How Does Your Garden Grow

[HappyLad]

Brought the propagator in yesterday and left it on the kitchen windowsill. It had been in the little greenhouse thing.

I'm just hoping that we haven't over watered them and the seeds have rotted - I guess I'll give them another week or so

My beans are coming on well also - they have shot up.

Potatoes and corriander are coming on well too.

Also got a few tubs of flowers, lupins, daisy's and stuff - they are all sprouting too

[Tamiyacowboy]

Brought the propagator in yesterday and left it on the kitchen windowsill. It had been in the little greenhouse thing.

I'm just hoping that we haven't over watered them and the seeds have rotted - I guess I'll give them another week or so

My beans are coming on well also - they have shot up.

Potatoes and corriander are coming on well too.

Also got a few tubs of flowers, lupins, daisy's and stuff - they are all sprouting too

is not to late buddy if they dont come up holler me your addy again and i will quickmail them to you, what did not shoot buddy ?

yeah the beans are awesome, have a very nice taste and sweet flavour, when young are a very nice fingerfood for the litte ones. nic e the tattys going well and corri, i forgot to throw you some basil and parsley

[Tamiyacowboy]

21st April year 2011

April showers is the saying but the weather is not. been bone dry here in on the east coast in norfolk . the last 5 days been baking heat up in the 20's.

the baby dwarf beans have come on very well and have now shown the first flowers, but are yet to be placed into the ground. my second batch of flowers have shown on my strawberry plants, it was nice to eat the first fruits. very tarte and flavoursome,they would make a mean strawberry tarte or jam, but eating wise they require a good dunk in the sugar bowl.

my largest tomato plant at around 7-8 inch high has its first flower set showing to.

the herbs have gone interstella , i threw a few seeds into a couple of pots. and now have around 9 basil plants and 8 parsley plants, these all are crouding out my poor windowsill.

The not so Green house :

so the kingfisher greenhouse did work a little and now in my third growing season ( 3rd year) i really could do with it being covered.

money wise i am broke so some crafty asking i have sourced some industrial Polytunnel covering , just need some pipe foam and some copper pipe wall fitting attachments and i can start the new build.

A greenhouse pretending to be a polytunnel, gone is the zip up tie back plastic door and in with a timber framed door. a timber framed base plate sunk 2ft deep make from railway sleepers and the greenhouse installed over the top of the timber framing. pipe foam will allow the covering to sit nice and have an even spread stopping it rubbing on the steel frame and tearing.

i have also thought about a heatsink box inside the greenhouse to keep it warm running from a 12v gelpack cell over the winters and allowing seedlings to be grown over the harsh winter period.

The dwarf beans have become trifids and have started to flower up, i have decided that 7 plants is not enough for eating and gaining new beans to plant next year. so i am going to start planting beans out every three weeks till the end of june at least.

the past two years my pea plants have failed, they came up and gave very little pods, or just withered and died back. this year i have come back with a new idea, this i hope will stop my rotting problems and give me bumper crops all round.

homemade underground watering:

you need a one or two litre fizzy pop bottle, and either a waste water pipe or a slimline drain pipe. a couple drill bits and drill.

first of we will cut the pipe to around the length of the bed and block both ends to the pipe. next we dril a few holes along the length of the pipe, this will become the underside.

next we make a large hole opposite the smaller drainage holes, just big enough so when bottle cap is removed we can screw this in the hole we made, this becomes the inlet.

now we sink this into our bed towards the rear of the bed where the bottle can be hidden, also deep enough so once we cut the bottle base off it sits a inch above the soil. the base from the bottle can be turned upside down and slide into the bottle to stop becoming blocked with snail's slugs and other things.

you also save water by placing it where the plants need at the roots and less waste from evaporating. having drainage holes on the bottom side of the pipe means less blockage.

Edited April 22, 2011 by Tamiyacowboy

[HootMaRoot]

lucky for some only started planting the last couple of weeks now, and my strawberrys have just started showing the signs of growth. have only just planted my oinions/leeks and salad veg.

but i am a little bit lazy and buy most of my veg that has been started of buy others @ the local market, plus i only have 2 small coldframes and not much space in them for a lot of trays. with any luck will be geting sprouts/cabbage/cauliflower next weekend and then get planting them along with a few carrots. also hoping to get a guy up the road to turn some ground for me so i can get the potatoes into the ground asap

[HappyLad]

Now got tomato's and cucumbers sprouting

The potatoes are growing v.quickly, the early crop especially. The potato planter bags I'm using are nearly full - I seem to have been covering the plants every other day, they are growing so quick.

