The great, good and not so good bits about growing your own dinner 2017

unrecordings

Picked my garlic today, some good some white & fluffy. I decided to move my outdoors courgettes to a slightly sunnier, more slug predator friendly bed. Three of them had one or more leaves, the three without any leaves are getting potted up and put in the greenhouse to see if they recover

Edit: We've got clay soil around most of Sheffield. I've Improved my beds no end by raising them just the height of a piece of scaff board, and for root crops, double height. Over the last 3-4 years I've dumped my old growbags into these beds, added sand, leaf mulch (ready or not) and home made compost. I think in the last year I've just got to the stage where the soil is now really good and not at all claggy. Dig a foot down and it's a different story...

MissPop

My sprouting broccoli is being eaten alive by large cabbage white caterpillars :mad: I doused them with the end of a bottle of bug spray which dispatched a fair few of them, but there are loads left, and about 1/3 of the leaves have been shredded. Any chance left for the broccoli to pull through?

CAFCGirl

Oh Smee'

So incredibly sorry to hear your news. Sending you strength vibes from here, for you and your family.

CAFCGirl

Only managed to get up the plot Saturday here as DS was ill all day yesterday (and still is today). But did a bulk load of weeding around my peas and beans, thinned out the cabbages, and watered absolutely everything.

I came home with a basket full of french beans I left too late, borlotti beans (which will get shelled today), the cabbage thinnings for the chickens and 6 delightful looking summer squashes! Now just to figure out how to cook with them LOL

I know I shouldnt wish the summer away but as someone who suffers from sun allergy & has a lot of hard graft to do, I am looking forward to some cooler weather and slightly damper soil so I can actually get on and 'do stuff'.
It was inspection weekend, so Saturday I saw the rep and I was working so at least whilst my plot is a state, its a state that gets visited LOL

smeeinnit

Hi all

Thanks for the kind words CAFCGirl, Fruittea, Suffolk Lass and Kantakrus :A I know there will be good days and bad days ahead, but trying to do a little in the garden each day and remember how therapeutic it can be, and also how much my mum loved her garden.

Today I wil tend to my tomatoes as they are a bit too bushy, so thinning out some leaves for better airflow, might move some pots around and tidy up a bit too.

Thanks again all, means a lot to me

Suffolk_lass

unrecordings wrote: »

Picked my garlic today, some good some white & fluffy. I decided to move my outdoors courgettes to a slightly sunnier, more slug predator friendly bed. Three of them had one or more leaves, the three without any leaves are getting potted up and put in the greenhouse to see if they recover

Edit: We've got clay soil around most of Sheffield. I've Improved my beds no end by raising them just the height of a piece of scaff board, and for root crops, double height. Over the last 3-4 years I've dumped my old growbags into these beds, added sand, leaf mulch (ready or not) and home made compost. I think in the last year I've just got to the stage where the soil is now really good and not at all claggy. Dig a foot down and it's a different story...

Really good advice on enriching your beds and improving them - just be cautious about grow-bags you have used for tomatoes and don't put them where you intend growing potatoes. They are the same family and you could end up with blight - use them where the legumes are going to grow and all will be good.

unrecordings

hmm...
lots of blight round here anyway (on the edge of ancient woodland) so didn't really consider that. That's my last use of the B word until I need to. All good so far here, this time last year and my potatoes (the blight resistant ones) were wrecked. The roots (in the growbags) always come out and go in the green bin. Advice much appreciated, but I never said this wasn't gonzo gardening :-)

And reminds me (thank you Smee) that I need to edit my tomatoes for better airflow, I still fall into that trap of 'ooh flowers' rather than 'ooh too much foliage'

Too hot today (I can only manage 20 degrees these days), managed a couple of hours then flaked out and needed a sleep

Fruittea

Good Afternoon Everyone
I returned home to find everything in fairly good order. Chickens and cat happy and tomatoes and greenhouse watered - so great.

Just picked a beautiful bunch of flowers from the front garden - yes the one that was a building site last year. I admit that's it's still all a bit random but at least it looks like a garden.

Very pleased that I managed to plant up everything in Mum's garden at the weekend but it was a 12 hour drive round trip - so still feeling worn out.

Loads of the usual veg and salad available and the tomatoes are doing great - so no more from the supermarket veg for this weeks order. And the courgettes are coming thick and fast so if people have recipes please pass them.

The water melon plant that's in the front garden in a large pot seems to be flowering. So all's well here.

Hope everyone is dong well.

CAFCGirl

We have some rain today!
We're off to a woodworking class today and I'm hopeful that I can make some wooden bunting to adorn the allotment with

Hopefully I'll get to spend some a decent amount of time up there this weekend when more rains are predicted. The cooler conditions should hopefully mean I can get some more heavy work done. The goal for the weekend is getting my compost bin site dug over, 2 of the bed frames moved and replaced, those beds dug over and my framberry plants put in.

Jazee

Morning all.

The garden is looking lovely at the moment. Yesterday I harvested courgette, chilli peppers, runner beans and strawberries. No tomatoes yet.