Growing your own veg and fruit

Fran

raeble wrote:

I have got foxgloves, garlic and mint in my garden. The only thing the slugs appear to avoid are the garlic. I suppose it could mean a specific variety of the plants mentioned...

More tips from "50 ways to kill a slug"
Eggshells, grit, sand, sawdust, crushed nuts, sea shells, gravel and pine needles. If at first you don't succeed try one of the others. Slugs will experience great discomfort trying to slime over this little lot, a bit like getting a stone in your shoe.

Make time for a haircut. If you suffer from a lack of hair on your head, then perhaps a neighbour could oblige, or perhaps a pet dog or cat. Hair makes a great barrier. No matter how silky your locks, the slug will be reluctant to cross them.

Vermiculite - add some water to vermiculite, so that it swells up. Place this around your plants. The slugs will be attracted to the moisture but won't like the movement as for them it will feel like a landslide.

Send them off-piste - Put petroleum jelly around the base and tops of your plant containers. Watch Mr Slug having to muster all his energies to get past this gummy barrier - it's stick or slip for the slug!

:rotfl: I like some of these but won't your garden look a right mess with all that stuff everywhere?!

troo wrote:

Can you eat radish leaves? I've just eaten one, they taste OK but will I be ill tomorrow? :rotfl:

No.... I wouldn't eat one Troo, you come out in purple spots and your eyes turn green and start flashing! Actually I haven't a clue, but if you feel poorly please let us know so we can avoid them! :rotfl:

tru

Fran wrote:

No.... I wouldn't eat one Troo, you come out in purple spots and your eyes turn green and start flashing! Actually I haven't a clue, but if you feel poorly please let us know so we can avoid them! :rotfl:

Actually, it's purple stripes. And my eyes stayed the same colour most of the time, except for the occasional green flash. So you were almost right :rotfl: But I don't feel ill so I'll carry on eating them

moggins

LOL, now I know how I'll recognise Troo in the supermarket

I left the carrot tops on the side yesterday and my eldest came in halfway through cleaning the kitchen and asked me if there was anything I could use them for before she threw them away. I've barely seen her this week so moneysaving is contagious by osmosis

Galtizz

All of my seedlings were in pots on a table and the slugs had been leaving them alone. I planted them out this weekend and they have gained a couple of holes :rolleyes: So now my garden is looking lovely, covered in egg shells all scrunched up around the bottom of the plants, I'll let you know if it works.

Also, just spotted something has found the strawberries :mad: not sure if it's birds or slugs. They are in a pot but the ones missing were quite low to the ground. I'm going to try covering it with net incase it's birds. Will slugs go on net? I don't want to give them something to climb up to reach the tasty big strawberries at the top if it's them not birds???

I thought gardening was supposed to be de-stressing

Loadsabob

troo wrote:

Can you eat radish leaves? I've just eaten one, they taste OK but will I be ill tomorrow? :rotfl:

I guess you'll know, because you should be feeling fine today!! Baby radish leaves are often used in salads, and the bigger ones can be cooked like spinach.

Galtizz

Went into Woolworths at the weekend and they have reduced all of there seeds to 1/2 price. The one I bought are in date until 2007 so I stocked up for next year

Jet

HI,

I'm growing Chilli's, various lettuces, garlic, carrots, tomatoes, potatoes, courgettes, sweetcorn and 1 token strawberry plant.

My Chilli's are now about 20 cm tall and are in 9" pots. I've just read in a veg growing book that I've been given that I should be pinching out the tops of the plants. The trouble is the tops of my plants now have flowers (I think) about to sprout out of the tops. If they are flowers, I don't want to pull them off.

Any tips?

calleyw

I had some of the my lettuces yesterday in a salad. Yummy.

Have planted more but directly in the soil this time. As I ripped out my rocket as it came to flower but had tiny little leaves. Ummmmmmmmmmmm.

Going to have spag bog tonight with some more of the salad leaves picked from the garden.

Planted some cucumbers as they don't seem to be doing much. Also some summer cabbages as well as some beetroots and some spring onions.

But my savoy cabbages for the winter and the purple sprouting are coming on fine. Shame I can't find the see packet as I know there some left. And the potatoes in the bin are coming on ok as well.

Better do some more cress as I don't have any for a salad at the moment.

I have to admit we are doing much better than last year. But now we have veggie plot. Which we did not have before. We where growing everything in pots and we seemed to get a lot of slug and snail damage. Fingers crossed at the moment we have very little.

Yumm it is so nice to go shopping in the garden.

Yours

Calley

nicki_2

I planted some radish on Friday night between episodes of big brother, yesterday a couple were pushing their little heads through, this morning I've got a pot full! :eek:

I'm feeding all my vegetables (and flowers) with bog standard Tomato Food from Poundland. Some of my lettuce have taken off but others haven't. :think:

But I'm having problems with snails (there is actually one sitting up by the guttering on our kitchen extension!) but I just pick these up and lob them over the wall into nextdoors very overgrown garden, slugs which I salt, ants (even with Raid down) and wireworms. Can anyone help before I put my parsnips out?

Also can I plant tomatoes straight into flowerbeds? I was thinking I could put them out about a foot apart and plant parsnips, carrots etc between them. Most of my beds are easy to reach from the patio so it's not like I really have to stand on the beds but where I do I was planning on putting down some sort of path anyway. Also, what can I do to my tomatoes to stop them turning into athletes? The biggest ones are upto 4" high but don't seem very sturdy so I'm a bit reluctant to plant them out just yet. Please help me, my 50 tomato plants take up ALOT of room in our tiny kitchen!

apprentice_tycoon

hello Nicki.
It will be Ok to put your toms in the flower beds, they will need staking, the side shoots pinched out and I believe ( could be wrong on this ) that when they have 3 flower trusses you stop them growing any taller by pinching out the growing tip. They could be tall and thin because they are inside, they really need all the light they can get outside.
Have you any cut down pop bottles to cover your parsnips to give them a fighting chance?