I too have been working on my beds. We now have a monster 3.6M x 1.2M bed running alongside the house:
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And the shallow beds are showing first signs of life from the rocket and other salad leaves 😀
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Excuse the crappy photos but it was pissing down and I was aching leaning over after the Dyfi.
looking good Surfr, i'm just wondering how long to let them settle before planting, needs a good downpour really
Err, not being the gardening sort, well not yet anyway, a potato i planted a few weeks ago reached the surface a couple of days gone. Today, a second plant appeared on the surface a couple of inches away. Is it normal for more than one plant to develop from one potato?
this was it yesterday;
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(its in a bucket because its a competition, these things go on in the north)
OOh that looks like a weed.
Mine have sprouted more than one, so i'm guessing yes.
When it pops through a bit more, put some more compost/dung/soil on top, to produce more produce.
What do you mean a weed? How rude.
When it pops through a bit more, put some more compost/dung/soil on top, to produce more produce.
do you mean re-cover the whole thing or just the base of the stem (when it 'pops through a bit more'?
Fence and path completed (well they've done the path wrong so i'll be doing this: 😡 when i see them)
lots of things growing now, wind has damaged the courgettes though 🙁
I'll get some pics when this tempest is over
My spuds are doing very, very well.
Salad leaves coming on nicely.
Courgettes look like they will be very good this year as will the onions.
Vines going mental
Carrots still looking pathetic and weedy
Garlic - still no sign of the buggers
MTT, yes cover the whole thing.
Me rude-surely not?
I don't know if i have the heart to re-cover it.
Maybe do it when more leaf is showing. The idea is the leaves are straining to get sunlight and grow more, which in turn will give more spuds.
It's all so exciting.
I sowed my lettuce and spinach before the rains came today, hope the tiny seeds haven't washed away.
No spuds as didn't get on to them early enough, but lower bed currently consists of Baby sweet corn, cabbages, and strawberries (Do like coleslaw so have lots of cabbages)
Top bed has lettuce, carrots, spring onions and chard much nice than spinach - although learnt my lesson last year and have only planted one row (about 10 plants) rather than about 20 which meant 3 shopping bags full of the stuff in the fridge. First carrot crop will be done this weekend.
Old sink has been used as a bean and pea planter - coffee grinds seem to be doing a great job of keeping the slugs off.
Tom's are ready to go out into grow bag into nifty little container made by mtbfix (made from wood reclaimed from an old bike storage unit)
Pumpkin bed was made a few weeks ago and filled with last years veg scraps, leaves and grass cuttings - great compost! Pumpkins will be planted out this weekend
Cucumbers on their way - but have a bit to go
Fennel and parsley doing really well – basil has been destroyed by the slugs 😥 Mint cannot be controlled, last season for the thyme as it’s getting a bit scraggly, but rosemary is currently taking over one of the other bushes.
Catmint has had to have protective guard made for it to prevent the cats eating and dribbling over the whole plant.
Raspberry patch looks like it will deliver a promising crop.
Blackberries’ are taking a bit of persuading due to relocation
General flowers for bedding are all ready to be planted out, wild flower patch has really taken off....
... and that's about it so far
Wow impressive tinker belle.
My basil has been the eaten by the slugs too they seem to have left the other herbs alone though.
Raspberries are starting to flower, spuds are looking good, runner beans went in yesterday, so need to get the poles out tomorrow, salad greens are doing well.
Can't wait to get our greenhouse up and running. Just need a base for it now.
Been a busy bunny - but got to reuse last years bed which took a lot of time to dig and build and did get a head start with a green house this year (cheapie from B&Q but it does the job)
Still very much learning though
here we go 🙂
Peas, radish, salad leaves and Butternut Squash
Clockwise from left:
Onions (white and red), Spring onions, Runner Beans, Baby Corn, Radish, Peas, Salad leaves, Squash, Spinach, Broccoli, Kale, Aubergine, Courgette, Toms, Carrots, Parsnip.
