Haven't been able to get down to the lottie for over a week due to
thunderstorms and other parts of life intruding on my time.

I had to do nearly 3 hours of weeding! Managed to get a few cabbages
transplanted, intended to put the leeks out but ran out of time (and
energy). It's an open site and it was hot.

Was glad to see my brother had managed to get some horse manure and put in
on the compost heap, there is now a mountain of weeds on top.

Surprisingly, I've had very little trouble with slugs and snails, just a bit
of outside leaf damage on the lettuces.

The first courgettes have got away from us just with a week of rain and not
being picked. Stuffed marrow coming up.. every day.
Runner beans doing well. We did an experiment - my brother's beans would
have a trench dug for them filled with newspaper, chicken manure etc to be
transplanted out on top of it, and mine would be transplanted straight into
the ground with bfb scattered on top. No contest. His are romping away and
already have some beans on. Mine are doing OK, have plenty of flowers on
but are definitely not so..luxuriant.

Had my first completely homegrown salad today. New potatoes, iceberg
lettuce, cucumber and radish. Just added a tin of tuna.

I found lots of ants in the salad beds, when I weeded I kept disturbing
their nests. I was going to transplant the leeks out in there, but decided
not to as I think they might stop the leeks settling their roots down.

Sweetcorn looks OK. We've never grown it before. Landcress (never grown
that before either) doesn't look quite ready otherwise I would have added it
to my salad today.

Spinach has been a disaster. I've sowed it three times, it either does not
come up, or comes up and bolts when only two inches high. I won't try it
again, I'll plant leefbeet.
Beetroot was also a disaster.

Peas didn't do that well but I didn't plant enough. I know better for next
year and I will probably sow full sized peas rather than dwarf.

Tina

Christina Websell wrote:
Was glad to see my brother had managed to get some horse manure and put in
on the compost heap, there is now a mountain of weeds on top.

I'm starting to wonder if it's the horse poo that brought in so many slugs,
as it's the thing that Nick didn't nemaslug.

The first courgettes have got away from us just with a week of rain and not
being picked. Stuffed marrow coming up.. every day.

I've had 1 courgette so far. 1 fell off with a rotten flower today, and
I picked a slug off one that may grow. I have a week for them to start
producing, or else this will be my first year of no courgettes to put in
the show. :-(

Runner beans doing well. We did an experiment - my brother's beans would
have a trench dug for them filled with newspaper, chicken manure etc to be
transplanted out on top of it, and mine would be transplanted straight into
the ground with bfb scattered on top. No contest. His are romping away and
already have some beans on. Mine are doing OK, have plenty of flowers on
but are definitely not so..luxuriant.

Good to know. My basket-based ones are doing ok, but they are going to need
a lot of watering.

Sweetcorn looks OK. We've never grown it before. Landcress (never grown
that before either) doesn't look quite ready otherwise I would have added it
to my salad today.

Our sweetcorn is way shorter than it normally is, and we don't seem to be
the only ones. Think we put ours in later than normal due to weather.

Spinach has been a disaster. I've sowed it three times, it either does not
come up, or comes up and bolts when only two inches high. I won't try it
again, I'll plant leefbeet.
Beetroot was also a disaster.

We haven't put any beetroot in this year, but normally it is reliable.
Zero on carrots or scorzenera, they went the same sluggy way as the beans.

Peas didn't do that well but I didn't plant enough. I know better for next
year and I will probably sow full sized peas rather than dwarf.

I thought we hadn't done enough peas, but now they're up and running they
are doing well. Surprisingly (touch wood, cover ears, etc) not a single
instances of pea moth yet!

wrote in message
...
Christina Websell wrote:
Was glad to see my brother had managed to get some horse manure and put
in
on the compost heap, there is now a mountain of weeds on top.

I'm starting to wonder if it's the horse poo that brought in so many
slugs,
as it's the thing that Nick didn't nemaslug.

I'm fairly sure I know where he got it from, it is fresh, straight from
stable to bag so shouldn't have any slugs in. Whether it will attract
slugs in the rotting down process we'll have to see.
This year we have only used chicken manure from my own hens which has rotted
down on my garden heap that contains woodash from my woodburner and weeds
from home.
When we planted the courgettes we put them on a heap of this mixed with soil
and haven't fed them at all, haven't needed to.

