The all new 2019 growing your own thread!

Suffolk_lass

CAFCGirl wrote: »

How are the bees SuffolkLass?

Sorry about the radio silence. We had Open Gardens in the whole Village and it was all-consuming as it got closer.

We lost the main swarm. We have a few hundred (the ones that were off foraging when the main swarm departed). The man from Suffolk BKA came round and was a mixture of sympathetic and a bit scornful - DH left out the cover-plate when he cobbled together the hive so it would have felt too big and cold. He described them as having had an election because the ones left now, thought the rest would stay and went out foraging while the ones that didn't like our hive (probably the slightly used wax put them off) persuaded the Queen to leave

Oh well, we will be able to properly refurbish and prepare the hives ready for another day, and I have bought (very extravagant) a ready-made super with filled frames in case we are called on in an emergency in the meantime.

dancing_star wrote: »

I'm having similar problems with this year's pak choi to last years - bolting. The couple of weeks of hot dry weather have dunnit I think.

Finally decided on a patio apple tree for my half barrel, bought it yesterday. Sadly my cat had to be PTS so I am going to include his ashes in the barrel along with the apple tree.

There's a lot of bolting pak choi at my neighbour's too - mine have just gone in the brassica bed as a stop gap location so no danger of bolting for a week or three.

Sorry to hear you lost your cat - I do like the idea of combining their remains with a tree. We put my little girl who ran under a car under a slab with a nice pot on top and refer to it by her name - I need to freshen the planting on it next week (no time before we visit the NW this weekend for friends' 60th birthdays). Lots of tomato and chilli potting to do today and tomorrow, before all that celebrating.

zafiro1984

I had a very 'spikey cat' and we planted a monkey puzzle tree over her - quite fitting we thought.

Out all day yesterday so apart from making sure the polytunnels were open I did nothing. So its watering today and possibly some planting out of squashes. I mustn't complain about the good weather but I do find it a bit too hot in the afternoon to be out in it for a long time.

carinjo

I done my back in over Spring B/H and just been booked off for 2 more weeks. i shudder to know the state of allotment. I did however on my one day attempt to go back to work managed to find some discarded pallet collars, so the planning is definately for mainly raised beds in future.
i also found an old tent plastic flooring which is huge, going to use to prepare for next year

Managed to rescue some of my seedlings that was in the windowsill inbetween being zonked out on painkillers and got:
4 tomato plants
2 courgette
1 giant sunflower
3 nastursium
2 types of chilli

unrecordings

Hope the back recovers quickly. I overdid it yesterday and couldn't walk until about 9am (but at least that gave me some walking stick practice). Bit warm for me too, so I've just gone out to fill my nettle tea bucket with water to check the tap seal (again), and I'm leaving it at that for a few hours... ...then I''ve an old butchers knife to sharpen, which I intend to use for dividing plants (my original glazing knife being far too small to make a neat job). At some point I need to get out with the flame gun and weed/burn/cleanse the bed where the rest of my beans are going, but I'm being careful of my own back which gets very tired very quickly these days

Kantankrus_Mare

carinjo wrote: »

I done my back in over Spring B/H and just been booked off for 2 more weeks. i shudder to know the state of allotment. I did however on my one day attempt to go back to work managed to find some discarded pallet collars, so the planning is definately for mainly raised beds in future.
i also found an old tent plastic flooring which is huge, going to use to prepare for next year

Managed to rescue some of my seedlings that was in the windowsill inbetween being zonked out on painkillers and got:
4 tomato plants
2 courgette
1 giant sunflower
3 nastursium
2 types of chilli

Ouch!! I know through experience how back pain can just make it feel like life has come to a stand still.
I had the same about six months ago. I am usually a regular at yoga and hadnt been for a few weeks for one reason or another.
I found this really gentle routine on you tube helped me enormously!! Got me moving again and eased the pain.
Hope you make a quick recovery.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CO3racIlTcg&list=PLVhIItU4_0MN7uiuamkjSeu6P8sID_aaB&index=4

CAFCGirl

Missed the plot the past few days thanks to sun allergy. Next week says cloud so will try and get up there again to crack on.

The home seedlings seem to be doing ok. A few squashes available to replace the eaten ones. My aubergine have taken off with the recent sun and heat, so will need to pot those one whilst they wait on the polytunnel.

Flowers coming through on the strawberries, improvement on last year where I think I had 1 total.

Found on FB a nice chap who makes garden bits and bobs from recycled decking boards and he's today delivered me a wishing well type affair for £15 - bargain. That'll sit nicely next to the pond up the plot, and I might house a potted something within it.

Jazee

I've not been doing anything in the garden but I've noticed that along with the weeds, there are flowers on just about all the fruit and cucumbers and the broad beans are looking good. Gooseberries are forming and growing nicely too.

It's pouring with rain today so it'll be nothing again.

zafiro1984

Pouring with rain - I wish - we haven't seen a decent amount of rain for absolutely ages. The grass is looking decidedly yellow and I'm sure the water bill will be higher than usual when it arrives due to all the water I've been using.

Squash planted out, more peas sown and the mangetout (second sowing) have germinated, the first lot are just showing flowers so it wont be long before I can pick some.
My sweet peppers are still small but I'm toying with putting them out as I need the space in the greenhouse.
I think this afternoon I'll fill some more containers with the bedding out plants to make even more space in the greenhouse for the tomatoes which desperately need to go in their final positions.

Last but not least is the never ending tidying-up

unrecordings

A lot of rain here yesterday too, so I didn't get out much apart from to pinch out the tomatoes. Should be chemo week this week (blood test permitting), so once that's out of the way, and with more rain forecast I fully expect to see triffids roaming around the garden by the weekend. At least it turns out my rain gauge does work. I've a lot of repotting to do though...

Pablosmummy

Rain here too, but I'm.not complaining because everything was looking very dry out the garden, my blueberry watering bucket is getting refilled anyway.
I took a risk and put my tomatoes out a few days ago, they seem quite happy and looking at the forecast ahead it's not meant to go below 10 now so FC they'll be ok.
If we get a break in the rain for.long enough today I think I'll put my cucumbers and pumpkins out aswell, they're all getting quite big now and I'm worrying about damaging them when carrying them in and out the house.
Once they've gone out, all that's left in is two cayennes and two sweet pepper plants which I'll start to harden off next week weather permitting, already two cayennes starting to grow and quite a few flowers open now hurray! Some buds forming on the sweet peppers aswell which I'm really excited for as I've never grown them before.
Ok essay over, time to sort the kids out on a rainy half term day ( arghhh)