No T Words mentioned at all - a fresh start

[Deleted User]

Hi KITTIE - no we still have the courgette plants on the windowsill in the bedroom where they are warmest. We don't try carrots any more as the land here is very full of gravel and they just don't thrive. We don't do celery but do grow celeriac which does quite well, but we have to grow it in the back garden as the allotment is so stony and the back garden soil has been sieved over the years so is in better condition. We are lucky enough to have an amateur beekeeper over the road, so I think pollination won't be such a problem for us. If only it would warm up!!!!! Lyn.

boultdj

Thank you kittie, and I'm doing well for pollinator's, like Mrs Lw got bee keeper's in the village, and I'v got old fasioned, non hybred plant's and flower's. Next thing for me is save up for a green house [not enough room for a pollytunnel] at least then I could grow some of the faster growing crop's and extend the herb harvest, even my chive's are struggling this year.

[Deleted User]

my over wintered onions have had it. They are large and healthy looking but get closer and many are wet and slimey. It is the constant rain, it has collected in the onion itself and many have a flower inside because of the hot dry spring. I have dug them up because there was only one way for them and that was rot, which I don`t want in my plot. They are heavy and I have started to dehydrate them, 9 trays today and another 9 tomorrow. Its the best way for me re preservation with minimum space. Any commercial growers out there will have the same problems and these onions won`t keep at all. So that is one crop up the swanee

maryb

I weeded my onions in one of the rare breaks between showers. They weren't overwintered, I planted them as sets in March. They are sprouting, slowly, but rotting in the wet ground faster than they are growing. And from what you say, Kittie, it doesn't look as if June is going to be any better

Lidl have got big nets of onions on offer for (I think) £1.49. Think I might buy one and chop and freeze portions ready for frying.

scottishminnie

Just a flying visit. Popped into Asda earlier tonight and saw they has an offer on - 2 half pound packs of Lurpak in a very good quality brownie tin for £3. The tin would be ideal for roasting veg too.

I will be popping back tomorrow for another one.

[Deleted User]

gosh good things can come from bad . Speaking about onions, naturally. I grow my own because they are completely organic, not a pesticide near them and I grow them under enviromesh. I dehydrated 9 trays yesterday at 125 degrees F and then on very low heat all night, I like to make sure that there is no moisture left. They have turned out fantastically and I already filled a 5.5 litre box

So looking on the bright side, finding the potential of a soggy problem has in fact turned out to be very good. The onions were actually very big, none storeable so had to be processed and drying takes up less room. The march planted sets look fine but the bulbs will be small and will (maybe) store. Re the ground the lifted ones are on, I am putting another crop in (rotation) this weekend either carrots or courgette. That is the bright side as I get more from the one plot

So next year it will actually be overwintered onions again, knowing that I can store or preserve and that they will be very big too and picked early, followed quickly by something else

grandchildren here later for overnight, so beds to get out and toys to sort. No point in hanging onto toys any more as they are going to australia this autumn

fuddle

Hey all. I'm just posting to say hi as I hadn't realised that this thread is full of useful info too.

It's interesting (and worrisome) to read about the bad vibes for the future. My stocks are also ran down mainly because I get complacent in the 'warmer' months but no more.

So sorry to read about the effect the weather has had on crops but the words of encouragement about how resourceful you all are is really nice to read and so true because that last message there was super to read about how you've managed to save the almost ruined onions.

I tried last year to grow my own and was really terrible at it. I'm in two minds whether to try again purely for my own peace of mind of having something if the country falls on it's knees but with my lack of knowledge and the bad weather (as mentioned on other thread what has happened this year could have been famine etc if relied upon home grown) I don't know whether it would be a good investment or not.

[Deleted User]

Morning toughies, tried to post yesterday but computer had major tantrum and ate all my words, then shut itself off and wouldn't talk to me. I seem to be forgiven this morning! KITTIE - DH says when he plants out the courgette plants he makes them a shelter with a tough poly bag, with the sealed end cut off to make a tube, and 4 short bamboos, he tensions the bag and he keeps it about 18" high. He reckons it gives a windbreak and helps retain moisture while they are little. He says it doesn't do anything to keep slugs and snails out though - and the only sure way is slug pellets, sorry! We have a beautiful sunny morning here, have just walked the lurcher and heard the first Cuckoo of the year, the wild flowers are beginning to open on the lanes and the hayfields are looking verdant and well grown. I won't spoil things by putting it into words, but it actually felt like that season which follows winter. Have a good one Cheers Lyn x.

maryb

Every time I use an egg I put the egg shell on an old tray in the bottom of my oven. Next time the oven is on it dries out. Then I crush it and store it in an old bread bag. I've been doing this for about 6 months and I have two bread bags full of crushed eggshells. Am planning on trying this as a natural slug repellant - I've read that they hate sharp gritty surfaces (well wouldn't you if you were a slug?) and I'm hoping this will help. If it doesn't work, it didn't cost me anything and I've got more courgette plants than I need so I can replant - but then it's war and I mean chemical!!

prepareathome

We have so many slugs, been using the crushed egg shells for years, it does help a bit but have bought the organic slug pellets - they are safe for children and pet, snag is they are not cheap. I have top half of 500ml plastic bottles over my plants in the hope plants will grow up through the neck and keep the slugs and snails off the plants when they are at their tastiest- ie now while they are babies. Although have found a few slugs and snails just now the cold weather is keeping them at bay even though its wet, its summers like last year when it was hot but we had torrential rain every day that really brings them out in force, I was out every night around midnight collecting literally hundreds - yes I am cruel I drop them in salt water, still lost so many plants to them and found they love most flowers as well pansies seemed to be their total favourite they ate through 6 plants I had just put in a pot in one night even with all my defences.

So although in the main I want it to warm up part of me doesn't not if we are going to continue to get the torrential rain we have had these past 3 years. Not put out my egg shells yet - have a very, very big bag of them sitting in kitchen ready to be crushed so hopefully do that today. I grow my peas in wall pots and have found snails and slugs have crawled up the rough brickwork of walls of back of house and got into the pots so it seems they are willing to put up with the pain to get their tasty treats or maybe they are just developing thicker skins on their undersides, but I will not use anything that is not organic not unless we really do have to live on what I can grow then I might have to consider chemicals, shudder at the thought.

I put all my lettuce in individual pots on Thursday and then put a ring of the organic slug pellets round it ( its made from iron if I remember rightly which their bodies cannot handle and just breaks down in ground and rain doesn't dissolve it) so need to check them today to see if they have survived, there were 16 small ones, even though they don't mind the coolness have still put fleece sheets over them.

Right been raining but stopped so will get out into garden