When I kept a horse myself, the heap of poo and straw used to get so hot
that any slugs that crept in there would have been fried.

Martin wrote:

On 8 Aug 2012 23:02:32 GMT, wrote:

I've had 1 courgette so far. 1 fell off with a rotten flower
today, and I picked a slug off one that may grow. I have a week
for them to start producing, or else this will be my first year of
no courgettes to put in the show. :-(

We have marrows too.

Same here. Managed to get a few while they were still courgettes but
they're fruiting faster than we can eat them!

This is my first proper year of growing veg (although it's just a very
small selection) and they're the only real success although I still
have hopes for the runner beans and butternut squash.

The outdoor tomatoes were an unmitigated disaster!

--
Chris

"Christina Websell" wrote


Haven't been able to get down to the lottie for over a week due to
thunderstorms and other parts of life intruding on my time.

I had to do nearly 3 hours of weeding! Managed to get a few cabbages
transplanted, intended to put the leeks out but ran out of time (and
energy). It's an open site and it was hot.

Was glad to see my brother had managed to get some horse manure and put in
on the compost heap, there is now a mountain of weeds on top.

Surprisingly, I've had very little trouble with slugs and snails, just a
bit of outside leaf damage on the lettuces.

The first courgettes have got away from us just with a week of rain and not
being picked. Stuffed marrow coming up.. every day.
Runner beans doing well. We did an experiment - my brother's beans would
have a trench dug for them filled with newspaper, chicken manure etc to be
transplanted out on top of it, and mine would be transplanted straight into
the ground with bfb scattered on top. No contest. His are romping away
and already have some beans on. Mine are doing OK, have plenty of flowers
on but are definitely not so..luxuriant.

Had my first completely homegrown salad today. New potatoes, iceberg
lettuce, cucumber and radish. Just added a tin of tuna.

I found lots of ants in the salad beds, when I weeded I kept disturbing
their nests. I was going to transplant the leeks out in there, but decided
not to as I think they might stop the leeks settling their roots down.

Sweetcorn looks OK. We've never grown it before. Landcress (never grown
that before either) doesn't look quite ready otherwise I would have added
it to my salad today.

Spinach has been a disaster. I've sowed it three times, it either does
not come up, or comes up and bolts when only two inches high. I won't try
it again, I'll plant leefbeet.
Beetroot was also a disaster.

Peas didn't do that well but I didn't plant enough. I know better for next
year and I will probably sow full sized peas rather than dwarf.


I think you chose a very difficult year to start your "allotment". I can't
remember a season so difficult for a lot of plants especially with Blight
coming so early too. From what we see only the Shallots and Onions have done
as well as usual although other things seem to have started growing normally
now the weather has normalised.
--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK

"Bob Hobden" wrote in message
...
"Christina Websell" wrote


Haven't been able to get down to the lottie for over a week due to
thunderstorms and other parts of life intruding on my time.

I had to do nearly 3 hours of weeding! Managed to get a few cabbages
transplanted, intended to put the leeks out but ran out of time (and
energy). It's an open site and it was hot.

Was glad to see my brother had managed to get some horse manure and put in
on the compost heap, there is now a mountain of weeds on top.

Surprisingly, I've had very little trouble with slugs and snails, just a
bit of outside leaf damage on the lettuces.

The first courgettes have got away from us just with a week of rain and
not being picked. Stuffed marrow coming up.. every day.
Runner beans doing well. We did an experiment - my brother's beans
would have a trench dug for them filled with newspaper, chicken manure
etc to be transplanted out on top of it, and mine would be transplanted
straight into the ground with bfb scattered on top. No contest. His are
romping away and already have some beans on. Mine are doing OK, have
plenty of flowers on but are definitely not so..luxuriant.

Had my first completely homegrown salad today. New potatoes, iceberg
lettuce, cucumber and radish. Just added a tin of tuna.

I found lots of ants in the salad beds, when I weeded I kept disturbing
their nests. I was going to transplant the leeks out in there, but
decided not to as I think they might stop the leeks settling their roots
down.

