UKC

Morning UKC, 

I've been growing some veg in my raised beds again this year and this morning I have already picked off one of my new courgette varieties.

Behold the Summer ball courgette !

https://ibb.co/debWDT

https://ibb.co/jJOdtT

This is my first time growing this variety ,  I normally grow heaps of courgettes (one of my favourite vegetables).

I've got normal courgettes, french beans, runner beans , tomatoes,  baby corn on the cobs and aubergines this year. 

Some tasty produce from last year

 https://ibb.co/k6OmDT https://ibb.co/mUwTSo

Show me some of yours !

TWS

Very annoyed to find out that planting french marigolds next to my turnips has done nothing to protect them

My crops are mostly still weedy slug nibbled things, nowhere near cropping owing to the late wet start to summer. Only the Rhubarb and salad and chard have cropped so far.

I've got about 30 different fruits and veg planted, I'm not sure I'm going to get much from them this year though.

jk

I have four different colours of toms - only had the bog-standard red so far; peas (tiny handful but delicious); strawberries - actually managed to get them to grow nicely in a strawberry pot this year; grapes, which will be tiny, sour, and able to be made into the sort of wine you pour down the sink; rhubarb ( rather too small to eat this year); and thr usual herbs.

So a better harvest than usual but in tiny quantities. Now i've got the hang of strawberry pots i shall extend the planting next year, hopefully with this year's runners.

Oh bless them i forgot the fruit trees. Reasonable pears, a crumble's-worth of gooseberries nearly ready, the usual unhelpful tiny raspberries and a bumper crop of cooking apples on the way (wine, crumbles, mmm...).

The marigolds are usually sacrificial for greenfly, what has had your turnips?

We got off to a cold start in Scotland this year, so apart from the strawberries which have started ripening this week nothing else is ready yet.  Most things (peas, mangetout, tomatoes, peppers, courgette) are just setting their first flowers so it will probably a month or so until I really have anything to show for my efforts, although I can probably start taking baby leaves from the lettuce, spinach and chard now.

I gave up on strawberry pots - they grow nicely in them for one year but then get pot-bound and it is hard to water them evenly.  I have started using troughs which is working better for me.  I have also found that leaving them in the greenhouse until the first flowers are showing gets them off to a better start, and adding a slow-release feed early in the season has given me much bigger fruit this year.

Something like root maggots.

I didn't read up on it too carefully.

Pity because its a lovely variety, like radishes when tiny.

Cabbage root fly? Turnip is a crucifer after all.

Ah yes, i see what you mean. I'll bear that in mind..

I grew up in a house with a big garden, and in 1976 my parents grew 48lb of strawberries. My old dad would chuckle if he could see my wee strawberry  pot!

I got some cheapo plastic tubs with handles on - 3 for £10. Each takes 3 strawberry plants and enough soil that you don't need to water them every day. A line of 12 gives us plenty of strawberries and a glut in peak season. Always a dream - a glut of strawberries! Not 48lb though.

We might actually get some cucumbers this year. All three plants look like they are going to live, and one even has some flowers on it. The last couple of years, they've just died.

French beans and beetroots looking good, so too the courgettes. In fact, everything looks fine. Well, apart from the chard that died, and the lettuce that didn't come up. Still, it's quiet, too quiet.

An allotment neighbour, on a plot that used to be ours but has since gone to ruin, has offered us redcurrant bushes that I think we even planted, some years ago. He wants to clear that patch. We have space. Can they be moved at this time of year?

Meet hoppy the hop plant who outgrew the cane yesterday.

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/887/42052236794_126cf4f059_k.jpg

Strawberries, potatoes and out of picture all the other berries doing very nicely too. As are the weeds.

I see some home made beer in your future perhaps ?

Thats indeed the bad weather day hobby.