The all new good, bad and ugly of growing your own in 2020

Suffolk_lass

Not much attention being paid to the veg garden this week but I had to interrupt the hedging (60m of hawthorn 20 foot down to five - thorns 8-10cm long!) to support the last lot of tomato plants that suddenly all fell over. Lots of twine and canes, with two re-potted. Hopefully all OK - we shall see. 

Shook all my tomatoes in the benching frame too (thanks @-taff and @bluesooz). I must look up Pepito melon - I can't tell which are male and female flowers but the early little melon was not pollinated and has dropped off. I hope I don't need to hand pollinate it

[Deleted User]

@Suffolk_lass, thanks for the snipping off rather than thinning tip! Would never have thought of that! 
All is going pretty well at the moment- I was disappointed as I thought my purple basil was a failure only to discover that I had put the label in the wrong place and I've actually got shed loads growing! 🙈😂 
It looks like there are flowers forming on several of my squash plants and my peas have started to emerge too - I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that a lot of my stuff turns out! 😉

zafiro1984

I'm here again after not posting for a short while. Thank-you Suffolk Lass for your PM it was appreciated.

The plot is so overgrown it's like a jungle, the grass in the fruit cage is almost up to my waist - I need a machete!!! 
I'm not going to worry about it one bit, I'm not going get stressed either. I shall harvest what was planted earlier and plan for the autumn. There has to be one giant tidy up, strimming, weeding etc, The watering both inside and outside is on timers which kick in every day so you can imagine the size of the weeds. Why do weeds grow faster than crops??? 
I had a look around this evening and managed to find enough veg again amongst the weeds for a stir-fry so all is not lost, There looks to be loads of raspberries forming and the blackcurrents have just started to change colour so that will keep me busy for a while.

I'd forgotten that I'd ordered some new hens, they arrived a few days ago and have just started to lay - 14 tiny eggs today, twelve brown ones and two blue ones, too small to sell but appreciated by the neighbours. I've spent far too much time just sitting and watching them.

 

Suffolk_lass

zafiro1984 said:

I'm here again after not posting for a short while. Thank-you Suffolk Lass for your PM it was appreciated.

The plot is so overgrown it's like a jungle, the grass in the fruit cage is almost up to my waist - I need a machete!!! 
I'm not going to worry about it one bit, I'm not going get stressed either. I shall harvest what was planted earlier and plan for the autumn. There has to be one giant tidy up, strimming, weeding etc, The watering both inside and outside is on timers which kick in every day so you can imagine the size of the weeds. Why do weeds grow faster than crops??? 
I had a look around this evening and managed to find enough veg again amongst the weeds for a stir-fry so all is not lost, There looks to be loads of raspberries forming and the blackcurrents have just started to change colour so that will keep me busy for a while.

I'd forgotten that I'd ordered some new hens, they arrived a few days ago and have just started to lay - 14 tiny eggs today, twelve brown ones and two blue ones, too small to sell but appreciated by the neighbours. I've spent far too much time just sitting and watching them.

 

Really good to see you back. I hope you are fit and well. Your plot always sounds amazing!

Our focus has been completely on other less productive parts of the garden this week but almost at the wood from trees stage now and will be back focussing on veg and fruit as the gooseberries need picking starting now.

euronorris

Hello everyone! I hope you are all well!

Our garden is still doing well, though the dreaded blight has arrived and started on my 2nd earlies, as well as two varieties of my tomatoes. We harvested the second earlies yesterday, before the blight could progress. I am very happy with our crop. 3.6lbs and they look amazing! I have trimmed the affected tomato plants, and am going to spray them with a bicarb of soda solution later, when the sun is off them, and keep my fingers crossed.

Question re potatoes. I'd like to get a second crop in that is ready to start harvesting in October, through to Christmas potentially. I see online that you can buy Charlotte seed potatoes (second crop) for this. Are they the same charlotte potatoes as first earlies? If so, could I just use a couple from my recently harvested crop? Or is that too risky because of the potential for blight? Also, would that soil be OK to reuse still, or am I best to err on the side of cautioun and rotate that soil to a different veggie type (would carrots be OK?), and then use fresh compost for next sowing of seed potatoes?

TIA x

silverwhistle

Ah, gooseberries! Picked some off a mature bush I found on my plot and mum tested the few I took her and pronounced them ready. I wonder if you can make gooseberry liqueur?  I've already got cherries and raspberries steeping in 95% alcohol which I get from  Italian supermarkets when I'm on holiday. Gooseberry crumble or maybe a fool next weekend I reckon, unless anybody has any other ideas?

-taff

Fresh compost for the potatoes, carrots will be fine in the old, put the container for the potatoes somewhere where it can be protected against frosts in the later months of the year. I wouldn't use the tubers I'd dug for more, but that may be because I'd be cautious of using them because of the blight spores. But if you want to try it, try it.

euronorris

Thanks Taff. I think I will be cautious and get new seed potatoes.

Suffolk_lass

As usual, we have reached the point where everything is going completely bonkers. I gave some rainbow chard away yesterday and I will use some in our stirfry tonight but all the pac choi and spinach has bolted and I am using lettuces as fast as I can...

I need to harvest redcurrants, gooseberries and (ongoing) raspberries, with a small amount of rhubarb (not much this year) and blackcurrants coming. We have had one picking of gooseberries, big fat dessert ones - all cooked together into fool (my favourite).

Almost ready for potatoes (Charlotte, 2nd earlies) - @euronorris , I would be using an old compost bag with a couple of seed potatoes in each - the black lining will stop them going green and as @-taff says, you need to frost protect, so a bag is ideal for moving. If you put them in a 1-3rd filled 40litre bag you can top them up a couple of times as they grow, and leave them in there until you want them even if the foliage dies down (you might need a wheelbarrow to move them!)

euronorris

Thanks Suffolk_lass, I did that with my main crop potatoes as I didn't have any potato bags left and couldn't buy them at the time! But the Charlotte's I have just harvested were in a proper potato bag, so once I have emptied out the soil, I will have a proper bag to use with fresh stuff. I have sweet potatoes growing 'experimentally' (ie, one sprouted and I placed the slips in soil and am hoping for a crop) in the potato bag that originally had first earlies in. They seem happy enough. Especially with this warmer weather at the moment!

My mangetout are out of control. Found two big pea pods at the back of them at lunchtime, that have swelled. I couldn't see them before! lol. Oh well, more seeds for next year, which I am pleased about as it has been our best cropping plant this year!

I still can't grow courgette to save my life. All look diseased again. Fresh pots and fresh compost, so I think it must be the seed. Will have to try different seeds next year.