The "G" word

[melmerby]

Problem with commercially grown fruit/vegetables is that they need to be a plentiful & reliable cropper.

Tasteless Moneymaker toms used to be a staple of tomato production.

Many of the tastier varieties aren't so productive.

 

This year I've grown Tomato (two varieties)/shallot/red onion/spring onion/broadbean/beetroot/french bean (Dwarf and climbing)/sweet peppers/chillies.

The spring onions for some reason failed to produce much and neither are the italian Marmande toms.

The red onions and the shallots have produced bumper crops and the cherry toms are as usual almost a glut, as are the french beans.

Edited September 4, 2022 by melmerby

[tigerburnie]

I've grown eleven different varieties of tomato, including Moneymaker, which fresh off the plant is a tasty one to my taste buds, but then any one tastes better eaten the same day it was picked. If you want a good all rounder that eats fresh or cooked, British Breakfast is a very good cropper, we have tons(well I might be exaggerating a tad) of them. I like Gardeners delight and Black Cherry for the small cherry types and Orange Queen is a very nice Beef steak type. If you look at my youtube channel I've done a few videos about tommie growing. just search for burnie maurins if you are interested.

[Torper]

Well the gardening season is rearing its head and I've been doing a bit of tidying up.  Unfortunately we, together with others in the village, have had a number of rats take up residence in the vicinity, attracted to us in particular by our bird feeders.  We've had to have the pest control people in.  Otherwise, I visited the garden centre to get some compost and asked for the peatiest they have.  Last year I had to make use of some peat free ones and they ranged from adequate  (Miracle-Gro) to utterly useless (the rest).  I understood from the chap at the garden centre that this view was widely shared.  Next year peated composts will no longer be sold which I think is unfortunate - just hope they don't try that with whiskies!  Am not sure whether to try spuds this year - I enjoyed them last year and while I got a reasonable crop (as I should in Angus) I'm not at all sure that the results were worth the effort.  Any suggestions for varieties that taste like new potatoes used to?

[Nick C]

4 hours ago, Torper said:

Next year peated composts will no longer be sold

Good. Considering the damage they do to the environment, they should have been banned a long time ago...

[Torper]

The damage done by peated composts used for horticultural purposes has been greatly exaggerated whileas the problems arising from their so-called replacements has largely been ignored.

[tigerburnie]

On 24/02/2023 at 13:22, Torper said:

Well the gardening season is rearing its head and I've been doing a bit of tidying up.  Unfortunately we, together with others in the village, have had a number of rats take up residence in the vicinity, attracted to us in particular by our bird feeders.  We've had to have the pest control people in.  Otherwise, I visited the garden centre to get some compost and asked for the peatiest they have.  Last year I had to make use of some peat free ones and they ranged from adequate  (Miracle-Gro) to utterly useless (the rest).  I understood from the chap at the garden centre that this view was widely shared.  Next year peated composts will no longer be sold which I think is unfortunate - just hope they don't try that with whiskies!  Am not sure whether to try spuds this year - I enjoyed them last year and while I got a reasonable crop (as I should in Angus) I'm not at all sure that the results were worth the effort.  Any suggestions for varieties that taste like new potatoes used to?

Try using the stuff in grow bags rather than Multi Purpose Compost, it has some extra feed in it, sadly most compost sold now is from council green bins, which is ok as a soil improver if you have heavy soil, but it does not get to a high enough temperature to kill off weed seeds and they don't leave it long enough to compost properly. You can get free soil improver from your council tip and add some slow release fertiliser like Blood, Fish and Bone, I got mine from Arbroath tip for free.

[Nick C]

17 hours ago, Torper said:

The damage done by peated composts used for horticultural purposes has been greatly exaggerated whileas the problems arising from their so-called replacements has largely been ignored.

Peat bogs take hundreds of years to regenerate - they are in effect a fossil fuel. Can you please link to a reputable source discussing the environmental impact of peat free compost, because I can't find any?

 

We've been using exclusively organic peat free compost for several years now - and we know exactly what's gone into it, because it comes from our own compost bin. The only problem we've had with it is things growing too well, we didn't leave one batch long enough and it sprouted a bunch of tomato plants...

