Help MBE grow his dinner 2012

Mad-Frog

My cabbages and broccoli are full of holes, my swede seem to be doing well. The radish has bolted as has the spinach.

Runner Beans and French climbing beans look very anaemic will have to see, they seem to be growing though.

In fact everything in my garden has holes in their leaves :mad:

I have tons of strawberries though, just hoping weather improves a bit so they will ripen, I also have some raspberries coming along

I hate this weather

Lotus-eater

annie123 wrote: »

And which are the best French beans to grow?

Well I've often said trail of tears, as they crop so well, over a long period.

But last year I tried Cosse Violette, from realseeds and really liked them. They grew quickly and never went tough, no matter how long they were left. But they did go over very quickly. I'm planning to sow some more tomorrow, for hopefully a 2nd crop..... or maybe a 1st crop the way my beans are going atm.....

Which is absolutely terrible, I think almost every bean has lost it's growing tip to slugs/snails, leaves to wind, or been uprooted by the damn moles. And that's almost 90 bean plants decimated! The tallest is only 12" high.

adelight

The only thing still alive are the cauli's planted amongst rose bushes in my parents' garden. Apparently they love this awfully clay soil full of old bricks...

I've moved house and am on the allotment list here. They reckon it's about two years as they are starting to give out half plots as demand is increasing. I wonder if they will start limiting people to 1 plot too? Lots of people who do the coffee mornings at one site have 2-3 each.

mrbadexample

Managed to get a bit done today - cut the grass in between the showers which were thankfully light. Potted up an iris for the pond, did a bit of weeding and general tidying. A second asparagus crown has sprouted, so that's both the Pacific Purple ones through. :j

I had three turnips - not great lookers but still tasty:



I planted out the buddleja that was fed up in its pot. I took another cut from the comfrey and started brewing some tea.

My kohl rabi is starting to look like little kohl rabi. I hope it tastes nice as I've never had it before.

mrbadexample

I'm particularly pleased with the bog barrel. As the substrate had settled I pulled some from the back where the pitcher plants will displace some anyway, and levelled it off a bit nearer the front. I was pleased to find that once I'd dug down about 6" I hit water:



The substrate feels perfect, nice and moist without being sodden.

I've started planting things out slowly, to see how they cope with being outside. I've got a couple of fly traps and a sundew out so far. Having tested the windbreak I also put one of the sarracenia in, pot and all. That way if it starts to suffer I can whip it out and back into the greenhouse. If all goes well I'll remove the pot and plant it out permanently.





I've still got a lot more fly traps and sundews to go out - I don't think there'll be much bare space by the time it's completed. Finally, I netted it to keep the bees out - I don't want them getting eaten. Hopefully the plants will gorge themselves on sawfly, which are getting stuck in again.

aliasojo

Sun! We have sun!

Just wanted to share my excitement.

Lotus-eater

aliasojo wrote: »

Sun! We have sun!

Just wanted to share my excitement.

It looks like it supposed to be a nice week here

aliasojo

Sun couldn't have come at a better time, the compost in my raised beds is beginning to get a film of mould over the top.

The covers have been zipped down to protect the plants from the wind we've had but the flip side of that is the lack of enough air and damp earth helps mould to grow.

Hopefully a few hours of sunshine today will help dry things off a bit.

Cucumbers look bigger today.

Is there a 'too early' time to pick a cucumber?

I have one that's only around 4 inches long (it's not a mini variety) and I'm dying to slice it to see the inside.

Is it still way to early to eat it? Should I st on my hands and leave it alone?

Lotus-eater

I don't think there is a too early time to pick a cucumber. I would happily pick the first at 4".

pink_poppy

Been to Ald1 today & they were reducing quite a few garden bits, including the self-watering troughs ~ obviously haven't been very popular given the weather we've been having...

Also noticed some 'feed & water' stuff in a bottle ~ think it was called Lifeline?? Only cheap £1 something. Had a quick look & I think it was a gel type stuff that you put on plants & it fed & watered them for a week. Sorry, I really should have paid more attention but remember thinking that sounded quite good & I'd mention it on this thread!!

My strawberries are not doing anything ~ I'm going to feed them some granules that I bought from £land & put some more compost in with them I think.

Nothing else to report, but I really really should repot my peppers sometime soon, is there a Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Plants?? :whistle: