How Does Your Garden Grow?

[droopsnoot]

These were all complete, if a little straggly, yesterday.

So I quickly harvested and washed the remaining leaves, and the larger ones from the garden, before the hungry caterpillar finds them. Plant some more seeds over the weekend.

 

[Puglet1]

We’ve had some suspicious activity in the raised borders. Leaks and lettuce have been disturbed. Any ideas what the cause might be ? .

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

We’ve had some suspicious activity in the raised borders.

On our allotment the foxes are always digging holes...I find it best to leave them until they get bored. Filling in their holes seems to encourage even more digging!

 

[addjunkie]

On our allotment the foxes are always digging holes...I find it best to leave them until they get bored. Filling in their holes seems to encourage even more digging!

A lead injection is a better solution!

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

A lead injection is a better solution!

They're helpful to have on an allotment...keep the pests under control.

 

[Dapph2]

These were all complete, if a little straggly, yesterday.

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So I quickly harvested and washed the remaining leaves, and the larger ones from the garden, before the hungry caterpillar finds them. Plant some more seeds over the weekend.

In this hot weather all manner of pests will come to drink & eat soft tender juicy plants including young fledgling birds .

Water them well , then put slug pellets in the box and cover with white garden fleece tucked under the box for a few days & they will grow back almost before your eyes .

Pull the biggest leaves each day and you'll likely be able to use the same plants for the rest of the season. I managed to grow a single 19 inch diameter Lollo green lettuce in the shade from a 2 inch high transplant out of one of my bottomless seed growing tubes ..no root disturbance at all so it grew exceedingly well for our family of three . It grew from early spring right through till first frost. Fed it a few times in the ground and as a foliar feed with Tomorite and sea weed extract. & used a lot of slug pellets to keep the little bug-gers at bay

 

[Dapph2]

We’ve had some suspicious activity in the raised borders. Leaks and lettuce have been disturbed. Any ideas what the cause might be ? .

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Rum soaked raisins on a 2/0 sea hook and 25 pound line will sort that little problem and give a tidy meal and game soup stock

 

[droopsnoot]

In this hot weather all manner of pests will come to drink & eat soft tender juicy plants including young fledgling birds .

Water them well , then put slug pellets in the box and cover with white garden fleece tucked under the box for a few days & they will grow back almost before your eyes .

Pull the biggest leaves each day and you'll likely be able to use the same plants for the rest of the season. I managed to grow a single 19 inch diameter Lollo green lettuce in the shade from a 2 inch high transplant out of one of my bottomless seed growing tubes ..no root disturbance at all so it grew exceedingly well for our family of three . It grew from early spring right through till first frost. Fed it a few times in the ground and as a foliar feed with Tomorite and sea weed extract. & used a lot of slug pellets to keep the little bug-gers at bay

I wish I'd read this before I dug the plants out and threw them in the bin. I've planted some more seeds, so I'll remember this when they come up.

 

[Onoff]

Radishes are coming up. I've never grown radishes.

 

[brewdexta]

We've been away for a week and lots of fruit now needs picking. First up are blackcurrants, this is two bushes worth, about 3kg after we've pulled the leaves out. We've 10 more bushes so could be 30kg of fruit

 

[DanZac]

30Kg of Blackcurrents screams wine making to me. There's only so much jam you can eat.

 

[brewdexta]

We've probably got same again in redcurrants, and maybe 15kg of gooseberries.

 

[Onoff]

30Kg of Blackcurrents screams wine making to me. There's only so much jam you can eat.

I was going to say there's only so much wine you can drink but...

 

[addjunkie]

I was going to say there's only so much wine you can drink but...

It keeps…..till you open it!

 

[Dapph2]

We've probably got same again in redcurrants, and maybe 15kg of gooseberries.

Goosegog jam is OK but goosegog wine is something else .
I made five gallons in a barrel , once it had been stopped & cleared it was polished in a finishing filter . What an amazing bright colour . We split it in half to get 2.5 gal of super dry ( almost able to use it for etching , it was that dry ) and the other 2.5 gallons fed with 1:1 syrup once a week till it stopped fermenting, giving almost 21 % alcohol.
Our small farming community folk loved it , they gave me all sorts of produce to try and make country wines with . Wheat whisky wine was also popular we called it screech for obvious reasons ..

 

[Dapph2]

It keeps…..till you open it!

Most county wines do have a shelf life ..light coloured up to three years and darks to about five years . Very occasionally a blacberry & elderberry high yield alcohol can be good for 10 yrs
Most home made stuff takes on a sulphurous taste when it is past its best likely to be due to using Camden tablets

 

[Puglet1]

Most county wines do have a shelf life ..light coloured up to three years and darks to about five years . Very occasionally a blacberry & elderberry high yield alcohol can be good for 10 yrs
Most home made stuff takes on a sulphurous taste when it is past its best likely to be due to using Camden tablets

10 years? More like 10 minutes in our house

 

[Dapph2]

Radishes are coming up. I've never grown radishes.

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Sow a width row one every inch apart and 3 inches between rows every , 5 days . Water them well , carry on doing this succession sowing till the first October and you'll have plenty of lovely big crunchy radish . Usually you get decent sized radish from the day sown 30 days later .

Slightly less if you soak the seeds over night on tiny square of sopping wet kitchen towel and sown the next day and watered in well . I do mine in a small Pyrex lid and take the wet squares in the dish to the place of sowing and use tweezers to lift each seeded square into the half inch deep drill then cover it over ensuring no tissue is showing lest it wicks the moisture out the ground .

 

[Anguz]

something has eaten all my radishes as they popped up... and it wasnt me

 

[Onoff]

Resiting a couple of compost bins that have always been in a less than ideal spot. Shaded all year by conifers so they never really get warm and with the lids left off. I get spuds sprouting and growing in them.

Transferring the contents then and I've dug out loads of sprouting spuds.

Worth sticking in the ground now?

There's even a sprouting sweet potato!