Sweetcorn looks OK. We've never grown it before. Landcress (never grown
that before either) doesn't look quite ready otherwise I would have added
it to my salad today.

Spinach has been a disaster. I've sowed it three times, it either does
not come up, or comes up and bolts when only two inches high. I won't try
it again, I'll plant leefbeet.
Beetroot was also a disaster.

Peas didn't do that well but I didn't plant enough. I know better for
next year and I will probably sow full sized peas rather than dwarf.


I think you chose a very difficult year to start your "allotment". I can't
remember a season so difficult for a lot of plants especially with Blight
coming so early too. From what we see only the Shallots and Onions have
done as well as usual although other things seem to have started growing
normally now the weather has normalised.


Normalised? Thunderstorms 2-3 times daily for 4 days last week and
localised torrential flooding and now up into the 20's?
Not normal yet.

"Christina Websell" wrote...


"Bob Hobden" wrote
"Christina Websell" wrote


Haven't been able to get down to the lottie for over a week due to
thunderstorms and other parts of life intruding on my time.

I had to do nearly 3 hours of weeding! Managed to get a few cabbages
transplanted, intended to put the leeks out but ran out of time (and
energy). It's an open site and it was hot.

Was glad to see my brother had managed to get some horse manure and put
in on the compost heap, there is now a mountain of weeds on top.

Surprisingly, I've had very little trouble with slugs and snails, just a
bit of outside leaf damage on the lettuces.

The first courgettes have got away from us just with a week of rain and
not being picked. Stuffed marrow coming up.. every day.
Runner beans doing well. We did an experiment - my brother's beans
would have a trench dug for them filled with newspaper, chicken manure
etc to be transplanted out on top of it, and mine would be transplanted
straight into the ground with bfb scattered on top. No contest. His are
romping away and already have some beans on. Mine are doing OK, have
plenty of flowers on but are definitely not so..luxuriant.

Had my first completely homegrown salad today. New potatoes, iceberg
lettuce, cucumber and radish. Just added a tin of tuna.

I found lots of ants in the salad beds, when I weeded I kept disturbing
their nests. I was going to transplant the leeks out in there, but
decided not to as I think they might stop the leeks settling their roots
down.

Sweetcorn looks OK. We've never grown it before. Landcress (never
grown that before either) doesn't look quite ready otherwise I would have
added it to my salad today.

Spinach has been a disaster. I've sowed it three times, it either does
not come up, or comes up and bolts when only two inches high. I won't
try it again, I'll plant leefbeet.
Beetroot was also a disaster.

Peas didn't do that well but I didn't plant enough. I know better for
next year and I will probably sow full sized peas rather than dwarf.


I think you chose a very difficult year to start your "allotment". I
can't remember a season so difficult for a lot of plants especially with
Blight coming so early too. From what we see only the Shallots and Onions
have done as well as usual although other things seem to have started
growing normally now the weather has normalised.


Normalised? Thunderstorms 2-3 times daily for 4 days last week and
localised torrential flooding and now up into the 20's?
Not normal yet.


Well it is here, luckily.
--
Regards. Bob Hobden.
Posted to this Newsgroup from the W of London, UK

"Bob Hobden" wrote in message
...
"Christina Websell" wrote...


"Bob Hobden" wrote
"Christina Websell" wrote


Haven't been able to get down to the lottie for over a week due to
thunderstorms and other parts of life intruding on my time.

I had to do nearly 3 hours of weeding! Managed to get a few cabbages
transplanted, intended to put the leeks out but ran out of time (and
energy). It's an open site and it was hot.

Was glad to see my brother had managed to get some horse manure and put
in on the compost heap, there is now a mountain of weeds on top.

Surprisingly, I've had very little trouble with slugs and snails, just a
bit of outside leaf damage on the lettuces.

The first courgettes have got away from us just with a week of rain and
not being picked. Stuffed marrow coming up.. every day.
Runner beans doing well. We did an experiment - my brother's beans
would have a trench dug for them filled with newspaper, chicken manure
etc to be transplanted out on top of it, and mine would be transplanted
straight into the ground with bfb scattered on top. No contest. His
are romping away and already have some beans on. Mine are doing OK,
have plenty of flowers on but are definitely not so..luxuriant.

