The all new 2019 growing your own thread!

CAFCGirl

Same for me too unrecordings with the heat. I will attempt to get up for some early morning watering but that'll be about it for me.

Went up yesterday armed with compost and my herbs. The herb bed is now done. Might sprinkle in some seeds around it all too to fill in gaps whilst they grow (hopefully).

Outdoor tomatoes look pretty dead, so might be digging those out, one courgette is holding off against the slugs, kale - gone, squashes - definitely gone. Broad beans don't seem to be growing. Same with the sweetcorn. The bind weed is doing really well though eyerollI

Stuff at home has been potted on and seems to be ok. The aubergine particularly. Tomatoes in there seem to be doing well, but are busting out so I need to decide what I'm doing with those. Wonder if they can hold on till the polytunnel is up....

Suffolk_lass

Primrose wrote: »

Suffolk Lass, I think your pak Choi has probably gone to seed due to dryness. Even if you have watered around the roots the dryness of the general atmosphere in which they are growing will have played a part. My garlic and some of my salad crops are showing signs of the same problem.

Thanks Primrose - that is highly likely as we were away for a few days and nobody watered. I have been picking and eating the flower buds, but not as nice to be honest.

We got over half of the first lot of Ground elder out yesterday - and so it begins!

Karmacat

Thats a good chunk of the ground elder, SL - I chopped away a lot of weed seedheads that were forming, but I've still got to get the roots out of the ground

Living_proof

A lot of the people on allotment and gardening sites are reporting strange damage to crops this year and it seems very likely that it's been caused by the aminopyralid residues in animal manures. The advice is to grow a runner bean in any manure you have to make sure it grows OK before using on crops. There is always something, isn't there?

Pablosmummy

Sowed some more salad leaves, Pak choi and some purple sprouting broccoli for next year this morning. Never grown it before so we shall see how it goes.
My first lot of Pak choi is pretty much ready, 6 giant plants I can't wait, need to work them into my meal plan for next week, I can't believe how well they've done in containers! I did have to remove a sneaky snail the other day but apart from they look marvellous!
The only issue I have out the garden at the moment is my garlic is collapsing. It's just a few bulbs in a bucket but it's too early to harvest isn't it? Do I try and prop it up? Or pull one to see if it's ready?

unrecordings

For garlic I think they need to be wilting, rather than just collapsing under their own weight. Though when mine get to that stage, I tend to have a sneaky peek just in case rust or anything else is developing

Edited to add: Been out there over two hours and not even started the repotting yet, there must be a word for that - cunctation seems like it needs to be brought back into use. Fettling is another one, an old cutlery term meaning to finish off or tidy up a piece - easily translates these days to pottering

Tea break over, next up the strimmer before my back gives in THEN the repotting (which is pretty much lined up ready to go)

Pablosmummy

Hmm I've had a look and they seem fine, just sideways ha. I had a little poke and theyve definitely grown into the right shape, but knowing my luck it's just one giant honking great clove lol. How do you even know when garlic is ready? A few of the leaves (?) are starting to wilt.. as you can tell the garlic was an impulse buy last year...

Primrose

Pablosmummy wrote: »

Hmm I've had a look and they seem fine, just sideways ha. I had a little poke and theyve definitely grown into the right shape, but knowing my luck it's just one giant honking great clove lol. How do you even know when garlic is ready? A few of the leaves (?) are starting to wilt.. as you can tell the garlic was an impulse buy last year...

Wait until most Of the leaves have gone yellow and wilted. If seedheads start to appear on top of the centre stalks, snap the seed head off and let the plant co ti ue to grow until the leaves wilt. Then dig up, leaving the foliage on and leave to dry in an sunny place or under cover from rain until you can pull all the foliage away. It is then ready to use.

-taff

You can eat the seed heads [ scapes] by frying them in some butter if you like, very nice...


So that's most of the beans planted out, the two courgettes [because I don't want to be inundated with them] and the beetroot. I've potted on the kale because the bed isn't ready yet, dug up the heuchera that was hating it where it was and swapped it for a lupin [ damn that GC selling things!]. Also potted on some catmint and put out some dark purple leaved salvia.
I'm on a roll.....

Pablosmummy

Well I've firmed up the soil around them and they're upright again, fingers crossed they'll stay like that for a while longer!