Help MBE grow his dinner 2012

lolly5648

I have been growing strawberries for three years in a raised bed and a large container and have never protected them - seems London birds don't go for them!

annie123

aliasojo wrote: »

It really is very warm in the back garden in the sun, I keep having to come in 'cos I'm getting a headache.

Show off

emiff6 wrote: »

That sounds like fox behaviour. Are you sure it was a cat Annie?

No not foxes, I get that too sometimes you can't miss the smell from that. And talking to another neighbour she has had the same, apparently its my neighbours new baby ginger tom that does it on top of things, this neighbour had caught it one evening in his garden.
Only 2 poo's yesterday so have added more buckets, and there was me thinking I may have had too many! They're soooo useful.

lolly5648 wrote: »

I have been growing strawberries for three years in a raised bed and a large container and have never protected them - seems London birds don't go for them!

Me too, never lost a strawberry to a bird.......snails and slugs that's a different matter, and the birds did strip my baby cherry tree last year so now it's up close to the building as they don't come up that far. Probably to close to down stairs cats, so they have a use:D

Unexpected visitors yesterday so that stopped any garden activity, but I now have everything out with q's, and squashes under a 99p plastic tunnel and a fleece at night, although I'll leave the fleece off now I think.

My toms have just started growing again can see little new leaves, which is nice as I hate it when I plant them upto halfway up their stem in their final space as they've shrunk again and look tiny compared to my neighbours. But I always get a better crop and for longer so I know it's worth it;)

I have way too many peppers, had silly germination rate this year so having past on all I can to neighbours the rest will be going to my sons garden, where, if they can hide from his cat they will live, if not they're off to the great pepper in the sky via his cat's tummy.

Tomorrow is looking warm and sunny here and I can spend a large chunk of the day in the garden:j so I will be planting stuff out in the beds and have chicken wire ready to put over the whole lot. I hope it looks neater than upside down pots, polystyrene packaging and holly cuttings.

I did have a little furtle around my earliest planted tatties and I have little spuds, :j first meal should be first week of June and I think I try my butternut squash in that spot this year, easy to put down beer traps and I can train it up the fence too, well that's the theory, it may have other ideas of course.

Little_Vics

my courgettes are in a little poly tunnel thingy and are looking a bit wilted and yellow. I've watered them - will they perk up?

mrbadexample

Nice busy afternoon / evening here.

I mowed the lawns - amazing how much tidier it looks when the grass / dandelions is cut.



I fetched new petrol for the Mantis, blitzed the compost and then cleaned it up. I had a dig about in the compost with a fork yesterday, but there really is nothing quite like the Mantis for mixing it all up.

mrbadexample

Little_Vics wrote: »

my courgettes are in a little poly tunnel thingy and are looking a bit wilted and yellow. I've watered them - will they perk up?

I would think so, yes. Were they dry?

mrbadexample

I started work on the bog-barrel:

Drilled a hole to fit the tap:



Fitted the left over pond liner:



I'd bought a length of copper pipe with a screw in tap fitting:



Cut the bottom off my old kitchen bin to make a reservoir:



Fitted it together:



Then added three bags of broken up polystyrene to save weight and provide a small amount of thermal insulation. The polystyrene's in bags to prevent any chemicals leaching into the soil:



Also added an inlet pipe so I can add water, and check the water level easily. I'll stick a wooden skewer into a wine cork and drop it down the tube, so I'll have a visual indicator.

I'll mix and add the substrate later this week.

mrbadexample

I am also delighted to report that I have bees!









:j

annie123

All looking very impressive BME and neat and tidy.

Why does everyone on here have neat and tidy gardens? mine looks like a dilapidated garden centre at best, and my efforts to get stuff sorted and planted today don't seem to help:think: Only stopped for a bite to eat as energy levels needed topping up.

Q's are sulking now I've put them in their final place, well I think it is, until I've got everything out I'm liable to change my mind
And between this morning and now my courgette labels have gone walkies and they all look the same to me.

What I thought was land cress has flowers on it that looks like petunias :rotfl:

Sprouts look very sad as I left them in the sun (waiting to go round sons place) and everything needs water.
Now this is a problem as I take the hose indoors via hallway to bath and with a bit of wiggling between there and the garden the water would just come out but I'm not doing that now I have new carpet down in the hall so it's going to have to go up and out the kitchen window, and I don't have a syphon. So pond water it is till hubby gets home and finds a solution.......he always does:D

Break over..........

Little_Vics

I am pleased to report that I still don't have any spuds. Does this mean I can finally breathe a sigh of relief and plant out my squash!?

aliasojo

annie123 wrote: »

Q's are sulking now I've put them in their final place..

Mine did too. And my toms.

'Tis definitely the sun that's affecting them in my case.I got a long length of mesh and clipped it right across the front of the line of raised beds. As soon as the plants were shaded, the started to perk up. They must just be too young to handle full sun. :undecided