[TheQ]

Due to the shutdown of Cantley sugar refinery, the beet harvest has been delayed till last week.

So we've been invaded by rats. They've even been camped out by the doors of our sheds looking at the piles of carp by them.

 

Anyway a decision was made to build two raised beds,  yesterday, unfortunately 1 ton of coal was sat in the way, that and the discovery of a slabbed area below the soil, meant lots of hard work. I've over done it and work didn't continue today. 

Hopefully 1 of the two beds will be completed by the end of the week. Filled with our own compost and soil. They are to be used for herbs and smaller salad veg.

[Torper]

On 25/02/2023 at 17:48, Nick C said:

Peat bogs take hundreds of years to regenerate - they are in effect a fossil fuel. Can you please link to a reputable source discussing the environmental impact of peat free compost, because I can't find any?

 

Less than half of 1% of UK peatland areas are now used for extraction, and only 10% of that is used for horticulture.  Of that 10%, 70% is used in bagged compost mixes.  The other 90% of UK peat extracted is used largely for forestry and agriculture.  The amount of CO2 released per annum per hectare from a German peat extraction site is equivalent to three passengers flying one way from London to New York (sorry, can't find a UK comparison).

 

One of the main products marketed as an alternative to peat is coir. This looks not dissimilar to dry peat moss, but it is not produced in the UK - most coir used in horticulture comes from large coconut fibre processing mills located in Sri Lanka and India, and therefore has to be transported and shipped if it's to get here.  It also requires a significant amount of fresh water to process and in some areas like India, drinking water is already in short supply. It takes 300 to 600 litres of water to wash one cubic meter of coir pith, resulting in polluted water that impacts the environment. The process also removes salt, tannins, and phenolic compounds and requires input chemicals, producing unpleasant waste products.  Add to that the fact that work in these plants induces nasobronchial allergy and pulmonary function abnormalities - in Europe it would be illegal to work under such conditions. 

 

Please note that I am continuing to use peat in horticulture as a growing medium for which it is unrivalled - in other words I am one of the 70% of 10% of 0.5% which, if my maths is correct, works out as the UK's gardeners collectively using 0.035% each year of the UK peat reserves.  The vast majority of extracted peat is actually sold into amenity use as soil improvers which is much more suitable for substitution.

Edited March 16, 2023 by Torper

[tigerburnie]

It was minus 6 inside my greenhouse last night, but the Onions inside the blowaway look ok, just need to be careful watering in these temps. I got a bit of a bargain yesterday, 3 bags of farmyard manure, 3 bags of compost and a bag of 6X all for £35 pounds, so I'm ready to go once the weather sorts it's self out.

[tigerburnie]

Sowed my tomato seeds in cells and are now in the heated propagator, might seem a bit late, but it's still trying to snow up here.

[tigerburnie]

deleted

Edited May 5, 2023 by tigerburnie

[Reorte]

On 16/03/2023 at 18:19, tigerburnie said:

Sowed my tomato seeds in cells and are now in the heated propagator, might seem a bit late, but it's still trying to snow up here.

I haven't even started yet :( I've definitely left it late.

[melmerby]

1 hour ago, Reorte said:

I haven't even started yet :( I've definitely left it late.

I don't start them too early and always get a good crop.

Mostly outdoor grown toms, I harvested the last ones in December last year.

The greenhose ones got cooked last year, even with all windows and doors open and shades to keep the sun off, didn't do the harvested onions drying off any good either, I lost about 25%, still had loads.

Edited March 23, 2023 by melmerby

[tigerburnie]

Had an hour sat in the greenhouse potting things on, Tomatoes and Peppers that were in cells in the propagator are now in yoghurt pots(minus the yoghurt I should add), back in the frost free conservatory for at least a month I would have thought.
Peas and Sweetpeas are growing, no sign of the early salads yet though.

[tigerburnie]

deleted

Edited May 5, 2023 by tigerburnie

[tigerburnie]

The cold nights are a pain, I need to get the Tommies planted in the greenhouse, almost May and still frosts most nights.

