LL's Gardening Diary

[billnorfolk]

Nottingham had some realy good nights out in Nottingham when i was an HGV driver ,used to park on the station car park after 6.0pm until 8.0am was for overnight HGVS.Very handy for the cinema and a cafe and a good pub
Think i am fortunate as garden sheltered from cold winds (sweet corn made it overnight by the way)and allways better for watering etc haveing it all at home.
Couple of my mates have allotements and have realy found it hard this year with the lack of rain we have had hear,but everything looks realy good on yours LL

[lancashire lass]

Couple of my mates have allotements and have realy found it hard this year with the lack of rain we have had hear,but everything looks realy good on yours LL '

The upside of having the plot at the bottom of the hill is that it retains water a little longer than most other plots In 2011 during the drought, I was spending more time watering the smaller plot that I shared and was one of the reasons why I gave that one up in preference to the plot that I kept (the other reasons were white onion rot and clubroot that were both rife - I love most alliums especially garlic, and it was also the bigger of the 2 plots which allows me to have 2 big squash beds which is another one of my favourite crops, and a small space to park my car which makes it easier for visiting the plot)

Nottingham had some really good nights out in Nottingham when i was an HGV driver ,used to park on the station car park after 6.0pm until 8.0am was for overnight HGVS.Very handy for the cinema and a cafe and a good pub

You'd be hard pressed to park anywhere in Nottingham these days - it's being made very car and lorry unfriendly as the city invests more in trams and pubic transport. I don't go into the city centre these days if I can help it - it costs too much by bus and car parking is not cheap either.

Yesterday (Sunday) I called round to the allotment early to see if there had been any wind damage - the entire french bean frame had completely collapsed and 2 sweetcorn plants were leaning over but rescuable. I managed to upright the frame but the central support had snapped and I think a couple of the uprights had snapped at the soil level (or possibly when I was pushing them into the soil when erecting the frame, the combination of poor soil from last year's wet weather and the dry spring had compacted the soil and I hadn't been able to push the canes in deep enough) So now the whole thing is being held together with string and bits of cane splints - looks very precarious and rickety and I'm sure will fall down again at the slightest breeze so I might have to harvest as much as I can and pull the lot down next weekend.

The other reasons for my visit was to harvest the 3 Bloody Butcher toms I noticed were ripened in the photos I took on Saturday LOL, as well as pick a few of the herb leaves for drying. I've also got a new project ... I'm going to get some chickens and currently in the process of building an extended run in my garden at home so needed to retrieve some wood out of the shed at the allotment. When I was clearing off the shared plot, I took all the wood I had bought with ideas of some building projects on the big plot and stored them in the shed so they were all nice and dry and re-usable. I've bought one of those flat packed chicken coops that were on sale and had erected it last weekend. After reading posts about red mites and some of the advice given, I decided to gloss paint inside the coop for easier cleaning but it was difficult to reach inside with the paint brush and ended up dismantling the whole thing LOL. I spent most of yesterday putting a coat of gloss on the insides and fence paint on the outside and frame so it should be water proof. It's as well that the day wasn't too taxing as I was stiff and sore from digging up the potatoes on Saturday but it does mean that the run construction hasn't been started yet .... Thank goodness next weekend is a bank holiday, and I have also booked 3 weeks leave so hopefully I'll be finished and be able to get some chickens before I go back to work

[billnorfolk]

You will love your chickens LL realy miss mine,once i get knees and hip sorted may get some more,have 5 main plots on my garden all roughly same size ,may get just enough to move from plot to plot ,keep them clean and fertilised.

[lancashire lass]

You will love your chickens LL realy miss mine,once i get knees and hip sorted may get some more,have 5 main plots on my garden all roughly same size ,may get just enough to move from plot to plot ,keep them clean and fertilised.

