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.

Spoke too soon, when I looked closely I found green and white flies also found loads of little black flies and a snail attracted by the trays of water

Any suggestions for the green and white flies?
I have seen you can buy insects to eat them anyone tried it?

you can buy ladybird larvae but they do have a tendency to run away - ok in a greenhouse. Otherwise get some medical gloves and squish them! and pay the kids 10p for every (live) ladybird they find and bring to you to put on your plants

Not a lot of lady birds around hence thinking of buying some! Only have those plastic greenhouses , think they will escape?

I have baby leeks, spinach, beetroot, kale, onions and potatoes all doing well.

The beans, peas and lettuce were decimated by the recent rain so only have one of each left .

Also have a dwarf apple tree with lots of fruit coming, a gooseberry bush and we're having our first rhubarb crumble tonight.

I looked at buying ladybirds but thought they were v expensive and how do I know that they won't just fly off and ignore all the nice juicy greenfly living on my rose??

I just like the idea of having loads all over my plants

Me too. I need a bigger garden so I can have a greenhouse. Then I can justify the cost of buying ladybirds cos I can let them live in the greenhouse.

now dears (mumsy/headmistressy tone of voice) you must remember ladybirds are wild animals, they really love to roam free in the countryside flitting from plant to plant. keeping them in a greenhouse is a bit like keeping them in a cage - it's not really fair. more to the point the little b*** do find it frighteningly easy to escape

and do not bother for outdoor plants - they are expensive and in my experience disappear immediately

Try telling that to Monty Don (who put the idea in my head in the first place). But methinks u are right. Hey ho...

May I jump in again please and ask if we were sowing late carrots in a pot this week, how many could we fit in a 45 cm pot and what kind of arrangement should I sow them in? (it says in rows, but the pot is round)

Oh, and I have 3 million lettuces coming up, can I transplant some of them to a pot, how and when should I do it, and how much space should I leave between them? (sorry for daft questions but am ignoramus)

I cram lettuces in a pot and eat them as leaves, I usually leave about 5cm between carrots (but we have small ones).

I am very much trial and error!

May plant some more carrots though (if I can find room!)

Thankyou MrsWho, I personally can cope with the disappointment if something goes wrong, but ds may need therapy if he doesn't succeed in growing something to eat pretty soon

Well he'll get lettuce

Have you got tomatos and strawberries? they are some of the easiest things I have grown and my Strawberries are nearly ready

My friend looked after my house last week and apparantly her daughter went round my yard telling my friend what all the plants are and what she should grow at home My dd1 isn't interested and dd2 only wants to eat the fruit.

We have tomatoes coming very slowly, we did start late, and we are notorious for killing tomatoes anyway

A friend is giving us a pumpkin today, and I read something in the Guardian about pegging it down in a circle in a pot, so that it grows up in a pyramid shape. Can anyone explain because I don't really get it?

Is there a special time of day or method I should use to transplant some of these lettuces?

I just let pumpkins trail and don't do anything in particular with the lettuces either

Hi Gang, we're back from Hay where we saw Monty Don and Sarah Raven. Great fun, though we found talk by Monty on the project with drug users rather touching.

We had the book signed and a little chat, he's sooooo lovely and had time for everyone. (I know I was buying the book, but still!!)

We've planted squash, sweetcorn, peas and beans today, we're miles behind as we had so much work to do on the plot with regard to enriching the soil etc.

We've had lettuce and cabbage from the plot which has been really satisfying, but lost cucumber plants to that frost and rain last week.

Back to the nursery (which won a Gold at Chelsea; I try not to go too often as I have no willpower around plants. It was killing me at Hay as we backpacked and couldn't manage to bring any plants home.

That was me too, all the way home I was passing garden centres and farm shops and I had no room in the car

I've been very naughty!! I went to pick up a prescription yesterday and walked past local Plant Shop. Well, I say walked past, actually I went in and spent a fortune on flowers for my home garden, not veg for the plot!!

I feel that I'm struggling to do both so Just wanted to inject some colour and joosh up the hanging baskets. I'm going to need counselling about my gardening obsession.

Well so faar I am eating , peas, strawberries, lettuce, herbs and gooseberries that are home grown

MrsWho! How lovely to see you in the garden.

We're already eating raspberries, strawberries and lettuce. Courgettes by early next week.

Tomatoes are really slow. Broad beans still only 2ft high. Peas pathetic. Runner & french beans eaten. Celery eaten but fighting back. Sunflowers gone. Nasturtiams coming. Potatoes flowering.

The orchard looks lovely and laden but the June drop is upon us!

F&Z - sorry, can't help with either of those!

We have homegrown herbs and rocket and two strawberries so far.

Ahoy there DrunkenSailor - I'm interested in your wine-making! What other wines do you make? I'm going to start trying to make wine this year. I'm quite interested in making a sparkling gooseberry. And we have tons of blackcurrants so I could try a rather porty-red.

I'm also thinking of buying a wine/cider press to make apple juice. It would be a good use of the fruit - rather than giving carrier bags full to everyone. You can see them trying to avoid me come the Autumn