Kitty's Gardenning Adventures

Members adventures in the Vegetable Patch all year round
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Mo
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Re: Kitty's Gardenning Adventures

Post by Mo »

Well lets hope the frosts are over. Never trust the British weather.
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Sunny Clucker enjoyed Folk music and song in mid-Cheshire
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kitla
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Re: Kitty's Gardenning Adventures

Post by kitla »

So I protected them from the frost but nearly lost the beans & courgettes from the heat! They started to wilt badly, despite plenty of watering. I put some shade over them today & they started to perk up. The peas, pumpkins & sweetcorn didnt seem to mind the heat, I shall bear this in mind when I make my planting plan next year.
"He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals."
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Freeranger
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Re: Kitty's Gardenning Adventures

Post by Freeranger »

I'm on my 3rd courgette sowing now due to extremes of weather conditions - I might get it right soon!
I have beans growing in pots indoors while I prepare the area they're moving to. Had wanted to start hardening them off but today we have 45mph wind and pouring rain, in contrast to the long run of hot weather and scorched earth. We had rain, but combined with the heat it's now very humid with massive weed growth.
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kitla
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Re: Kitty's Gardenning Adventures

Post by kitla »

i'm beginning to wish I'd left my beans in the greenhouse for another week. They're being blown off the poles & the bottom leaves are scorched from heat/windburn >shrug<
I'm sure they'll recover once the weather settles but its annoying when they were so healthy looking when they went out there.
"He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals."
--Immanuel Kant
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Mo
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Re: Kitty's Gardenning Adventures

Post by Mo »

I decided that mine needed hardening off. I put them outside and they got blown all over the place.
That's the trouble with runners. If you plant then indoors they get very long and woofly.
I sowed some in pots, some in their place, only 2 of those have come up, but they look more sturdy.
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Sunny Clucker enjoyed Folk music and song in mid-Cheshire
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kitla
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Re: Kitty's Gardenning Adventures

Post by kitla »

I started picking this weekend! Lots of peas, courgettes & mini cucumbers, everything else coming on nicely, except most of the beetroot has been eaten (probably by slugs but I havent seen any). I've grown 6 white flowering runner beans & 6 red flowering ones. Same as last year the red ones are covered in blackfly but the white have none atall, so next year I'll stick to the white ones. The beans look & taste the same.
"He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals."
--Immanuel Kant
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KarenE
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Re: Kitty's Gardenning Adventures

Post by KarenE »

Oooh you're early! I'm nowhere near picking!
Karen
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kitla
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Re: Kitty's Gardenning Adventures

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Well the results are in! Stuff has or hasnt worked out. In the greenhouse one of the cucumber plants got mildew/disease/blight? )gr: which took the colour from the leaves & worked its way up until I chucked it. The other plant seemed ok but gradually succumbed & now only the top 10" are still dark green & fruiting, the beef tomato next to it was also affected but I took off all the bad leaves & its survived long enough to produce a few toms. I think I didnt have enough air flow in there when this started. Mini sweet peppers & jalapinos doing well in there though . Tomts outdoors doing really well, )c( courgettes producing faster than I can eat, Pumkin plants taking over the world :b( - have 4 pumpkins, I picked one to eat (maybe too early but theyre getting bit big already). Leeks looking good but I have a feeling they'll be all leaf & not much white )sh . Beetroot got eaten or bolted )gr: , Chard dissapeared under the rampent pumkin plants . Peas went over quite fast & second planting didnt really do much. (probably too shaded by pumpkin!) Runner beans started producing loads then the heatwave got to them & lots of beans have "bolted" & gone tough, I did a mass picking & chucking of them in the hope of more flowers after the rains. Sweetcorn looks almost ready to pick, its been a welcome shady spot for the chickens in the heat. >ch<
"He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals."
--Immanuel Kant
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Mo
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Re: Kitty's Gardenning Adventures

Post by Mo »