Moving them around my garden isn't really an option and neither is having them at the allotment (definitely a family of foxes there but winter visits could be very difficult too) so it will be a permanent run which is ample big enough for 4 chickens (I also went for a larger coop and been following the advice on the chicken keeping forum - some good ideas from other members keep coming up so I'm getting a good idea of what to expect and what I should be doing)

Over the weekend I nearly had a disaster in the greenhouses/polytunnel - as I went to the allotment on Saturday and then keen to get on with the run (not) on Sunday, their daily watering got missed I noticed one of the chilli plants leaves were not just drooping but dropped completely so everything got a heavy load plus again yesterday morning and they seem none the worst for it today. The interesting thing was being able to see all the fruits that are normally hidden by the leaves and surprised to see so many!

This morning I got back into the routine of watering and pollinating and pleased to see lots of peppers have set fruit and are all growing nicely. One of the chillies I thought was a Golden Cayenne has gone from green to red with no hint of yellow so now I have no idea what it is - certainly doesn't look like anything that I sowed either. The Burpees tomatoes however were not doing too well - something is eating the fruit Great big holes so I'm inclined to think they are slugs although it could be anything as the greenhouse is not as well netted off as the polytunnel although any insect would have only got in by chance. About 5 of the fruits are beyond recovery. This morning I decided to chop the plants right back as their size was starting to get on my nerves (big plants for not a lot of fruit) and rescued all the fruit - some are just starting to ripen so I'll ripen the rest indoors. As my aubergines have set fruit (I don't normally do well with aubergines), I decided to move them into the greenhouse once occupied by the tomatoes and they should get better light now. I may have to move some chillies in there too as the jungle in the polytunnel is reaching critical mass LOL. I'll also put some slug pellets down to be on the safe side.

[billnorfolk]

Moving them around my garden isn't really an option and neither is having them at the allotment (definitely a family of foxes there but winter visits could be very difficult too) so it will be a permanent run which is ample big enough for 4 chickens (I also went for a larger coop and been following the advice on the chicken keeping forum - some good ideas from other members keep coming up so I'm getting a good idea of what to expect and what I should be doing)


Foxes are becoming more and more of a problem,especially urban ones ,think one problem is some are caught in the towns and released back into the wild then seemto find it hard going .I started with 6 chooks and ended up with 10 they do grow on you

[lancashire lass]

Just a short entry ... went in the polytunnel to do my usual daily pollinating and watering, and I noticed a few chillies grown from seed are taking on a shade of red

[lancashire lass]

I went in this morning to do the usual watering to find a couple of plants had fallen over in the polytunnel - the Nepalese Bell plants have got so tall and bent forward, knocking the Monkey Face plants off the table. It was quite a challenge trying to maneuver them out as many of the branches had interwoven, but the Nepalese pots are now on the floor. The rest of the polytunnel is more or less in a similar state as plants at the back push the ones at the front forward, so I need to do a bit of sorting.

However, I got distracted and quite excited that the Trinidad Scorpion Moruga fruit has ripened and went rushing back indoors for the camera. This is a scary chilli meant to be the world's hottest and you shouldn't really touch the fruit with your bare hands ... I suspect mine won't have anywhere near the heat level as in the records. I'm just chuffed to have got fruit and the chilli challenge with my colleague is on



Meanwhile, I found a few more ripened chillies. The Black Hungarian:



Espelette:




Chenzo:



Colour change with the Bolivian Rainbow:



Orange Wonder:



And some more fruit sets I may not have mentioned. Paper Lantern:



Dorset Naga:



Peter Pecker:



Naga Jolokia (aka Bhut Jolokia/Ghost Pepper):



and what is supposed to be Bird Eye Demon but the fruits seem extraordinary longer than I was expecting. Either I have once again got labels mixed up, or the seed I bought was wrong:



and to finish the photos, the Minibel tomatoes are starting to ripen:

[lancashire lass]

