Grow your own dinner 2014

Happygreen

icontinuetodream wrote: »

harvested potatoes, broad beans and some strawberries so far!

could do with some advice regarding my courgettes though....they seem to have sprouted long stalks with flowers on the ends of them but no sign of any turning into courgettes??:( Any ideas???

you have male flowers - the female flowers have tiny courgettes behind the flowers and if pollinated they grow and become big courgettes be patient with them!

icontinuetodream

Happygreen wrote: »

you have male flowers - the female flowers have tiny courgettes behind the flowers and if pollinated they grow and become big courgettes be patient with them!

Thanks Happygreen

Jazee

Just had spring onions from the garden, so potatoes, radishes and spring onions now, all delicious. Can't wait for the other stuff to grow.

Happygreen

We had Jamie's spinach filo pie with all our own spinach and chards! I've got a similar amount out there again that needs tidying up and eaten as it's starting to bolt - fabulous stuff, so rewarding eating my own veg and my hens' eggs, shame I can't grow feta cheese

annie123

Evening all, had a very busy 2 weeks but think I've caught up reading everyone's highs and lows.

Can't remember who asked about pinching out the tops of broad beans but it's done to encourage the plant to set pods and to stop the blackfly taking over the tips [STRIKE]witch[/STRIKE] which (shouldn't type when I'm tired:o) they seem to love.
I've harvested and cut down around 1/3rd of mine so far and very tasty they are too.

Tomatoes...........Now every year I say I won't grow so many tomatoes and this year I was good. I picked the 6 best plants and gave the rest to neighbours. But...then I got offered 3 baby strippy ones who's names escapes me, but they're grafted I remember that much, and I bought a pack of 12 blue tomatoes for £2 very small roots and a bit leggy but as they're rare I couldn't resist:o
I've given away 4 so far and i'm running out of people to pass them onto. So once again I have too many:o

Spuds...........I've harvested enough potatoes to feed half my road and more growing and to plant yet. I only grow first earlies and the last will go in in August.

Courgettes.....I have 2 round ones who's first flowers were female this year so this had me runing around neighbours to find a male flower I could pinch;) 2 climbing courgettes which aren't growing as fast as a slug moves so I won't try these again and another 3 courgettes I've been given. I usually find 2 plants are right for us so there are going to be a lot of dehydrated ones this year.

Cucumbers............down to my last one which is just flowering.

Chillies........1st baby chilies forming, loads more in flower and other growing slowly because they want to be in a country hotter than here!

Carrots.......pulled the 1st ones, very nice and tasty
Parsnips.......growing/germinating slowly

Squashes/BNS.......hubby has built me a bamboo cane structure to try growing them up so they get more sun. If it works and I get more than 2 then we'll do something nicer next year. 2 are romping away but I've lost the tags so don't know what they are and the other 3 are doing about average.

Strawberries............more than we can eat daily and so sweet this year.

Raspberries .......same as strawberries

Blueberries........average crop and should be ready in a few weeks

Apples..........Good crop off my new apple tree and average on the old one

Thornless blackberries..........Gone mad this year, one stem is 12' long :eek:

Garlic........Pulled it up already because it started to get rust and the lower 3 leaves had died off already. Nice size bulbs too.

Plus all the basic salad stuff doing well too.

My joyous time of having cat free garden was short lived. It feels like every other cat in the neighborhood is fighting for my tiny garden soil now my neighbours and their 3 cats have left.
But that will all change soon because my DD is moving back in a few weeks and since she left home she has acquired 2 small dogs :eek::eek::eek:

The 1st training session of living here will be where to go to the loo. I have allocated a 3' x 2' section of soil and they had better be quick learners in addition to being cute!

sparrer

Had some delish new potatoes from the garden for dinner, from the flower tubs in fact. They'd grown in last year's potato soil which I used this year for flowers, so an unexpected bonus

Happygreen

yes, rogue potatoes are always coming up everywhere in ealry spring I take them out and put them in containers for an early harvest but there are still some in the beds. trying to remember where they are later on is hard!

Jazee

Had my second strawberry last night, unfortunately this years crop is rubbish and the insects etc are getting there first, but the two I've had have been delicious.

zafiro1984

Happygreen wrote: »

yes, rogue potatoes are always coming up everywhere in ealry spring I take them out and put them in containers for an early harvest but there are still some in the beds. trying to remember where they are later on is hard!

What a good idea, I'll try that next year - thanks

Spent my 1hr on the plot yesterday, split between general weeding, watering, looking hard through glasses to see if the carrots are germinating, and tackling the first couple of docks that are taller than me, many more to go - not kidding.

Called in at the garden centre for some slug bait, they had nothing that was 'animal friendly' they had some liquid which I though was a good idea until I read on the back 'not suitable for vegetables' I thought I'd try and track down those nemetodes unless someone can suggest another tried and tested method

Impulse buy of 4 tom plants 2 x sweet million and 2 x sungold - that should be enough for just me as other half is allergic to toms. I've cleared a small space in the greenhouse for them. DH will just have to find another storage space - he's not a happy bunny.:D

rogueylawyer

zafiro1984 wrote: »

Called in at the garden centre for some slug bait, they had nothing that was 'animal friendly' they had some liquid which I though was a good idea until I read on the back 'not suitable for vegetables' I thought I'd try and track down those nemetodes unless someone can suggest another tried and tested method

I've had limited success with beer traps, and my family used to use crushed eggs shells around plants to create a barrier