Help MBE grow his dinner 2012

mrbadexample

djohn2002uk wrote: »

What's with the mud?. I know nowt about these solitary bees.

As far as I can establish, the bee lays an egg in the hole, fills it with pollen as a food source for the larva, then plugs the hole with mud to protect it. I've got about half a dozen holes bunged up now, which is better than it sounds.

Fay

I have been trying MBE's little and often approach this week-I've managed to spend an hour in the garden each night and have weeded a bed full of ground elder (major problem here as well as bindweed ), another long thin bed has been weeded and lots of spanish bluebells removed, lawns moved, front garden weeded and the veg patch weeded last night ready for preping for the beans at the weekend.

I noticed last night though that my garlic had rust I took advice from the first website I came across on my phone and dug some up and removed leaves from the others. I've had a better look this morning and from the grapevine (albeit a thread that was 3 years old) it looks like I could have left it as it doesn't seem to hurt them...damn! I have to say I don't think I will be growing garlic or onions next year. The garlic I might try in containers but I really don't see me growing onions again. They've been in since november and still not ready-I pulled one up on sunday that looked huge but it was still like a large spring onion. They just take up so much of the plot don't they?

We talked last night about putting raised beds in this autumn/winter. On the plot that's already there but to try and make weeding easier. It's a nightmare in the veg plot-nettled, lots of self seeded weeds (have some wild areas behind our fence they must come from), spreading chic weed type weeds. Argh it goes on and on-hope raised beds might help?

Will be moving toms, peppers and chillis into the greenhouse this weekend. It was 39 degrees in the greenhouse when I got home last night-so need to get some shading up too

Angelfeathers

Eeek, looked up garlic rust and mine has that too! I just assumed it was natural discoloration! Still, if it's not to be worried about, I won't worry! I need to get the early garlic pulled anyway - this'll be perfect drying weather for it. :-)

I feel your pain with the weeds, Fay. My soil is absolutely *full* of the darn things, plus we have millions of danelions in the lawn which I should have taken steps to get rid of before they spread to my beds. I did make an unedged raised bed a couple of years ago and that did keep them down for a year or two, but that all got mixed up with the soil again when we had the fences done last year so it's even more full of weeds now because they love all the compost there!

All my seedlings will hopefully be getting planted out within the next few days, except the aubergines which will be put into bigger pots in the greenhouse once there's room. I think I might try a couple of peppers in there too, and put the rest outside. They didn't do very well in the greenhouse last year but I think that's because they didn't get enough sun.

Sambucus_Nigra

Fay wrote: »

I really don't see me growing onions again. They've been in since november and still not ready-I pulled one up on sunday that looked huge but it was still like a large spring onion. They just take up so much of the plot don't they?

What you do with onions is to put them in in Sept - wide spacing and under an enviromesh type cover. Take that off in March, weed, loosen the soil around them all and put root veg feed down, and water in. Replace cover. Leave until the onion leaves are starting to touch the cover or mid April, weed again and if there are no weeds, just loosen the soil around them and water. They take up the spring rains and start getting wider and wider. My largest is currently about 4 inches wide. Then, as you start to harvest and use the big ones - plant your next crop in it's space. I usually put kohl rabi, lettuces, cabbages in - things that take a while to get going whilst the rest of the onions are thickening up. So no space lost to them in the spring/summer.

I also recommend Radar sets to use - they are always significantly better than any of the others. IMHO.

kara7758

Good morning all from a fine and sunny up north. Constant lurker here, enjoying everyone's tips, pics and tales thank you.
I went and got myself one of those walking plastic greenhouses on Sunday and am happy to report that it is splendid and my toms, pimientos de padron, chilli's, pepinos etc are doing really well! Made a bit of a boob on Monday and left it all zipped up tight not realising how great the weather was going to be. Came home to literally a tropical greenhouse but the plants and seeds survived!
I'm recommending the plastic greenhouse to those who like me can't afford anything sturdier. They are selling the at Aldi currently and I got mine from Wilkinsons. Hope everyone has a great day.

furball

Hi everyone, got 30 pages to catch up on so just a quick post to say planted up hanging baskets with tumbling tom seeds. Cheated with tomatoes in barrel i bought 2 plants. Hopefully frost free nights so i am going to plant peas and beans today. Going to bring a big plantpot onto decking and plant little ball carrotts with grandson. Hopefully the decking is high up enough to avoid carrott fly, we shall see. Where i live is fairly high up and i seem to be at least 4-6 weeks behind people living lower down the hill (flowering time) from me. Decided last year that i was going to start planting late May as most things seem to catch up anyway, and i just loose them if i plant early. Being south facing seems to help once the risk of frost has gone. Oops sorry for rambling off to catch up on thread.

furball

Found this on a forum its called spaghetti sauce planter. Put tomato plants as well as some peppers,
basil, oregano and rosemary in a tub, thought it sounded fun and yummy.

lilyjune

Hi everyone, just spent a loooong time catching up on all the posts. Have been so busy recently and not too much of the time spent on gardening!
However, have got lots of flowers on my strawberries, radishes, beetroot, scallions and peas tht were sown outside all finally making an appearance. Need to plant more peas nd mange tout though, hoping its not too late.
Tied up the raspberries and they look quite good, saw a couple of mice in them though last night so wondering if they'll find the peas..
My tomatoes though don't look so good, they have been needing potting on for ages and just haven't had a chance. Lots of yellowing leaves and nowhere near the amount of leaves as there is in everyone else's pictures. I pinched out the top to try and encourage more bushiness but don't really know what I'm doing. There are flowers on some of them though so today, I bit the bullet and brought them outside to pot them on in their final pots. They need staking so that's the job for the afternoon and then I'm just going to cross my fingers and hope for the best.

Biggest problem has been squirrels, they dig EVERYTHING up, got some of my potatoes and had a go at the herbs and the peas. Have netted most things now so hopefully that will deter them.

MBE, will you get honey from your log or is it just for the bees only?

Lotus-eater

My tomatoes are now in the greenhouse borders, going to have to make the most of this weather and hope that it doesn't get bad again, as they were desperately needing to be moved on from their pots.

Angelfeathers

Mmm, just eaten my first real pickings of this year from the garden - lamb's lettuce and radishes - and some alfalfa sprouts grown in a jar, with some yummy quiche! Always love being able to eat stuff I've grown!

(I'm still harvesting chard from last year - it's gone mad, actually! - but this is the first of the stuff that was sown this year)