Think I'm going to plant out the bean this week. I've got some netting for them to climb, just need to put some bamboo poles in and fix the netting up.

Because the tomato seeds didn't seem to be coming on, we got half a dozen plants from B&Q the other day. Probably going to plant them out in grow bags this week also.

Hope the weather stays like it has been over the last week or so - really making the plants grow

[Tamiyacowboy]

Is really nice to see everyone growing their own now, makes a big change in the wallet and gets us out and about.

beans should be fine to go out happylad. i will send you some more tomato seeds near the end of season, same goes with hoots i think the smaller bush type may be more productive up on storn

hoot dont worry about planting out now, the soil should be getting nice and warm, you may want to keep an eye out for any heavy winds. strawberrys will just do there thing, out of 5 plants i grown from seed last august only two have flowered and produced fruit. the other three have been planted out between my basil

the thing i cannot wait for is june onwards when we all start filling the topic with our harvest pictures. and also around october this time i should have pictures of my melon grown on my windowsil.

if your thinking of growing melons get the seeds in now and on the windowsill the temp is just right for gemination

[HappyLad]

I planted the melon seed you sent a couple of week back - they've germinated and are coming on well. I've got them in the plastic greenhouse.

It seems to have taken a long time.... but we now have tomato plants growing from the seeds also. Cheers bud :good:

I continue to be amazed at how quick the tato's are growing. I earthed these over on Sat night, so 2 days growth

[Tamiyacowboy]

I planted the melon seed you sent a couple of week back - they've germinated and are coming on well. I've got them in the plastic greenhouse.

It seems to have taken a long time.... but we now have tomato plants growing from the seeds also. Cheers bud :good:

I continue to be amazed at how quick the tato's are growing. I earthed these over on Sat night, so 2 days growth

looking great there happylad lets hope they fill with some nice tattys.

glad the tom's came up, mine are small but coming on well. i planted some more beans up to crop for beans next year. my single sweet pepper is growing but very slowly.

yup my tattys a little smaller than your heads i have not earthed them yet i need to build up some more compost reserves. i still have half a 5ft windowsill worths of plants to get into the garden.

weather says going to be cooler in the south east - east and some sunshine for midlands and north

[Tamiyacowboy]

May 2nd 2011

so here is the month of may.

the cucumber lasted two days outside and died. the beans have grown well and first flowers abound. peas have sprouted i mean wow they have sprouted and not rotted in the ground ( thanks tesco's and bigga peas ). basil is in the garden looking nice and i have 4 plants on the kitchen window close to hand, these are growing very well and looking like a mid may basil harvest.

two Moneymaker tomato plants are outside and not under cover, both have done fairly well and put on growth, one is 2ft high and already showing flowers early. strawberry plants are outside and already showing flower spikes. two strawberrys indoors are producing fruit and also more flowers and flower spikes.

My honeydew melon seed popped and sprouted this shall be grown indoors on a south facing windowsill.

a friend of a friends friend gave me some more tomato plants, to be exact some lovely cherry salad tomatos. just one large problem where does one put fourty tomato plants ? i now have a jungle for a windowsill.

other news, i been busy with conservation work and next week on a large'ish bio survey. been busy on the course allotment pulling parsnips and pinching some rubarb ( and apple with custard ), have got a new Dslr camera and getting to hands with it, so expect some better pictures to

also has some other ideas, marrigolds for compainion planting and some radish's, broadbeans , rubarb and some sort of berry bush.

[SatNav]

Changing from the subject of veggies to sunflowers could someone tell me what comes along at night and eats the seedlings first leaf leaving a bare stem ? Also as mad as it sounds this only happens in the greenhouse and never the sunflowers growing in the soil. I'm hoping for a nice display this year using three types of sunflowers but this problem always thwarts me at the first post.

Thanks

Brett

[Tamiyacowboy]

Changing from the subject of veggies to sunflowers could someone tell me what comes along at night and eats the seedlings first leaf leaving a bare stem ? Also as mad as it sounds this only happens in the greenhouse and never the sunflowers growing in the soil. I'm hoping for a nice display this year using three types of sunflowers but this problem always thwarts me at the first post.

