Help MBE grow his dinner 2012

Sambucus_Nigra

annie123 wrote: »

An understatement I think!

I've just sown sown plum tomatoes, as my neighbour gave 3 seeds today. I would think a quick maturing type would be ok sown now, after all, it feels like March:(

I had a late tomato wobble last year after a swap and sowed quite a few - many of which I was still cropping from in Late Nov/Early Dec - outdoors. They soon catch up so don't stress it.

This weekend I am sowing my main climbing French beans and next weekend - my main dwarf French beans - I am currently growing and bulking out 140 ish varieties, at about 30 varieties at a time. I've been given some rare beans from the USA [including one that has been grown in it's current form since year 1000 by the Hopi] and I need to treat these very carefully! I only have a few. :eek:

annie123

My toms were fine:j
Didn't uncover them 'tll 11am as it was still cold early on. I've potted on deeply 50% so that if it gets really cold I can get them into my little hallway.
Also planted dahlias, potted on rosemary cuttings, planted baby kohlrabi, divided mint, and planted some violas and pansies in tubs, these were 50p a tray of 30 something in homebase and only a few dead in each.
Still loads to do but is looking slightly less like a messy allotment and a tiny bit more like my garden again.

Break over..........back to the garden

lizzyb1812

Posted by Annie - I grew them (Latah) last year, rather unattractive plant for a tomato I thought! I know someone in Scotland who has grown them inside only on a south facing window and got toms off them.

Would that be Mardatha? She was another person who inspired me to try the Latahs. Yes, they're not really that pretty but I'm trying to extend my fresh tomato season as early and late as possible. I've got several varieties from fruiting to just above seed leaf level so here's hoping it works

Little_Vics

my sugar snaps are failing to grow up the nice frame I gave them - they're just flopping like a floppy thing. Any ideas?

Lotus-eater

Sambucus_Nigra wrote: »

I had a late tomato wobble last year after a swap and sowed quite a few - many of which I was still cropping from in Late Nov/Early Dec - outdoors. They soon catch up so don't stress it.

This weekend I am sowing my main climbing French beans and next weekend - my main dwarf French beans - I am currently growing and bulking out 140 ish varieties, at about 30 varieties at a time. I've been given some rare beans from the USA [including one that has been grown in it's current form since year 1000 by the Hopi] and I need to treat these very carefully! I only have a few. :eek:

Oooo, put me down on the list when you have enough spares please.

I'm still growing out my hybrid beans from a couple of years ago. The pinto and trail of tears hybrids.
They've thrown up 4 distinct types so far, I've decided to grow on 2 of those, both climbers.

I've also been given some rare beans pulled from an old walled garden
I haven't got room to grow them all this year, so am just growing a couple of types to see how they do.
I sowed my french beans last week, nothing through yet.

My first tomato flowers on Bens early vine today (thanks Dave for the seeds)

KazLA

So, I followed MrBE's advice! I have researched the lasagne method, and put it into action today!

I read that you can put the cardboard directly on top of the weeds, so chose the worst bed on the allotment.

I started putting the cardboard down...



but soon realised it wasn't going to go as far as I thought, so decided perhaps I take it off again...



and clear some (and then decided most) of the weeds....



I re-laid the cardboard...



and filled in the gaps with 3 layers of newspaper (which I'd read was a good alternative), watering it all down as I went, so it didn't blow away!



I realised I should really have done this during the rainy weather, not on the warmest driest weekend for ages, as it was all drying in front of my eyes! I watered lots more and then decided to cover with a layer of soil improver that I had sitting in bags...



And I have to say, I'm rather impressed!

The plan is to save more cardboard (OH didn't manage to produce the goods from work, but realised I could use my Avon boxes!) and ask parents to save all their newspapers. I will then layer these with grass cuttings (as I'm pretty much out of soil improver!) over other beds at some point.

I guess it would be a good job to do in the autumn, so its all covered up before the weeds start growing.

Right, now to catch up with the rest of the thread, I'm a bit behind!

Sambucus_Nigra

Lotus-eater wrote: »

Oooo, put me down on the list when you have enough spares please.

I'm still growing out my hybrid beans from a couple of years ago. The pinto and trail of tears hybrids.
They've thrown up 4 distinct types so far, I've decided to grow on 2 of those, both climbers.

Will do....:D

Lotus-eater

Sambucus_Nigra wrote: »

Will do....:D

Thankyou

My hybrids btw, turned out to be great beans for drying, just like the pintos, all the 4 types seemed to be about the same in growing habit and amount of beans per plant, but one is really nice and very similar to a rare old bean offered to me recently, light brown with white flecks, I had to turn it down as it would have been too confusing.
They were also good for eating fresh, something I never tried with the pintos.
I still have some spare seeds for the hybrids if you want to try them this year?
All from one hybridised seed and all very exciting, I wish beans had a faster season
This year I believe they are F4's, so should be settling down now.

Sambucus_Nigra

Lotus-eater wrote: »

Thankyou

My hybrids btw, turned out to be great beans for drying, just like the pintos, all the 4 types seemed to be about the same in growing habit and amount of beans per plant, but one is really nice and very similar to a rare old bean offered to me recently, light brown with white flecks, I had to turn it down as it would have been too confusing.
They were also good for eating fresh, something I never tried with the pintos.
I still have some spare seeds for the hybrids if you want to try them this year?
All from one hybridised seed and all very exciting, I wish beans had a faster season
This year I believe they are F4's, so should be settling down now.

I'd love to but I already have 2 Pinto quirks that I am trying to stabilise...it's a bit addictive isn't it?:eek:

annie123

Little_Vics wrote: »

my sugar snaps are failing to grow up the nice frame I gave them - they're just flopping like a floppy thing. Any ideas?

Tie them loosely to it, or if they're long enough wrap them around it, they'll soon get the hang of it;)

You're lucky you've got some, I had 2 lots rot here due to the 5 week non stop rain and the last ones started indoors and planted out last week are all but eaten by slugs..........got 6 little ones left, no early tasty peas for me next month:(
However the soggy clay soil has improved over the last week, it's stopped sticking to my boots

Toms ok again outside under the potting table and fleece:j but it's still on 6c out there so I'll leave them for another few hours.

Looking good are the strawberries, massive amounts of flowers and small green berries, cherry tree...loads of little green cherries this year, garlic......had a poke around and bulbs already lovely size, early tatties not rotted in bags......have little spuds:) but 1 bag has had massive snail attack on the leaves, and spuds in the ground are ok too, raspberries have gone mad with runners this year..........all my neighbours have some already from previous years so the rest went on freecycle. Herbs looking good too.

All my calabrese has been eaten I'll sow some more but it always bolts when I sow it now, tried planting it in the shade but that didn't help..............anyone any tips on growing it at this time of the year?



No gardening here for me today as I'm off to see mum at the seaside and taking to her loads of the self watering tubs I got at Aldi thanks to MBE for the heads up.
All planted up with bulbs and summer bedding, just need to move mini sand dunes building up against her home so they fit against the wall.