How Does Your Garden Grow?

[Onoff]

next year

I had such plans for THIS year that didn't happen!

Haven't finished the metal frame over the beans or netted it. The bean plot within the sleeper surround, never finished digging it over in the area surrounding the trench. Got cherry runners coming up in it along with clumps of grass etc...and so on.

Sweetcorn, swede and I think it was peas I also got are still all in the packet.

I need to get into a rhythm maybe, a little bit each night etc.

 

[addjunkie]

I had such plans for THIS year that didn't happen!

Haven't finished the metal frame over the beans or netted it. The bean plot within the sleeper surround, never finished digging it over in the area surrounding the trench. Got cherry runners coming up in it along with clumps of grass etc...and so on.

Sweetcorn, swede and I think it was peas I also got are still all in the packet.

I need to get into a rhythm maybe, a little bit each night etc.

Gardening “properly” is very very time consuming. And digging and weeding tedious too. The downside to gardening if you like.
We are considering filling our raised beds with wild flowers, laying grass between them, and setting a robot lawn mower away. And just grow in the green house

 

[Seadog]

you just need to tap each flowering cluster stem around 07 45 till midday . (

I'm not sure that I could be bothered standing there for that long

 

[DAPPH]

I had such plans for THIS year that didn't happen!

Haven't finished the metal frame over the beans or netted it. The bean plot within the sleeper surround, never finished digging it over in the area surrounding the trench. Got cherry runners coming up in it along with clumps of grass etc...and so on.

Sweetcorn, swede and I think it was peas I also got are still all in the packet.

I need to get into a rhythm maybe, a little bit each night etc.

Draw a up planner and stick to it . I'll send you a blank one and an old filled in one if you like . That way you can plan precisely successional sowing and know when to harvest things so you can have very garden fresh veg for most of the year . If for any reason you mis or are late in sowing you'll see it at a glance and can have it rectified in a day .

I spend about three hours one evening a year in November drawing up the new seasons planner , plus my annual garden map plan & ordering any new seeds

 

[DAPPH]

I'm not sure that I could be bothered standing there for that long

Your allowed toilet & tea breaks .

 

[Onoff]

I'll send you a blank one and an old filled in one if you like

Please don't!

 

[redlig]

Your allowed toilet & tea breaks .

Just be careful where you wee.

 

[Onoff]

Your allowed toilet & tea breaks .

Allegedly, as dusk falls, to save going indoors, some gardeners take a crafty "top up" in the nettle fertiliser bucket...

 

[MattF]

Gardening “properly” is very very time consuming. And digging and weeding tedious too. The downside to gardening if you like.
We are considering filling our raised beds with wild flowers, laying grass between them, and setting a robot lawn mower away. And just grow in the green house

That's why I only do the grunt type work of the gardening at home. The beds, I stay well clear of, whenever possible.

 

[droopsnoot]

Brought all my tomato and pepper plants out of the greenhouse this morning as it was raining gently and I thought it would do them good. Turns out, that's a good way to stop the rain. Left them out all morning and it's stayed dry, so I've brought them all back inside.

My tomatoes have a few on the plants, but they're very small and don't look like they'll get any bigger. Oh well, they're OK for a first go.

 

[DAPPH]

My greenhouse toms are well loaded , got about 10 almost ready to pick.... We just love the taste of our naturally ripened home grown toms , With luck the plants will keep flowering & producing till the first hard frost then we'll pick everything & clear the glass house.

Last year we had three kitchen trays of decent sized green need to be ripened toms on the window cills . Several pounds of the green tomatoes were used fried in Mexican type dishes .

The last tom to fully ripen to a good red colour was in mid January this year & used in a stew .

 

[JimmyS]

Can't best home grown tomatoes, hasn't been a great year with us on the tomato front qty wise though.

 

[droopsnoot]

I think my mistake was not nipping the shoots out to keep the plants from getting too tall - I've got some quite tall plants but without many leaves in the lower sections as these are falling off quite regularly. That's another thing I'll try to remember for next year.

 

[DAPPH]

I think my mistake was not nipping the shoots out to keep the plants from getting too tall - I've got some quite tall plants but without many leaves in the lower sections as these are falling off quite regularly. That's another thing I'll try to remember for next year.