It give you a feeling for what it must have been like when if something failed you had to do without. Now it is nice to eat our own but we can enjoy what works, try again next year, growl at the pests and go shopping.
My runner beans are a bit tough, though edible. My grandson picked some to take home yesterday. And I've been eating and freezing for a while.
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Sunny Clucker enjoyed Folk music and song in mid-Cheshire
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kitla
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Re: Kitty's Gardenning Adventures

Post by kitla »

Runner beans blew down in the wind storm, I was going to try & fix them but I expect they'll only blow down again tomorrow.
"He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals."
--Immanuel Kant
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Mo
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Re: Kitty's Gardenning Adventures

Post by Mo »

2 years ago mine blew down. The wigwam had rotted. I draped them over a stepladder and carried on picking. Think it was a bit later in the season though. The winds are early this year as well as the apples.
Dance caller. http://mo-dance-caller.blogspot.co.uk/p/what-i-do.html
Sunny Clucker enjoyed Folk music and song in mid-Cheshire
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kitla
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Re: Kitty's Gardenning Adventures

Post by kitla »

2021 planting time!
I've been busy this weekend, I've planted out my tomatoes - back in "tomato corner" which is a sheltered suntrap, also some peas, a couple of pumpkins, a 3rd row of potatoes made up from strays I've found growing where they shouldnt. A row of sunflowers in a sheltered spot next to the runner bean spot - apparently they attract the ants away from other things (eg beans!) which helps prevent them spreading the blackfly about. I have a long length of garden fleece ready incase there's any late frosts. Everything else is still in the greenhouse for now. I lost a cucumber plant already :( It rotted, I must remember to always water them from the bottom! >veg4<
Earlier on I seeded some mini leaf (cut & come again) lettuce in a trough,& spinach (for baby leaf) in a piece of guttering in the greenhouse. A great success I will definately do this again. I've planted out a few of the spinach to grow on as bigger plants too.
"He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals."
--Immanuel Kant
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kitla
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Re: Kitty's Gardenning Adventures

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looong time past, the veggies have done their thing. This year I planted the seeds in a recommended(but more expensive) compost, everything came up well :-D . I had cayenne, banana & sweet peppers, of which I potted as many as I could in large pots in the greenhouse - using cheap compost from the local garden ctr. Soon the leaves were dropping & the pots growing toadstools, same with the cucumbers. I've tried to keep them fairly dry, makes no difference, so I'm sure its that bl***y compost. Same thing happened with cucumbers last year. {mr.angry} Lesson learned!!
Everything that I planted out has done ok. Tomato corner is like a forest, the pumkins & squashes have rampaged across the veg patch again. Runner beans got blackfly, it hasnt really affected them but I'm disappointed hardly any ladybirds have turned up to help. Got plenty of red peas, very strange, the pods are purply red but the peas are normal green - until you cook them, then they turn sort of khaki green/grey & dont look nice.
tomato corner -
Image
wall of beans & rampaging pumpkins
Image
Last year it was so hard to buy seeds & plants that I let the wildflowers/weeds grown in the garden & they looked great, so this year I did the same, they filled in all the gaps & the bees loved it.
"He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals."
--Immanuel Kant
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Spreckly
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Re: Kitty's Gardenning Adventures

Post by Spreckly »

Well done you! You have had some setbacks, but your veggie patch looks most productive. My veggie patch is now full of weeds, borrage, rose of sharon, etc., all self sown. My husband worked it faithfully until his illness, and we had potatoes, beans, courgettes, radishes, beetroot, parsnips and peas every summer. I do miss our homegrown.

I gave the polytunnel and greenhouse watering system away to a friend with a double allotment, but have been surprised not to have been offered anything from it!
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kitla
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Re: Kitty's Gardenning Adventures

Post by kitla »

Perhaps you could try growing something in pots Spreckly. There are several miniture varieties of veg now. I found a "bargain seeds" place on ebay & grew some French beans & tomatoes in pots by the back door this year.
"He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals."
--Immanuel Kant
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