God I love growing our own

[pargyle]

Thanks.....Lidl shop today

https://www.lidl.co.uk/p/dwarf-fruit-trees/p10014038

 

[pargyle]

I use our now defunct kerbside recycling boxes (was donated a few by various neighbours). They're like the brittle clear stackable boxes that you'd use indoors but made of really tough flexible black UV resistant stuff. I have them stacked round the back of the shed in a low wall. Particularly good for the smaller odd sized pots which make up tall little towers inside.

Yes ... I think some sort of containers will be the answer ... I've got to get some sort of organisation into the present chaos, I'm fed up of falling over plastic plant pots that seem to have a life of their own !

 

[enrico]

Eat our first Charlotte new potatoes at the weekend, pulled out of the pot without lifting the plants. Scrummy

 

[Gingerbread]

I have lots (I mean hundreds) of plastic plant pots ... various sizes fro 3" to 10", some of them nest, some don't. I've tried storing them in plastic mushroom trays but inevitably the trays don't then stack. I've tried standing them in towers on the floor and they tipple over. I've tried putting them on their sides on shelves, they roll about. I have space under my potting bench where I store them but it always turns into an unholy mess.

Has anyone got any novel ideas about how to store the things.?

Mine have accumulated mostly from plants and seedlings we have bought at nurseries so they don't match particularly well ... if they were all the same it would probably be less of a problem.

If you stand them in towers, would they be less likely to topple if stacked upside down perhaps.

 

[pargyle]

If you stand them in towers, would they be less likely to topple if stacked upside down perhaps.

Yes ... that's how I stack them ... the bigger ones are alright but the 3" ones seem to bend over and as soon as I get near them scatter themselves over the floor !

 

[Gingerbread]

Yes ... that's how I stack them ... the bigger ones are alright but the 3" ones seem to bend over and as soon as I get near them scatter themselves over the floor !

Bigger pots could have bamboo cane through to keep them stacked.
Those with smaller drainage holes can be threaded onto string/baler twine, then hung out of the way.

 

[enrico]

I really can't recommend these butternut squash enough. They are called wallnut. The plants are not too huge, they have at least three fruits to a plant. They are bigger than butternut normal, but not too huge. They have stored so well in a cool room. Last one here, just about to go in a curry

 

[Erichalfbee]

I really can't recommend these butternut squash enough. They are called wallnut. The plants are not too huge, they have at least three fruits to a plant. They are bigger than butternut normal, but not too huge. They have stored so well in a cool room. Last one here, just about to go in a curry

I love these. I have ichi kuri ( sp) and still have some in store. Six or seven squashes per plant.

 

[enrico]

I love these. I have ichi kuri ( sp) and still have some in store. Six or seven squashes per plant.

Ichi are the only others we grow

 

[Erichalfbee]

Ichi are the only others we grow

I’m trying something called Casperita. Free seeds

 

[enrico]

I’m trying something called Casperita. Free seeds

Let me know

 

[pargyle]

Another heads up ... I find these 40 litre flexible tubs really useful in the garden ... some of the cheap ones are rubbish and split in no time - these are really heavy duty not all thin and floppy. On promotion in Toolstation at 2 for £13 ...

https://www.toolstation.com/flexi-tub-40l/p79794?bvstate=pg:2/ct:r

 

[Newbeeneil]

Another heads up ... I find these 40 litre flexible tubs really useful in the garden ... some of the cheap ones are rubbish and split in no time - these are really heavy duty not all thin and floppy. On promotion in Toolstation at 2 for £13 ...

https://www.toolstation.com/flexi-tub-40l/p79794?bvstate=pg:2/ct:r

Just right size for a bait hive Phil!

 

[JamezF]

Just right size for a bait hive Phil!

Or perhaps a handy skep?

James

 

[Amari]

Strawberries (from one raised bed) and mange-tout peas doing well but autumn and spring planted onion sets and gooseberries doing badly.

 

[JamezF]

I didn't go into work today. Spent a huge amount of the day sowing seeds instead. For the first time since the end of March I think I have caught up with sowing veggie seeds. I delayed quite a lot because the weather was so poor which seemed to be affecting germination of many seeds, and have struggled to get back on top of things having done so. Working again has made it even more difficult, so I'm feeling quite pleased now. Sadly the veggie plot now needs some serious weeding doing, again

We've also started picking beetroot and sugar snap peas, though the podding peas aren't quite there yet. Broad beans are pretty much ready to pick too, and I might lift our first potatoes in the next few days. I've been fighting a running battle with the slugs over the parsnips and carrots. In the end I resorted to slug pellets. They ate through about a metre square of scattered pellets in a single night! I'm not sure we'll be eating very many home-grown parsnips this Winter though

Summer brassicas seem to be doing well despite the slugs however -- probably because they get sown in modules in the greenhouse and planted out once they're big enough to survive although it's not proof against them. I had two entire trays of sprout seedlings reduced to nothing a few days ago and they got halfway through a tray of savoy cabbages too. Fortunately it's not too late to sow again.

Not sure that my peppers and tomatoes are going to be that great this year either. It's taken them so long to get going. I still have some pepper seedlings with only two tiny leaves. I'm hoping that I can get enough fruit to save a reasonable number of seeds, allowing me to sow them successionally next year in the hope that at least one batch will fall into a decent "weather window". But of course that's not how our weather works any more, is it? Past performance is not indicative of future results any more. Next Spring I'll probably need to ski to work.

James

 

[Goran]

We finished with peas ( decent amount for till the next season). Yesterday we removed snap beans from greenhouse ( we have more than we can eat till next season). Hot peppers we have for some time in greenhouse, we eagerly await for tomatoes to ripe. Today we picked some rotund peppers from greenhouse. Peppers we quit planting outside, cause they strive more and yield more in greenhouse - seems they love a lot of water and lot of warmth. Today first apples and pears we picked. Couple days ago started some plums.. Hazels lowered their branches to the ground with hazelnuts. In weather prognosis they predict violent summer, but it won't be the first time storms rip off crop before time.. Last year we lost about 70% of hazelnuts among other losses due to storm..

 

[enrico]

Picking podding peas every day, gooseberries are rubbish this year, shallots are fine, having to pull garlic though be ause the leaves are just brown with rust, luckily the elephant garlic is looking good, we have found the little bulblets that hang on the bottom make nice single bulbs in two years just by leaving them in the ground. Well worth it as they can get pulled at any time and fill a gap!
The small sweet tomatoes are struggling. I think the spell of hot weather in spring did something and they are short of leaves but flowers are there, meanwhile the Shirley tomatoes are so much stronger and setting nicely, just thinking of turning red. Potatoes growing well. We have finished the potatoes in tubs but the outdoor ones look really healthy. Need some rain believe it or not.

 

[pargyle]

My tomatoes were very slow to start ... they have got to about a foot tall and are now potted on into tubs and are outside. Whether there is much of a crop - depends to a great extent on the weather. Apart from one over wintered chilli plant (which is doing well) all my chilli seedlings are only a couple of inches tall - jusr got their second leaf set - not at all hopeful. Picking broad beans now - second and third sowings doing well. Runners and Cobra french beans are well established and starting to flower. Potatoes in bags looking good and my leek seedlings are well up but nowhere near ready to go out. Blackcurrants are a bit sparse as are my gooseberries - very odd year all round.

 

[Murox]

I don't attempt to grow veg in the ground any more up here but this year we bought some freestanding planters which can protect plants from the winds; they are planted up with a range of dwarf things we like. So far far so good though its all been slow to get going, put some fleece over them which has helped a lot as well.
Growing some toms, variety red robin, in the conservatory, slow starters but now looking promising.