Had my first completely homegrown salad today. New potatoes, iceberg
lettuce, cucumber and radish. Just added a tin of tuna.

I found lots of ants in the salad beds, when I weeded I kept disturbing
their nests. I was going to transplant the leeks out in there, but
decided not to as I think they might stop the leeks settling their roots
down.

Sweetcorn looks OK. We've never grown it before. Landcress (never
grown that before either) doesn't look quite ready otherwise I would
have added it to my salad today.

Spinach has been a disaster. I've sowed it three times, it either does
not come up, or comes up and bolts when only two inches high. I won't
try it again, I'll plant leefbeet.
Beetroot was also a disaster.

Peas didn't do that well but I didn't plant enough. I know better for
next year and I will probably sow full sized peas rather than dwarf.


I think you chose a very difficult year to start your "allotment". I
can't remember a season so difficult for a lot of plants especially with
Blight coming so early too. From what we see only the Shallots and
Onions have done as well as usual although other things seem to have
started growing normally now the weather has normalised.


Normalised? Thunderstorms 2-3 times daily for 4 days last week and
localised torrential flooding and now up into the 20's?
Not normal yet.


Well it is here, luckily.
--
Regards. Bob Hobden.

It's calmed down weather-wise and I have been able to pick yet more huge
courgettes to get a chance of keeping them going at a reasonable size now.
Got the first two patty pans today.
I also got a thank you e-mail from my friend. I dumped a huge ex-courgette
(round type) on her doorstep with a recipe last week. I know she will use
it.
I'm hoping now the Olympics will be over soon, my brother will be able to
help again.
He said he'd borrowed a petrol strimmer a few weeks ago but no sign of him
using it. We desperately need it to maintain the path into the plot
(nettles) which I have ineffectually had to clip with shears. I also had to
take a dangerous path up to the tap today, 50 yards away, totally overgrown
with nettles, bindweed etc. because I needed to water. It normally wouldn't
matter except I have osteoporosis (fragile bones) and if I turn my ankle
it's likely to break. I had two fractures last year. I could not stand
another one.
I cannot even clip my way down 50 yards of big bad weeds as I broke my
shoulder (osteo again) and it's not really recovered from the operation.
However, even with the awful weather and I nearly gave up, the courgettes
are more than good and the runner beans look set for brilliant.
Tina

On Thu, 9 Aug 2012 08:15:46 +0100, "Bob Hobden"
wrote:


I think you chose a very difficult year to start your "allotment". I can't

Or an easy year.
If everyone's stuff fails it's a rubbish year for growing. If it's
just you ...

My plot is stuffed with beans, courgettes and bits of stuff.
Son is fed up with beans already.

remember a season so difficult for a lot of plants especially with Blight
coming so early too. From what we see only the Shallots and Onions have done
as well as usual although other things seem to have started growing normally
now the weather has normalised.
--
http://www.voucherfreebies.co.uk

mogga wrote:
My plot is stuffed with beans, courgettes and bits of stuff.
Son is fed up with beans already.

*grumble*grumble*

I don't know /what/ is going on. Even the plots full of 6' tall weeds have
beans sticking out of the top of the weeds! But every single one of my bean
plants has been munched to skeletal and dead. :'(
My only beans this year are the ones I put in hanging baskets, and of course,
they don't get enough water to keep them happy.

You should have harvested the chickweed. :-)

"Chickweeds are Medicinal and edible, they are very nutritious, high in vitamins and minerals, can be added to salads or cooked as a pot herb, tasting somewhat like spinach. The major plant constituents in Chickweed are Ascorbic-acid, Beta-carotene, Calcium, Coumarins, Genistein, Gamma-linolenic-acid, Flavonoids, Hentriacontanol, Magnesium, Niacin, Oleic-acid, Potassium, Riboflavin, Rutin, Selenium, Triterpenoid saponins, Thiamin, and Zinc."