[tigerburnie]

It;s chuckin' it darn

Edited May 5, 2023 by tigerburnie

[tigerburnie]

 

[melmerby]

Big bugbear (sic) this year are aphids, I'm trying to not use bug spray but I'm fighting a losing battle.

The broad beans are covered in blackfly from tip to toe, even though the shoots were picked out a while back. Plenty of beans on them though, filling out nicely.

I keep washing them off with a water spray but they are back the next day. It doesn't help because there are also an awful lot of ants this year, which 'farm' the damn things.

The sunflowers were doing great until greenfly got at the tips and nearly killed them all (I assume carrying some disease) The tips went all yellow and withered.

One has recovered completely and is now about a metre high and 3 others are slowly recovering.

 

Onions and shallots are doing great, starting to fill out nicely. (grown from sets)

Spring onions and beetroot (grown from seed in the bed) are better than last year, so far (more have germinated).

 

Tomato. I've got three varieties, Oxheart, (which are italian seeds,) Tumbling Tom Red & Garden Pearl. All are well advanced, the Tumbling Tom are split between outside and greenhouse, Oxheart are in the greenhouse and Garden Pearl all outside.

 

The garden is alive with Bees, getting their fill from the various flowers currently out.

 

 

 

[melmerby]

A few pictures to show state of play.

 

Bee's favourite plant "Pyracantha" (Firethorn), it gets dozens of bees on it at it's peak, mostly Bumbles:

 

Tumbling Tom in pot:

 

Garden Pearl in pot:

 

Beetroot:

 

Shallots:

 

Onions:

 

Oxheart in Greenhouse:

 

Sweet Pepper:

 

One of the assistant gardeners, hard at work:

 

 

I've noticed that the Oxheart flowers don't show up, yes there are some!

 

 

 

Edited June 14, 2023 by melmerby

[melmerby]

Noticed tonight the Blackfly are also all over some of the beetroot plants. Never had that before.

We need more bug eaters.

[The White Rabbit]

The most recent catalogue from one of the main 'names' in gardens had some 'natural' solutions to those pesky* pests. First time I've seen them advertised. 

 

It's been a challenging year here (in Yorkshire), first drought and excessive sun (again) then flood and unseasonal cold. Despite that, there have been some nice surprises. The antirrihinums (snapdragons) have been something of a success story, both grown from seed and a couple of examples from a (good) local garden centre. It's the first year I've grown them and they have provided plenty of colour for most of the summer and a few blooms are still clinging on now. The erysimums are also doing well. Inefficiency in a flower is much appreciated by gardeners... 

 

The chrysanthemums are in full bloom at the moment and providing a nice splash of colour. The Welsh Poppies did well earlier, some are now in their second blooming. We're definitely into autumn, I'm seeing quite a few mushrooms (or toadstools?) when on the patrols round the estate. Plenty of berries on the hollies and others, that used to be an old wives tale about showing we are in for a harsh winter. For personal reasons, I hope that's not so. But they do make a pretty picture. 

 

The pyracantha has done well this year, all the examples of various sizes we have, have enlarged considerably and also have a bumper crop of berries on. The local sparrows have been gorging themselves on these lately as a change from the all peanut diet. I've managed to grow some new Cowslips from seed to partner the existing clump, they may not last long but I do like their colour and form while they do bloom in spring. Two new clumps planted out under a beech tree.

 

Various new seeds and plenty of old favourites sown for next year. Some are showing already, others are (hopefully!) biding their time. 

 

* Other words are available... 

[tigerburnie]

I lost all my roots in one bed, carrots, parsnip and beetroots all germinated and failed to grow, found the problem and fixed it, ingress of hungry Beech hedge roots burst in through the membrane, now fixed,

Onions were brilliant, so was everything in the greenhouse, so swings and roundabouts again I guess.

[The White Rabbit]

It's been a good year for onions and alliums. Our carrots have been OK, no nibbling from mice or blight from fly but they just haven't developed much. Probably due to the weather. We've had some meals out of them but definitely not a bumper crop. 

 

Some sort of motto invoking 'swings and roundabouts' should go above the greenhouse door of most gardeners!