Grow your own dinner 2014

CAFCGirl

I'm too scared to go out in mind. Its steadily rained since yesterday afternoon, and whilst taking the puppy out for a wee my lawn was overrun with slugs, I counted up 36 in a 1m square area!!!!
I hate slugs in general, not just as a gardener. No doubt theyve made it over the lawn now and are having their fill of my poor green babies!

annie123

Well if it rains for much longer I'm going to need a brolly over my courgettes and tomatoes, but alasI don't have one that big I think it's called a greenhouse!
My toms are going yellow because they're so wet and have been for weeks now, the gardeners delight seem worse affected but the blue toms have given me my 1st one already! not bad for runt's in tiny cell trays. Can only be a month ago I bought them.

The dogs are driving me mad, and my netting and stakes didn't work. Roughly half of my parsnips and carrots have been dug up or sh*t upon :mad: My leeks are still in a small pot and are going to have to stay there till Sunday when I'm going to stick them in black buckets as that's all I have left.

The winds the other day broke a section of my squash frame so hubby is going to fix that tonight.

The dogs keep scent marking the strawberries and they've even taken to doing the same on the salad leaves in the front garden. Unfortunately they are the same height as my food, so if DD is still here next year and I haven't been able to train them to do, and not do, what I want I'm going to have to rethink my growing areas and garden design. And they bark......lots :mad:

Not my best gardening year.

annie123

zafiro1984 wrote: »

6.40am - off to the veg plot

I was still asleep then! Bet it's nice and quiet though.

zafiro1984

Rain - oh I wish we had some here, I haven't seen rain for weeks the grass is turning a nice shade of crispy yellow. It's been cloudy and the next village had a deluge two days ago but it has missed us completely.

Anne; I feel for you with the dogs, such a shame after all the hard work you have put in. Sorry, I can't offer you an instant solution.
Just a thought I know it's expensive but think about a polytunnel for next year or there is a cheaper 'walk-in wonder wall' neither of which I have had experience of. You should then be able to block the door to keep them out.

By the way what are your blue tomatoes - intrigued

Fruittea

No rain here in Gloucestershire! Wish we had some.


Also intrigued by the blue tomatoes. Sound a bit like blight Happygreen - with yellowing leaves on the tomatoes. If so you might need to take action and do a Bordeaux spray.


I've got blight on my International Kidneys so I dug them all up yesterday - not a very good crop as they should be a main crop potato but I quite like them small.


It was a good afternoon on the allotment for yesterday - brought home spinach, onions, garlic, cucumber, peas, broad beans, rhubarb and potatoes. Sag aloo, rice and cucumber raita for diner last


Out at the gate this morning: Bags of fresh herbs, rhubarb and runner beans for sale. Well you never know.

Good luck with the weather everyone - it's hot here and what a shame - I've volunteered to clean up two holiday homes. It's going be hot.

[Deleted User]

The allotment is so easy just now, reaping the rewards of all that sowing, planting and weeding. If you get the weeds sorted by the end of june then the rest of summer should be relatively weed free, so I always make a point of keeping going with the hoe right through june, particularly if we have dry days, when the hoe`ed weeds die. I got a new hoe, it is fantastic, called an oscillating hoe, very efficient on my hard clay soil

I dug 2 loch ness blackberries up a few weeks ago as they were turning into thugs and started sprouting yards away. Hard to cope with them properly anyway, all that weaving up and down the wires. They are still sprouting from the roots quite a way away, I shall have to be watchful

All charlottes up and either stored for a couple of weeks, or dehydrated for all winter. Blue danube looking healthy in the ground, I will cut the haulms in august and leave the potatoes for 2 weeks in the ground, then raise and dry a couple of hours before bagging for storage. Heck suddenly it feels like preps for winter

Some nice new perennial flowers planted today as am hopeful for rain later

[Deleted User]

oh the difference a day makes. Blue danube have been touched by blight, overnight, brown soft splodges. Grhh, I have dealt with them and put up a potato thread to say what I did

mrsscattercushion

back off to the plot today ~ the joys of an O***** inspection meant I've not been down for at least 10 days until yesterday. Thankfully most things were fine (husband had at least watered)...lots of things planted late due to events of this year, but dug up the shallots for drying and had first potatoes and broad beans of the year for tea (earlier broad beans straight in freezer) so that was lovely...


everything else weeded watered (thank god for some steady rain all last night) and at least tidied up...note for next year, netting of the fruit ~ the birds have loved the strawberries and raspberries though looks like some redcurrants and gooseberries have survived...all of these were already in the plot when we got it, so any fruit from them would be a bonus!


back off to continue the tidying an planting out of the winter greens now have some more space.....wish the weeds would stop growing!


Best thing from yesterday ~ working with the scent of sweet peas, mixed with the smell of onions, garlic and shallots, with a smattering of bird song and sunshine too ~ a great combo

suzeesu2000

mrsscattercushion wrote: »

Best thing from yesterday ~ working with the scent of sweet peas, mixed with the smell of onions, garlic and shallots, with a smattering of bird song and sunshine too ~ a great combo

The simplest of pleasures. Bit off topic, since moving I am waking to the most wonderful view: gently climbing hills covered in such wonderful shades of green, lots of varieties of tree. Each morning they have been covered in a light mist at dawn - makes waking up a pleasure. hard to believe we are in the middle of a town!

annie123

zafiro1984 wrote: »

Rain - oh I wish we had some here, I haven't seen rain for weeks the grass is turning a nice shade of crispy yellow. It's been cloudy and the next village had a deluge two days ago but it has missed us completely.

Anne; I feel for you with the dogs, such a shame after all the hard work you have put in. Sorry, I can't offer you an instant solution.
Just a thought I know it's expensive but think about a polytunnel for next year or there is a cheaper 'walk-in wonder wall' neither of which I have had experience of. You should then be able to block the door to keep them out.

By the way what are your blue tomatoes - intrigued

Z, I'd love a poly but my garden is only 10' wide and around 25' long to the shed, so no room. One day I'll have one.

I picked up locally at a park plant sale; 12 small Blue Bayou tomato plants for £2. They've only been around for 3/4 years and even though they were way behind where they should be (lanky and in tiny cells 4 weeks ago) I thought I'd have a go.

If the get enough direct sun they produce blue/purple toms which according to the internet are some of the tastiest toms around.
They are already 3' tall and have the 1st blue toms on them. I only kept 2 in the end, gave the rest away to friends/neighbours with sunnier gardens than mine just to make sure someone got some. If they're a good cropper and tasty I'll save the seeds for next year as they're not an F1 type apparently.