vegetable virgin...

[giraffeski]

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Dead rabbits, I should add. Bl%dy cats.

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water it - lots!

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I just planted my garlic cloves that have sprouted. You ever done that giraffeski? I'm not recommending it btw... just wondering if it actually works, or if I'm going to have an attractive display of soil for the year?!?

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Garlic works for me, Serah. Hot garlic tip from Bob Flowerdew via Gardeners' Question Time: once the tops have died back, dig up the bulbs and dry them/eat them. If you wait too long, the foliage will disappear and you'll have no idea where your garlic was. (On the other hand, they'll come up again manifold the next year.)

Glad your rocket is happier, Giraffeski. Wish I could say the same about my runner beans. They look v poorly.

Can you give them a boost, suedonim? Say with a liquid fertiliser (eg seaweed stuff?) They might be able to withstand slug attacks better if a bit stronger. Wood ash from a bonfire is good for them if you're allowed to have bonfires. Otherwise lots of watering, preferably in the morning so the slugs don't get excited at night?

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I've just been out to have a closer look at the beans and to water them (oops, I didn't realise I'd have been better leaving that till morning) and they are looking nibbled, with the skeleton of the leaf still there in some cases. Also, the ends of some leaves are shrivelled. I'd have thought that was frost from Monday night except the shrivelled leaves are on the beans I covered over, not the ones that I had to leave to their fate. Anyway, I've now put a barrier of broken shells round them, to ward off slugs.

One of the courgette plants has completely disappeared and a couple of others are a bit sad-looking. I had no idea growing veg was so traumatic - I was really upset for my beans!

You know the rabbits you keep finding in your veg bed - if you were Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall you would probably treat them like roadkill and eat them

Hope your beans recover. I think watering in the morning is better from the slug point of view, but I'm never completely sure of my gardening facts, mainly because I'm never sure where I heard or read them. It kind of makes sense to me, though, because slugs and snails do come out at night, and they do like damp conditions.

Yes, that figures re the watering, Tiddypom. As for rabbits, today's offering is some other small furry woodland creature, there's not even a mouthful there so I won't fire up the barbecue - esp as I don't possess such an item anyway!

oh tiddlypom, you have just brought up an old crush of mine.. Bob Flowerdew, where are you and will you marry me???! (I'd harvest his garlic anytime!)

Sigh

Anyway, I was going to tell you, Giraffeski about an old "B'Flowerdew" tip I heard for those short of space, but thought that no one else could have possibly heard of him and assume I was barking - you can grow potatoes in a small stack of old tyres....(I'll try not to go on about his spuds here...)

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Serah, unless my ears were mistaking me, Bob - and I adore him too, although for his veg advice more than his ponytail - revealed today on Gardeners' Question Time that he's acquired a 'young wife' and has twins on the way! Could this be true? And has she heard of MN, I wonder?

I hope I haven't broken your heart with this revelation...

Blast!

I think, for me, his plait "eased" me into the care and maintenance of vegetables. I could have held it out the way for him as he potted up some radishes.

My basil is testimony to my unrequited love (pale and withering) but my rhubarb lives on.

Anyway, I have a garlic sprout (no, not a hybrid). I think I'll call it "Bob".
Sigh

suedomnim wrote >> i had no idea growing veg was so traumatic

you are so right! no time to go into my veg traumas now - except out of 2 rows of spinach, 2 rows of pak choi, 1 row of coriander - i have the grand total of 5 plants - sob!

my dwarf french beans and spuds seem to be doing fine - i suppose we will be eating nothing but for a month.

gooseberries about to come in, blackcurrants and strawberries on the verge of ripening.

courgettes planted from seed 10 days ago (yes very slack - what can i say?) - 2 seedlings already - hope there is time to actually harvest some before autumn.

this is so much more difficult/hard work than i thought!

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Bossykate, what happened to the spinach etc? Did bunnies or slugs get them? I'm still waiting for the carrots to come through but I'm not holding my breath, it's been so long. I'm amazed at how attached I've become to my plants, I've gone a bit Prince Charles and like to talk to them and now it feels like they've turned into a whole bunch of little friends.

suedonim, they simply haven't germinated. with the benefit of hindsight, i think i should have planted them in a shallow drill rather than with a dibber. the good news is all of them can be planted pretty much throughout the summer and autumn, so if i make the effort to sow more, i might still get some crops.

Hmmm, I think I might resow, too BK. There are little things coming up but I can't tell weeds from seeds. Maybe I'll hoe it and plant spinach or broccoli there.

suedonim, i had that problem too, couldn't tell sprouting weeds from my seedlings, with the result that that part of the plot got v. overgrown with weeds. it's possible the weeds choked off some emergent seedlings.

anyway, i found illustration of a spinach seedling . they have very long thin pale green first leaves. once you know what to look for it's much easier.

Thanks for that - it's a really cute website! At least my potatoes are coming up so we can live on those, lol!