Help MBE grow his dinner 2012

Fay

Hi everyone, sorry I've been very neglectful of this thread but I think that sums up how I have been with my gardening too! After the last lot of very bad weather and having blight in my outside tomatoes I kind of gave up. The toms I had out the front of the house carried on growing and cropping really well and I now have some frozen pasta sauce from them. But other than that I haven't done anything to the veg and fruit! I will be planning on starting again next year but will have a later season as I am away for 2 weeks at the end of May, so may need help in planning what to do. I cleared the greenhouse out last week whilst I was off work-there were lots of green tomatoes on my plants in there and I felt terribly guilty for abandoning them to the ravages of nature...but I didn't make any green chutney with them, so doubly neglectful! I still have carrots in the ground and I still have runner beans growing-do you think they will still be ok to eat?

mrbadexample

Fay wrote: »

I still have carrots in the ground and I still have runner beans growing-do you think they will still be ok to eat?

Yes. Unless the beans have gone stringy?

Not a patch on last year, but I've still got tomatoes coming along. Should be just enough for another batch of sauce I think:

mrbadexample

annie123 wrote: »

MBE I spot squash seeds there, which ones did you get? great price for all those seeds.

Marina di Chioggia, a winter variety, and Hercules F1 butternut.

I have too many seeds of each.

RedLass

Fay wrote: »

I still have carrots in the ground and I still have runner beans growing-do you think they will still be ok to eat?

I pulled the last of my carrots and picked a few runner beans yesterday - both of which were still very tasty, so unless yours look odd, I would think they're fine

Tomatoes look good MBE, even if only a few. I'm sure they still taste doubly better than those out of Mr T and will make ace sauce.

Yesterday had a further tidy up in the garden, generally pulling up dead and finished plants. Dug up two of my pepper plants and have potted them up and taken them indoors. We'll see how well they overwinter, they seem to have survived the transplant, so that's a start.

Planted some garlic in a rectangular pot too. I wonder if I put too many in, but they are spaced at 4 inches as the packet said so... I guess I'll know if a few months!

Happy to find that having cleared most of the soil I had veg in, it looks and feels much better than at the beginning of the season when I had just dug it over and it was all clay and clumpy. I'm hoping that the winter will continue to break it up underneath and do some magic.

Wondering now what to do (if anything) to help improve the soil a little further for next year. I don't really want to plant a green manure for various reasons. But I've read in places along the way this year that some veg don't like being planted/sown after manure has been added. Does that mean I shouldn't add manure, or will it be OK by the time Spring comes around? Or should I just chuck some multi-purpose compost on top for the worms to pull down? Confused :think:

Little_Vics

my loganberry is still fruiting. Is that normal?

Badrick

Little_Vics wrote: »

my loganberry is still fruiting. Is that normal?

They're usually ready to harvest from mid August through September and are probably a bit behind due to this years none arrival of summer.
I've still got a few summer raspberries left to pick and not seen a flower on the autumn ones.

mrbadexample

Little_Vics wrote: »

my loganberry is still fruiting. Is that normal?

Does it matter? I'd just be grateful for the fruit...;)

annie123

RedLass wrote: »

Wondering now what to do (if anything) to help improve the soil a little further for next year. I don't really want to plant a green manure for various reasons. But I've read in places along the way this year that some veg don't like being planted/sown after manure has been added. Does that mean I shouldn't add manure, or will it be OK by the time Spring comes around? Or should I just chuck some multi-purpose compost on top for the worms to pull down? Confused :think:

A link that tells you what will benefit from manure.
http://www.which.co.uk/documents/pdf/feeding-and-watering-vegetables-153957.pdf
No home made compost to use?

Little_Vics wrote: »

my loganberry is still fruiting. Is that normal?

My thornless blackberry is still giving me a bowlful of fruit each week and it's still flowering. Varies each year for berries.

Must buy some garlic to plant, only not as much as other years now that the garlic muncher has left home :j opps! I mean

RedLass

annie123 wrote: »

A link that tells you what will benefit from manure.
http://www.which.co.uk/documents/pdf/feeding-and-watering-vegetables-153957.pdf
No home made compost to use?

Oh, that's a really helpful link! Seems most of the veg that I am thinking of putting in the bed next year have no benefit from manure, so that rules that out. Thank you Also looks like I could've saved myself a LOT of watering can trips since carrots, beets, onions and parnsips didn't really need watering every day it hadn't rained Lessons learned!

No home made compost I'm afraid Combination of things - at first we were short on space while we were still getting the bed in and working things out. I also didn't think I'd get anywhere near enough stuff to put in it (I know now that I would've had plenty, especially with kitchen waste and shredding too). We still don't have a lot of room, but I might look into one of those compact compost bin things, it could stand by the shed and not get in the way too much.

annie123

[QUOTE=RedLass;56244327
No home made compost I'm afraid Combination of things - at first we were short on space while we were still getting the bed in and working things out. I also didn't think I'd get anywhere near enough stuff to put in it (I know now that I would've had plenty, especially with kitchen waste and shredding too). We still don't have a lot of room, but I might look into one of those compact compost bin things, it could stand by the shed and not get in the way too much.[/QUOTE]

No need to buy one, very easy to make one to the size of the space you have available with chicken wire and garden canes. Works well, I did it for many years.
Chicken wire to the height and circle diameter required held in place by 4 canes weaved through it, or nail/staple it to bits of wood, but canes worked well as they were pushed into the ground.
To turn, pull out canes, fork over to the side of bin, remake bin and stuff back in. A water proof something over the top during winter stops it from going soggy.
The link below shows it better than my explanation.
http://www.urbanfoodgarden.org/main/composting/composting---wire-compost-bins.htm
Try to put it somewhere sunny, it will turn into compost quicker than in the shade.