Help MBE grow his dinner 2013.

Fay

annie123 wrote: »

Fay I have serious neat and tidy garden envy.

• odd shape baby cucumbers growing on 3 plants
• green toms on a plum tomato
• 80% of other toms have flowers
• loads of French beans with flowers
• Round courgette has loads of male flowers so only a mater of time before the first female one shows
• chard growing well along with assorted salad bits,
• Squashes seem to be waking up
• bumper strawberry glut due, but weeks late this year
• bumper raspberry crop also looks late
• loads of small green cherries, not dropped as many as last year
• apples ditto above
• parsnip seedlings coming up faster than I can thin
• chillis have flowers, but plants still small

Did lots of potting on and weeding, and then turned out the swift spuds planted back between the snow showers, 1.3kg not bad for 2 seeds and very tasty they were too. Only another 15 varieties go:o

Loads of bumblebees out, but where have all the ladybirds gone? anyone have a shortage of them this year?

Don't be envious Annie, I chose which areas to show! The flower beds are ok but need some serious attention due t years of neglect before we moved here and a total invasion of ground elder.

I'm totally envious of how far on your fruit and veg are. I have nothing in flower yet in the veg department and strawberries are ok but not many. We do have lots of raspberries but like you, mine are late.

annie123

I still have shed envy Fay, hopefully hubbys home made shed will make me feel better.
I've ordered a water butt from Argos, the very thin one which for £20 seems good value, as the shed will have guttering :j so we can collect rain water. Will add more later if space allows.

Hopefully the warmth due for the next 48 hours will encourage the squashes to get a wiggle on.

Not happy with the growth of my last original water melon last night, so I oiked it out of the tub. It has tiny roots and the soil, 2" below the surface, is quite wet, so maybe it prefers something a bit more free draining which I will sort out later.

DS has promised to drop my camera card off tonight so I can take some picks of the nasty fence that's going to fall over in the autumn gales

djohn2002uk

Toms now in flower

8 buckets of Jersey Royals

First lot of runners Enorma

Second lot of runners meant to prolong the season but they are catching the others up. Again Enorma.

Annie, guess what these are

All Year Round at the front and Little Gem at the back.
Couldn't show the dwarf beans and carrots and beetroot untill I get the vegiemesh off to weed them and the peas are covered in a mesh to keep the sparrows out.

Fay

Looking great John-very envious of your tomato flowers. However I'm more envious of your runner beans-I'm growing enorma for a competition at work. I only planted mine 2weeks ago because of being away and at present they only have 2 leaves

djohn2002uk

Fay wrote: »

Looking great John-very envious of your tomato flowers. However I'm more envious of your runner beans-I'm growing enorma for a competition at work. I only planted mine 2weeks ago because of being away and at present they only have 2 leaves

My first runners were sown in the g/house on the 7th of April and the second lot on the 31st and I put the first ones out wit 4ft of bubble wrap around and on top untill end of May.
MBE had some beans off me for a competition. They were called Long as Your Arm and I think he won with something in the region of 23ins.

mrbadexample

Looking good John! I've got a few tomatoes looking like that but the majority are a couple of weeks behind.

I have started harvesting turnips.

Little_Vics

question time!

I have some pots in a cold frame and on my windowsill of seeds that have done nothing. It's probably because I've not been watering them enough. They include toms, pumpkin, mange tout, beetroot, radishes, mixed salad, spinach and carrots.

Questions:

1. is it worth me watering every day to see what happens?
2. Should I chuck them away and start again?
3. If so, can I just scrap the top layers off and reuse the muck? I don't have a lot left....
4. is it worth replanting everything I'm trying to grow or is it too late in the season for some stuff?

Yours idiotically

xLV

mrbadexample

Little_Vics wrote: »

question time!

I have some pots in a cold frame and on my windowsill of seeds that have done nothing. It's probably because I've not been watering them enough. They include toms, pumpkin, mange tout, beetroot, radishes, mixed salad, spinach and carrots.

Questions:

1. is it worth me watering every day to see what happens?
2. Should I chuck them away and start again?
3. If so, can I just scrap the top layers off and reuse the muck? I don't have a lot left....
4. is it worth replanting everything I'm trying to grow or is it too late in the season for some stuff?

Yours idiotically

xLV

1. Depends how long they've been there. Probably not but you never know.
2. Yes.
3. Yes, I would, as long as it's not mouldy.
4. No, no, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, no. I think.

Little_Vics

Thank you kindly, sir. I shall sort it out the weekend and let you know how things turn out.

Little_Vics

oh, and also, in pots in the cold frame?