veg growing Newbies- Feb 2010! lets learn together!

lolly5648

Can you grow courgettes in Morrison buckets as I have run out of ground space and that is the largest size pot I have left?

heynonnynonny

Lunar your progress is fab - are you growing in pots as well? The strawberries look amazing too, what a treat!
Katholicos good luck with your 5p bargains, can't blame you for snapping those up.
Lolly a couple of my courgettes are in those, although I have to say the ones in wider pots are a bit bigger now. It can't hurt, but I was so surprised to see how big the plants get, the leaves are about twice the size of my hand!

janibrown

I have all my Pumpkins and Squash and courgettes in grow bags they seem to be doing really well :D hope there is enough room in the growbags for them as everyone else seems to have theirs in pots :eek:, oh well I will have to keep my fingers and toes crossed:):):)

lunar

Kimm, I have plenty of failures to more than match my positive results! I could put up some pictures of some truly horrible tomato plants and plenty of other disasters to match.

Jani, sorry you have lost your turnips. can you put some more in if you only want small ones, i put some in last week and they sprouted within 2 days. I have put my pumpkins and squashes in the flower beds and left 3 in morrisons buckets, so far there is not much difference in growth.

Lolly, I have my courgette in a morrisons bucket and its doing really well. I dont even like the things but everyone else was planting them and saying they were really productive so I grew one. Ill have to train myself to like them!

heynonny, when we go out in the morning my DS runs to the strawberry bag to see how many he can have! Me and OH arnt really getting a look in now. Its actually saving me a fortune in soft fruit as he gets through loads.

izzwizz_2

lunar, love the pics, thanks for posting. Just one question - are you sure the first cucumber is a cucumber? It looks very like a yellow courgette? Anyway, everything looks really healthy, well done. I'll ask you for some strawberry growing tips next year

Glitterati

Good day today, some of my raspberries are ripe so I ate 5 huugee ones and 2 strawberries that were ripe too, all were truely delish! Most of my courgettes have flowers on today so I am pleased as they look lovely! One baby courgette is around 4 inches long now so hopefully not long until I can start picking them! Thing is, I'm not actually that keen on courgettes, only eat them if cooked in something that covers the flavour/texture! haha I know I am fussy! But the really stupid thing is I have stupidly planted about 14 of them!! so if it's true and each one produces 20 courgettes I will have 280 of them!!! OOPS!!!!! Courgette anyone?? If I'm not keen now, I am really not going to be fond of them after eating 280!

Oh something I wanted to ask was on my strawb plant some little !!!!!! has come and nibbled on loads of the leaves, but only small bites dotted all over them of varying sizes. What naughty bug has done this?! and how do I stop them? Soapy water? Hope someone can help! :-D

Lotus-eater

lunar wrote: »

Lolly, I have my courgette in a morrisons bucket and its doing really well. I dont even like the things but everyone else was planting them and saying they were really productive so I grew one. Ill have to train myself to like them!

I didn't like them till I grew my own either.

Pick them small (4 inches isn't too small) and treat them gently. Fry in butter and garlic for just a few minutes, till they have a slight colouring.
Or add them to stews etc, chillis, for a few minutes at the end, till they are just slightly cooked.
Or I do mine on the george foreman grill, for a few minutes again, if you do them after meat, they pick up a nice flavour.

They can go with basically anything, I've found as well, there is a difference between how the varieties taste, try a few different ones next year if you have the space and see which you like best. We have a definite favourite, which tastes (to us) way better than others.

Lotus-eater

izzwizz wrote: »

lunar, love the pics, thanks for posting. Just one question - are you sure the first cucumber is a cucumber? It looks very like a yellow courgette?

I was thinking that. I like yellow courgettes because they are so easy to see, you can't let one become a marrow very easily. Although obviously I have :rotfl:

izzwizz_2

Lotus-eater wrote: »

I was thinking that. I like yellow courgettes because they are so easy to see, you can't let one become a marrow very easily. Although obviously I have :rotfl:

Yup, me too :beer:

izzwizz_2

glitterati, I've been picking mine at 2 inches long and cooking them with the french beans (just boil for 5 mins). They have more flavour and some texture adn you don't get quite so inundated!