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Post by mickthecactus on Jul 15, 2008 8:51:53 GMT 1
Do veg in pots then The witch.
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Post by debbiem on Jul 15, 2008 9:56:03 GMT 1
How are your carrots coming along Mick?
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Post by mickthecactus on Jul 15, 2008 21:13:05 GMT 1
Ok thanks Debbie although I think some better weather might have bought them on quicker.
Picked half a dozen Tumbler tomatoes tonight.
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Post by mickthecactus on Jul 21, 2008 13:02:06 GMT 1
I sowed seed over all the beds that my son cleared for me. Lettuce, beetroot, spring onions, kale, pak-choi, chinese leaves, even french beans. If we have a good late summer I should be OK, if not, then not. It's well worth a try.
Incidentally, the ordinary onions are coming on well but the red onions not so good.
Leeks have been transplanted.
Courgettes in pots starting to flower.
Tomatoes are coming on nicely but other than Tumbler none ripe yet. The next couple of weeks forecasted weather should help.
I may have watered the carrots in pots too much as there is a lot of leaf and not much root showing.
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Post by 4pygmies on Jul 21, 2008 13:18:57 GMT 1
I think the night time temperatures have been pretty low recently Mick, so that might account for your carrots not showing yet. I've started shutting up the GH and PT at night again. In July..... :  I've, at last, got some Gardeners Delight toms showing - I thought they'd be a disaster this year, they were so slow....but the San Marzano's are loaded although nowhere near ripe. Good this, innit? |
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Post by mickthecactus on Jul 21, 2008 13:37:00 GMT 1
It's fantastic 4P and never ceases to amaze me.
You are right about the low night temperatures - I've struggled with sweet peas this year so far which appears to be down to this. They should pick up now.
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Post by 4pygmies on Jul 21, 2008 13:44:11 GMT 1
Is it true we are expecting a heat wave this week?  (I don't mind a very little heatwave now and then in the summer...) |
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Post by mickthecactus on Jul 21, 2008 14:04:32 GMT 1
And pretty good the following week too which is good for me as we take the boys to the Norfolk coast next Saturday.
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Post by mickthecactus on Aug 3, 2008 22:06:26 GMT 1
Amazing what a warm spell will do - more growth in a week than in the previous month.
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Post by floweringcherry on Aug 3, 2008 22:11:34 GMT 1
Amazing what a warm spell will do - more growth in a week than in the previous month. It sure has made the plants grow. I posted a pick on the garden thread, my sweetcorn should be ready in a week or two. Had a peak but the kernals are still white, but looking good. Picked and cooked some beetroot and have been harvesting lettuce and spring onions. Courgettes have gone mad. Loads of tomatoes, but not ripe yet. |
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Post by mickthecactus on Aug 3, 2008 22:14:05 GMT 1
I came back from hols and there were loads of toms.
Picked and cooked beetroot today, picked lettuce and spinach, dug potatoes, pulled spring onions. Picked courgettes yesterday but one plant has mosaic virus.
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Post by floweringcherry on Aug 3, 2008 22:36:21 GMT 1
I came back from hols and there were loads of toms. Picked and cooked beetroot today, picked lettuce and spinach, dug potatoes, pulled spring onions. Picked courgettes yesterday but one plant has mosaic virus. Sounds good, one of my Courgette plants looks a bit iffy, but still producing fruit. If it looks dodgy will have it out, still have 2 other plants cropping. It's so lovely to go and pick, cook etc from your own patch. No chemicals and the flavour is fabulous. Awaiting, Toms, Pepper, Chiilies and Augergines, think I have Red Spider in the greenhouse, but spraying with water to keep humidy up. Fingers crossed |
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Post by mickthecactus on Sept 1, 2008 13:37:12 GMT 1
It has a smell all of its own The witch which I don't dislike. Cooked some more yesterday.
Anyhow, I worked on it a fair bit over the weekend (started at 8.30 on Saturday) and at last it's beginning to look how I saw it in my minds eye last year.
I was late in starting as the site wasn't cleared for various reasons but once my son had done a weekends work to pay off a debt it was about 80% done and now about 90% done (still can't shift the last conifer).
I cleared off the onion crop and laid them out in the greenhouse to dry, then manured the area and dug it over, weeded the leeks, hoed the late sown salad crops and beans, dug the last of the potatoes then manured that bit and dug it over and finally weeded between the paving slabs on the path so the top half of the beds looks really smart now.