I think that's it
My veggies have all been busy, as have I. Due to surfrs' (Dan) generosity I now have a path !! I have also planted sweetcorn and extra carrots. Here's a pictorial update 😉
The Veggie patch
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Beetroot and Brassica (Can't remember if they're cabbage or cauliflowr (Guess I'll find out in a couple of months 😉 ) [IMG] 
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Potatoes and Cabbage/Cauliflower and Broccolli to the right [IMG] 
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Leeks grow so slowly, it's painful. Courgettes died 🙁 but have been replaced by reinforcements (and plastic 😉 ) [IMG] 
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Onions are rampant and the Runner beans are recovering from the gale force winds last week. [IMG] 
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The Path and a bit on the left ready to dig for the lettuces to go in 🙂 [IMG] 
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Peas are coming on (they've just started flowering 🙂 ) [IMG] 
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Should get my first strawberries in a couple of weeks 🙂 and the salad leaves are cropping about 2 meals a week 😮
[b]'int gardening brilliant !![/b]
blimey, do you live on Jersey! looking pretty well developed (and time consuming)
ah just seen your website. damn you and your warm Atlantic air
LOL... that's West Wales for you 🙂 Great for veggies and for mountain/snorkel biking 😉
(and time consuming)
That's what having no job for 5 months does to you 😉 I've now got a job again, albeit Part time, so the garden will get a bit more attention for a while 🙂
4 weeks growth....
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Blimey, and they've had no plant food yet 😉
It's open warfare in the garden between me and the snails at present.
Anyone else found the nerd heaven that is automatic watering?
I bought one of the cheap kits on eBay for about £7. Had a play with it and blew the pressure reducer to bits within minutes:D
Then I found Hozelock, Claber and somebody I forget do whole ranges of hose, connectors, drippers and sprays. Hozelock have a good guide to it all:
Started to set things up tonight and was dead chuffed. Just watch it all go wrong and I'll flood half the street!
Bit of an update.
Salad Leaves:
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We've already plundered this bed once for a lovely salad, and it's growing faster than we can eat it. I'm planning new ways to eat more salad! Some sort of mixed lettuce on the right didn't seem to take so well. Think maybe the cats got to the seeds before they took.
Deep Bed"
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Potatoes on the left have just been buried again but are coming back STRONG every day. Should be bountiful crop from them. Pumpkins, Leeks ,Carrots, courgettes (thanks to Martyntr for a few of these) on the right starting to take quite nicely but early days for them. I almost killed them in the conservatory first :blush:
OOh yes salad.
Nice with oat cakes.
Chicken and bacon avocado is a favourite too.
Radishes are so close to be ready, just put the lettuce out, strawberry plants, sweetcorn and spring onions. Filled up the cold frame already so looks like may need to make another an abandon plans to makes kids play area.
Is there a good chart/calendar of the planting times for all the various seeds and plants? It would be goot to see at a glance what I should be planting when next year.
on fourth planting of salad leaves now, boy do they grow fast. Radishes are on second and third plantings now, Butternut squash and courgettes doing well, onions getting pretty big, carrots, parsnips and spring onions have been thinned today. Kale has been planted out, broccoli is growing fast, spinach has been thinned for salad (yum), tomatoes are starting to flower, peas are doing their climbing thing vigorously. Runner beans clearly weren't fast enough to run away from slugs :(. i'll take a few pics over the weekend 🙂
gardening really is a great way to spend a couple of hours
Surfr - I have one at work, simple A4 version, which gives all the recommended seeding, planting out and cropping times for the most common veg.
Can scan it for you if you want a copy
my email is in my profile
Well, at least we won't have to go to the supermarket. You better be bringing some of this stuff with you 🙂
BTW, anyone having any luck with French beans this year, mine are very slow this year for some reason?
My spuds and toms are flying this year, carrotts, lettuce and onions starting to look good to. Used the corriander in a curry last week, was quite nice!
Wish I had more space 🙁
Dan - "The Vegetable and Herb Expert" by Dr H.G. Hessayon is my bible.
