Help MBE grow his dinner 2012

mrbadexample

Finally, a sensible solution to unwanted cats.

Drea

mrbadexample wrote: »

Finally, a sensible solution to unwanted cats.

£4.24 for one, and £12.92 for the other one

Angelfeathers

Drea wrote: »

My strawbs were growing really well but now seem to have slowed down completely. Tomatoes just keep getting taller but no sign of toms, is that normal? Chillies are doing well and beginning to think they can just live their life on my windowsill, no point putting them out now. Potatoes are all filled to the top with lots of leaves, but how do I know when they're ready? Same with my carrots? I'm getting a bit paranoid I'll end up leaving everything in the ground too long even though I know I'm probably being premature :rotfl:

Re. the potatoes and carrots (and with the disclaimer that I've never grown potatoes), I believe the way you normally check if they're ready to harvest is to pull one up and have a look. :-)

...Which I need to do with my first lot of carrots, actually, because they need thinning but I do try to wait till the thinnings are big enough to actually eat!

mrbadexample

Angelfeathers wrote: »

Re. the potatoes and carrots (and with the disclaimer that I've never grown potatoes), I believe the way you normally check if they're ready to harvest is to pull one up and have a look. :-)

...Which I need to do with my first lot of carrots, actually, because they need thinning but I do try to wait till the thinnings are big enough to actually eat!

Carrots you can scrape away the soil round the top to see how big it is. Potatoes aren't ready until it's flowered, at least. Then you're supposed to have a furtle around to see if you can feel anything.

Drea

Angelfeathers wrote: »

Re. the potatoes and carrots (and with the disclaimer that I've never grown potatoes), I believe the way you normally check if they're ready to harvest is to pull one up and have a look. :-)

...Which I need to do with my first lot of carrots, actually, because they need thinning but I do try to wait till the thinnings are big enough to actually eat!

:rotfl: I suppose that would make sense!

mrbadexample wrote: »

Carrots you can scrape away the soil round the top to see how big it is. Potatoes aren't ready until it's flowered, at least. Then you're supposed to have a furtle around to see if you can feel anything.

So potatoes get actual flowers? I just have a whole bush of leaves coming out of them thanks

mrbadexample

Happily, posting about a lack of motivation this morning gave me some. Well, that and a bit of sunshine, anyway.

So I went out for a couple of hours this afternoon / evening. I potted on a few plants, weeded round the spuds, removed surprise potatoes from the other beds, and then transplanted the beetroot from the bed where I want the asparagus to go.

The spuds are looking ok:



The beetroot transplanting went about as well as could be expected:



Using two trowels I tried to extract a plug containing the beetroot seedling and drop it in a pre-made hole in the other bed. It mostly worked.

mrbadexample

Then I set about the asparagus - I'm already pushing the boundaries of how late it can be planted, so fingers crossed.

Apparently you have to make a ridge in a trench (I dug in a bit of compost first), then sit the crown on top with the roots down the sides, thus:



These are two Pacific Purple. I soaked the dry roots for 15 minutes or so, to make them a bit more pliable. You then bury the roots and just cover the top of the crown. If I understand things correctly, when it starts growing and pokes through you cover them again, a bit like earthing up spuds.

I then planted the Gijnlim. There were supposed to be two crowns in the packet, but they split when I opened them out. I ended up with five. This may be a good thing, but it might also mean they will be too small and weak to establish. I think they look ok though. More finger-crossing.



I planted these closer together than is recommended, because I was expecting two, not five. Hopefully this won't matter either. I've got space for a couple more crowns when the turnips are out. I'm hoping Morrisons will reduce theirs from £1 a crown to clear them out, but they seem in no hurry to do so.

So the crowns are just covered:



and I'll wait and see what happens. All being well, in 2014 I might get a bit of asparagus.

mrbadexample

My pear tree seems happy enough:



The greenhouse is busy:



I've decided that nothing's coming back in the house now, except the French and runner beans, which haven't gone out yet. Everything will just have to cope. Low temperatures were forecast again last night. I went out at about 11pm to check; it was 9°C in the greenhouse. I lit a chunky candle, put it in the middle of the floor and left it. It was still burning this morning, and the temperature hadn't dropped below 7°C.

Of course, I won't know how cold it would have got without the candle, but it seems like something to consider in the future. It only needs to raise the temperature a degree or so to keep things safe.

With a bit of luck it'll be dry tomorrow afternoon and I'll get the [STRIKE]grass[/STRIKE] dandelions cut.

I've still got to get started on my bog barrel garden too. :eek:

Fay

Quick fly by post before heading out for work-I have peppers and tomatoes coming woo hoo! No chilli flowers or fruits yet though These really need bigger pots and will try to do them this weekend. So here goes:
Lipstick early sweet pepper mmmmmm


Stupice early tomato-odd shape!


Early galina tom-more than one too


Must dash for motorway and birmingham traffic hell

jollyanna

Mrbadexample, your beetroot is looking good. Do you pickle it or use as a hot vegetable ?
Has the frog been back to inspect the pond recently ?
We had fresh spinnach yesterday - first crop from the veg garden this year. Like you, my radishes are being really slow and haven't found one big enough to pull yet . Have a good weekends gardening and keep the pictures coming.