The Gardening Thread, Advice, hints and tips. Options

[The Old Lady]

Are there many gardeners here??
My tomatoes were a waste of time this year. The first lot were drowned, then the second were so slow they have only just got some fruit on them, and now the leaves are going autumnal (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)
We had 2 meals off the beans (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif)
Most of my bedding drowned too.
On the plus side, the lawns are green rather than brown, and the shrubs have grown.
Bev.

[Digby]

Made a gorgeous tomato soup out of mine this year, they were very straggled and small but lovely. I put my beans in early so we had quite a few. The pigeons had the tops off all my onions, but still got some. Potatoes got blight, they were rubbish - one meal but they were freebees so didn't cost me anything.

The fruit has been good this year though - I've made loads of jam.

I just don't know whether to leave my pumpkins on and hope they ripen in the next 25 days or bring them in and hope they ripen in the window - looking very green at the moment. Any suggestions.

[BachPensioner]

I have been trying to cut the grass just now and was driven in by the humidity and the midgies - so bad they have followed me in. There have been very few midgie days this year so I think they are all trying to catch up. There are swarms of them

[notmusimum]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/niceThread.gif) I've no advice to offer but definately will be needing some

[salrec]

Our tomatoes haven't done too well either, they've got black botches on a lot of them, but we cut the good bits out and eat them.

Cucumbers have done really well, anyone want one?

Runner beans also doing well, unfortunately the children eat them raw when they are still quite small, rarely do they get as far as a saucepan. (They've eaten them raw for years, doesn't seem to harm them.)
Mange tout peas the same, they get eaten straight off the plant, don't think they even get into the rest of the garden.

Beetroot ok but not fantastic, decided against carrots this year as the carrot flies get them.

Leeks doing well, they'll keep us going all spring.

A good crop of sweetcorn, although it's all eaten now and the plants chopped up on the compost heap.

Apple trees laden, Bramleys need picking over though, especially if, like us, you are vegetarian. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/unsure.gif)

[lottie]

I've given up on all my plants - the only thing that did well were the couple of left-over seed potatos my Dad gave me - they've produced beautiful spuds and heaps on each plant.

Any methods for shifting a nasty little mole would be welcome though... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/mad.gif)

[BachPensioner]

Any methods for shifting a nasty little mole would be welcome though... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/mad.gif)

My neighbour uses the 'stick with a bottle resting on top it' into the latest molehill system - doesn't seem to work very well as she has to keep moving the stick as the hills increase!

[all ears]

I love plants, though I have a lazy thumb rather than a green thumb!

We are rather shaded by other houses (and our own plum trees...) so I get the most mileage out of leaf-vegetables which don't need as much sunshine as fruiting vegetables.We had a very cloudy summer too, and the courgettes (which usually hate the hot Japanese summer anyway) sulked royally.

I find the mini-tomatoes suffer less from pests than the big ones - they ripen before the bugs notice they're there, I think!

A friend told me that brussels' sprouts are much less bug-prone in her garden than cabbage, so I'm definitely going to grow some in containers on my balcony this year.

Other than that, the closer a plant is to a weed, the better it grows, so I always grow runner beans rather than dwarf bush beans etc. I've just pulled the tropical bean vines and bitter gourd vines off the house, ready to plant something for autumn. So far, I've planted lots of Chinese chives, and am considering those flowering Chinese brassicas that you can cut by the stem. Choy sum flowering pak choi, a kind of green, stemmy brassica - purple-flowered type will tolerate more cold. Also broccoli raab/rapini!

Any favourites for autumn planting? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[andante_in_c]

Any methods for shifting a nasty little mole would be welcome though... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/mad.gif)

I'll lend you our cat. He caught three in the space of two days during the summer. I just wish he would find a better place to leave them than on the drive behind the rear wheel of my car, though... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ph34r.gif)

[my_broken_strings]

well, this thread made me really jealous..... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sleep.gif) hehehe..... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

i really want to have a beatiful garden and manage them......

my parents are to busy to make it....

[Digby]

Mind you the weather is one extreme to the other - this year the rain ruined loads, last year was sooo hot the only thing it was good for was compost!


By the way, anyone got any ideas about discouraging rabbits from an allotment? The only suggestion I've had so far is a shot gun which isn't really an option.

[all ears]

My broken reeds, most of my "garden" is in a strip between house and road about 20cm wide, or in containers - even in shady places, climbing beans (like snake beans) or gourds, malabar spinach etc will climb till they find the sun and provide a good crop in a small place - and that's only the EDIBLE side of gardening! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[chocolatedog]

Apple tree laden - am waiting for it to ripen fully as the fruit is wonderful as dessert apples........having said that, I also use the slightly less ripe fruit to cook, and it needs no sugar added at all, simply a dash of elderflower concentrate, a generous sprinkling of cinnamon, and a good handful of sultanas..... mmmmmm lovely!! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Have hundreds of tomatoes on my greenhouse plants and these are ripening slowly - 2 at a time!!! At this rate it'll be next spring before they're all ripe!!! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/ohmy.gif) Maybe green tomato chutney is an option this year.... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/unsure.gif)

[Dulciana]

Glad to hear it wasn't a good year for tomatoes and not just a bad year for my small sons'! He's very proud of what he grew, but the plants were always either drowning or dried out. Same with most things! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif) Except for the roses and geraniums, which seem to have done well in spite of me and the weather.

What do you do with climbing nastirtiums?
Do you just leave the seeds in the ground where they fall, or do you collect them to sow next Spring?

[LizzieT]

A lot of my bedding did very well this summer. They had plenty of rain, and I think there was quite a lot of sun in between showers as there have been loads of flowers.

Tomatoes - like others, were disappointing. The plants grew like crazy, but a lot of the fruit went black.

How about a few pictures from your gardens, folks? Being naturally nosey, I'd love to see people's successes and failures! Unfortunately my technology isn't good enough to post pictures.