Ski
Our beans (French & runner) are struggling this year too - lots of compost in the trench, well watered but bog all growth. Peas are cropping well now tho (Oregon Sugar Pod).
A bit of progress from my Veggie patch....
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Tomatoes are coming along.
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Sugar snap peas are doing well, as are the Pumpkins..
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Finally I have growing Courgettes !! The Leeks are thinned, onions are doing well and the Runner Beans are coming on.
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Carrots in Pots are definately the way forward
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Strawberries are doing well....
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Heres some I picked yesterday..
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pics from today 🙂
not a patch on martyntr's efforts though
and one of the back garden for balance
gutter needs cleaning.
gutter need replacing, roof needs re-felting
Bit late now but I have discovered what staggered sowing means and why it is a good idea. How many mixed lettuce leaves can one man eat?!?
Carrots are getting bigger but beetroot down look like thy're bulking up much yet.
Peas have gone mad and are in full flower.
Nice back garden design micheal
Finally bothered to take some pics of my gardening efforts. Been enjoying snacking on fresh peas this week...
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Planted some courgettes out last week...
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Wind seems to have flattened most of my onions, might have to pull them up early if they don't perk up again...
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But at least the ones in the front garden (overwintered) are looking better (if not very well weeded)...
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And finally my favourite bit of all, harvested the garlic yesterday...
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How many mixed lettuce leaves can one man eat
amen to that
Nice back garden design micheal
thanks
chakaping - how easy was the garlic to grow?
After being away for a week, came back to my allotment to find that my potatoes are sick with blight!
Dug up the rows and burnt off all the plants, luckily the potatoes did not seem to be infected, but the yield was obviously low.
Does anyone know if I need to treat the soil for blight, before growing anything else, I heard they can attack Tomatoes too?
chakaping - how easy was the garlic to grow?
Easy peasy lemon squeezy, seems to grow really well in my garden.
Ordered the bulbs from a seed distributor, stick them in the ground and each clove turns into a full bulb.
Last year's crop has lasted me a full year.
excellent i think i'll fill a whole bed with it over winter
Few tips here for blight Ski
http://www.allotment.org.uk/vegetable/potato/potato-blight.php
So far so good for me. Only thing that failed were my beans, but I think that was down to the cold snap we had a couple of months ago - I've put some hardened plants in and they've been fine.
So far:
Spuds - earlys need to come up really - anyone know a source for cheap sacks?
Onions - again, they can't be far off ready
Garlic - Might pull it up this weekend
Salad - I shall be more frugal with the planting next year, far too much of the stuff!
Leeks/Spring onions - Need to start them off much earlier nest year, it'll be September before they're ready I guess
Peas - Growing well, but I didn't stake them early enough and they're top heavy and unruly. Lesson learned!
Beans - After initial fail, plants growing nicely.
(tip - peas & beans like coffee grounds - have a word at your local Starbucks/Costa/Cafe they'll be happy to get rid)
Courgettes - coming along nicely
Carrots - I shall be trying pots next year - I've got 4 plants from 2 whole rows!
Parsnips - Seem to be growing well, we'll see what happens
Cabbages - nibbled, but not too bad
Broccoli - As above
Cauliflowers - As above
Pumpkins - one plant killed by slugs, the other fine.
Raspberries - All good
Blueberries - Bit weedy, but wasn't expecting anything this year anyway
Gooseberries - as above
Peppers - Doing nicely
Recently had a couple of bits nicked from the allotment (cloche and a poly tunnel), but it's right next to the road so not entirely unexpected. I'm a bit wary of what might happen when everything's ready, but we'll see. Might have a night watch in the shed! 🙂
Really enjoying it, far more than I thought I would. Everything's going to be ready in time for when my baby son weans, which is nice 🙂
I'm soooo excited, our garage work starts next week, which means that in aobut 6 weeks I'll be able to start planning my veg plot. And yes I know it's all to late for this year but still jumping up and down with excitement! <does little giddy dance>
No it's not too late, preparation is everything.
