2023 - the good, the not so good but hopefully not ugly of growing your own!

Glittering_M

I just really wanted it before an event in a week or so. Fingers crossed it will be recover. There is still one bud left. I'm going outside later to see what I can cover it with.  

I did read about a solution you can make up with eggs, hot sauce and dish soap so I may look more into that or something similar.

greenbee

You can spray roses with something called ‘Grazers’ and the deer will leave them alone.

alicef

I have tomatoes and I have an earworm - it's 'Always look on the bright side of life'.  I'm thinking of singing it to my pumpkins & squashes.  I cannot hold a tune - so I'm not sure whether it will be a help or hindrance.

Glittering_M

alicef said:

so I'm not sure whether it will be a help or hindrance.

Have you got enough to separate them out so you sing to some and then have a control group that you don't sing to for comparison then you'll know 😉

Suffolk_lass

Great looking variety of tomatoes there, @alicef - very pretty with the herbs next to them. I've just been out and picked runners and climbing beans, and courgettes - the beans I will offer to my townie friend who stayed overnight, along with the sloes and blackberries we picked on our walk yesterday. 

Same here with squashes. So slow. I can see the very first tromboncino setting fruit - they normally blaze away with the courgettes, and I can only see one crown prince pumpkin too. 

My focus remains on bees at the moment, with a new queen in one of the hives still in a cage, and some honey with too-high moisture content being fed back to the bees for them to eat or finish properly. It's been a long and intense bee season and our fruit and veg has suffered on the back of that this year. A better balance is needed!

alicef

Glittering_M said:

Have you got enough to separate them out so you sing to some and then have a control group that you don't sing to for comparison then you'll know 😉

Hmmm - not sure what I could use as a sound proof barrier - perhaps I should stroke the leaves of one or two and see if that makes a difference.  On a more positive note I found not one courgette, but 2!  TWO.  The other one was hidden by the vast amount of fat hen that I manage to grow with no problem whatsoever. 

@Suffolk_lass My OH used to keep bees - I kept well away as I react badly to stings - but I know it was a lot of work.  I made passata with the tomatoes, (hence the bundle of herbs).

Suffolk_lass

Just a nudge if anyone is interested there is a seed offer in Martin's email today. Personally I am far too picky about the varieties I grow

carinjo

Lots of pears, plums and purple climbing beans harvested. Couple of punnets of tomatoes, including some green ones that were dragging the plants down. 

carinjo

For how long can i leave green tomatoes on the windowsill to ripen? At some point i guess it safer to turn it into something like chutney?

Suffolk_lass

Mine are all picked like that and they ripen in under a week here. This time of year they are still ripening in the greenhouse too but they get nibbled if I leave them. I always try to leave a red one as it seems to speed them up. They are also by the electric bug zapper, but no idea if that makes a difference