The all new 2019 growing your own thread!

MysteryMe wrote: »

I have neglected the Jalapeno plants, mainly because I forgot what they were but pleased to see quite a few green chillis appearing. Do they turn red on the plant like toms do or would that be a different breed of plant?

They should (I think) turn red on the plant as they ripen. Of my four chillis (2x thai cayenne & 2x habanero) I've only got one fruit that I can see. My padrons however are doing sterling service. Didn't get out today, but Mrs Un retrieved the various ripe tomatoes & picked a nice batch of (wild/bramble) blackberries for freezing. There's a Keema on the horizon I think (depending on what my oncologist has planned for me...)

Good success at he show yesterday, took the championship, I'm pleased for Mr Z as he lost his best friend (stallion) earlier this year and had lost his will to compete. We couldn't move more than 4 paces at the show without being stopped and spoken to - I didn't realise we had so many genuine friends.

Today I managed to water everything under cover and have a bit of a tidy up. Collected loads of tomatoes and gave loads away to neighbours - but somehow they weren't that interested in courgettes!! Collected beans, squash, runners, radish, carrots, fennel. The leaves on one set of potatoes are going yellow so they are probably getting ready for digging up. The next set of carrots are looking good, they're not quite ready yet but they should last me through the Autumn.

I must remember to collect more blackberries. We have loads in the hedges. My mother always used to say 'never collect any from below knee height as you never know what has passed by and left its calling card'.
We seem a bit short on sloes this year, a good excuse not to buy any gin.
One job I must do is to strim the paths, it's beginning to look like a jungle - that's top of the list for tomorrow.

Foxface, the allotment pics look great! You've certainly got plenty of work to do there, but looks like you've made great innings already!



Unrecordings, hope you're feeling OK and have managed to get out a bit. Had plenty of rain here too. It literally rained all day on Friday. No stops. Bit drier over the weekend, but we've had some torrential downpours this morning! Woke us all up at 6am! Thankfully the sun is shining.


My cherry tomato plant is a great producer, but I failed to put drainage holes in the bottom of the pot before I potted it up. So....lots of waterlogging for that. I tip it out as frequently as I can, but the rain has been pretty relentless recently, so it has suffered some damage due to overwatering. Nevertheless, it is still producing new flowers and new fruits! haha


My other tomatoes survived their catastrophe, but they are so, so, so slow to ripen. Can see one of the stripey ones has turned orange, but it's not fully ripe yet.


The first strawberry from the plants I grew from seed is ripening. Hopefully it will be fully ripened by the time I get home, and there are a few more developing at the moment.


Beans still surviving and growing.


Raspberry plant......has finally started to produce a few fruit! Wahoo!!!


Culled one courgette plant, it was beyond recovery. The other looks healthier, and put out a male flower on Friday, but the female flowers still yellow and drop off before they have a chance to open. So, might have to cut my losses with them soon!


Brussel sprouts keep getting more caterpillars on them, but the numbers have reduced, so it is still going!


Picked my first red bell pepper yesterday! Wow, do they take a long time to ripen!


That's it I think. Lots of blackberries around here, so picked some last weekend and used them to make some breakfast bars. Walking home from the office tonight, so will gather some more and stick in the freezer for smoothies, breakfast bars, crumbles etc. Not making jam with them this year as I still have several jars from last year! lol

I've been gardening my own garden for the past 28 years. I've relied on sheer dumb luck and throwing in a few methods gleaned from very casual observation (during my childhood) of my Granddad and Mother as they whipped their gardens into shape. In years past I've enjoyed successful harvests of Raspberries, strawberries, blackcurrants, cooking apples, rhubarb, redcurrants, plums, runner beans and broad beans. I have about eight well established Asparagus plants which have never given me more than one asparagus stem per year between them. My eating apple tree has taken 20 years to make up its mind, I hate redcurrants, the plum tree has been removed (against my wishes) and the gooseberry bushes have produced two dozen berries. Two years ago my husband got me to move quite a lot of my plants to clear a space for a shed base which he managed to lay (concrete with a visquine membrane - you know, belt & braces) & I used the opportunity to never re plant the red currant bushes again. This year has been an unmitigated disaster. The cooking apple tree, which normally produces so many apples we stand at the gate begging passers by to take carrier bags of the surplus has, now I've inspected closely, given us 4 tiny apples, one of which fell at me feet as I searched for them - this is after three consecutive years of a leaf curling problem which hides tiny black/grey insects. The eating apple tree, which was obviously waiting shyly in the background in the past, is loaded, but the apples appear to be housing critters of a few descriptions, Raspberries (moved summer 2017) - minimal, Blackcurrants (moved summer 2017) minimal, strawberries - beautiful, large, full of woodlice, Asparagus (transferred into pots 2017)- nil, Beans - eaten by slugs & snails at the shoot stage, tomatoes - stopped growing at the flowering stage (produced flowers but didn't develop). I gave up on potatoes years ago as they got wireworm wherever in the garden I sited them. Rhubarb (moved summer 2017) has finally produced something which may make a dessert, Gooseberries = confined to a large plastic recycling box with drainage holes in it - handful.
I have a very small garden half of which is in the shade, it slopes (N to S) which means next door's abandoned garden (they still live there but don't garden) drains into mine but doesn't flood it. The two apple trees are against the fence on that side. I've never fed the soil or any of the plants as I don't know how. If anyone on here has the time to read my whining post and can offer advice, where to site the plants I've mentioned, how to feed the soil across this autumn and winter, even what pots to put next year's tomatoes (in a narrow lean-to plastic green house) how to deal with the pests, (wireworm, leaf curling things, slugs, snails, woodlice (very fat having been fed with the strawberries), ants (also found in the apples), mice, and the occasional passing rat (hole in the back corner by the abandoned garden), given that two miniature dachshunds have the run of the same garde (i.e. Have only used slug pellets in tubs they can't reach.
I have mentioned a lot of soft fruits which have in the past done really well in my garden, I've also not grown many vegetables as most of the root vegetables have not been successful. The apple trees are around 20+ years old.
HELP ! (Please)

Topher, don't despair, I think it's been an odd year for a lot of our gardens. I've had very few raspberries, no blackthorn, no cherry plum and maybe one damson (if it's still there). You've also moved a few things around recently, which might have disrupted cropping for a few seasons