Help MBE grow his dinner 2012

Pre-war_babe_33

Two of my ten tomato plants have finished cropping now so are on the way to the compost bin and the remaining eight have a second crop just starting to ripen now.

Thornless blackberries were very early and have almost finished but plenty more coming on the spikey bushes. Gooseberries were not good this year and the rhubarb was useless but did have loads of strawberries early on so I can`t complain.

Broad beans produced a very heavy crop but I couldn`t keep the snails from eating the french beans by the time the plants were about two inches tall. The snails also had a go at my tomatoes too but only managed to attack about a dozen of them which I left lying on the ground to keep them away from the rest.

If I see a snail in the garden it very quickly goes under my foot but I am now wondering if it is safe to put pellets around food plants and also if it would be safe for the birds or hedgehogs if they happen to feast on the snails.

I haven`t managed to grow much this year, partly due to the weather and also having to cope with both sciatica and vertigo which hamper my progress a bit.

lemonjelly

NEWS FLASH!!!!!!!
I finally have tomatoes growing!:j

mrbadexample

I feel bereft. What did I do with my life before the Olympics?

djohn2002uk

mrbadexample wrote: »

I feel bereft. What did I do with my life before the Olympics?

Why do you think people kept telling you to "Get a life"

mumof3plusoh

MBE know how you feel. It was all fantastic and made you proud to be British.

Well arrived back home after 12 days away in sunny Wales to find
I had 2 ripe tomatoes:j
3 courgettes:j
4 cucumbers:j plus about 4 shrivelled (sp) up ones
lots of lovely lettuce:j
my runner beans have beans ready to eat:j
a bowl of raspberries
and a large vase of sweetpeas and mum had already taken a huge vase full for herself.

very happy with that as was all looking a bit glum before we went away.
Oh and have a few green chillis but no peppers yet.

Hope everyone is well and have lots of lovely fruit and veg to eat.

Fay

Well it seems to be going from bad to worse. I went in the greenhouse on the weekend and had spider mite, stripped lots out, seemed better yesterday morning when I went in. Went to water in there this morning and I think I've got blight in there This is the toms-not a great pic I knowAnd the chillis and peppers are affected too-leaves dropping off and blotches on the fruits too Will clean the GH out at the weekend and burn all the contents and then scrub it with jayes fluid, light a sulphur candle and leave it for the winter now I think.

annie123

mrbadexample wrote: »

I feel bereft. What did I do with my life before the Olympics?

Gardening


I do have blight. All 12 plants, I'm gutted. Cutting off leaves as soon as I see them and the odd stem off the bush ones in the hope that some of the toms will get a blush and I can pick them. So far I've had 14 toms off them. First time in 20 years here I've had tomato blight.
My new gardening neighbours have also been affected, which is really disheartening when you're new to GYO.
The local allotment has been affected too, my friend said over 200 toms dead there so far.

I already have more courgettes than we can cook with as they all survived early growth this year as the snails preferred the french beans for a change, although Patio Star is yet to produce one, so whilst it may be small and pot size I won't bother with them again.

Lots of cucumbers to come, plenty of runner beans, a few strawberries still, spring onions, herbs, but no sign of my autumn raspberries flowering yet, which does make me wonder if the twigs from 99p store died and the shoots there are summer canes from next doors garden.

Fay, blight can affect peppers too, my over wintered one doesn't look good. I've moved them all indoors now.

This is without a doubt the worse year I have ever had for GYO, I'm grateful for mass production by growers or we'd starve!

mrbadexample

annie123 wrote: »

Gardening

Oh yeah. I remember.

That squash is growing nicely. Think I pulled the rotten flower off just in time:



Mr Frog likes stumperies:



The ferns all died very quickly (didn't take enough root with them when I dug them up) so I've gleaned a bit of ivy from the old fella. I'll put some more ferns in as and when they turn up for nothing.



The nasturtiums are doing their job of attracting blackfly:





I'm not really sure if that's a good thing or not. They are supposedly keeping the blackfly away from my veg. Thing is, I'm sure I never had blackfly before! Am I just attracting the blackfly in? :think:

mrbadexample

I've got tomatoes, and they are ripening. It's just that there aren't very many fruit:











The one above's an Amish Paste. It's about the size of a golf ball. Last year they grew like this:

mrbadexample

annie123 wrote: »

And how's the pond looking? the plants should have grown quite a bit by now.

Like this: