My free seeds from Grow it magazine
 

I only bought the magazine because the free seeds far exceeded the value of
the magazine. Three different types of courgette and two different
pumpkins.
We decided not to bother with the pumpkins.
When the packet was opened it said "average contents 5 seeds" The
"ordinary" green courgette packet had 8 seeds in, the round one 4 and the
patty pan 4.
We sowed 4 green, 3 came up, 3 round, two came up, and 3 patty pans, two
came up.
We planted the greens and rounds out on the lottie today, the patty pans are
a bit behind so they will go out in a week or ten days or the slugs will
surely get them.
These were Thompson & Morgan seeds, so I don't think they've done too badly,
germination wise.
After we'd planted them, I said to my brother "you've hardened them off a
bit by having them out in the day for a while, haven't you?"

Er, no. Too late now, we'll just have to see how they get on.

Poor bro learnt a hard lesson this week by buying some sprout and broc
plants from our local garden shop and putting them out without netting them.
By the next day the woodies had had a good chomp which sent him hurtling to
Wilkos for a net.
Should have asked his big sister ;-) but it's a learning curve for him and
these mistakes will make him a better gardener in the end.

Tina

My free seeds from Grow it magazine
 

On Sun, 10 Jun 2012 21:46:46 +0100, "Christina Websell"
wrote:

After we'd planted them, I said to my brother "you've hardened them off a
bit by having them out in the day for a while, haven't you?"

For years, my hardening-off routine is to move half the plants out
onto the lawn one morning and back in in the evening. The other half
go out the next day. As I'm growing 2-3,000 plants this operation
takes about an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening. It's
enough.

It's more of an organisational thing as I try to get all the begonias
together in one place.

Never had any problems.

Cheers, Jake
=======================================
Urgling from Swansea Bay. Dave's at that end; I'm at this end.
Bill G's in the middle. Come to think of it, where is Bill G these days?

My free seeds from Grow it magazine
 

Christina Websell wrote:
We planted the greens and rounds out on the lottie today, the patty pans are
a bit behind so they will go out in a week or ten days or the slugs will
surely get them.

More than half of my butternuts have been slugged off. :-(
Only 4 or 5 that look like they're going to make it, really.

My free seeds from Grow it magazine
 

"Jake" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 10 Jun 2012 21:46:46 +0100, "Christina Websell"
wrote:

After we'd planted them, I said to my brother "you've hardened them off a
bit by having them out in the day for a while, haven't you?"

For years, my hardening-off routine is to move half the plants out
onto the lawn one morning and back in in the evening. The other half
go out the next day. As I'm growing 2-3,000 plants this operation
takes about an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening. It's
enough.

It's more of an organisational thing as I try to get all the begonias
together in one place.

Never had any problems.

Cheers, Jake

These haven't been hardened off at all, straight out of the greenhouse into
the ground. I'd assumed (wrongly) that he'd have done the same as you do and
only thought to ask after we'd planted them. Too late by then.
I will find out soon whether hardening courgettes off is necessary..

Tina

My free seeds from Grow it magazine
 

Christina Websell wrote:
These haven't been hardened off at all, straight out of the greenhouse into
the ground. I'd assumed (wrongly) that he'd have done the same as you do and
only thought to ask after we'd planted them. Too late by then.
I will find out soon whether hardening courgettes off is necessary..

I must admit, I'm not a stickler for hardening off. My version of hardening
off is to move from 'in the house' to 'in the greenhouse'. At this time of
year I don't think it makes /that/ much difference. Birds, slugs and mice
are a lot more of a problem than the weather, normally. (Although given the
rain today, I may get more drownings)

Where was he growing them? I assume that once I'm leaving the greenhouse door open all day, anything on the cold end is going to be just as happy outside as in. My hardening off regime is mainly cutting down the water to toughen up the stems in the hope of making them unattractive to slugs.

My free seeds from Grow it magazine
 

wrote in
:


I must admit, I'm not a stickler for hardening off. My version of
hardening off is to move from 'in the house' to 'in the greenhouse'.
At this time of year I don't think it makes /that/ much difference.
Birds, slugs and mice are a lot more of a problem than the weather,
normally. (Although given the rain today, I may get more drownings)

You got rain today?
Our day off from it. Looked all day like we could have a cloudburst though.
Very cool too.
You wouldn't normally think to harden off plants in June would you, but I
don't think this is an ordinary June. Mostly cold, windy and wet up to now
here in N.lincs.

Best wishes.
Baz

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Martin wrote in
:

On Mon, 11 Jun 2012 16:58:01 GMT, Baz wrote:

wrote in
:


I must admit, I'm not a stickler for hardening off. My version of
hardening off is to move from 'in the house' to 'in the greenhouse'.
At this time of year I don't think it makes /that/ much difference.
Birds, slugs and mice are a lot more of a problem than the weather,
normally. (Although given the rain today, I may get more drownings)

You got rain today?
Our day off from it. Looked all day like we could have a cloudburst
though. Very cool too.
You wouldn't normally think to harden off plants in June would you,
but I don't think this is an ordinary June. Mostly cold, windy and wet
up to now here in N.lincs.

On the other side of the North Sea we are in the middle of a series of
thunderstorms. They are heading your way.

We are ready for anything Mother nature chucks at us this year.
WE are hardened off now. Takes a bit more than a thunderstorm to get us
worked up. Unless of course we see a spider in the bath :-(

Baz

My free seeds from Grow it magazine
 

Baz wrote:
normally. (Although given the rain today, I may get more drownings)
You got rain today?
Our day off from it. Looked all day like we could have a cloudburst though.

All day. Our day off was yesterday, so it must be heading to you. :-P

Very cool too.

Yup, I just put the heating on. :-(

You wouldn't normally think to harden off plants in June would you, but I
don't think this is an ordinary June. Mostly cold, windy and wet up to now
here in N.lincs.

Well, the greenhouse was 14' tonight, so I figured that that is cool
enough for most hardening off requirements.

My free seeds from Grow it magazine
 

"Baz" wrote in message
.. .
wrote in
:


I must admit, I'm not a stickler for hardening off. My version of
hardening off is to move from 'in the house' to 'in the greenhouse'.
At this time of year I don't think it makes /that/ much difference.
Birds, slugs and mice are a lot more of a problem than the weather,
normally. (Although given the rain today, I may get more drownings)

You got rain today?
Our day off from it. Looked all day like we could have a cloudburst
though.
Very cool too.
You wouldn't normally think to harden off plants in June would you, but I
don't think this is an ordinary June. Mostly cold, windy and wet up to now
here in N.lincs.


Threw it down all day and 11C. To go down to my lottie (or shop) I have to
take my car on a single track road under a railway bridge which has been
impassable from a week last Sunday apart from a day and half, through
flooding.
I can take a 3 mile detour.
I'm being a pain to my county councillor about it and he is finally taking
me seriously.
There are two drains under the bridge - it's been a historic problem but
they never clean the culvert out that it drains to!
Mums who have no cars cannot get their children to school unless they have
waders.

However, I have told him that we are more than fed up to be marooned and if
he does not anything about it on the second time of asking he will find his
name in the newspaper.

That worked! The culvert will be cleared on 20 June, as they have to get
permission from the railway company to go on their land to do it. Pity he
didn't do anything about it 8 weeks ago when I asked him to sort it out the
first time.

My free seeds from Grow it magazine
 

Sacha wrote:
On the other side of the North Sea we are in the middle of a series of
thunderstorms. They are heading your way.

We had one this morning, quite brief but accompanied by stair rod rain.
This evening had a lovely sunny period for an hour or so.

One nice thing about this weather - I'd forgotten how much I enjoy the sound
of rain on a glass roof! I suppose I really ought to get a conservatory
built one day. But for now I'll just go do some potting up in the greenhouse.

Speaking of which, repotted a bunch of sad looking tomatoes that are destined
for the school fete, if they start to thrive a bit. Looks like they were too
wet and the soil was too heavy. Should have looked for some vermiculate or
something, but that would have meant going out in the rain ...

Also found 4 or 5 slugs and snails hiding around under pots in the greenhouse.
Grr.