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Daphne

So how is the season so far?

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I seem to have slugs and snails everywhere! It's so disheartening when your entire row of seedlings is munched overnight!

 

Doing well so far -

 

Beetroot in pots

sweetcorn

tomatoes

Pattypan squash

chard

Kale

 

Appalling -

 

carrots (4 lots of seeds planted now and all eaten)

Radishes (all eaten)

Parsnips (ditto)

 

The above are in a raised bed surrounded by old copper pipe which is useless. I'm getting nematodes next year - expensive but they work! Plus I only have a few raised beds so can stretch out the nematode use. :wink:

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I'm with you there Christian - I have 2 carrots, but the parsnips were done in a dry spell and so they had a chance and are doing really well. Although I have no idea what's going on underneath.

 

Broad beans tasty but not a brilliant crop - different variety to my usual one so I'm going back to the old type.

French beans doing really well now and have just sown some more the other week and they are ready to plant out. Will stagger with some more and underplant with clover. My orpie loves snails - regular little thrush she is. But then she seems to like paddling in water as well. I think she's a bit confused as to whether she's a duck or a song bird (well a whining orpie is nothing like a thrush warble)! :lol:

 

Squashes and courgettes are looking good - flowering lots but fruiting little though. Oh well I can but hope. Sungolds are tasty and we've had some funny little pear shaped ones. Have some beefsteaks doing OK at the moment but not ripe yet. Tigerellas are just turning and we have some really big San Marzano ones - never seen them so big before!!! Have taken lots of side shoots and been potting them up, although I now have so many I'm fed up and run out of space in the greenhouse so they will be shoved outside. Surprisingly the peppers have formed and grown a couple of big fruits - I'm not ready for them yet - we usually harvest them in October!!!!

 

Have had an email from Franchi seeds of Italy and it says what you can still sow - brassicas up to the end of August, broad beans, peas and sugar snaps up to November, and lettuce, chard, spinach, basil, parsley and rocket up to October. So will have another bash with the chard and peas for a late crop. I'm assuming the others in November will be for next year. So a chance yet for beetroot then.

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up until this week I was a bit disappointed with the season so far but I've picked to mushroom flats of courgettes over 2 weekends there's a marrow ( not an over sized courgette ) nearly ready to pick with another one about 4 inch long a bit farther along the trailer about 4 or 5 squashes and pumpkins growing nicely which is a first for me I don't normally get any set before late August pick my first lot of beans runners and French climbers this weekend the runners are a surprise considering how hot and dry it's been this week that's got to be down to the bee hive that's on site

spuds are looking up hopefully lifted a root of Blue Kestrel that's lift my sprits on the spud side after the last 3 weeks when there wasn't enough to cover the cost of the seed just have to pray that the blight doesn't come back to early

 

at home I picked 4 or 5 cherries and an apricot mid week plus there's another one that's nearly ready the cherries were another surprise as I didn't think any had set pick a cucumber and a tomato Friday last week and one this Friday just found 5 or 6 toms that are about ready again a first for me in July the varieties I grow aren't normally ripe until late August early September

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I'm so envious - courgettes, runners and fennel are flourishing but I have seven tomato plants in the greenhouse and not a single one has set. :( the outdoor ones have some fruit on, and the indoor cucumbers and peppers are fruiting so I don't know what happened to the tomatoes this year. Very frustrating.

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My toms aren't quite as good but producing and setting. The tops of the plants are a bit singed so we have put up shading to stop the scorching and I've hosed the floor to help cool it down. Have also misted the plants to help pollination. Hubby emptied out all our spuds in the buckets and we have got quite a good crop from them.

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We have had loads of yellow courgettes but the green one just grew one huge one.

 

The tomatoes are starting to ripen, tumblers mainly but a few in the greenhouse too, typical just as we are going away for a week. I hope that the pet carers understand plants too. We have plenty of French beans, chard, beetroot, carrots. The squashes are coming on now and the brassicas are still growing well.

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One joy of holiday is the glut of veg in a week. Tons of runner beans, four huge courgettes, three cucumbers, raspberries apples blackberries plums and tomatoes. and a partridge in a pear treeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee :whistle: Sorry!! ES 18 an intelligent (hmm) male looked after place and I told him to pick tomatoes. I came back from hols to find lots of red ones. I asked him if he'd picked any. He said he wasnt sure when to pick :shock::doh: well when they are red! Hes hoping to go to uni :think: I despair.

