Jem's attempt at growing her own!
Re: Jem's attempt at growing her own!Thanks for that Bill! My dad built me the beds, using the wood from the old shed - I have a dodgy back so it means I don't have to bend.
No girls at the moment but look forward to getting more in the future. Proud mummy to Hector, a Bedlington Terrier x Jack Russell
Re: Jem's attempt at growing her own!I planted up a few tomato & chilli seeds at the end of Feb. The toms are coming on nicely but only got one chilli so will do some more when we get back from France and hope I have a better germination rate.
No girls at the moment but look forward to getting more in the future. Proud mummy to Hector, a Bedlington Terrier x Jack Russell
Re: Jem's attempt at growing her own!Woohoo! The sun has been shining and the temperature has risen - finally a day in the garden! All spuds have been planted - I do them in bags. 6 green potato bags and about 8 plastic feed bags have been used. Fortunately, just as I started digging the compost, my parents arrived so dad and hubby did the hard work! We also got the garage sorted out and dad has taken the rubbish to the skip.
Lots of little jobs have been done, sweeping paths, clearing away 'rubbish' and tomorrow I will get my onions in I think, back permitting. Hope the weather holds, it has been lovely getting stuff done outside No girls at the moment but look forward to getting more in the future. Proud mummy to Hector, a Bedlington Terrier x Jack Russell
Re: Jem's attempt at growing her own!Potatoes have started showing through so all of the sun and rain we have had over the past few days must have done them the world of good! Onions still not in due to my back being temperamental - think this weekend I will try the Richard method of poking holes in the ground with a long pointy thing! If I whimper enough, hubby might pop the onion sets in
No girls at the moment but look forward to getting more in the future. Proud mummy to Hector, a Bedlington Terrier x Jack Russell
Re: Jem's attempt at growing her own!Beautiful day today, with hubby's help I got a bit more done.
Potatoes that got planted up a while back: Organized for once, all labelled up on little laminated name badges! Starting to show through: Hubby topped them up for me today. I sowed some courgette, butternut squash, salad bowl lettuce, cabbage, cucumber in the greenhouse while hubby planted my red onion sets. We have a Houdini chicken so needed to construct some sort of netting protection over the onion sets otherwise she will dig for victory and I will not be a happy bunny. It doesn't look great but will do the trick - only problem is that I didn't think about how to weed until I was all done and back in the house! Piccie below is of some of the stuff I planted/sowed last week. Few more things to sow tomorrow or Thursday, dwarf beans, flageolet beans, beetroot & can't remember what else - not organised at all this year after having started out organised, the weather threw me and now I think I am behind. Oh well, it's all very much trial and error with me so what will be will be No girls at the moment but look forward to getting more in the future. Proud mummy to Hector, a Bedlington Terrier x Jack Russell
Re: Jem's attempt at growing her own!I feel just the same, very disorganised. I'm sure it will all come together for both of us in the end though
"Happiness is like a butterfly; the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder..." Thoreau.
Re: Jem's attempt at growing her own!Finally finished planting the rest of my seeds today - they all grow! Spent ages pulling dandelion heads off & pottering in the garden, weeding & topping up soil in the pots etc. Not much activity worth taking pics of but the blossom is beautiful on the fruit trees in the chicken run. We have had apples previously (Braeburn) but the Victoria plum & pear have not yet fruited, think this is 3rd year they have been in. Hope they do something this year!
Apple: Plum Pear No girls at the moment but look forward to getting more in the future. Proud mummy to Hector, a Bedlington Terrier x Jack Russell
Re: Jem's attempt at growing her own!Things are picking up in the greenhouse - finally some signs of life!
3 of the 5 peas Broadbeans Cucumber & courgette (pic upside down) The one & only squash so far! Spuds in bags still looking good, onion sets doing nothing, garlic doing ok, toms & chilli plants getting there but leaves look a bit pale - need a feed? No girls at the moment but look forward to getting more in the future. Proud mummy to Hector, a Bedlington Terrier x Jack Russell
Re: Jem's attempt at growing her own!Oh blooming heck, have been messing around creating albums in photobucckket & all the pics in my posts have gone, oops!
