The Scottish Gardeners thread

Laurenbelle

laurals11 wrote: »

Aphids ..lots of recipes using plants soap,leaves etc for pest control and plant food dgsgardening. btinternet.co.uk /recipes.htm (remove spaces and add usual beginning)

Thank you very much! Going to try it now! THere are so so many of them though and the leaves are all curled under.

I am nervous that i did the wrong thing by planting my peppers(bell peppers) outside. I have heard a few people say that peppers need hot hot weather and should be grown in greenhouse. I have also heard the same about tomatoes so who knows.

I just bought 3 grobags for my tomatoes but i got them from B&M for 99p so am a bit worried about the quality.

Got the plastic tiered planter thingies for my straberries so will plant those in a bit ( i prefer later afternoon in the garden).

The weather seems to say that it is going to be 2 degrees overnight and i dont have any covers for my peas which are quite high now.

All i need now to make me happy is sweetcorn, chilli's and garlic (too late for that i know )

laurals11

You are welcome..great site for all things gardening
Gosh, where did the time go this evening..erm tidying back garden till 10.30.
Been ignoring it but it was looking just a bit too wild and unkempt. So I sorted my piles of pots and seed trays,trying not to upset the plethora of beasties lurking underneath pots and in corners, planted some more nasturtiums and marigolds and potted up rubber plant cutting whose roots had filled container.Watered containers using collected water from old washhouse boiler...and I'm wondering why there are no foxgloves this year

Only a short conversation with my gardening guru tonight..soil condition is huge topic, but he is going to give me some books when I visit next month. He says it is important not to water unless plants are wilting..and if soil is dry/dusty on top, mulch with compost from your compost bin, even if it is not fully broken down because worms will come up to work it into soil.

Plants can be covered with newspaper..or old sheet/curtain (not a heavy fabric) if you haven't any fleece/plastic.... I suppose your neighbours might object if it's windy and paper lands in their garden..and they'll probably think you've gone crackers and are tucking your plants into bed at night :rotfl:

I got cheap plastic tomato greenhouses from Wilkinsons online, got one that is 4 years old,well frame is but made new cover last year with some plastic sheeting from B&Q. I got very little crop without them..

and I grow chillies and peppers in south facing windows of flat. If you've got a suitable window ledge you can plant chillies anytime. My plants are 4 years old and produce all year round, though only a few in December/January.

Downsizing__for_sanity

Hi everyone,

Just got a quick question about tomato growing. I live in Moray and while we've had some scorchio days recently, it can get really cold at night still. Most of my books say tomatoes will be fine in a greenhouse just now, willl that be the case up here? I only have a tall plastic greenhouse and up till now the plants have been inside at the patio window in the evenings and overnight. Last year, I left the plants on the kitchen windowsill with the window open and although they grew well, I only got one tiny tomato! I had lots of tomato flowers so wondered if they didn't get pollinated.

Many thanks for any advice! Enjoy your weekend!

DFS

elantan

from what i hear ... and i aint no expert ... tomatoes dont like to go below 10 degrees .... mine however are in the polytunnel and doing ok ... not great but ok ... you could maybe start trying them out on hotter nights first ?

skelly01

Laurals can you ask your guru about potatoes? I have always read that they need regular watering to swell the tubers, which when you go down to Ayrshire (Tattie country) would ring true as they are constantly watering.

skelly01

My heating is still on in the greenhouse depending on the weather forecast. The other morning I scraped the car windscreen so if you can keep warm when required I would.

skelly01

Laurals my garden is really good fertile wise just like a desert, have been digging in loads of stuff since October 2008 (when we moved in). Old grow bags, used compost ,chicken manure pellets (brilliant stuff), my compost bin.
I think its something to do with drainage and run off. I could water tonight until saturated, then 2 days later back to the gobi desert scenario.
Can live with this though as I get great veg and produce

jammy_dodger

Downsizing__for_sanity wrote: »

Hi everyone,

Just got a quick question about tomato growing. I live in Moray and while we've had some scorchio days recently, it can get really cold at night still. Most of my books say tomatoes will be fine in a greenhouse just now, willl that be the case up here? I only have a tall plastic greenhouse and up till now the plants have been inside at the patio window in the evenings and overnight. Last year, I left the plants on the kitchen windowsill with the window open and although they grew well, I only got one tiny tomato! I had lots of tomato flowers so wondered if they didn't get pollinated.