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:lol:

Looking good onions in particular. Sowed late peas but they don't seem to be playing the game! :roll: Not been mice munched either - just very, very slow to sprout. Did more dwarf French beans but they insist on climbing. Oh well they don't climb far but they are flowering so a late crop of those is looking good. Harlequins are munching the black aphids all over the place. Thank you, you little reddy orange devils - although I'd rather see our own native ladybirds doing the job. And we are eating our courgettes - small ones lovely raw in salads. And then OH brought home 2 huge ones from his mum and ignored our big one and kept picking little ones - until I picked it before it got to marrow stage! I made him eat it on Monday. Heh heh heh!

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I had a black one at a posh restaurant recently (not off just black) very tasty too. No mine are bog standard toms in red. :D

I try to grow a range of colours but this year I think the black green and white ones failed to germinate. I tend not to grow many red 'salad' types as I prefer orange, black and yellow ones in that class

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We've had a delayed season this year, everything seems to be later than last year:

 

SUCCESSES

Asturian tree cabbage has kept going through the winter and beyond, a brilliant perennial plant.

Tomatoes - gorgeous plum tomatoes, also yellow and purple tomatoes have been a treat

Broad beans - have blanched and frozen more than ever before

Courgettes and Squash

Salad leaves

Mint

 

DONE OK

Peppers

Runner beans

Onions

Blueberries

Leeks

French beans

Peas

 

DREADFUL FAILURES

Sweetcorn - it just keeled over and was eaten - a cruel victim to hurricane Bertha

Beetroot - was eaten by something, although managed to salvage some

Parsnips - nothing happened with them, they just didn't germinate

 

TOO SOON TO SAY

Kale

Cabbage

Sprouts

Broccoli

Cauliflower

Plums - tree looking full but not ripening yet

Pears - as per the plums!

Jerusalem artichokes

 

Not sure if I've forgotten anything.... I've mentally walked around the allotment :lol:

 

I just love that for over two years not a week has gone by where we haven't harvested something from the allotment :dance:

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We have just started on our cabbages, tomatoes are now ripening after than we can eat them, and we are snowed under with French beans. We have eaten quite a few little yellow turnips this week, they are lovely like a cross between a swede and a turnip, and we have some lovely very tender beetroot at the moment. :D

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Eaten my first tomato :) Off the vine and straight into me - yum! Haven't had a chance to make anything with my raspberries yet - keep eating them off the canes as they ripen :drool:

best way to eat them toms and raspberries their quilt free to guarantied no food miles :lol:

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I love this time of year when I can just mooch around the garden nibbling things, a warm sun ripened tomato eaten straight from the plant is one of life's great pleasures, although I also like them with a sprinkle of salt. I have been known to take the salt pot in to the garden with me :oops::lol:

Mmm fresh tomato a little salt and a little basil leaf popped on top :lol::lol:

 

Chrissie

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Well I have just discovered that July was the 3rd wettest on record here in Portugal so perhaps my lack of tomato progress isn't solely down to me :lol:

 

The toms are ripening steadily now, in a procession, which is good. However, we've developed such a reliance on tomato-based meals and salads that we are still buying a lot. I have discovered my absolute favourite is this local thin skinned large beefsteak type. When fully ripe it is super-squishy, and its skin is a distinctive dull, pale red. OH likes it raw but I like to roast them, just with salt and pepper, blitz them, and then have them on pasta or rice or as a sauce with fish. They are so sweet 8)

 

The courgettes are over - its a losing battle with the water. The sweetcorn have been out of this world in terms of sweetness so I'll do them again. The beetroot did not bulk up, so I probably won't bother next time. The peppers are very tasty, they have thinner walls than we are used to, but much more taste. However, I think I planted them too early, the plants aren't very big, so they aren't able to carry much fruit. The basil, thyme and mint have run riot and we have a young fig which is going to produce about 6 fruits in about one month I guess. The late peach is laden and it will also be ready in about a month, but its only good for jam. The apples are groaning with fruit, and there are loads of windfalls too. We have already given 80lbs of windfalls to a neighbour for her sheep :D

 

I envy the variety you can all grow, but for the time being I am very content with the produce of high summer :D

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