Help MBE grow his dinner 2012

cheekyweegit

mrbadexample wrote: »

Yes, guilty sounds about right!

What are you going to do with the extra 8' then? I'd really like to find an extra 8' of garden! If it's full of tree roots then you should probably put a greenhouse there.

And yes, the spuds are minging.

No idea so far as the part where the conifers were, were on a slight slope so to grow anything I'd probably need to build up the earth to even it out, so sleepers / brick wall would be required and no funds just now.

I'm trying to persuade the council to move my back fence to the correct boundary, so that could be another 2-3+ feet at the back of my garden x 40 feet approx across.

It's very uneven and messy, could do with the "Ground force team in or Beechgrove Garden guys"

I am lucky though, and I'm truly amazed with what some of you guys do with small spaces.

Oh and as for the tree roots, not even started on these yet, any idea how far conifer roots go that have been in 10+ years. The trunks were not that thick surprisingly.

Angelfeathers

Hey all. :-) Sorry for disappearing – I've had a bit of a month (wrote off my car on holiday by hitting a kid on a moped, though at least he wasn't badly hurt) and everything's got behind, including the gardening.

All my tomatoes – about 15 plants – got blight and I wasn't around enough to deal with it enough to get a decent crop. I got a small tray of small Gardener's Delights, which did ripen on the windowsill and were lovely, but the few salvaged Tigerella's didn't even ripen. Still, it seems *loads* of people have had blight this year, so at least I'm not alone!

As usual, my best success has been my beans. I grew three varieties – Wisley Magic runners, and Blue Lake and Cobra French beans – and they all did brilliantly. Pounds and pounds of beans. I got them all started early which means they've finished now, though they might have lasted longer if I'd had more time in the last month to water them. Meant to sow a second wave but never got round to it.

My squash were a disappointment as one spaghetti squash and both courgettes were eaten through upon planting out. The remaining spaghetti squash plant, however, has given me one enormous squash which, as a low-carber, I used in place of pasta and it was delicious! I now have another small one growing which I'm hoping to be able to harvest as a baby, at least. I also have one pumpkin, which is not huge but ripening nicely and will give DS something to carve for Halloween. :-)

Summer brassicas have been a complete failure as they all got completely chomped by caterpillars. Again, this was partly because I failed to keep on top of them while I was away/being stressed and busy about the car. I have decided that next year I will only grow winter brassicas as they have time to recover after the caterpillars are gone. The Brussels, sprouting broccoli, kale and spring cabbages are all doing fine now.

Sweetcorn is doing surprisingly well with loads of good-sized cobs – I just need them to ripen before it gets too cold now! They're a very, very pale cream-colour at the moment…

Onions did well – better in the ground this year than in pots last year. Something to remember for the future. Leeks are still very small but still growing…

I've had several very decent crops of radishes, and lettuce earlier in the season, and some more growing nicely now. I had one lovely crop of beetroot and a second on it's way. Loads of carrots throughout the summer, though they're still tiny again due to not enough watering/feeding. And very nice parsnips, grown in an old green recycling box, which worked brilliantly! Oh, and strawberries – a good crop of a few at a time, throughout the summer, and loads of runners. I have literally doubled my number of plants!

Not much from the peppers again. One in the greenhouse had two fruits but both got bored into by slugs, which was disgusting. Also very dry and inedible anyway. Not enough watering again, probably! The one surviving outdoor one has a few fruits on which may or may not ripen.

The five aubergine plants in the greenhouse again suffered from underwatering/feeding and have a measly three tiny fruit on them. Which don't look like they're going to grow much more, so may just have to harvest them. They're probably really dry and tough too.

Three chilli plants in tubs are beautiful, though it wasn't until yesterday that the first chilli turned red, so I haven't had the glorious technicolour display I was hoping for. Loads of chillis, though, which is so useful as I don't use many so never use all those in a pack from the supermarket. Will bring those plants in over winter and hope to get more off them next year. :-)

Chard is cropping nicely now and I'm starting to think about winter sowing and planning for next year. I think the main lesson I've learned is not to sow so much summer stuff, because I just don't have enough time to keep on top of it!

Badrick

Angelfeathers wrote: »

Summer brassicas have been a complete failure as they all got completely chomped by caterpillars. Again, this was partly because I failed to keep on top of them while I was away/being stressed and busy about the car. I have decided that next year I will only grow winter brassicas as they have time to recover after the caterpillars are gone.

I didn't bother with brassicas this year, but I've found putting netting over so the butterflies can't lay on them stopped the caterpillar problem.

Angelfeathers

Badrick wrote: »

I didn't bother with brassicas this year, but I've found putting netting over so the butterflies can't lay on them stopped the caterpillar problem.

Yeah, I tried that but they still got in. Probably the holes were too big, I guess!

Little_Vics

RedLass wrote: »

Does your pepper plant live on the windowsill all year round? How tall has it got?

yes it does! It got to over 3ft high, but I chopped it down to about 1ft a couple of months ago. It's still doing well and starting to bush out a little better. It currently has flowers which are slowing turning into fruit.

It fruits all year round - MBE had to apologise to me earlier this year because he didn't believe I had peppers on plant in a room with no heating, with snow outside. Ha!

katholicos

This overloaded the kitchen scales today...had to hack it into two halves to get an accurate weight...

photo.JPG by Garden allotmenter, on Flickr

First half...
[/url]
photo.JPG by Garden allotmenter, on Flickr

...second half...

[/url]
photo.JPG by Garden allotmenter, on Flickr

Could have left it a while longer but it's chilly here of late and i've not been too well so i thought i would have it out before it got devoured By slugs or rotted.

Hope all is well with everyone...

annie123

Some very impressive pictures all round, especially considering the weather this year.

MBE, did you have your BNS yesterday?

My overwintered chilli has been great, had around 50 off it so far with more still to come.
The worse one was the banana chilli 25p from homebase, 3 chillis and hubby says their not that hot either. I would guess anyone who paid the full £6.99 :eek: must be very miffed.

Tinks32

check this site out... http://www.seaspringplants.co.uk/ I spoiled myself and bought 2 x 1 litre plants in June. They were £10 each but I am so glad I did. I was so impressed with one of them "Turtle Claw" I have had about 400 chillies from it, and 3 weeks ago stripped it of all fruits and now it has got hundreds of new flowers on it. not sure if it will fruit again but I am planning on overwintering it. I have it in a south-facing conservatory. Btw the fruits keep really well in the fridge, but don't dry well. they taste of lemons too! They sell seeds also check out the pumpkin which I am going to grow in 2013.

mrbadexample

katholicos wrote: »

This overloaded the kitchen scales today...had to hack it into two halves to get an accurate weight...

<snip>

Could have left it a while longer but it's chilly here of late and i've not been too well so i thought i would have it out before it got devoured By slugs or rotted.

Hope all is well with everyone...

Katholicos, that squash is ace! :T

mrbadexample

jollyanna wrote: »

mrbadexample,
"in other respects quite memorable"
Wouldn't be in lurve would you ?

Well I wouldn't go quite that far, but yes, I have had things other than gardening to occupy my time of late.