Today's task was to dig up the main crop potatoes - I only grew 5 seed potatoes of Romano and were given 5 Maris Pipers. I'm not a fan of Maris Pipers as the first time I grew them, they were just slug food. As these were free, well - nothing ventured and all that. Surprisingly, they are amazing compared to the Romano. The reason which I will now take note for future crops is the plum tree next to the bed - it's been a bit on the dry side this summer but most beds have been fine except this one as the plum tree roots have sapped what little moisture there was. The result have been plants that have died back far sooner than they should have - the Romano crop was very poor with small potatoes, but the Maris Piper are fairly decent sized ones, and best of all, no slug damage

I started to dig up the 2nd row of Kestrel but my back was already a little aching from the digging over the other bed, so only dug up 3 plants and what a difference compared to the main crop - nice decent sized spuds for baking potatoes.

As I surveyed the rest of the plot, I saw a smattering of red across the tomato patch Several varieties - the Bloody Butcher with several more fruits, Glacier, Moneymaker and the "Roma" (the round fruits that should be plum shaped LOL):



With the forecast of warm dry weather for this week at least, hopefully there should be a lot more and then I'll be making up a batch of of passata (I'm soooo looking forward to this year's harvest after last year's disaster)

The sweetcorn are pollinating now .... fingers crossed with the good weather lasting:



Just a close up of the male flowers on the sweetcorn:



The self seeded achocha has totally taken over the back corner of the plot but at least it is being productive. Flowers:



Fruit (they are hollow - slice and cook like peppers although I thought they had a more cucumber-like flavour):



And those tendrils that grab anyone unwittingly wandering through that bit of the plot LOL:



I left some Italian flat leaf parsley to go to seed, and they are just about ripening ... I'd better get ready with some paper bags to collect the seed before I end up with a new weed on the plot:



This is an interesting squash called Tromba d'Albenga - the seed are located in the bulbous part of the fruit so the rest is pure squash flesh. You can apparently eat them as courgettes but I found them just as nice when mature:



And finally, this Small Tortoiseshell butterfly was resting at the plot and I just managed to get a shot in before he flew away. Isn't he pretty:

[lancashire lass]

I called in at the plot yesterday mainly to get some more wood out of the shed to take home for the building project (the extended chicken run looked simple in my head but is taking longer than I'd like to admit) but while there, harvested easily 6 or so lbs of tomatoes, with the prospect of more ripening soon. I picked some Glacier, Marmande (these are the best I've ever grown - my past attempts in the greenhouse never did that well), some more Bloody Butcher, a few Principe Borghese (these are the ones you can "sun dry") and a load of Roma - although I'm not that convinced they are Roma. We'll soon see as I'll be making a batch of passata with them this weekend.

I did notice that a lot of plants were not looking that clever especially the squashes - the forecast thunderstorms and heavy deluges the other weekend completely missed Nottingham and the ground is now getting really dry. Even the lavender wasn't looking too clever either, and they can tolerate dry spells. So this morning I just had to call and do some emergency watering. With some of the leafy die back, I was able to see a lot more squashes - some like the Green Hubbard are massive, plus a mystery squash I don't remember sowing (white with green webbing - according to the map I made when planting out, the only one that might sort of resemble it is a variety called Fairy) but I'm not convinced. I also saw devastation too with at least 3 or 4 squashes that have become slug food One distinctly looked like Turk's Turban - this is the 2nd time I've tried to grow these, and last year the slugs ate them all too, aaaaaargh. Luckily I had some slug pellets in the car so I was perhaps a bit heavy handed throwing the pellets amongst the winter and butternut squashes. And oh yes, I spied a few more butternuts too (if I was honest, I prefer butternut to any other squash but they don't always do that well if the weather is unkind) so I'm feeling a lot happier now.

