Nice people thread 2 - now even nicer

tomterm8

We tend to plant the courgettes on our compost heap. Biggest tip is to keep on harvesting regularly, otherwise they turn into marrows very quickly.

lemonjelly

tomterm8 wrote: »

We tend to plant the courgettes on our compost heap. Biggest tip is to keep on harvesting regularly, otherwise they turn into marrows very quickly.

How do I know when they are ready to harvest? Not grown any before...:o
Also, what months do I start getting them in?:)

tomterm8

Put your hand on the soil in your garden. If the soil is reasonably warm, and not claggy / wet / cold and you've not had a frost for a couple of weeks, it is ready for planting most anything out except tomatos and peppers which need heat. We've already planted out ours.

With courgettes, you can start picking them when they are as little as 4 inches long, but I pick them when they are 6-8 inches. We tend to fry them. In butter. Or use them in soup. The second flowers start appearing, you know you are almost there. They grow very fast. Got to keep picking them.

John_Pierpoint

The old boys in the country used to drop their trousers to test the soil temperature:D

The marrow family just love damp compost (hence the traditional method of planting them on top of last winter's compost heap. You water them, that stops the heap drying out. You check them every evening, that stops them turning into marrows.
If you get a 2 litre "fizzy pop" bottle and punch a small hole or two in its cap and cut the bottom off, you then have trickle irrigation if you up end it in the soil/compost next to each plant.
You can add, preferably liquid, plant root "nutrients" to these trickle irrigators.
While doing your evening watering, you might be advised to manually transfer the male pollen flower to its female flower receptor.

Anyone else grow "vegetable spaghetti" ?
Halloween pumpkins, with their roots inside the greenhouse but the rest of the plant outside?

carolt

What a knowledgeable lot you all are.

lostinrates

LJ, courgettes can ven be eaten as babies. The babies make delish crudite. Or even, if you really have a gut, stuff the flowers. Ultimate for me are the young ones with flowers till attached, stuffed....oh the delightful wastefulness.

However, I also love marrows, and stuffed marrow is an inexpensive and delightful meal. I usually stuff mine with a little lamb mince, some chopped apricots/dried fruit, perhaps some ras al hanout if not herbs/spices to mood and rice. It also works with a ragu type stuffing, but I prefer a drier stuff, with no tomato.

treliac

lostinrates wrote: »

However, I also love marrows, and stuffed marrow is an inexpensive and delightful meal. I usually stuff mine with a little lamb mince, some chopped apricots/dried fruit, perhaps some ras al hanout if not herbs/spices to mood and rice. It also works with a ragu type stuffing, but I prefer a drier stuff, with no tomato.

Marrows are lovely stuffed with pre-cooked and seasoned quorn mince too. Microwave in a microwave bag till marrow cooks. Grate some cheese over the top, pop under the grill to melt the cheese....... mmmmm, yummy.

lostinrates

treliac wrote: »

Marrows are lovely stuffed with pre-cooked and seasoned quorn mince too. Microwave in a microwave bag till marrow cooks. Grate some cheese over the top, pop under the grill to melt the cheese....... mmmmm, yummy.

I can see that. I'm afraid I don't eat quorn, but lots vegetarian could be stuffed in a marrow. would be nice with a breadcrumby stuffing too, or with other veg. actually, would be really nice using nut roast as a stuffing.

I can't wait for marrows!

wageslave

I have never eaten marrows, I have a very vague idea what they look like.

When I bought this house, I inherited a vegetable garden which really excited me at the time. I spent hours weeding and watering and was really chuffed with my huge crop of tatties and other bog standard sruff.

Most of it ended up in the bin. There was a limit to how much we could eat/freeze and I couldn't even give what was left away.

That bit of the garden is now all shrubs and trees.

How much are the rest of you growing and what do you do with the surplus?

lostinrates

wageslave wrote: »

I have never eaten marrows, I have a very vague idea what they look like.

When I bought this house, I inherited a vegetable garden which really excited me at the time. I spent hours weeding and watering and was really chuffed with my huge crop of tatties and other bog standard sruff.

Most of it ended up in the bin. There was a limit to how much we could eat/freeze and I couldn't even give what was left away.

That bit of the garden is now all shrubs and trees.

How much are the rest of you growing and what do you do with the surplus?

Te limit of what you can freeze/preserve only depends on the size of your freezer .We've had a bit of an accident here with getting distracted.:o:o cougettes, aubergines, peppers etc suffered. Lots else just never went in.

We have about 9 tomato plants, the permanent things ...fruits... salads/celeries.

I'd like to get to the point...obviously more organised than this year....where we bought nothing that we could grow.