In article ,
Granity wrote:

You should have harvested the chickweed. :-)

"Chickweeds are Medicinal and edible, they are very nutritious, high in
vitamins and minerals, can be added to salads or cooked as a pot herb,
tasting somewhat like spinach. The major plant constituents in Chickweed
are Ascorbic-acid, Beta-carotene, Calcium, Coumarins, Genistein,
Gamma-linolenic-acid, Flavonoids, Hentriacontanol, Magnesium, Niacin,
Oleic-acid, Potassium, Riboflavin, Rutin, Selenium, Triterpenoid
saponins, Thiamin, and Zinc."

I have, and have eaten it both cooked and raw in salad. It is
better in the latter, but the operative word is "unexciting".

Where did you get that New Age mumbo-jumbo from?


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

wrote in message
...
mogga wrote:
My plot is stuffed with beans, courgettes and bits of stuff.
Son is fed up with beans already.

*grumble*grumble*

I don't know /what/ is going on. Even the plots full of 6' tall weeds
have
beans sticking out of the top of the weeds! But every single one of my
bean
plants has been munched to skeletal and dead. :'(
My only beans this year are the ones I put in hanging baskets, and of
course,
they don't get enough water to keep them happy.

I didn't know you could plant beans in hanging baskets. How does it work?

Tina

Christina Websell wrote:
I don't know /what/ is going on. Even the plots full of 6' tall weeds
have
beans sticking out of the top of the weeds! But every single one of my
bean
plants has been munched to skeletal and dead. :'(
My only beans this year are the ones I put in hanging baskets, and of
course,
they don't get enough water to keep them happy.

I didn't know you could plant beans in hanging baskets. How does it work?

You can plant anything in hanging baskets, Tina. ;-)
Whether they /thrive/ there, or crash to the ground, is a different matter.

They're ... doing ok, considering, but I don't think they are getting anywhere
near as much rain as they want. It was just a wild act of desperation - I had
spare baskets (we hang chitting potatoes in them in the spare room) and spare
liners (bought 30+ of them for 10p each in January) and a bunch of plants, but
every time we planted on the allotment, they got munched. Seemed a good idea
at the time.

Haven't had any pickable yet, but there are a fair few baby ones which /may/
be big enough for the show on Saturday. I won't be entering the Biggest Bean
competition this year, I can say that right now.

"Martin" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 14 Aug 2012 12:57:32 +0100, mogga
wrote:

On Thu, 9 Aug 2012 08:15:46 +0100, "Bob Hobden"
wrote:


I think you chose a very difficult year to start your "allotment". I
can't

Or an easy year.
If everyone's stuff fails it's a rubbish year for growing. If it's
just you ...

My plot is stuffed with beans, courgettes and bits of stuff.
Son is fed up with beans already.

and us with marrows.


remember a season so difficult for a lot of plants especially with Blight
coming so early too. From what we see only the Shallots and Onions have
done
as well as usual although other things seem to have started growing
normally
now the weather has normalised.

Our shallots were grown for pickling. They are too big to fit into a
pickles jar.

Didn't grow shallots, but the onions look very impressive.
I'm making curried courgette soup tomorrow.
Runner beans doing great, first pick the other day from the ones planted
over the water-retaining trench, the others are behind them but that will
just give us a longer season. If it works well we'll probably do the same
thing again.
My dwarf french beans were nearly destroyed by the hailstorm we had in June
(estimated 150 million quids worth of damage for the insurance companies to
mop up..) but they perked up and have a few beans on them that will be ready
to pick in 10 days or so.

Heavy rain predicted for tomorrow. An inch in a couple of hours, so they
say.

All in all, it was a very difficult start, I did get discouraged, but even
if my carrots went woody because the weather was so bad they couldn't grow
and my spinach gave up the ghost, I intend to do it again next year!
(We so seriously need a petrol strimmer or mower for the paths between the
beds and more importantly down to the tap)
It's out of our price range atm.
I geared myself up with big thick trousers and covered my arms to get down
to the tap the other day to do a little bit of watering.

It's actually a bit dangerous for me. Thank goodness the Olympics are over
so my brother might have some time off to take some share of weeding and
picking courgettes before they go wild.
I'm going to visit my aunt on Thursday and she is happy to to accept a very
big marrow ;-)

Tina