I didn't linger as I had a lot to do at home but I did spy the borlotti beans almost ready for harvesting, and I have got cobs developing on the sweetcorn Last weekend I thought the Greyhound cabbages were ready for harvesting .... today a couple were looking a bit past it so I should have picked them then. I brought one home - I have some bacon and some new potatoes to go with it for tea tonight This weekend I really must pick some other stuff too - the Golden Acre and Primo cabbages are also nicely headed up (with a few holes too ... I think them slugs have been at it again)

[Linda S]

Those pesky baady slugs are a menace arnt they, but sounds like your getting plenty of stuff to enjoy LL
The photos are great as always and so clear that c s i would be proud of those fingerprints Lindaxx

[lancashire lass]

Those pesky baady slugs are a menace arnt they, but sounds like your getting plenty of stuff to enjoy LL

I called in at the plot this morning for another wood collection from the shed plus a load of bricks for my home project, and went round again with more slug pellets especially in the cabbage and sprout beds, so they'll get their comeuppance LOL

The photos are great as always and so clear that c s i would be proud of those fingerprints Lindaxx

I'd better make sure I don't commit any crimes in the near future

Another reason of going was so that I could harvest some more tomatoes - every day there are loads ripening especially the "not" Roma toms (I tried to take a photo with the full row but my shadow kept getting in the way, so you can't really see some of the red tomatoes, shoot):



While there, thought I ought to start collecting the flat leaf parsley seed heads and harvest the courgettes - cross that out ... I really meant marrows I've really not got into courgettes this year at all which is surprising as they are usually my staple diet throughout summer. I've left the big long ones, especially the Romanesco which taste nice even when mature. I did pick all of the Rugosa Friulina which is very similar to Yellow Crookneck summer squash - but much more warty looking. You can eat them while still young, or peel the skin and scoop out the seeds out of the bigger ones. This photo looks more like a generational family scene with baby to grandma in the same shot LOL:



I just had to show you - there really are cobs developing on the sweetcorn These are Lark F1 which is a tendersweet ... won't be long now and hopefully before the weather deteriorates:



The Cherokee Trail of Tears french climbing beans are finally turning purple - I tend to prefer saving the beans and adding them to soups and stews. The beans are black in colour:



An overall of the plot (the least weedy end LOL) For some reason the asparagus has started to get going - I have to confess that I was getting a bit disappointed with them as they really did not do as well as I thought they should. These were grown from seed last year - I was hoping to be able to harvest some spears next year. The rhubarb on the other hand, is doing exceptionally well considering I only planted the crown less than a year ago, but is being choked by the Achocha:



There's a part 2 to this post but is photo heavy with shots of the squash that I could see - yesterday I could see loads but I think when I watered the beds, all the leaves had plumped again so I was only able to spot a few this time, especially in the butternut bed. Trying to identify them all just from the photos is not easy - even with making a map of the bed and where I had planted the squashes, doesn't mean the fruit are anywhere near where I planted them. As for my mystery squash, I recall now I had done a second sowing of a variety that had failed the first time and squeezed it. All will be revealed next .....

[lancashire lass]

Before I begin, I ought to mention that I have put links in this thread to direct anyone interested to sites about the various squash (also as a reference to see if it matches my best guess) - as most information is from seed sellers, please note that I did not necessarily buy seed from there nor do I get commission for putting links in. You are welcome to visit the external sites or ignore them

Well, the mystery squash from yesterday has been identified:



It is called Cabello de Angel aka Shark Fin Melon (have to confess I did not know that at the time ... I believe Mallard grows this doesn't he?)