Sounds like a lack if watering twice a day & not giving 1/2 a litre of diluted Tomorite feed every third day .

It could also be that you plants got too hot so are dropping leaves to prevent transpiration of valuable moisture .

I've had the roof & sun facing sides of the glasshouse sprayed with white greenhouse e shading since early July , the two top auto opening vent are fully opened most days .
I've also given the slabbed floor a three minute mid day cooling water spray to stop things getting too dry , hot & out of control . The doors are six inches wide open most of the day then closed to 2 inches at night so helping to keep blight at bay , plants 24 inches apart as well to help keep blight down .

 

[Onoff]

Tomorite

Bought some and used it once. Got two plants, in pots. Could explain the lack of success. Here holding my plums:

Also, why the split in this one?

 

[Cobbler]

Allegedly, as dusk falls, to save going indoors, some gardeners take a crafty "top up" in the nettle fertiliser bucket...

My father used to pee on the compost heap, no idea whether it was for his well being or the health of the heap!

 

[slim_boy_fat]

One of my neighbours gives me carte blanche to help myself to tomatoes from his greenhouse whenever I want! Good folk around here...

 

[droopsnoot]

Sounds like a lack if watering twice a day & not giving 1/2 a litre of diluted Tomorite feed every third day .

It could also be that you plants got too hot so are dropping leaves to prevent transpiration of valuable moisture .

I've had the roof & sun facing sides of the glasshouse sprayed with white greenhouse e shading since early July , the two top auto opening vent are fully opened most days .
I've also given the slabbed floor a three minute mid day cooling water spray to stop things getting too dry , hot & out of control . The doors are six inches wide open most of the day then closed to 2 inches at night so helping to keep blight at bay , plants 24 inches apart as well to help keep blight down .

Very possibly - I haven't been sure about how often they need to be watered, and was also trying to avoid watering them too much. I haven't been giving them food quite as often - just once a week (because I didn't read the packet properly) and I forgot for a few weeks. The plants are getting very warm in the afternoons as they sit in a greenhouse on the back of the house, and the sun comes around there from just after lunch and stays there until early evening. Unfortunately that's also the time I'm out, so quite often I'd get back around 5pm to find them quite badly wilted, so would give them some more water.

The greenhouse they're in is a lean-to on the back of the house. The glass roof panels were replaced by sheets of opaque glazing sheet a few years back, so there's some shade but unfortunately the roof opening isn't there any more. I want to put it back to glass when I can, but because the structure isn't square (it was installed on a concrete base that slopes away from the house slightly) I also want to strip all the glass out, square it up, and then re-glaze it. Because that's a big job, and requires all the junk to be emptied out, it won't be happening soon. Plants 24" apart? No chance. And if I transfer some to the other greenhouse, I'll probably forget to water them. But that also needs clearing out - it's been used as a junk store for ages and it's taking time to sort it. Lots of plastic things in there just drop to pieces when I touch them, and there's a wild sweet pea growing around the inside.

I'll try to remember all these things for next year, if I grow some more. Thanks for the notes.

 

[DAPPH]

Bought some and used it once. Got two plants, in pots. Could explain the lack of success. Here holding my plums:

View attachment 360048

Also, why the split in this one?


View attachment 360049

Curled shriveling , yellowing , leaves & the split tom definitely mean not enough water & liquid feed , then you have watered them so ther is a spurt of growth onthe tomato ,. The dead leaves won't recover much but ther will be alot of new ones . the plants really ought to be in a 16 inch dia x 16 inch tall drainable container or a grow bag per plant

. They could be rescued if your repotting today or tomorrow .

The big plant in the top left of the top photo that has two decent sized toms on it , to the left of the toms there is a thinnish long stalk coming out the fork off the main stem .. nip those suckers out as they will rob the plant of nutrients as it becomes a new branch that will eventually bear flowers and perhaps some tomatoes before the growing
season is over .

 

[DAPPH]

My father used to pee on the compost heap, no idea whether it was for his well being or the health of the heap!

Both ...pee is best dilute with 20 parts water as it's high in nitrogen ( & phosphates ? ).