The shadier half has been pretty good and I grew the potatoes there with spinach, lettuce and now pak choi and chinese leaves although keeping the slugs off them has been something of a battle.
On the sunnier half, onions (crop OK but not great), leeks in now looking good, broad beans which were lovely but not a huge crop, beetroots very good, kale eaten by something, spring onions not bad and now the late salad crops with lettuce ready for picking.
Off the plot I grew courgettes in large pots but they haven't been great. One got mosiac virus so I chucked it and the other is producing but nothing like as prolific as when I grew them in the ground.
The big bonus is carrots in old window boxes. I used a peat based compost, sowed them and didn't thin them and I've had plenty of good looking carrots although not necessarily a lot of flavour. I can never grow them well in the ground so I will extend that next year and grow more that way.
Also, I shall sow more seed in thye greenhouse to get an earlier start rather than sowing in situ.
Late this month or early next I shall put out Japanese onion sets and then broad beans late October early November to sit there through winter and get an early start next year.
Being able to water them sufficiently has been a big help and I have fed them most weekends - high nitrogen for the leafy crops and high potash for everything else.
I am really pleased with meself......
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Post by Sleepy on Sept 1, 2008 13:45:19 GMT 1
My! You did do well |
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Post by mickthecactus on Sept 1, 2008 14:03:09 GMT 1
OOoh. Forgot the tomatoes in big pots against my back wall. 5 varieties and 2 hanging baskets. Picked loads yesteday.
Varieties were Tumbler for the hanging baskets - always good. Mixed Dels (a newer variety of Gardeners Delight) which always have a good crop but you never know what colour they willbe. Yellow this year. Sunbelle (a yellow plum type) which has been OK, Sweet Olive, a small variety which sounds better than it is, Rudolph, a beautiful bright red plum type which I will definitely grow again and Caro Rich, a large tomato which turns a lovely orange but a very small crop. Shan't grow that again and will probably go back to Black Krim next year.
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Post by 4pygmies on Sept 1, 2008 15:52:49 GMT 1
That sounds pretty good considering the season we've had weather wise. Better than me, anyway........ I have decided to rope eldest in a bit more next year - she'd be good at the digging....
I grew Sweet Olive last year and was really disappointed - I found they had hardly any flavour at all....but I like the sound of those multi coloured Gardener's Delight! Remind me next Spring please Mick!
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Post by mickthecactus on Sept 1, 2008 16:07:06 GMT 1
That sounds pretty good considering the season we've had weather wise. Better than me, anyway........ I have decided to rope eldest in a bit more next year - she'd be good at the digging.... I grew Sweet Olive last year and was really disappointed - I found they had hardly any flavour at all....but I like the sound of those multi coloured Gardener's Delight! Remind me next Spring please Mick! With pleasure mein liebling. |
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Post by mickthecactus on Sept 1, 2008 16:07:42 GMT 1
P.S. there are always far more seeds than I need. I'll send some to you.
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Post by 4pygmies on Sept 1, 2008 16:09:11 GMT 1
You are a treasure, young Mick - thank you - go on holiday, why don't you? You deserve it.........  |
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Post by mickthecactus on Sept 3, 2008 12:54:21 GMT 1
I've mastered the camera but not the art of melding camera and computer.
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Post by alicat on Sept 5, 2008 21:15:29 GMT 1
Wow it seems like you have had a great year well done you, of course you have years of experience from your allotment days. I have also had a major problem with slugs and snails - Grrrr..... They even ate my largest cabage - not happy at all. :crying How did your tumbing toms turn out, were the skins tough - mine were last year so didn't do them this year. :undecided |
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Post by mickthecactus on Sept 5, 2008 21:18:46 GMT 1
Hi Ali.
They weren't too bad but the lack of sunshine didn't do much for them. They are so reliant on good weather.
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Post by alicat on Sept 5, 2008 21:23:52 GMT 1
Hi Mick - how are you keeping - are you better ? If my lot last year are anything to go by you will be making Chuntney then. |
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Post by mickthecactus on Sept 5, 2008 21:25:24 GMT 1
Much better thanks Als.
You?
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Post by alicat on Sept 5, 2008 22:05:59 GMT 1
Sorry Mick - fine thanks Can't believe the summer if you can call it that has finished.  |
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