Blue Hubbard



I'm guessing this one is Mini Orange (just going off the size, colour and location)



Another orange skinned squash - I reckon this one is Golden Delicious



This looks like Blue Kuri



Improved Green Hubbard - this one is a lot bigger than I was expecting:



This one stumped me for a while - maybe the fruit has got a bit mutated, but I think it might be Boston winter squash:



I'm growing a few lobed squash (from different seed sources with different names - some might even be the same type of squash knowing my luck) so identifying which ones are which has been difficult to say the least, but I'm putting my money on this being Fairy Tale (or Musquee de Provence or though not likely, Cinderella or Rouge d'Etempes):



Crown Prince



I'm growing Buttercup, Anna Swartz and Bon Bon which all have a similar dark green with a hint of pale green stripes and all 3 are planted relatively close to each other, but I'm going with Bon Bon here (no idea what the blue skinned one is):



This next one might be Australian Butter



This could be Buckskin but I was expecting a more rounded squash. It is just starting to change colour:



And this (fingers crossed as I've tried 3x to grow this variety over the years) may be Galeuse d'Eysines:



I've no idea what these are but enjoy:




In the butternut bed, no idea what the various fruits are except this one as it is so distinctive in colour - Barbara F1



Here are some other butternut squashes I managed to see on the edge of the bed:





Finally, another squash I am growing called Tenessee Sweet Potato Squash (aka Green Striped Cushaw) - I planted 2 and gave the spare to my plot neighbour. I can't see any fruits in my bed which is not a good sign, but in case there is one around, this photo is taken from my neighbour's plot. The last time I grew this squash, the flesh was really bitter - I might have harvested too soon, or the long dry summer of 2011 tainted the flavour. I do hope this one is much better after giving it to my neighbour

[billnorfolk]

it amazes me the ammount of things you grow many different ,but what do you do with all of them,unless you have a large family or a big circle of freinds

[lancashire lass]

it amazes me the ammount of things you grow many different ,but what do you do with all of them,unless you have a large family or a big circle of freinds

I like to try different varieties - first as a challenge and these become projects: I have a chilli (wasn't planned), tomato (should have been last year but for the weather) and butternut squash project at the moment, with the winter squash ongoing for the past 5 years .... to see what does well in my location, how easy/difficult it is to grow, learn from the experience and share that information with others. I am a member/moderator for a gardening forum and help with building up a database (has specific categories for varieties so they are easily found) by posting photos and giving a personal rating rather than rely on seed supplier blurb - one of the reasons why I can't help writing down far more detail than most in this diary. I used to run a seed club/shop for that forum and sell seed until postage got too expensive (some seed is too big for standard letter posting but some people didn't appreciate that I couldn't bear the cost of large letter postage) hence my knowledge of where to buy seed is probably more extensive than most, as well as share saved seed of varieties less likely to cross pollinate. This year I grew Kent Blue a rare heritage mangetout variety that I had obtained from another forum, so I'll be offering some seed to others interested in growing some and the idea is that they grow them up, then instead of harvesting (maybe a few for tasting) save the seed for their own use for the following year and pass on the rest of the seed to others to bolster up seed stocks and prevent the variety from disappearing. Also this year I learned that the first tomatoes to ripen outdoors well ahead of any others was Bloody Butcher yet it is not amongst the list of known early maturing tomato varieties, and another is that early maturing garlic do so much better than later ones on my plot. Finally, taste and whether I would grow them again and then add them to my list of favourites. Each year I grow a few new varieties but also use up old seed so what seems a lot is actually a few years of seed accumulation - some of the squash seed I had were nearly 3 years old so I wasn't expecting them to germinate, and when they do, try to squeeze them in somewhere - so yes, I am guilty of growing way too much LOL.

