Help MBE grow his dinner 2012

Sambucus_Nigra

I've been picking strawbs like crazy, and my first day's rapsberry pickings were amazing; but the broad beans took me half an hour to pick and an hour and a half to depod - and that's only the first half of them. In for another stint tonight or tomorrow...

Fay

Not much gardening has been done here this week due to the awful weather...but I shall report back later as I'm intending on having a furtle in one of my potato bags as they seem much bigger plants in the bags strangely. I'm also hoping some broad beans are ready.
Do you think I could plant pea plants or french beans in the potato bags after the tatties come out? I'm having a nightmare with french beans-I've now planted about 30+ plants and each one has been eaten by slugs. I don't know what more to try with them now-nematodes don't appear to be doing much, the organic hedgehog friendly pellets don't seem to be doing much and I caught a snail happily crawling up my rather expensive copper rings the other day I could actually cry

Sambucus_Nigra

Me too - I've lost lots of rare beans this year so I'm only growing run of the mill ones - I sowed a batch of borlottis last week which are now up. I've found the dwarf ones have been better than the climbers for some reason.

When I say rare - I mean really rare 'hoping to preserve these' rare. I'm gutted.

Sometimes, you just have to know the seasons' limitations; and beans have been one of them.

I'm replacing them with a late sowing of squashes...grown quite big before being put out.

aliasojo

Something has happened to some of my potatoes.

They are being grown in big bags and have been very happy looking up till now. The biggest of them have been flattened. It looks almost like something has landed on top of the bags and just flattened the plants.

I can't see this is the case though, the garden isn't in an area where it would be affected by anything like that (no kids with footballs etc) and the bags that were flattened were more sheltered than the rest of them.

Even the local cat has never gone near near so I struggle to think it would be him.

Very odd.

Oh and my raspberry plant is dying, it's all but gone. No idea why but the stems are black and soft where they meet the compost.

Aria`s_Tail

I'm now working away from home for at least a week at a time so have to abandon the garden to it's own devices for these weeks. I've just got back on Thursady from a 11 day stint and will be away on Monday for another 7.
I did leave the OH with a hosepipe and strict instructions to water daily if needed.:rotfl:
Got back to the first ripe strawberry, very nice it was too, toms have loads more flowers and some small fruit. Have some radish and lettuce ready and flowers on peas. My herbs are all looking good and rasps are flowering.
The beans that survived the deluges of water and slugs have grown a bit but don't look very happy, neither do the courgettes or cucumbers.
I had planted some spinach and beetroot about a month ago but all that appeared was one very sickly spinach plant that was promptly eaten by slugs.:mad: Assuming they drowned.
I was looking forward to coming home and digging up some potatoes until when I did the OH very proudly said he had bought a 5kg bag from the supermarket that was a bargin price. LOL. The ones in the garden will have t wait another week.

MBE, I bet your bog barrel is loving this warm and wet weather. I would just plant them all out, they are tougher than they look. I used to keep several sundews, fly traps and sarracena in an old fish tank outside up in Cumbria and they did fine.

Aria`s_Tail

My Dad always taught me to take out side shoots on toms but this year I haven't bothered (took out a few near the bases) and the have loads of flowers and a few fruit on all shoots.

lolly5648

Sambucus_Nigra wrote: »

I've been picking strawbs like crazy, and my first day's rapsberry pickings were amazing; but the broad beans took me half an hour to pick and an hour and a half to depod - and that's only the first half of them. In for another stint tonight or tomorrow...

This is my first year growing broad beans - how do you know when they are ready to pick? I picked a couple that looked quite big but it was too early.

Lotus-eater

Sambucus_Nigra wrote: »

Me too - I've lost lots of rare beans this year so I'm only growing run of the mill ones - I sowed a batch of borlottis last week which are now up. I've found the dwarf ones have been better than the climbers for some reason.

When I say rare - I mean really rare 'hoping to preserve these' rare. I'm gutted.

Sometimes, you just have to know the seasons' limitations; and beans have been one of them.

I'm so glad I didn't use all my hybrid seeds this year, I always keep some back, just in case.
They are coming on, but I don't think they've got enough time for a decent harvest.

Of my rare beans, I'm down to one plant each :eek:

Pre-war_babe_33

Lolly I pick broad beans when they are about the size of my index finger and eat them whole - any bigger and you would have to pod them. Can`t buy them small and tender like that in the supermarkets.

mrbadexample

Lotus-eater wrote: »

It's gone a bit quiet in here......in here.....in here

Sorry, have I been inattentive?

@dogstar - loooking good! :T

Today I finally lost my rag and sprayed the gooseberry bushes. I don't like doing it when there's fruit on, but I'm sick of the sawfly. :mad:

My asparagus has decided to put in an appearance at last. :j

I've been eating potatoes and turnips. More beetroot should be ready soon.

It's blowing a flippin' gale outside and I want to get the pond edging finished, but after the Tour de France prologue.