Thanks

Brett

slugs and/or snails are your main target.

upto you on method to rid them from your GH. best way is pop out late'ish evening and have a look around, pick those you find and send them on thier way.

outside i tend to use a copper band around the top of my raised beds, snails and slugs will not cross over the copper barrier.

or craft a nice largish pestel and mort, place a few dried up eggshells in and pound them to a fine texture, sprinkle this dust around the pots and top soils, will soon bung up the slugs an snails. check every nook and cranny hole everywhere top to bottom and length an width, under slabs pots trays. more you remove now less in the summer

Edited May 3, 2011 by Tamiyacowboy

[Tamiyacowboy]

THIS IS WAR

so i get up this morning to check on my fine raised beds.

open the backdoor leading to garden and notice some mounding in my plots.

god damn *Censored *censored*censored censored censored* CAT.

in a very loud angry voice, more a loud shout i thought was in my head, i said outloud " i am going to kill your *censored* cat's !!

yes these stupid four legged retarded animals have dug up and killed all my pea plants and my 8 bean plants, also sprayed all my strawberry plants, for the past 2 years i been holding my breath now i dont care.

springy whipping canes have been set in a style that pressure will set them off to spring and hit anything in that area. if these moggys dont learn fast i have a pocket full of rice grains and a blackwidow slingshot, the worse thing they was the last of my bean plants and was needed to carry on next years seed season.

yes most think this is cruel, try putting your hand in the kitty litter tray and give it a good squeeze in your hands, then tell me if its nice, i guess not right, my godson helps around garden and cats have stuffs in thier poop that can make you blind. or maybe watch the local yobs trawl up you nice garden flowers you spent all spring feeding up ad planting out !!. if you own cats train them !!

now if these moggys dont learn they will be meeting zeus the boxer dog, he trys to eat cats, if not i shall give the RSPCA a call, most of the moggs round here have not even been snipped

Edited May 7, 2011 by Tamiyacowboy

[rob_b88]

THIS IS WAR

so i get up this morning to check on my fine raised beds.

open the backdoor leading to garden and notice some mounding in my plots.

god damn *Censored *censored*censored censored censored* CAT.

in a very loud angry voice, more a loud shout i thought was in my head, i said outloud " i am going to kill your *censored* cat's !!

yes these stupid four legged retarded animals have dug up and killed all my pea plants and my 8 bean plants, also sprayed all my strawberry plants, for the past 2 years i been holding my breath now i dont care.

springy whipping canes have been set in a style that pressure will set them off to spring and hit anything in that area. if these moggys dont learn fast i have a pocket full of rice grains and a blackwidow slingshot, the worse thing they was the last of my bean plants and was needed to carry on next years seed season.

yes most think this is cruel, try putting your hand in the kitty litter tray and give it a good squeeze in your hands, then tell me if its nice, i guess not right, my godson helps around garden and cats have stuffs in thier poop that can make you blind. or maybe watch the local yobs trawl up you nice garden flowers you spent all spring feeding up ad planting out !!. if you own cats train them !!

now if these moggys dont learn they will be meeting zeus the boxer dog, he trys to eat cats, if not i shall give the RSPCA a call, most of the moggs round here have not even been snipped

I know the feeling, I have the same problem with next doors chav cat. I have a couple of ultrasonic deterrents (Like these)that worked, but the cat went deaf (too much chav BnD). Have now got a water squirter (Like this), that has worked a treat ) Cats do not like water (or bags with bricks in... cough, or shot guns.... cough cough)

Anyhow my progress to date this year:-

Courgettes - Put out too early and hit by the frost, not dead but not looking too well

Tomatoes - Going very well. Need to clear the greenhouse of non-hardy annuals and get them properly going. Trying some trailing hanging basket types this year aswell.

Onions and garlic - Going very well (except the ones the girlfriend put in upside down)

Peppers - Also going well under glass, about ready to pot on.

Cucumbers - Plants doing well, but need to get into grow-bags

Beetroot - Outside after being set-off in greenhouse, doing well.

Carrots - Just braking through.

Spuds - need to earth up, but growing well (reduced number this year and limited to containers after poor harvests the last 2 years)

Strawberry (in pots)- Have done well for being over-wintered in the greenhouse. On second crop of alpines and main-crop are fruiting well. Will be a shame to kick them outside, but need to make room for the tomatoes.

Lettuce - Have started to recover from the great drought (forgot to water them for a few weeks). Fortunately they have not bolted. The plants in the garden seem to have missed the frost, so all good.

Runner Beans, Sweetcorn, fennel, spinach - Will grow better if I get the seeds out of the packet.

[Tamiyacowboy]

I know the feeling, I have the same problem with next doors chav cat. I have a couple of ultrasonic deterrents (Like these)that worked, but the cat went deaf (too much chav BnD). Have now got a water squirter (Like this), that has worked a treat ) Cats do not like water (or bags with bricks in... cough, or shot guns.... cough cough)

Anyhow my progress to date this year:-

Courgettes - Put out too early and hit by the frost, not dead but not looking too well

Tomatoes - Going very well. Need to clear the greenhouse of non-hardy annuals and get them properly going. Trying some trailing hanging basket types this year aswell.

