an hour :rolleyes:

edit.
920grams of peas, 1/2 hour to pick, 1 1/2 hours to pod..... good job I like peas.

xnatalie81x

Off to the lottie today to do some of my first ever planting there - stuff at home coming along lovely and i am currently listing loads of my designer clothes on ebay to buy a second hand shed sob sob. Sure sign my old lifestyle is over and my frugalness is taking over. SELLING MY DESIGNER CLOTHES SOB SOB. I ma keeping a few juicy tracksuits (about 6 lol) and some other bits but if i don't raise enough for the shed they will be destined for ebay too. And possibly my shoes and handbags. Will be worth it though as i cannot wear them while gardening anyway and i can buy some really gorg wellies to make up for it lol

Moniker

Hi everyone, this is my first post to this thread. Although I have been a gardener for years I have never really tried to grow veg until this year. I have a 'square foot' garden (it's actually 5 half metre sq boxes in a row alongside my garage) - each box is divided into 4 squares. I have sown a different crop in each square and so far have harvested quite a lot of lettuce, swiss chard and rocket. The fastest growers were the raddishes but after the first couple they seemed to be very 'woody' and thin and inedible. I have also found something has affected the rocket - it is covered with small whitey scales. I thought it was insect damage, but MIL thinks it is just the weather conditions. Difficult to diagnose without a picture I know but has anyone else had this sort of thing happen? Is it safe to eat it?

I re-sowed lettuce, rocket and chard this weekend. I also have carrots and spring onions and beetroot doing well but am not sure when they will be ready to harvest. Any tips/advice would be most welcome.

Thanks

Moniker

marrbett

Morning all, we've had a slight downpour but the sun is now shining. Definite drop in the temperature in the south.
We had a letter from our allotment commitee telling us we had an infestation of long grass and could we sort it out, which upset me loads over the weekend because finally our lottie is just about weed-free and the grass was cut a couple of weeks ago. It probably needs doing again soon, but is by no means seeding or even long!!! I feel like we must be on a 'to watch' list as they seem to be picking on us alot- it takes some of the enjoyment of it away when you're watching your back all the time. I'll try and post a photo if I get the chance so you can tell me if they are being unreasonable.
Anyway, we've eaten our broad beans, courgettes, beetroot, potatoes and carrots over the weekend.,the strawberries have just about finished, but we've had a constant supply of the for the last 3 weeks or so.
Have a good day everyone....

angelavdavis

Hi Everyone.

Mine's a white tea without sugar please!!!

Well, grey and started raining again about half an hour ago.

OH and I spent the afternoon in the garden yesterday, we laid down some weed suppressing fabric around some shrubs we had previously planted and bark chipped it. Luckily someone from freecycle was giving away bark chips, so these were free!!! It looks a lot tidier.

The runner beans are growing up the arches well now and I managed to harvest my first crop of garlic which are now plaited and hanging up in the utility room to dry out.

We also bought some more compost to earth up the potatoes.

I have a question for potato growers - some of my potato shoots were quite long before I got a chance to earth them up - am I wasting my time? I usually earth up as the sprouts appear, but I had some treatment which meant I couldn't do any heavy work so they have grown a bit longer than usual.

WestonDave

Bit of a manic weekend as I was on a course all day on Saturday - "Personal Budget coaching" so very MSE! Only really managed to get outside in the evenings.

Got some weed and feed stuff on the worst parts of the lawn - hopefully once that removes some of the flowers from it, we won't have any more stung feet! Cleared around the raspberries which are fruiting nicely even though last years growth (first year) was pretty small. 4 out of the 6 are really taking off this year so hopefully next year will see some good crops. Also had a good hack around the bottom part of the garden where I want to (longer term) add another raised bed. That is going to need some serious clearing as there is a massive fuschia in there - its quite pretty but in the wrong place as you have to get close up to see it. I'm afraid we are going for productive rather than ornamental at the moment as the kids are young and will benefit more from fresh veg than pretty plants. Also finally filled in the gaps around the base of the climbing tower I built the kids and seeded them with grass seed so it will start to cover over. Tied the kids sunflowers up the back of the tower. And then just sat and watched the birds etc for a bit - oh and moved the bird feeder to stop the pigeon sitting on a branch and nicking all the food - daft bird looked very confused when it landed in its usual place and then couldn't find the feeder. When it did discover it a few feet further down it then spent 10 minutes trying to find a branch that it could still reach from - no chance matey! I don't normally have a problem with any birds but this character seems to be guilty of most of the droppings on the kids play equipment (near where the feeder was - another reason to move it) so I'm not making him too welcome!

If it stays dry tonight I might cut the other lawns - the back one is staying fairly short due the kids running about on it so much but the front and side ones probably need doing. Also need to net the purple sprouting as there are a few butterflies lurking about.

In terms of veg we are running a bit late as I spent time building the kids tower rather than planting but the broad beans are about to come on, and there is plenty to come - the sweetcorn is doing much better this year!