You can get your raised beds ready and get the manure in. 🙂
Even though I've been growing veggies for 8 years now. I bought myself the 'Alan Titchmarsh how to grow - vegetables and herbs, idiots guide. Hopefully it will help me.
I get giddy when I start picking the fruits of my labour. Yum.
Woody - We've been feeding spinach from the garden to our baby girl.
Ironically though, I've just not had time to grow as much stuff as in previous years because of her.
How difficult did you find cabbages? It's the one thing I just can't grow (so far)!
Ok so tell me about raised beds? Why do I want them rather than a normal bed (my dad used to just have normal ones and they worked for him 🙂 ). If I want raised ones, what's the best thing to use to raise them with?
chapa - my allotment neighbour gave me some young plants, I just stuck 'em in and they seemed to grow ok. I didn't give them any protection though, so they have been nibbled, but they look to be doing ok. This year's the first year I've done anything like this (ever!), so it's all been chucked in without much planning. We got the plot in March, and junior was due in April, so it was a case of get it all done ASAP, then think about it later. We're only using half the plot at the moment, and I just cannot believe how much food you can grow in small space (we only have a half plot anyway!)
Does anyone know if I need to treat the soil for blight, before growing anything else, I heard they can attack Tomatoes too?
From what I remember there is no treatment once the disease has taken hold, however, spraying the tomato plants with a [b]Mancozeb[/b] spray every 2 weeks in damp weather should hold it at bay.
As for raised beds, they're ideal if you have back problems 😉 but also you can manipulate the soil or growing medium you use for growing your plants more easily, reduce stone content (if particularly stoney) and also are ideal if your soil is poor draining or gets waterlogged in the winter.
Mrs F
[url= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raised_bed ]Wiki Raised Beds[/url]Wiki Raised Beds[url= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raised_bed ]
Better crop yields in smaller spaces - I don't have them but friends who have them say they're terrific
Aha, thanks tankslapper. I will ahve a read.
I have both mrs flash. The yield from the raised bed, ( first time I've used one is this year) seems to be greater than my old allotment style bed.
I've also used buckets and pots this year for the first time. The slugs and snails seem to stay away a bit more from those.
Raised beds are nice but seem far from essential to me. I do half my growing in them and half at ground level.
Dig in loads and loads of manure/compost and you'll still be able to grow plenty in normal beds. Had my best results of all in normal beds actually.
When do you think you'll be ready to start sowing mrsflash? You can get stuff for this year in as late as July. And pretty soon after that you'll be sowing stuff for overwintering anyway.
Strawberries and Raspberries Today
ICe cream later...
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After seeing the picture above I went and looked at the rogue raspberry growing by itself in the flower bed.
I have just eaten the entire (2 raspberries) crop
cha****ng, probably mid august I would have thought. still giddy.
Not a lot I'm aware of that can go in that late; rocket, maybe spinach, other salads probably (but I'm not much of a leaf-muncher).
Still, you'll have plenty of time to get loads of stuff in for overwintering!
It's really addictive.
spinach and rocket will do, I love them both. I am prepared for addiciton 🙂
Hi all
Pics from a few weeks ago from the little plot I've got in the back garden
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The Potatoes, Broccoli and Toms have since become Tryfids!
First year we've had a go at all this and think I tried to cram a bit too much in to small an area
The Potatoes and Broccoli are crowding my onions carrots and lettuce's
Q?
Can you just keep trimming Rocket and it come back ok?
Q?
Can you just keep trimming Rocket and it come back ok?
Not sure, was so prolific that I couldn't eat enough to make a dent.
Ended up making rocket pesto, which was something of an acquired taste!
29erKeith - looking good. Nice garden too !!
I've been removing leaves from my rocket all spring/early summer. Aslong as you don't rmove the growing point in the centre the plant should keep producing leaves. I've had most of my salad leave bolt though.... I think I may have put the plants out too early, and they've had a bit of frost or something....
Does anyone have any other ideas ?
I'm new to this thread but have been growing beans, potatoes and garlic in pots. The potatoes have just gone nuts - foliage is getting on for 3ft tall. Is this normal? Should it be cut back to encourage spud growth?
