Help MBE grow his dinner 2012

Fay

Well, shhhh, don't tell anyone but the weather is lovely here. I'm not quite sure I believe it yet or trust it, but I will make the most of it. Only had a little go in the garden yesterday as we had to have a new damp proof membrane fitted in the kitchen/lounge so that took most of the day. But late afternoon we popped to a nursery with my parents and got a few new dahlias (think I'm addicted) and some FREE geraniums-big 4-5 inch pots they were just giving away. Nothing wrong with most of them so I now have 4 sitting in my garden and my mom has 2. When we got home my hubby and dad extended one of my borders for me to put my new plants in.
Hubby has treated himself to a new petrol mower which will be here tuesday so although the grass needs a mow and the weather is great we are going to wait for that.
And guess what-it's meant to be nice weather all week and I have the week off:j bad news-I'm not very well for it (boo) and have to do some house decorating, oh and hubby is working friday, saturday & sunday at the end of our week off-so I will be decorating alone But we are going to get a few days out in hopefully and get the garden tidied up again.
Nothing is happening with my new sowings I made last weekend although really it's a bit early for them isn't it

RedLass

The sun has come out and so I've been out to take some piccies now that things are moving on a bit.

The patch


The herb collection - have been using it lots, making it worth every penny


The beans - now coming into flower, so we may have a harvest yet :T


The cucumber... I think I was meant to pinch it out a bit sooner, but it seems really healthy, with plenty of flowers, and definitely two fruit so far.


The peppers - doing really well, I think?! Definitely one teeny tiny pepper on one of the plants, and flowers on both.


Beetroot - Seems to be doing well, unlike my swedes that got totally wrecked by slugs. Really hoping we get to harvest some of this, purely because it seems to be surviving and I'd be sad to see it fail now.


Red onions from sets I stuck in at the last minute.


And today... we harvested our first Chantenay carrots :beer: And they actually look like carrots! I'm a bit chuffed with them, I think it's all just such magic.


This is the tomato... what do you guys think? Is it disease, or is it just grumpy/wet/bogged down/lacking nutrient? Yesterday I gave it a feed, since we're not predicted rain for a few days.




Things that I planted that just haven't worked for one reason or another:

Swedes - eaten and destroyed by creatures early on. Was sad about this because they all came up and were doing well.
Parsnips - there are still some in the ground but they look really young still. Some got eaten too.
Lettuce - Planted 21. So far 15 or so of those have been completely trashed by slugs and snails, and the others have been well nibbled.
Mixed salad - did get a few snips of these which were good but they grew too large and out of control, started to taste less sweet. My fault, I planted them in the wrong place - not accessible enough. Will fix that next year. Have dug it all up so it's one less place for the slugs to hide.
Spinach - none of it germinated.
Spring onions - Still in the ground but they still look like chives...

I feel a renewed sense of hope thanks to today's carrot harvest. It's not much, but they're my first ever, and I'm a happy bunny

lemonjelly

Now the weather has changed for the better, I'm off on me jols later this week. Well 5 days in cornwall...

On returning, I'll need to do the final repotting of my toms into the big pots. Be thankful for small mercies john/mrBE, I'm still only at the flowers stage! Hopefully the warm weather whist I am away will make them come on leaps & bounds.

I have planted freash batches of lettuce to get going whilst I am away.

2 large tubs of carrots appear to be going well. Sadly, the slugs (bleeders that they are) appear to have got at my carrots in the small pots...

djohn2002uk

Enjoy yourself, you've picked the right week.:) MBE can pop round and do a bit of watering for you in this hot weather we'll be getting. He can pot them Toms up at the same time.

That reminds me. wherte is he again? keeps going AWOL at W/Ends. Jankers will have to be the order of the day when he shows up.

mrbadexample

djohn2002uk wrote: »

That reminds me. wherte is he again? keeps going AWOL at W/Ends. Jankers will have to be the order of the day when he shows up.

I've been AWOL for three weeks mate, watching the Tour de France. :j Takes up a lot of time. I'll be back for a week and then AWOL again while I try to watch all of the Olympics.

My runner beans have a few flowers, I've got a few French beans on the way, my solitary courgette tried to make a courgette but slugs ate it. I'm also hoping that a week of hot will help the tomatoes out.

Took a final picking of the rhubarb today. Got ripped to shreds picking gooseberries on Friday. Still one bush left to do.

Things aren't too bad, if I'm honest.

lemonjelly

He's lurking. Green light is on & he's thanked us both.

Is MrBE the big brother house?

annie123

mrbadexample wrote: »

I've been AWOL for three weeks mate, watching the Tour de France. :j Takes up a lot of time. I'll be back for a week and then AWOL again while I try to watch all of the Olympics.

Typical bloke, got your priorities wrong, telly sport comes 2nd to most things including MSE;)

Lemon, enjoy your trip.

Redlass.......another neat and tidy garden If mine ever looks neat and tidy it means I have a gardener

It did feel good today to be out in the sun in the garden, just as it should be.
On close inspection of my toms I found a few that look like greenback, not caused by heat or sun (if only!) so that leaves feeding, which due to continual rain hasn't happened much this year. The whole garden has had a good feed today, and I forgot how much I like watering the garden, very therapeutic.

Neighbours cats started to use lawn as a litter tray as the grass was a good 8" tall, now its 2" hopefully they will stop.

I spotted the first baby runner bean it is tiny but that's a start, my perpetual strawberries are turning red, so that's another crop to look forward too.

Autumn raspberries growing OK, my greenhouse 25p cucumber that's outside is covered in flowers, my 1 white cucumber is now 2' tall but all leaves so far, and my rooted butternut squash cutting has now decided to grow, I'll be amazed if I get a flower never mind something edible.

I've cut the slug food/haulms off the bucket spuds, most flattened by rain and what wasn't was eaten by snails. Not expecting much of a crop as they were planted mid may but I'll leave them there for a couple of weeks before I empty them. Mainly arran pilot so should be ok as new potatoes.

Picked some spring onions,chard and herbs for drying/freezing and a few more rhubarb stalks for the freezer. I'll pick the last next weekend.

Spiders...........my garden is usually full of them in September making webs between plants and across the garden, which has me walking down there looking a right idiot waving a stick ahead of me :rotfl: Only I had to do this week. Do they know winter is very early? or are they confused by the weather thinking it's autumn, I hope it's the latter.

mrbadexample

annie123 wrote: »

Spiders...........my garden is usually full of them in September making webs between plants and across the garden, which has me walking down there looking a right idiot waving a stick ahead of me :rotfl: Only I had to do this week. Do they know winter is very early? or are they confused by the weather thinking it's autumn, I hope it's the latter.

Definition of a cobweb: an object that when you walk into it, turns you into a karate master.

Fay

Well no gardening has got done today other than watering but we went to visit Biddulph grange garden over Staffordshire (NT). Nice garden, I saw it on a TV show and wanted to visit. Such a shame you can't visit the house...but anyway. We went to see their veg plot and I was reassured to see that their's was about the same as ours-their runner beans were better but then they had no carrots at all (had a label but nothing). So all in all, like MBE, not too bad. I also have lots of toms on the bush ones in the front garden and they look like they will be red by the end of the week-about time really!

mrbadexample

I ate this:



Which is only one day later than last year, surprisingly. I've got nowhere near the same amount of fruit though.

My bee hotel has received further attention:



Some of the smaller holes have been filled. I think I've seen the bee responsible, but didn't get chance to get a picture.