Help MBE grow his dinner 2012

hazzie123

Gah,some little critter has scoffed every single Marigold I planted all I'm left with is a bare stalk and looks like they've tried having a munch on my peas too!

My first lot of Competion carrots have died off,gone all flat and brown so will end up in the compost bin.My tomatoes are hanging in there,just! Not getting any bigger but still alive.

My beetroot seedlings are coming along nicely so far,manged to finally plant my green beans.

Overall it's pretty grim,oh well maybe next year 'rolls eyes'.

annie123

Pre-war_babe_33 wrote: »

Drea, try tying a piece of cardboard round those potato stems and fill with soil to give support. They should be OK if they have a good root system to hold them in the ground.

Did a variation of this today before all my haulms break off due to the well known 'June gales!'

Made a bend at the bottom of the cardboard and weighted it down with bricks and duck taped it around and filled with crumpled newspaper rescued from neighbours recycling bin

Duct tape is very useful in the garden, it also holds in place the bubble wrap tube I made around some chillies as they were looking very miffed, except the PiP I over wintered, it has 4 little purple chillies but it got blown off the table so now it's about 1/3 of it's size due to broken branches and will probably go into shock.

Tomatoes have finally decided to open the flowers that have been there for weeks, except for the plum tomato, that's just stopped doing anything.
2 white cucumber seeds that I sowed when ever it was the root trainers arrived, have decided to sprout! just the little seeds leaves so I may have cucumbers yet this year even if it is October.

The round courgettes are growing really well in the ground and pots and not a single sign of slug damage. I can just see the first little male flowers forming.

From the garden today; new potatoes, spring onions, 12 raspberries, lettuce, parsley, and mint for ice cream making later.

lemonjelly

I've still got diddly squat. But my mum seems to be doing well with her potatoes!

I haven't planted anything out yet. It is too cold & wet, & I just can't see the point. In addition, in the first great winds of the year, I lost everything, so I'm about 2+ months behind everyone else.

So, in pots in the greenhouse I have tomatoes (nowhere near flowering), lettuce (will be eaten next week for the first time I suspect), carrots (doing ok, 2nd batch planted & recently started sprouting), onions (to keep away the carrot fly mainly), peas (who said they have 5' pea plants? My plants are about 7-8" tall!!:mad:) and all the beetroot (last year too many were nobbled by the slugs, so I'm trying to get em as big as possible before planting them out).

I planted a 2nd lot of peas (18 seeds) about 3-4 weeks ago, & only 3 have sprouted!:eek:

I assume the cool weather has slowed down all the growing. Plus, I like spending time in the garden, but when the weather is nice. If it isn't nice, then I have to force myself, & that is less fun.

This weather can't last forever...

lemonjelly

MrBE I really like what you're doing with the carnivourous plants. I will be keeping a close eye on this, & may even stalk you all the way down th A454 for a closer look....

Lotus-eater

I dug up a 2nd early potato yesterday, just to see how they were doing, as I have loads and it had been flowering for a while.
I did intend just furtling a bit, but with the wet soil, it was impossible.

I found....... nothing, not even one tuber. :rotfl: I guess they need a bit longer, at least I don't have to water them at this crucial time

annie123

Oh dear LE, that makes my 300g and 380g and today's 450g of tatties seem good.
As home growers are having a bad time, I guess commercial growers are too which means food prices up again. So I guess every little bit grown, eaten or stored helps.

lolly5648

I planted runner bean seeds outside over two weeks ago, no sign of them - think they have been washed away or rotted. Is it too late to plant some more or should I buy some plugs?

mrbadexample

lolly5648 wrote: »

I planted runner bean seeds outside over two weeks ago, no sign of them - think they have been washed away or rotted. Is it too late to plant some more or should I buy some plugs?

I think you could probably still get away with sowing some, but they might fail again given this weather. At least if you buy plugs you have more of a guarantee.

mrbadexample

hazzie123 wrote: »

My first lot of Competion carrots have died off,gone all flat and brown so will end up in the compost bin.

I'm terribly sorry to hear that. No, really, I am.

hazzie123 wrote: »

My tomatoes are hanging in there,just! Not getting any bigger but still alive.

Mine too. Don't seem to have grown at all since I put them out.

Angelfeathers

Not having a lot of success with my various squashes. I have one pumpkin plant and two spaghetti squash plants but my two courgette plants have been horribly eaten. One is still alive but has been completely stripped of all its leaves; the other had its stalk eaten clean through. I tried replacing it with my one remaining pumpkin plant, but that broke off completely at the stalk as I tried to plant it! So I sowed a couple of seeds in its place – probably too late for it to do much but better to try than have nothing, I guess. I was really looking forward to lots of courgettes too!

Not sure what ate them either. Couldn't see any slug trails, but that bed is infested with ants. Could it have been the ants???

On the other hand, we have had two meals-worth of peas in the last couple of days (these are 'winter' peas, sown in February), which is fantastic, and my son has been enjoying picking and shelling them just like I did when I was little. He's even eaten them!!! (Only thing out of my garden aside from carrots that he's eaten so far.) Also doing well with various lettuces and spring onions still, and harvesting the spring cabbages. I don't think I'm going to bother with cabbages much from now on, because they take up such a lot of room and stay in the ground for so long, just for one or two meals of cabbage, but I'm enjoying having them now.

Oh! I've finally got the first flowers appearing on my tomatoes! Must remember to feed them. And everything else actually. As someone else commented, I haven't been feeding things because I haven't needed to water them!

Finally, I feel like I've more or less caught up with my garden. All the winter plants/weeds have been cleared away and everything that desperately needed to be planted out or potted up has been done, which is a great feeling!