Many thanks for any advice! Enjoy your weekend!

DFS

i live too in moray my toms are in small poly tunnel and surviving these chillsome nights , i polinate mine when flowering with a small soft paint brush as they are grown indoors as it where with less accessto insects

JenFeet

Hi all.

Sounds like folk are keeping well and managing to get on a bit more in the garden now. Still got my mouse problem in the tunnel - the thieving little beggars are nicking my strawberries now they realise they get dead if they try to eat my sweetcorn! Must get more into hanging baskets next year!!

Everything inside the tunnel is doing brilliant now - really catching up - got one full bed of sweetcorn + climbing french beans to come up along side and grow up the plants (and new seedlings on the way for trying outside! LOL. In Caithness I know but I thought I might try - will certainly be okay for the wind pollination!); many many many sweet and chilli pepper plants and the first tiny little peppers coming on one plant; 3 types of cherry tomatoes are doing well - 1 is much further ahead than the other 2 types (will report back on the names soon); approx 6 aubergine plants all coming on at various stages; 3 courgette plants; 2 cucumbers; 4 grape vines; lots of strawberry plants all in flower; we've lived off lettuce for 2 weeks (getting fed up now and given lots away) I actually think it is too warm in the tunnel for the lettuce but strangely still keep getting new seedlings popping through even though I haven't sown since ages; squash; melon and pumpkin plants in buckets; spring onions to have with the lettuce; butternut squash seedlings x 5 (but I think these will need to go in buckets as they grow wild and huge as I recall); some sugar snap peas and beetroot that I was given and planted to save them from dying and they've whizzed away (rocket planted bolted last week as too hot); I think that's the tunnel sorted.

Outside I have 8 rasied beds approx 2.4 x 1.2 metres and in there I have bush and climbing beans; peas; sugar snap; mange tout; rainbow carrots - can't wait for these!!!; leeks galore (full bed although nearly used up all of last years but the overwintered ones are coming on well and there's seedlings to go in too; onions - full bed of; a pyramid of outside strawberries which have masses and masses of flowers; a rhubarb patch - in it's first real year but doing well - lots in the freezer but not being too harsh on what I am taking); orange carrots; parsnips (still hiding though); can't think what else except I have a tray of cauli to go in soon too and lots of carrots (2 beds total I think - although in the late season when the peppers are done I plan to put a couple of beds in the tunnel to see if they'll grow over winter too - I don't think they'll be big but maybe big enough!) Oh - yes - and 6 rows of raspberries, currants, gooseberries and blueberries. Yum.

Then I have a new patch which has taken far, far too much digging and I ache - this is approx 60 square metres and is a fenced off section from the pig pigs - they were meant to have turned it all over for me and they did an ok-ish job but still very difficult to get the spade into the ground. I've managed this only really because I had to dig out the old polytunnel cover up from its trench (blew away the first year so we had to move it and recover!) - this left a narrow trench (NOT in a straight line which looks pants) and I've been using this trench as leverage for the spade and then diggiing and forking and digging and forking etc. I finally got my 3 (long) rows of tatties in and have started digging my next section for something else - not quite sure what yet... Sweetcorn I thought might get some shelter behind the pig house? We are battered by the wind pretty much constantly so a small building in the way should make some shelter maybe? I'm also really chuffed that the lady who will be putting some of her animals onto our fields has said we can have lots and lots of well rotted horse manure and I have big plans for getting this digging finished and the lovely compost added in for my sweetcorn babies to try to grow... And my fav veg is french beans so I'll be putting lots more of these in too.

I've got another smallish area which I have reclaimed from my son which will also go to beans and peas this next few weeks or so - with lots of manure in too...

Phew - I also work full time and am currently studying for my MSc (only 6 months to go! Woo hoo!!) and have a 3 and 4 year old so I honestly don't know where we get the time or energy but the rewards when we get to eat the lovely fruit and veg are well worth it!!

Having typed all of this I don't know why I did but it feels good to put it all down! And I just hope that tomorrow the rain stays away so I can get the next bit of digging done - got a lot of onion sets to go in which I think will be far too late but I'm gonna try them. I'm also thinking about short and round carrots for this section so I don't have to worry too much about all of the stones!

Enjoy the rest of your weekends!
Jen x

mardatha

Well the rain didnt stay away here !!:(