Help MBE grow his dinner 2012

annie123

Well it's chucking down againso not much going to happen here today.
Toms are looking fine outside now and tonight looks like my last very chilly night so tomorrow the rest will be going into flower buckets too.

Downstairs has got another cat so now they have 4 and next door have 3, so they are all competing with the new cat to claim my garden as theirs:mad:
I've put all my empty pots/seed trays in the borders and holly leaves in between the gaps, covered some of my planted/sown pots with chicken wire and using a trowel put every bit of poo I could find in a bucket and stuffed it back under the fence to their garden.
My neighbour feels really bad and will call her cats in or shoo them away when she sees them in my garden but it doesn't help.

Hope poundland have more chicken wire, as I've lots more pots to do yet. As it's to wet to do anything outside I might pop there today to see.


On a positive note I over wintered the runt of the litter 'PiP' chilli and it's just opened it's first flower with several more to follow:D

mrbadexample

annie123 wrote: »

Downstairs has got another cat so now they have 4 and next door have 3, so they are all competing with the new cat to claim my garden as theirs:mad:

:eek: Oh Annie.

Although my defences have improved things considerably, the sods still get in. Crapped all over my new horseradish the other day - it's behind the greenhouse so out of range of the cat squirter. :mad:

annie123

When hailstones and lashing rain started I decided to cover up my toms as I thought that would be a bit much for them under the heading of ' hardening off'.....only to find that I had got so focused on the cat poo this morning I forgot to uncover them and take them out from under the potting table :doh: It's been a long dark day/night for them as they went to bed at 7.30 last night.
As tonight is going to be cold here I decided to leave them be. I have promised to let them out in the promised sunshine tomorrow.

Lotus-eater

It's going to be a cold night here as well, in fact it's already 3.6 in the greenhouse, everything is inside the house (well the back porch), warm and tucked up.
My Shark fin melons made their debut today through the compost!

Normally my toms are already in the greenhouse, this year I'm not in so much of a hurry.

RedLass

annie123 wrote: »

I had got so focused on the cat poo this morning I forgot to uncover them and take them out from under the potting table :doh:

No wonder, 4 cats??? Sounds like you have your work cut out, but nice job on getting your pots and beds covered. Did you find any cheap chicken wire? I hope at least they'll find your garden too much like hard work and get bored.

Honestly, how can it possibly be that squeezing themselves behind MBE's greenhouse (and maybe having to dodge the cat squirter on the way, ninja-style) is a comfortable place to do their business? Is it really worth the trouble to suffer the prickly fence tops, get soaked and risk being chased with a spade?

I have only seen one cat in our garden in the last 6 months, so I'm crossing my fingers that it stays that way. Slugs are my biggest concern, there seem to be hundreds of them and I'm squeamish _pale_

Tomatoes and cucumbers are all looking much perkier today. Moving them round all the windowsills in the house to follow the sun must be doing the job.

As for the garden, pics below...

Before:



After:



But can I sow my runner beans yet? Doubtful, freezing outside today!

Lotus-eater

I think you can sow them, but not put them outside yet.

mrbadexample

Yep, sowed mine last week, but won't be allowed out to play until it's warmer. About another three months by the looks of it.

I left everything outside (in the greenhouse) last night but have brought everything in tonight. I was thinking about putting a few tea-lights in the greenhouse and leaving them, but didn't want to take the chance. :undecided

Fay

RedLass wrote: »

No wonder, 4 cats??? Sounds like you have your work cut out, but nice job on getting your pots and beds covered. Did you find any cheap chicken wire? I hope at least they'll find your garden too much like hard work and get bored.

Honestly, how can it possibly be that squeezing themselves behind MBE's greenhouse (and maybe having to dodge the cat squirter on the way, ninja-style) is a comfortable place to do their business? Is it really worth the trouble to suffer the prickly fence tops, get soaked and risk being chased with a spade?

I have only seen one cat in our garden in the last 6 months, so I'm crossing my fingers that it stays that way. Slugs are my biggest concern, there seem to be hundreds of them and I'm squeamish _pale_

Tomatoes and cucumbers are all looking much perkier today. Moving them round all the windowsills in the house to follow the sun must be doing the job.

As for the garden, pics below...

Before:



After:



But can I sow my runner beans yet? Doubtful, freezing outside today!

Oh I can imagine your little shed painted a lovely green or powder blue. Your garden is looking lovely. The fence makes a real difference.Cold this morning but I don't think we had a frost-but I protected things last night just in case. I've noticed I've got lots of compost flies-little black things that cling close to the compost surface but do fly around too. I think they have come from the compost I've been using as some flew out a new bag I opened on saturday-its the new horizons organic one and I've also had small mushrooms growing out of it-I'm not impressed. I've read on the internet to try cinnamon sprinkled on the top of the pots so I've done that. Any other tips?

TallGirl

Lovely garden RedLass you have been busy I agree the shed painted would look fab.

Got our patio relaid so now cannot walk on it for 1 week (well I have) and everything has had to come off it. Put my Toms and Cucumbs outside to harden today its lovely and sunny here. Will have too many so will Freegle excess when I know which ones will make it.

Potaoes growing well so are the peas can see little pods on them now.

Usually have a large pot of lilly's in my garden but the pollen bad for cats so took them out and repotted them out the front to keep my two cats off them. One bulb was really nice so put that in the pot on the deck and ofcourse this happens.

Its a big advantage to have cats yourself as it does keep other off my garden and to be fair they dont damage anything really so guess I am lucky

I still have a couple of spare squares with nothing in them I need to seed my Iceberg seeds never took so will try them again also try dwarft beans again.

Hope you are all enjoying the sunshine I am off to Oxfordshire in a bit.

aliasojo

TallGirl wrote: »

Wow, the seeds to grow one of them must have been pretty big.