General Chat

my potatoes looking good, salad leaves got slugged too courgettes look frail, carrots doing well sweetcorn on the move, i have brought stuff out of my pollytunnel so hope frost has gone x

Well we were sooo pleased to have brought the sun back with us but it is so hot in the garden that I couldn't manage long out there.
It was a jungle when we got home (last night) and today OH has been working hard out there. I managed half an hour but that was after unpacking and putting away and washing etc. Once the lawn was cut it looked better but we were taken over by aquilegia (which I love but which have gone mad, and a very tall geranium, quite pretty if you have a large garden but a thug if you haven't. We thought we had eradicated it from thge garden but obviously weren't here to pull up the seedlings as they grew. Have got rid of a lot and the beds look better now.

Veg in containers, potatoes look to be doing well, carrots, spinach and salad leaves are all thriving. spring onions and french beans don't look too good and the courgettes have not materialised (or did and got slugged). Tumbler tomatoes in baskets obviously didn't thrive in the early cold weather so hope they move along a bit now.

Hosta bed looks good as do the climbing roses and clematis. :-D

Its really interesting to hear how we are all going with our veg, but obviously it varies across the country.

Can recommend the potato bags/sacks this is our 3rd year of using them and hope that the crop will be as good. Have four different tubers on the go, so should have potatoes till November hopefully.

This year they recommend filling the bag a third, putting in chitted tubers, then cover them then put in 4 more, then filling up to the top, unlike other years when they suggest filling up as the growth appears. So watch this space, I will let you know if it works !! Now have good runners growing, French beans don't look so good, and the onions are romping away. Also the leeks, broad beans and the carrots, with staggered growing are coming along nicely. The strawberries have lots of flowers and some have fruits coming....here in sunny Norfolk !! It is sunny but sooooooo cold in the wind and shade. Fed up with it now, had to put on heating again tonight for an hour, just to keep the cold off UGh

Jan

STOLEN never
i repotted them for you and put in the green house to grow on lol :-P

someones been n stolen some of my seddlings :-0 wonder who it was ;-)

Oh where do all the weeds come from?

Julia thank you for the information on chard, I hope pinching out the young leaves works for you.



Edit
Just remembered I saw the dreaded red lily beetle today.
:-(

Thank you for that badger.

When it stops raining one of these days, I'll get out there and do that.
Your potatoes at Christmas time sound great.

Gwyn

soon as the leaves grow a few inches ,bring up the ridges,then leave them until the flowers fade ,and the leaves start to turn brown.
If you wish ,you can leave the potatoes in until late November before lifting.
Mine ,grown in compost bins i lift Christmas week for lovely new potatoes the following week :-D

Just calling in to say that thanks to Fred's advice, the potatoes seem to be going great guns, with lots of healthy leaf growth showing.
I hope they're doing as well underground............

How soon do I need to rake those ridges up, that I remember Dad doing?

Gwyn

Thanks Merlin, I will have a look at their website. :-)

BC. I use Roseclear, it works ok but I tend to now buy David Austin ones which are bred to be Desease free. other than that ,get in touch with David AustinSite.they should give you a better cure. for it.**M**

Thank you Rose...the dreaded Black Spot eh? I shall have a look at that website and maybe Fred or Merlin can suggest applying dried lizard skins or summat! BC XX <3

BC sounds like Black Spot and Merlin is the one you need lol. Some roses breeds are more prone to it than others, you need to keep air circulating round ( so it doesn't get too humid) and remove all affected leaves.

some ideas for treating here
http://voices.yahoo.com/gardening-tips-treating-black-spot-6251006.html

But have to say one beautiful rose I had was always the same, it was in the wrong place but too large to move, the scent was glorious though :-D

Morning all:-) This year, I bought two climbing roses, one is really thriving and thrusting and the other looked listless from the beginning. It now has a black mould on some of the leaves What can I do or should I discard and get another?.

All suggestions no matter how bizarre (where is that Merlin? :-D) will be considered. Thank you :-) <3

i found two packs of old american pea seeds well out of date 09
i planted them behind my broads beans exspecting nothing to grow
while checking my broaded beans
whoo hoo i find they have germinated and are about 7 inches high


so dont throw away old seeds try them out like i did

Lesley, I too had to come in whilst I could still walk.
Chard is usually grown as a veg., in the ground. You can eat the leaves and the stalks, but cooked separate. They do grow rather large, so you will need plenty of ground space. You can also get the seed for Ruby Chard, where the stems grow red.
I have some plants that the OH is taking down to the allotment, but I am keeping a few back so I can grow them in my salad bar, and pinching the leaves out whilst they are young.
I'll try anything once.

Julia in Derbyshire

I've just come in from gardening and I don't know how to walk, overdone it again having a cup of tea then a nice soak in the bath I think.

Lorraine camellia's need plenty of water through the summer otherwise the flowers don't set.

StrayKitten I feel for you it's so disappointing when seeds don't germinate.

Julia I've never seen rainbow chard so I Googled it, love the colours so will try growing some.

Fred down south :-D hope you've got your suncream with you.

Hello to everyone else hope your enjoying this glourious gardening weather.
:-) :-) :-)

lots of my seeds havent grew :-( lots of lettuces have tho, and radishes, so im guna use the spare pots tht havent seeded, to split what has, n take them into work for the littuns to care for n grow, then eat :-D

the big pots have grew, but, cant remeber what i put in them so will have to wait a few month, to see if there flowers or food lololol

Puss, what is wrong with the leaves of your camellia, have they black residue, like soot. If so, then it is a parasite, which you can only get rid of by wiping it off with white spirit...mine had this and now looks great...


Jan

Thanks Badger for the tips. But they have been well started already. We're used to rearing seeds in the greenhouse when there is still snow on the ground, and you don't want to leave to cosy house an walk out in it.
We have been allotmenting for years. Mind you, I can still appreciate a good tip or two.

Again, Many Thanks

Julia in Derbyshire