veg growing Newbies- Feb 2010! lets learn together!

sarymclary

smithy - you will probably find they are too close together. I've grown brocolli for the 1st time this year, and mine are too close together too, and the plants have grown hugely tall and wide! I would doubt the roots are too large at the moment, so why not try thinning them out. I have done this with other plants, and try to take a good 'lump' of the soil around the established plant, and then put it into another more roomy spot. Make sure you have watered the plant well before moving, and water the hole you put it into as well beforehand. That way, the plant doesn't seem to get too upset at being moved I find. You've nothing to lose anyway, as you'll end up probably having to pull the extra plants to make room anyway. The way I've made room to grow for my plants has been to remove the largest of the lower leaves, giving the plant room to grow upwards, and also to allow water to reach the soil underneath. They created such a good 'canopy' of leaves that water just wasn't getting down to the bed.

Well hallelujah, we had rain all day yesterday. A good, steady, light rain, so nothing got damaged, but everything is soaked through. Even the lawn looks a lot better now, as it was going rather brown. My apple tree will be delighted too, because even that was beginning to look sad and parched. Lots of apples again this year. I tried to store the excess in crates last year, but they all ended up rotting, and we gave them to the birds in the hard winter.

I don't know if this is the same in all Poundstretcher stores, but at the weekend, they were selling off all their packets of seeds at 19p a packet! I have now more than stocked up for the next year, and maybe the year after. Sell by dates were good at 2012 too. All their hanging baskets are half price or better too, so worth while keeping an eye out if you want to stock up in readiness for next year.

I'm going to have to pick and freeze most of my broccoli now, it's just about to go over I think, so better to get it fresh and green, before it begins to yellow. Massive heads too, they must be a good 8" across.

I have a couple of residents frogs in my greenhouse now, so they're keeping slugs at bay in there. They just look at me while I potter, and hop around while I water the cucumbers and tomatoes. Funny little things.

We've been able to eat our first tomatoes, from the hanging basket plant, and they were scrummy. Nice and sweet tasting, so very pleased with that. I suspect I'm going to get a late summer glut again, because there are so many flowers beginning to grow.

No gardening for me today though, it's decorating for me.

smithyjules

sarymclary - big phew!i may be able to pretend i knew what i was doing all along then!thanks for saving the day i'll be off to salvage them this evening!!

heynonnynonny

Thanks annie123 and lizzy for strawbs help I'm glad you knew what I meant.

lunar

[/IMG]

These are my only tomatoes which survived and have produced fruit. There is hundereds of tomatoes on this basket, but I get the feeling they will all ripen at once! Ill have to get some recipes from the OS board to make sure they are not wasted. I am watering this basket twice a day and feeding it every three days

[/IMG]

lunar

[/IMG]

[/IMG]

This is my only pumpkin so far that seems to have set, the others have all rotted away after flowering. I hope I can get a few more to set. At least this one seems to be growing well so far

frazzbo

lunar wrote: »

This is my only pumpkin so far that seems to have set, the others have all rotted away after flowering. I hope I can get a few more to set. At least this one seems to be growing well so far

:T

Thanks for the pictures - looks like your plant is getting really giant! Mine (also atlantic giant) has been spreading outwards along the ground but yours looks like it's climbing - which is better? Is the plant strong enough to take the weight of the pumpkins if it's upright?

My first pumpkin also rotted away

I'm also wondering when to stop the plant from growing - is there a specific size the plant should be before you do that? I'm kind of assuming that if the plant is expanding all the time then it won't be focusing its efforts on growing the pumpkins.

lunar

I had to set it to climb as it was getting too big, ill put the pumpkins in onion nets when they get too big to hang. I have also pinched out the growing points to try and stop it growing further but it seems to grow from somewhere else after doing that! Ill just keep pinching out shoots as they appear from now on. I was also wondering if i Should get rid of some of the leaves?

savingmummy

Lunar lovely toms i am very jealous

Your garden looks so neat in the background, looks beautifully done.

lunar

We spent the weekend clearing the 2 beds you can see, im just trying to decide what to plant in them.

lunar

[/IMG]

we are getting about 4 cucumbers a week from this plant.