Much of what I grow a lot of is "storable" as I don't do well with summer cropping and often find stuff going to seed by the time I get round to harvesting so that's why I shifted to vegetables that can be used over many months - either harvested directly off the plot over winter, stored somewhere cool and dry (potatoes, garlic, onions, squash), dried (chillies, apples), processed (eg jars of passata or sauces, wine) or frozen. This cuts down on my food shopping bill - these days I reel at the price of vegetables at the supermarket (only yesterday I spied the tomato counter and was gobsmacked at what they were charging) and think I save quite a lot by growing my own. Some years the weather is not too clever and some things do better or worse than others - for example, I might have a poor potato crop but do well with squashes so my menus shift to what is available ... in many ways, it makes me appreciate what it must have been like for early farmers and before food was shipped across the globe (which means I cut down on my "air miles" - you don't hear a lot about that these days) and over autumn/winter I am well stocked up with food. Other years, like this one, I do a lot better than expected and end up with a glut so that's when I give a lot of it away to friends, neighbours and colleagues - for example, as a thank you to those who contribute to my compostable bins at work - I don't drink tea, and could never eat that many bananas and the skins are full of goodness which are ideal for squashes, beans and tomatoes so cuts down on how much compost and fertiliser I need to buy for those beds, and as it doesn't get thrown away for landfill, do my bit recycling

[lancashire lass]

This past week I've been furiously building the chicken run before the weather turned today so not much in the GYO section. I called in at the plot on Tuesday morning to once again do some emergency watering and harvest some more tomatoes. I took some photos of the different tomatoes I have growing (hopefully they will ripen soon as the forecast does not sound too clever with temperatures down and a distinct autumnal feeling today):

Brandywine:



Black Russian - I saw a ripened one half eaten but when I lifted a branch with 2 more turning, I could not believe I broke them off ... anyway, a couple of days in the sun, and ripening nicely (feels soft so must be nearly ready):





Sub arctic plenty - reputedly the "earliest" tomato to ripen ... so far, no sign of them turning and when I consider the others that have ripened already (beefsteak ones like Marmande, Black Russian and the Burpees Delicious), I'm not impressed:



Glacier is another "early" ripening tomato, and this is the 2nd batch ready so fits the description:



Stupice is also an early ripening tomato, so on course too:



Good old reliable Moneymaker:



Orange Banana is a late maturing tomato, and is as prolific as the blurb suggests. I found some more fruit that were easily 4 inches long, so quite large. They are apparently good storers, keeping well for a long time after picking. They can be used fresh, or dried, or used for making sauce:



Campbell (I wonder if it makes good soup?):



The greenhouse tomato Burpees Delicious were picked a few weeks ago because something was eating the fruits so I've been ripening them indoors. When I was looking up seeds, the photo online suggested they turned an almost scarlet colour but these are more orange and as some fruit are getting a little past it, I can only assume this is the colour. I've not been impressed with this variety so unless the fruit make good sauce, they will get dropped off my list:



In the hanging baskets, the Yellow Pearshaped are now ripening - quite prolific plant, I can highly recommend this variety for hanging baskets:



Cherokee Purple on the other hand is a beefsteak tomato and growing in the basket was not so clever - the baskets got a bit dry during the heatwave, so some fruits ended up with blossom end rot and smaller than they should have turned out. These are just starting to ripen:



I had to show you my aubergine - Early Long Purple. This is only the 2nd time I've ever been successful with aubergine (the first was an outdoor dwarf variety called Calliope F1) so I'm very pleased even though I realised from the name it would be "long" but thin too? LOL



After not knowing whether this was Joe's Long or not, I can now say with certainty it is Thick Cayenne:



because I found the Joe's Long lurking behind some other plants!



Padron ripening:



Jalastar F1 ripening:



Beaver Dam ripening (these are quite substantial sized fruits for a medium sized plant, with easily 4-5 fruits per plant, very early to set fruit and ripen - I was "late" sowing these - so definitely one to recommend for growing, though will have to let you know about flavour after a test. They are supposed to be "mild"):



Now I have a confession to make It baffled me for a while but I remember the propagator lid knocking the labels when sowing the seeds, and clearly I put the 2 back in the wrong place. So, all previous posts that refer to Aji Pulsar are in fact Bulgarian Carrot (all becomes apparent when they ripen ) ..... so these are the correct labels (PS - pity we can't edit previous posts):

Aji Pulsar (link to the seed seller for confirmation)



Bulgarian Carrot (scroll down the seller's page to find)