Onions and garlic - Going very well (except the ones the girlfriend put in upside down)

Peppers - Also going well under glass, about ready to pot on.

Cucumbers - Plants doing well, but need to get into grow-bags

Beetroot - Outside after being set-off in greenhouse, doing well.

Carrots - Just braking through.

Spuds - need to earth up, but growing well (reduced number this year and limited to containers after poor harvests the last 2 years)

Strawberry (in pots)- Have done well for being over-wintered in the greenhouse. On second crop of alpines and main-crop are fruiting well. Will be a shame to kick them outside, but need to make room for the tomatoes.

Lettuce - Have started to recover from the great drought (forgot to water them for a few weeks). Fortunately they have not bolted. The plants in the garden seem to have missed the frost, so all good.

Runner Beans, Sweetcorn, fennel, spinach - Will grow better if I get the seeds out of the packet.

sweet rob.

yes i had some coldish drops in temps, the basil and cucumbers hit the worse and have gone to the great compost god. potato's not looking good, they caught the cold to fingers crossed they produce new leaf. rhubarb has bolted flowers. i chopped them down last week on allotment i work on, so maybe a chance to grab some root stock for myself.

more tomato's , and i mean more tomato's enough god damn tomatos to start a salad bar lol. i had around 40 given to me , then another 15 or so, then yesterday another 40 plants. just cannot give them away at the moment and i am stuck for space ( growing space in garden). so yes around 60-80 tomato plants given to me over 3 days.

i have seeds in the packs still what one does not see will not hurt lol

just one small problem. i planted the wrong bloody pepper plants lol. bell peppers and not cayenne

[Tamiyacowboy]

Twas the night Before :

an aging TC was remembering back to the time of RC drifting and how he still had his 6-ft length of PVC tube used as drift rims on 1/10th scale,

Cut to today :

home made G.I.U ( garden irigation unit )is ready for testing , version one is rough as a cats tongue but hopefully works. just planted out the onions , lettuce , tomato's , tomato's type 2, tomato's type 3, and installed a state of the art caveman style irigation unit.

used an old cheap drain pipe, a few holes drilled into it and a 2 litre fizzy pop bottle connected. watering is via the bottle to feed into the drain pipe burried into the raised bed. i fill till the bottle is full then allow to drain with gravity. this allows roots to get water where needed and not waste any to evaporation, i also thought i could connect up to a water butt or two with a Y connector feeding to the drainpipe/ waste pipe irigation.

would need a flow meter connected to show roughly the rate water is drained, do not want to drain the water holders dry and have a scorching summer, Good news we just had some rain in Norfolk, only a few showers but very much needed.

[Tamiyacowboy]

have now got all the tomato's into the raised beds, i have around 30+ plants i would say, mostly small yellow/red cherry toms and a good splash of some spanish type for sun drying. should be fun when i harvest them have to hang the whole plant upside down in cool sunny area

so as well as gardening i also enjoy cooking what i grow. i am no wheat farmer but i do love museli as a breakfast and as a snack, so here is my museli flapjack recipe

12 OZ museli ( fruit/ nut what ever you fancy here )

6 OZ Brown sugar

4 OZ golden syrup

6 OZ marg

heat the sugar , marg and syrup in a largish saucepan, do not allow mix to boil, mix very well until it becomes a thin'ish dark liquid.

pre heat your Oven to Gas mark 4, and grease a nice deep metal tray.

mix your museli into the liquid mixture and stir well until fully coated, then transfer into your tray use the back of a spoon dipped in boiling water to help mixture into each corner of tin and nice and flat.

place into the oven on the middle shelf for around 30-40 mins.

when a nice golden brown remove from oven and with a warm wet knife cut into bite size sticks and leave to cool.

enjoy !!

Edited May 14, 2011 by Tamiyacowboy

[SatNav]

Anyone here grow grape vines ?

[Tamiyacowboy]

Anyone here grow grape vines ?

how can we help Archer.

at the mo i have a honeydew melon growing on my windowsill and am waiting delivery of my grape root stock.

i have been taking my knowledge from HERE

[SatNav]

Hi Tamiya, I was just wondering how long they take to fruit properly. I planted mine back in 2009 and it grew its first grapes last year but for some reason they failed at the last hurdle and the grapes died off, Is there any reason for this ? Also what positions best as I may have it in the wrong place, I have trained it onto trellis against the fence rather than over head in a green house.

