The all new 2019 growing your own thread!

Pablosmummy

It's been raining for days here, I'm so sick of getting soaked on the school runs, where's the summer gone?
The garden is underwater so I'm looking at think from afar....I can't really tell if things are improving yet tbh and the only gardening I've done is sow some saved pansy seeds from last year with the aim of using them for autumn/winter pots.
Fingers crossed the rain stops soon or my plants are just going to float away

unrecordings

I like these morning & evening updates :-)

I managed a couple of hours this morning and timed it just right. Pinched out the tomatoes & peppers. Finally got up to date with repotting, sorted the plants that are going to neighbours and deadheaded/pruned the roses. Nematodes look to be delayed about 10 days, so fingers crossed there are hedgehogs out there (though with pushy badgers around I doubt it)

Suffolk_lass

We don't normally have too much trouble with slugs and snails and I confess to having gravel on the floor of the greenhouse to which I add a small amount of salt some years. Even so this year I have had to lift a window box of chilli plants up off the ground onto the potting benches and picked off a small collection (thrown in the hedge as we have lots of blackbirds and robins nesting) - amazed how many birds here with our cat combined to barracks (for both their safety). The hostas at the front are under-protected by gravel but they are starting to look as though this needs replenishing

Pennysmakepounds

This year has been the worst planting season ever.


Planted allsorts.


BUT I've had next to nothing grow thus far except 2 tomatoes and a handful of Courgette.


Very disappointed in myself .

euronorris

I'm very sick of the rain! It has been near constant for almost two weeks now. Prior to that, it was a very dry month, so it feels like it's making up for it! lol


Have only peeked into garden on Wednesday evening and everything seemed to be OK, and draining well. The peppers, and one of the tomato plants was not looking very good after it took a battering from the hail. Not sure if they will recover. The purple brussel sprout plant however, is thriving! haha


One of the courgette (or cucumber, I'm still not sure) plants looked like it was about to flower. So am looking forward to that!


Peas seem happy enough too

Pablosmummy

Well. I don't even know where to begin, my goosberries are splitting and being ravaged by gooseberry sawfly, my tomatoes are starting to grow sideshoots but the whole plants are looking so sad and stick like due to lack of.leaves. The raspberries have mostly fallen off my beautiful dwarf raspberry plant due to the hail damage.
The cucumbers and pumpkins haven't grown at all so I'm assuming they've just been too damaged to recover and
My apple tree is bare due to hail damaged apples...
I think I'm just going to give up on most things this year....do a bit of lettuce and just let the garden recover for a year.

unrecordings

I wouldn't give up just yet - let nature recover. The sun/rain combo we're supposed to be getting over the next week or so will work wonders. It has been a bit cooler the past couple of weeks, so to me that would explain some of the slowing growth - once you're back into the mid/higher teens then I reckon you'll see a marked improvement

zafiro1984

Lit the wood burner last night as it was so cold

Today's been a bit better, we didn't have any rain this morning so I managed to finish weeding the onions and fed the courgettes which were looking a little yellow.

I've decided to go to the local boot fair tomorrow and take a load of plants which I grew for a 'promised new raised bed' in the garden which to date has not happened. I've packed the car which now looks like Chelsea Flower Show (I wish) so I'm off early to get a good plot and hope it doesn't rain.

Primrose

I've had a couple of Blight warnings this week so am fearful for my still young tomato plants which are planted outdoors in a border and not in a greenhouse. Not sure whether I should spay them with some rather ancient Diothene sachet mixes I have left.


Incidentally if you're a potato or tomato grower you can sign up to receive emailed Blight warnings for your postal code area if you go to www.blightwatch.co.uk. and provide your email address. This facility was originally set up for commercial growers but has now been extended to members of the general public and it's FREE so worth doing if you care about your crops and want to be able to do something to protect them.


Having said that, the remedies for spraying to protect plants against Blight seem to be getting fewer and fewer as all the traditional ones seem to be withdrawing from the market due to EU regulations.

unrecordings

Every year I get a liitle blossom end rot on my greenhouse tomatoes. This year, while I can I want to see if I can do something about it. It doesn't really bother me, I just cut the affected bits out before using them, but in a bad year it can be a bit of a waste.

So I plant in tomorite or similar growbags, water solely from the rain water butts (we live in a soft water area but that shouldn't make any difference), and I add tomorite feed weekly once the fruit is set. So rather than buying some calcium carbonate (?) chemical preparation - what can I do to prevent that blossom end rot ? Feed them cheese (joking - or am I) ?