STW – Garderners and allotment users – Friday chat

I too have been working on my beds. We now have a monster 3.6M x 1.2M bed running alongside the house:

And the shallow beds are showing first signs of life from the rocket and other salad leaves 😀

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;

(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

Beetroot and Brassica (Can’t remember if they’re cabbage or cauliflowr (Guess I’ll find out in a couple of months 😉 )

Potatoes and Cabbage/Cauliflower and Broccolli to the right

Leeks grow so slowly, it’s painful. Courgettes died 🙁 but have been replaced by reinforcements (and plastic 😉 )

Onions are rampant and the Runner beans are recovering from the gale force winds last week.

The Path and a bit on the left ready to dig for the lettuces to go in 🙂

Peas are coming on (they’ve just started flowering 🙂 )

Should get my first strawberries in a couple of weeks 🙂 and the salad leaves are cropping about 2 meals a week 😮

‘int gardening brilliant !!

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….

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:

http://www.hozelock.com/uploads/pdf/AWLeaflet-pages1.pdf

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:

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”

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….

Tomatoes are coming along.

Sugar snap peas are doing well, as are the Pumpkins..

Finally I have growing Courgettes !! The Leeks are thinned, onions are doing well and the Runner Beans are coming on.

Carrots in Pots are definately the way forward

Strawberries are doing well….

Heres some I picked yesterday..

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…

Planted some courgettes out last week…

Wind seems to have flattened most of my onions, might have to pull them up early if they don’t perk up again…

But at least the ones in the front garden (overwintered) are looking better (if not very well weeded)…

And finally my favourite bit of all, harvested the garlic yesterday…