Ta
I'm no expert, mine are growing really high too. Just leave them, the flowers will start showing in a few weeks.
Looks like an alien's head on a stick in 29ers garden
For best yield you need to 'earth up' your spuds. Every week or so you need to bury the haulm (posh word for the stem). Ye olde way of growing spuds was to put them in rows a couple of feet apart so you could then just use a hoe to drag the soil from the gap over the plants - new fangled ideas include using things like growing them in compost bags or dustbins where you plant the seed spud a foot or so off the bottom then just top up the bag/bin as it grows.
I've been piling topsoil on top of my potatoes as soon as I get a few inches growth out of them. How long should I keep this up? I'm going to run out of soil soon!
cheers martyntr, its small but we like it
Jimmy i think that'll be the watering can on a cane 😆
Potatoes have been flowering for a few weeks now still a few more unopened buds but once there all done thats time to dug 'em up isn't it???
Surfr - if you're doing it in a bag/bin then you can just keep going until it's full (as long as the plant keeps growing of course...) - if you're growing in rows then you reach a point where the sides of the mounds are getting too steep (usually when there's a foot to 18 inches of soil mounded up) and so it's not practical to keep going after that.
Can you just keep trimming Rocket and it come back ok?
The seeds I bought say you can get at least 4 crops from a plant.
Rocket certainly seems to be the easiest thing to grow of the things I've tried.
Can you just keep trimming Rocket and it come back ok?
The seeds I bought say you can get at least 4 crops from a plant.
Rocket certainly seems to be the easiest thing to grow of the things I've tried.
The general rule of thumb on potatoes is [b]100 days from planting till harvest.[/b] This can however vary depending on Variety. 😉
martyntr - nice tip
redthunder - that's a amazing crop, nice one 😉
Bit late now, but seed wise, where do people go/recommend?
An observation. Everyone's gardens on here look fantastic. Can I just be a spoil sport and remind people that the way our vegetables and plants grow is down to the birds and bees, so a little wild area is a good idea if you can spare it. It just gives insects, mammals and other creatures a place to live, which in turn helps the garden grow. I found a bees nest in our little wild corner the other day. 🙂
Bunnyhop - I have one behind the Compost bin by the blackcurrent bushes. In the spring I saw a Hedgehog over there.... great for eating the slugs 🙂
I've had intruders!
Cabbages and Cauliflower decimated by cabbage white caterpillars.
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But in the deep bed things are looking up. Courgettes from martyntr coming along nicely and will soon be ready for harvest.
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And the potatoes have just started to flower so They'll be cut down above ground and harvested soon. (very excited about this one)
Well not posted for a while, so, will jut update you with my nightmare allotment!
Being my first year and knowing absolutely nothing about growing plants, so far I have had blight on my potatoes, pea fly in my peas and just found what is apparently white rot on my onions!
The strawberries got taken over with couch grass, but at least my little one managed to crop a few.
So over the last year, someone broke into my shed and stole my tools, caught a family from hell helping themselves to a bucket full of my crop, while there kids played in my poly tunnel, putting a nice gash into the plastic, thanks for that!
The only thing so far is doing well are my Tomatoes , sweetcorn, red onions and Beetroot's, even one of my apple trees has decided to give it a rest this year with no apples!
Anyway at least I have had enough to crop to feed my family so far and neighbours, friends and relatives for the last month or so.
Learnt so much though this year and will do things differently next year, they say you lean by your mistakes 😉
I am not giving up! my wife loves the spot we have now, even though she was not keen at first, the neighbouring allotment folk have become good friends and my kids have had a great time there too.
might take some pics to post up latter 😉
Ski - apple trees need quite heavy pruning to ensure year on year crops. Did you have a bumper year last time, and has it got overgrown?
I've had a few bits nicked too, and now stuff's getting close to ready for harvesting I'm paranoid more things are going to be pilfered. I'd have no problem sharing if they're prepared to come and help out! Might have a night time stakeout in the shed! 🙂