GreenFly - A 'flylady style' gardening thread with weekly tasks to tame your garden

Floss

KajiKita said:

Peppers looking healthy and producing a bit but are no taller than my hip - in my Very Serious Gardening friend’s greenhouse these things are head height! 😂

I used to grow peppers in a polycarb "glazed" greenhouse but never had them so tall! 

Farway

redofromstart said:

It sounds like we are all having a poor cropping year for most things.

Flowers on my rubber beans so hoping they will deliver at least. 

I expect they'll bounce back

EssexHebridean

Greenbee - pretty please provide me with your wisdom around the broad beans thing - it didn't occur to me that we might be able to have another go at those? 

We need to start getting our heads around what needs sowing now for the inter I guess - again, any input from those with more recent experience than us would be most appreciated! 

I made good on  my promise to get out in the garden as soon as I got home last night. Didn't feed anything or water as we'd had a decent level of rain during the day. Tackled the growbag of tomatoes that was getting in the way of accessing the courgettes first, swung that through 45 degrees so we can now get at the edge of the main veg bed it was blocking. Next task was to organise the potato plants to get those out of the way of the 'gettes too - they grew so tall, then fell over and haven't bothered standing up again. Their chilled, laid back nature (or rather, laid forwards, back would be less of an issue!) is enviable, but annoying. Once I had gained access to the poor overwhelmed courgettes it was relatively easy to see the issues with them - the front plant is growing cheerfully out over the edge of the bed as it has space to do that. The middle one is having a valiant attempt, in the limited space it had, and the third one has basically given up and got frustrated, I think. I've chopped off the worst affected leaves with the powdery mildew (having seen how little airflow there was, I'm not at all surprised we've had this issue!) and that has in turn ensured that the healthy leaves and fruits have even more light and airflow to them. Also harvested 2 at baby sized, and got rid of a few that had rotted in place as well, to hopefully give the remainder a better chance. 

A few more toms picked too, and I think there will be another cucumber ready for tonight - hope so anyway as I'm planning another "big plate of salad" type tea!

It is interesting to see that the majority of folk are having various issues this year - and yes, it does seem to be weather related doesn't it. For us of course it is also a steep learning curve - brand new growing space, in the case of the main bed literally brand new as it was only created a handful of months ago - and the first time we have done any real amount of growing in close to 20 years, so for us, it's been about learning (both from others, and from our own mistakes) and noting what we want to change for next year! 

greenbee

The broad bean inspiration came from @Farway who has been experimenting with germinating his broad beans on kitchen roll. He'd got some Luz d'Otono which are spring and autumn cropping - so plant Jul/Aug for Autumn, and then Nov/Dec for spring, and other varieties for in between! I love broad beans, so am willing to give them a go. I just need to get the bed set up with the soaker hose before I go ahead (and will be planting them straight into the bed as I'm not as organised as Farway). 

All my beds have been created this year. Asparagus was a disaster, broad beans disappointing, and raspberries won't really get going until next year (I need to check how many canes didn't need it and need replacing). But I've just picked another massive haul of french beans (dwarf and climbing), and a meal's worth of mange tout, as well as a couple more courgettes (now getting smaller and more manageable in terms of size. Oh, and a couple of cucumbers. So the beans will be frozen, and I need to plan some cooking for the freezer with the courgettes for the weekend. There are a couple of ripe tomatoes outside, and I'm also picking a handful of strawberries daily. Not enough to feed a household, but enough for me and a bit to freeze/share. 

Floss

@greenbee your sparrowgrass will do better next year, and again the year after. I remember my first year I thought the crowns were all dead, but had a harvest of 3 spears the next year and about 15 the year after! Sadly I then moved back to the leafy Cheshire suburbs and left the asparagus bath on the allotment 😊

greenbee

It has better grow! I had a few fronds, but that's it. I might check when I bury the soaker hose to see whether the roots have done anything or they have just shrivelled up. They didn't look great when they went in TBH. If they're dead, I'll order more otherwise it'll be another year to wait!

EssexHebridean

Another cucumber harvested last night and eaten immediately - they are so delicious freshly picked aren't they! A few tomatoes as well - those have just gone into a tub in the fridge for now.

One very determined strand of bindweed yanked out from behind the trellis that the spare cucumber is growing up - it had clearly come straight through the fence from next door! 

Everything fed last night too - although I did have to make up a small amount of feed in the little watering can as MrEH realised he'd forgotten to do the chilli plant! I will be attempting to overwinter that plant as well as saving some seeds from the fruits to see if we can grow from those next year. 

greenbee

I went out and picked this morning as I was going over to my mum's - more peas, beans, courgettes, a couple of tomatoes, and quite a few strawberries (and I only picked the last lot yesterday afternoon!). I've now collected lots of random bits of hosepipe from my mum's, so hopefully can finish off the layout for the irrigation system this weekend (along with cutting a lot of the long grass, cardboarding more of the veg plot, and putting down more woodchip). 

Cherryfudge

The first bit of colour on a  tomato yesterday - hooray! Today I've cut the grass, deadheaded some weeds and discovered the blackberries are already getting ahead of me.

redofromstart

It has been raining all day here and I have yet another blasted cold so I haven't been out to inspect.  I can see that the rubber beans (cheers auto corrupt) have more flowers on at least.