Two lovely days in the garden - lawns mowed, raised beds prepped, wigwam made & beans planted, peas planted, toms, chillis, squash & courgettes potted on and lettuce seedlings separated into bigger pot. Think I might have been a bit premature putting the climbing beans out as they are a lot smaller than the broad beans but will just have to keep my fingers crossed! Rain & wind due tomorrow so glad to have got some stuff done! No girls at the moment but look forward to getting more in the future. Proud mummy to Hector, a Bedlington Terrier x Jack Russell
Re: Jem's attempt at growing her own!Oops, haven't updated since 26 May! Snce all of my piccies have gone, I sort of feel like this diary isn't worth keeping up with but I'll give a quick run down of how things have been!
Tomatoes - fairly poor, lots of small fruit but have only had a few ripen enough to pick so far. Courgette - some success but most of the fruit have shrivelled early & dropped off. Only 3 large enough to pick so far. Think next year I will go for conventional ones instead of the round ones. Cabbage - only got one and it got eaten! Butterball squash - huge but no fruit at all Chillis - plenty of fruit, not ripened yet Onions - raided by chickens so not fully grown but have enough to chop & freeze Cucumbers - not a huge amount of fruit but what appears is growing nicely, well spread out so I haven't had a glut! Lettuce - all fine Garlic - annihilated by chickens! Broccoli - disaster Potatoes - amazing! We have had one lot of the Apache so far. The Anya have been fantastic - a great crop from each bag and a beautiful buttery taste We harvested the first lot of Stemsters yesterday, what a great crop it was! Some large enough for jacket spuds in the week, same were roasted yesterday and were very yummy! Plenty to put away and still more bags to harvest yet. We have plenty of apples, loads of plums (first time it has fruited, no ripening yet) but no pears. The fig tree has about 5 baby figs on it - first years it has produced fruit so chuffed to bits with that! Think that's about it - if anything exciting happens I will update! No girls at the moment but look forward to getting more in the future. Proud mummy to Hector, a Bedlington Terrier x Jack Russell
Re: Jem's attempt at growing her own! shame about the photos but I always find the information you put in diaries still useful to look back on - when you sowed, what did well, what did badly, why it went wrong, weather conditions (I'm a bit obsessive about it as it determines how things go) etc so don't give up yet!
Tomatoes - we are so used to having fresh tomatoes on the supermarket shelves all year round, we forget that unless we go through the expensive heating of greenhouses in early spring when planting out, most people only start getting ripened tomatoes later on so don't feel bad. I'm not expecting my toms to start ripening for a few weeks yet. Same goes for chillies - only my overwintered unknown/Fresno has started ripening so far. Butterball - as a butternut, it will be slow to flower than other squash but as you have big plants, hopefully not long now. Glad to see you did well with potatoes And yes, it looks like this will be a good year for fruit. My Discovery apple tree has always been productive but this year the crop should be amazing - they usually start ripening about mid-August so I must make sure I'm ready this time round!
Re: Jem's attempt at growing her own!Thanks for your reply LL, it's good to know that all is not lost with my squash! I am getting plenty of broad, climbing & french beans which, along with the tatties, are making for lovely home-grown meals!
As I was wandering down from the chooks a few minutes ago I saw a bee literally rolling in the pollen in a courgette flower! I don't have a super duper camera so ran in to get my phone and just captured it as it was climbing out! Love this picture (just needs to be a bit sharper) and would love to learn properly and have a decent camera - one day! Your pics and those of Bill have inspired me to take more piccies when out and about. No girls at the moment but look forward to getting more in the future. Proud mummy to Hector, a Bedlington Terrier x Jack Russell
Re: Jem's attempt at growing her own!Harvested the rest of our spuds at the weekend - Stemster and Anya. The Apache weren't much crack, think I should have done them sooner.
Loads of tomatoes ripening nicely and finally the butternut squash are fruiting - looks like it will be a heck of a harvest if they all come good! Beans galore still, very nice! Onions have been chopped & frozen. No more plans being made as we will inevitably be relocating once hubby has a new job and who knows what space I will have for growing veg! Just hope I will be able to take my chooks but I doubt it No girls at the moment but look forward to getting more in the future. Proud mummy to Hector, a Bedlington Terrier x Jack Russell
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