*Ahem*!! I would like to announce.....

[Greensleeves]

...that my moong beans and my chickpeas have put up beautiful healthy seedlings :):):):)

As have my radishes, my turnips and dh's potatoes and shallots!! And my gooseberry bushes are already weighed down with fruit!

The carrots, cauliflowers, pumpkins, squash, broccoli, onions, parsnips, peppers and leeks remain recalcitrant although the batty old dear in the next allotment assures me that they will all come up "when they're ready"

Anyone else got any growing news?

[Greensleeves]

I refuse to believe that no-one is interested in my moong beans

[fullmoonfiend]

Hello, I am allotty totty! I have rainbow chard just peeking through, spinach, sweetcorn, broadbeans, onions, shallots, potatoes, gooseberries, strawberries, lettuce, courgette, tomatoes, leeks, caulis and something called related to brococli which you can use for salad/stirfry.
Still have runners, french beans, peas , squash and mange tout to plant, but it's puoring down here.
Am fascinated to hear about your moong beans - are they on a windowsill?

[charliecat]

My potatoes are growing fine :):):)

[fullmoonfiend]

GS I refuse to believe you are not interested in the fact that I am interested in your moong beans...

[Greensleeves]

Wow FMF, that sounds amazing!! The moong beans are just in a furrow on the allotment, they grow up canes like other beans apparently, but it's all experimental for us this year.... am planning to grow pinto, flageolet, black turtle, aduki beans..... who knows what will happen!

I hope your tomatoes are OK ks, I watered mone from above last year and they were fine

[fullmoonfiend]

Can you really grow chick peas in this country ? Wow!

[Greensleeves]

Yes, apparently they are native to Britain originally and were a staple food in mediaeval times! And the seedlings are beautiful.

[Greensleeves]

[kiskidee]

all i have got is 6 strawberry plants, the ordinary kind and 2 bushes of alpine.

a wee blackcurrant stick with buds on it that came in to post for dd from Ribena. (I don't know how Ribena got her name and addy but she won't be drinking Ribena very often)

and 2 little tomato plants i bought in the garden centre today.

of those with allotments.

[Bozza]

Well I have loads of strawberry plants and they are flowering nicely. Hope they are not damaged by the predicted cold night.

[nikkie]

I have flowers on my tomatoand chilli plants and loads on the strawberries.My kiwi is starting to flower .
I also have peppers,blueberry bushes,peas,apple&pear sticks,celery,pumpkins,beetrrot ,radish and lettuce in the yard.In the plastic greenhouse thing I have loads of tomato seedlings,some cape gooseberry ,pepper and chilli seedlings.[proud emoticon ] (or boasting one)
I am still waiting on the squash, beans and the sweetcorn.
My dads allotment though hasn't done well so far.

[mummygow]

wow - I'm soooooooooo impressed, how did you get started - I don't have anywhere to plant vegetables/fruit but would love to have all that fresh stuff on demand and do you save a fortune?

[nikkie]

I've only got a back yard . still have room for the kids to play too!
Probably don't save anything though as I keep buying seeds and plants

[Bozza]

Well - does anyone know what will happen to my strawbs? Overnight low forecast at 2degrees. Also all the bedding plants I rather blasely planted this week....

[VeniVidiVickiQV]

Would love a big enough garden to have a proper veg patch.

Well done on getting your beans sprouting GS

My potatoes are doing well (am growing them in containers due to lack of space). My tomatoes, peppers, brussel sprout, fennel and broccoli seeds have all sprouted, as have my butternut squash seeds

AND all my herb seeds - basil, parsely, thyme, coriander, summer savoury, oregano, sweet marjoram.

PLUS my beetroots, carrots, spring onions, lettuce, radicchio, and cabbage are coming along great too - am really impressed - am doing lots of container growing this year as space is very limited.

My strawberries are doing well - grew some plants from seed last year and they have come into their own this year. Blackberry bush is covered in buds and DD has left my Blackcurrant bush alone so far this year (last year she picked all of them off one by one whilst they were still green

Am hoping my new raspberry canes will do something this year too.

No sign of my runner beans, peas, broad beans or courgette so far though

Your strawberries should be okay but cover them with fleece/straw overnight to just to be cautious Bozza.

[kiskidee]

your strawberries should be fine if they have been o/s for a while. mine were taken from mother plant last year and spent all winter o/s. i only protected them when we had week long cold snaps.

[Bozza]

They have been out since forever. Some are older plants, some established themselves. I was just concerned that the flowers might be damaged rather than the actual plant IYSWIM.

[kiskidee]

dunno.

[kiskidee]

but mine are staying out. surely they'd produce more flowers if these ones die.

[BettySpaghetti]

OOH I've never posted on a Gardening thread before!

We thinned out our raspberries a while ago (not really knowing whether what we were doing was right or not) but they are starting to look really healthy -hoping for a good crop again this year as they are delicious!

[fullmoonfiend]

anyone gor any perfect parsnip tips?

[nikkie]

Never grown them (see you didn't kill it-I may though!)

[fullmoonfiend]

Don't mind killing it, just not on such a deadly dull question

[SecondhandRose]

My pumpkins (giants) are just coming up (about 3" now) also lettuce, cue and yellow peppers.

Have planted loads of bedding plant seeds but they're all so weedy and spindly and my geranium are still only 4" high, any ideas?