Fruit & Veg growers Club 2007

[nikkie]

What is everyone planning to grow this year?
I have the bluberry bushes, strawberries,apple and pear from last year and hopefully i will get some proper fruit this year.Will be growing peas/tomatos/lettuce for definate as they all did really well. Cape gooseberry plants did well but fruit needed a couple more weeks of sun and never quite made it ,possibly start earlier this time.

all my seedlings have been outside in plastic greenhouse thing for a couple of weeks and are doing fine, don't think they will actually need to come back in the house again.

anyone know when (temperature-wise) can tomatoes be grown outdoors?

No idea was tempted to put mine out this w/e but then remebered it was only APril and will prob go colder

have also been tempted by fantastic weather! seasons are a bit more extreme where I am so maybe maybe maybe i can put them out sooner (and get them off my sodding kitchen window sill!)

get one of those plastic greenhouse things

good idea but sadly not so easy here... I'd have to physically put something together from plastic sheeting and wood and well, I'm not that skilled . Had decided earlier in the year to go straight to sowing outdoors when the seasons changed so didn't get a plytunnel made.
I know exactly where the tomatoes will go - a lovely south facing wall - so just have to wait for the right moment...

Going a bit OTT again just ordered these
lilliput size stuff!

ive been getting tomatoes, potatoes, strawberries, onions and lettuces off to a flying start in the conservatory (taken it over for time being) and blow me down if i dont already have toamtoes and starwberries coming through

will they all go into shock when i put them out (next month??) and they realise they dont live in the caribbean afterall?

do it gradually, out in the day in at night until we get a warm spell and then leave them out at night.

My strawberries are flowering

ah. good idea mrswho.

its absolutely roasting in there... the toms are jungle-like, and all are flowering (is 6 diff varieties/plants) and one had several toms on... the strawbs - tons - have all flowered and theres loads of fruit coming through the ones where the petals have fallen off. ds1 v excited, bless im.

you might know this; ive got a blusher brush for pollinating the tom flowers (instructions from MIL) and have been doing the strawb flowers too... do i need to or am i just being daft?

I never have and have had loads of fruit.

Who's planted out?

I've planted out my courgettes & cucumbers today. I suppose I may have to throw a fleecy blanket over them if it suddenly gets cold again.

And I've had to put electric fencing around the vegetable patch because the wretched chickens keep scratching up my potatoes and the damnable rabbits will eat everything else. It looks horrible. But safe!

My stuff is in pots in the yard (well most of it) so not as exposed as the alotment.Tomatos/peppers are in plastic greenhouse thing but it is open , everything else is outside.

We had an escaped chicken in the allotment 2 years ago it cleared out most peoples veg before someone caught it. One has been out alread yt his year but there was a big patch of feathers in the lane so I think it has been caught now

Right, gardening people, I understand the concepts and he logics of both companion gardening and crop rotation, but cannot get my head around a way of doing both if it is at all possible...

So has anyone tried companion gardening AND crop rotation, and is it possible to combine them? Please! This is for vegetables and herbs.

Sorry burek can't help but have a question.
Naive as I am, I don't know how many plants to put out to get a reasonable crop. I know, through swotting up, how far apart, both rows and side by side, but nowhere doesit sy 'Plant 10 butternut Squash plants and 15 Broad beans etc etc.
I'm treated like a little girl by all the old hands (a flattering and refreshing happening in my life LOL) and don't want to appear even more useless so please MN help out with some rough guides!!

I'm with you on that one Earthymama. Naive and proud! I too feel confused about how much to plant. Some seed packets give you % of how much germination you can expect, but if you're thinning out as well, what happens? I've got about 5 gardening books and can't find anything about how much average weight in veg you get back from your planting.

Earthy- It depends how much you actually want!
Things like tomatos are easy but peas/beans are more difficult to gauge.
How many are you growing for and we'll see if MN gardeners can provide a guide !

Burek -no idea! I suppose it means moving each 'pair/companions' of plants in a rotation

I remember Pippa Greenwoods little Organic Gardening Book telling me what yield to expect from potatoes. Can't remember if she quoted for other things. Mmmm?

I'll look it up tomorrow and report back.

Bought soome more seeds today
I was very good though and didn't go to the garden centre and buy more plants!

I've put out lettuces today. Runner beans, French beans, broad beans and peas have also gone in today. Pink Fir going in tomorrow.

I shall be visiting the garden centre at the weekend looking for tomatoes, aubergines and peppers. Mine have all died - some sort of mould

when has/do people put there tomatos outside?
My tumbling ones are quite big but its gone colder and its raining again here now.

got a lovely surprise today...
a month or so back I bought and planted what I thought was a little hedge type plant with reddish green leaves. Popped it on a boundary and it's doing really great. Turned out I'd translated the name wrong and ...

...it's a CRANBERRY bush! How cool Wonder how long before I get berries off it...

I got a lemon tree today. Potted it up and wait.

Cool cranberry bush , ihvae been looking at goja berry bushes but they are expensive!

Sparklygirl -Is you lemen tree inside or out? dd2 keeps asking for one