Thanks

Brett

[Tamiyacowboy]

your really looking for a south facing plot - area, this is bathed in sunlight most of the day if not all the day.

next is soil, grape plants will rot so the reason they are grown on slopes. you need a well draining soil and good compost mixed in to help retain some water but not to much.

test the soil to for it's PH level.

you can also do a fairly simple soil test.

in a jar fill it to around 2/3rd's full. take a mid sized clump of your soil and add it to your jar. give the jar a good shake and stand for a couple hours to settle without being disturbed.

you will be able to see the composition of the soil in your garden. heavy items sink first and all way up to plant material that may float, you will see them form layers. giving you an idea of how your soil is made up and its plant matter.

also every year give them a good compost mulch around them and top this up every year, maybe even digging in around them

Edited May 14, 2011 by Tamiyacowboy

[Tamiyacowboy]

StrawBerrys :

it is now mid may and you should start to see flowers on your strawberries. it is time to start thinking about watering and fruit care.

you will need some straw if your plants are in the ground. this shall be placed around the base of the plant so the heavy fruit does not sit on the soil and spoil. this straw will also help protect the plants over winter and the cold weather/frosts.

strawberries are very much full of water, so a drying plant will start to suffer, fruit size will be small and possible for it to not flower or fruit.

they need a very sunny area and plenty of water and drainage. try not to get your straw wet when watering.

strawberrys types, i am no expert and far from it but i have found one hybrid type that does very well " strawberry Temptation ", it is an every bearing hybrid that produces for the whole season with mid sized fruit. ideal for the younger growers and gardeners alike.

Seed harvesting :

why buy your seeds ? when you can harvest your very own.

last years pepper plant i harvested the seeds and over last of the sunny weather i left the seeds from two peppers to dry out. after counting i had roughly 150 sweet bell pepper seeds. 500+ tomato seeds and basil/parsley/lettuce.

keep a couple plants in the beds and let them seed up, then go out for a seed harvest. a small paper cone taped up will help funnel your collected seeds into your home made paper seed envelopes. this is something the younger ones of the family can enjoy and partake in. it can be messy but also fun, dry your seeds on a good south facing windowsill ( is best ) give them a good two-three weeks, then pack them up ready for next year adding this info to you packet.

Harvest date : eg : august 2011

Type : tomato " amateur " heirloom

Use By : 2014 / whenever ( it is said keep stored seeds for only three years, some keep them longer like myself who cares right if they grow its a chance of harvest ).

what to do with left over / unwanted seed, well you could bag them up in say groups of 10-15 and give them to fellow growers or even donate to local schools to grow on. maybe even start your own small seed bank

Edited May 15, 2011 by Tamiyacowboy

[HootMaRoot]

well all my strawberrys have now flowered last week some time, about the time the NW of scotland got lot of rain on and of wich is a blessing in disguise as i dont have to go out watering everything morning and night. but the worst part of it is i havnt had a decent dry spell in almost 1.5 weeks and trying to weed the ground is almost twice as much work compared to when it is dry

you will need some straw if your plants are in the ground. this shall be placed around the base of the plant so the heavy fruit does not sit on the soil and spoil. this straw will also help protect the plants over winter and the cold weather/frosts.

not so sure about the not liking frost as the straberrys i have as well as some other people i know, one of them farms strawberrys says the oppisite. As the ones i have in my garden will only give a good grop of fruit if there has been a hard long frost over winter,

and the guy i used to help farm them in his pollytunnel has them in grow-bags wich are rotated in the pollytunnel so he gets about 3 or 4 grops a year of strawberrys. after his first lot have flowered and start to fruit his next lot are put into a chest freezer for a day or 2 sometimes longer and after they are taken out and put into the tunnel they start the growing cycle again and as the second set are fruiting the first ones he had a put back into the freezer for a fake winter so they start growing again and flowering for the second time

[Tamiyacowboy]

awesome news to know hoots.

may have to give that ago with my ever bearing strawbs

[deejayy2k]

i have a few weeds in my garden in the grass would it be ok to put the weeds in my compost bin if they have been through the mower first ? with the summer coming up should the heat generated be enough to kill the seed off ? the compost bin gets most if not all of the sun through the day.

[Tamiyacowboy]

i have a few weeds in my garden in the grass would it be ok to put the weeds in my compost bin if they have been through the mower first ? with the summer coming up should the heat generated be enough to kill the seed off ? the compost bin gets most if not all of the sun through the day.

should be fine DeeJay

remember to give the heap a turn over to help the aerobic actions of the bugs breaking down the waste every couple months