How Does Your Garden Grow?

[MattF]

I spend most of my time cutting back a few buddleia bushes, I cut all the flowers off once they'd gone brown and the bees had finished with them and I noticed I've got new flowers on them now.

The bees are already pouncing on this one. I'm surprised it's flowered, so young.

 

[aesmith]

We're hitting a sweetcorn glut now. We planted a bunch all at the same time, now surprise they're ripening at the same time. Are they any good frozen?

Sweetcorn's gone from boom to bust. She found the cobs crawling with beasties under the wrappings, lots of black debris and stick residue. Not wanting a pest repository in the tunnel we pulled them all outside. Then the weather turned cold so we decided to salvage what we could, eating a few and stuffing the rest in the freezer.

 

[Seadog]

A neighbour's cyclamen. It seems tgat it can't wait to be planted.

 

[RaceDiagnostics]

Dug up/brought in this lot up from the garden today to be overwintered in the porch. Possible frost forecast over the next few days.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

Possible frost forecast over the next few days.

Quite possible, we had a bitterly cold wind today, if that abates overnight then frost is a distinct possibility - the only benefit would be it might arrest grass growth.

 

[mrsbruce]

Well, the last of the tomatoes have been picked, the final cucumber, and yet another courgette the size of a marrow magically appeared on the ‘dead’ plant.

Massive crop of tomatoes has been turned into the ‘makings’ for pasta sauce, eaten, given to family, friends, and handed into my local post office. I still have about 6 x 1 litre containers of raw, part, and fully cooked tomatoes in the freezer. Fair amount of carrots, onions, leeks, and a smattering of strawberries.

All in all, a good growing year.

 

[Onoff]

I was a month late planting my butternut squash. Never mind, this is all I managed, forming part of tonight's dinner! Hunter variety I think they were.

 

[Onoff]

Best butternut squash we've ever eaten, absolutely delicious.

 

[DanZac]

Best butternut squash we've ever eaten, absolutely delicious.

I love a butternut squash instead of a jacket potato.
Cut it into quarters, drizzle with a bit of oil, salt and pepper and a few chilli flakes and pop it in the oven for 40 minutes then serve with beans and cheese or chilli.
In my opinion they're miles tastier than a jacket potato and really easy to grow.

 

[DAPPH]

Took all the outside toms off the 30 litre tubs no wonder they didn't perform. Early in spring we purchased 20 bags of supposedly composted farm yard manure and 15 100 litre bales of peat free compost from a well know garden centre to replenishes or fill some of the 250 of square foot veg & flower beds , 6 x 16 inch hanging baskets and 18 x 30 litre tubs , a few hundred pant pots , plus 600 off 75mm long x 42 mm dia bottomless seed tubes for growing all manner of things from seed for flowers & some veg . None of the tubbed crops had any decent developed root ball on them , it seems that the amount of pulped wood products in the bags & bales is over 40 % & that the recycled composted greenery in them is liable to have hormonal weed killer in it which takes years to dissipate .

So fed up with this sort of cheating by the big boys I've just taken delivery of 15 x 100 litres of best Irish sphagnum moss peat , I've also got a friend with a 25 acre small holding he's giving/bringing me FOC 25 large poly prop feed sacks of four year old composted beddings & dungs from :- pigs , sheep in the lambing pens , over wintered cattle , chickens, geese ,ducks, goats & lama beans . I'll also be using the three year old home made compost I've got stored in five of the Dalek compost bins to reset the gardens and tubs for next years crops , that need a strong manured base .

Tip
I didnt do my usual testing of the batches of growth medium by sowing a few peas that had beed soaked in clean water for 24 hrs then potted up in the growth medium then grown on a warm but not sunny window cill .

If you can't grow peas in the medium you won't grow much else either.

 

[Onoff]

really easy to grow.

Mine were a slug/snail magnet.

 

[mrsbruce]

Gearing up for the growing season again. Well, finally cleared the dead plants out of the greenhouse.

My fridge freezer died on me at the beginning of last week, and after a bit of a google, I now have a double raised, insulated garden bed, and a new fridge freezer. Ok, I admit, the main incentive for the build was really the disposal cost.

Stripped out the innards, and added a bit of metal roofing on the outside, in an attempt to disguise its origins. Will build a frame and netting to keep the slugs out, and plant carrots, onions, and maybe a courgette plant. Not entirely decided yet.

 

[aesmith]

Are you arranging some sort of drainage?

 

[aesmith]

Are you arranging some sort of drainage?

 

[oldbikedavey]

Are you arranging some sort of drainage?

No drainage equals no aeration for anything to root into....
Apart from waterlilies and the like, that is....

 

[slim_boy_fat]

Was forced to give the grass its first cut today, it's been growing like stuff possessed since the wet and mild spells started. Only a 'top off' with one spacer on the Flymo, I'll give it a second going over with an extra spacer fitted in a few days, weather permitting. Looking a good bit tidier now.

 

[mrsbruce]

Are you arranging some sort of drainage?

I used a high tech drainage device (big drill), and everything drains nicely. The bottom has large chunks of polystyrene in it, plus ripped up cardboard, which is s new technique for me. I usually go with a mix of rubble and gravel,then some cut up branches, then soil/compost.

 

[premmington]

It is with some "shame" I post these photos of my 92yr old Dad's lawn - cuttings left down and edged with weedkiller.

Dad used to have a lawn like a bowling green - Web roller mower - hand edged - weeded and fed with sand and top soil.

I not going to heaven for this - Honda petrol rotary mower over it - wheels up and cuttings left down on a wet day - edged with weed killer - shame on me...

 

[redlig]

It is with some "shame" I post these photos of my 92yr old Dad's lawn - cuttings left down and edged with weedkiller.

Dad used to have a lawn like a bowling green - Web roller mower - hand edged - weeded and fed with sand and top soil.

I not going to heaven for this - Honda petrol rotary mower over it - wheels up and cuttings left down on a wet day - edged with weed killer - shame on me...

View attachment 443017 View attachment 443018 View attachment 443019 View attachment 443020

It's green what more do you want?

 

[slim_boy_fat]

It is with some "shame" I post these photos of my 92yr old Dad's lawn - cuttings left down and edged with weedkiller.

Don't feel bad, at least you've done it. Keeping it like your Dad did can be very hard work and time-consuming (don't ask me how I know).