"Charlie Pridham" wrote in message
...
One of the seed companies does a three variety pack White, Yellow and
green and they were all very good, children however moaned about the sheer
quantity of courgette being slipped into their food!

--
Charlie, Gardening in Cornwall


Thanks - I'll keep an eye out next time around, though I'm not sure I will
need all those seeds (assuming each pack has 12-15 as seems to be the
standard). Maybe I'll get involved in a seed swap at some point. I have
three plants all producing at a rate of knots - it's a little too much of
the same really, but won't be long before Spaghetti Squash (amongst others)
are ripening up - hopefully!

Is that a lot?

I never finish all the weeding I need to do in one go, and I usually get bored after a couple of hours or so.

"Jamie D." wrote in message
...

"Charlie Pridham" wrote in message
...
One of the seed companies does a three variety pack White, Yellow and
green and they were all very good, children however moaned about the
sheer quantity of courgette being slipped into their food!

--
Charlie, Gardening in Cornwall


Thanks - I'll keep an eye out next time around, though I'm not sure I will
need all those seeds (assuming each pack has 12-15 as seems to be the
standard). Maybe I'll get involved in a seed swap at some point. I have
three plants all producing at a rate of knots - it's a little too much of
the same really, but won't be long before Spaghetti Squash (amongst
others) are ripening up - hopefully!
I seem to remember each variety had 4 seeds which is why I bought that mixed
pack and not 3 separate packs. by the time I had killed half the seedlings
(its a tradition here!) we still ended up with huge quantities of courgettes


--
Charlie, Gardening in Cornwall
Holders of National Collections of Clematis viticella
and Lapageria rosea cvs
http://www.roselandhouse.co.uk

"Jamie D." wrote in message
...
"Christina Websell" wrote in message
...
If they overwhelm me, my hens will eat them and turn them into eggs.
I think I can say that T&M seeds have been a success.

Tina


What type of courgettes are you growing? Mine are bog-standard 'All Green
Bush' which were, if I recall, 49p from Morrisons. I have to say I'm
delighted with the courgettes/marrows I'm getting but would like to try a
bit more variety next time.

My free packet was a cucurbit collection. Still have the packet but can't
find it. IIRC the green one was All Green Bush, the round one De Nice a
Fruit Rond and a white patty pan. There was also two different pumpkin
varieties which we didn't bother with for this year. The value of the seeds
far outweighed the cost of the magazine, which was why I bought it! The mag
was good reading too.

Tina

"Bob Hobden" wrote in message
...
"Christina Websell" wrote...


"Bob Hobden" wrote
"Christina Websell" wrote


Haven't been able to get down to the lottie for over a week due to
thunderstorms and other parts of life intruding on my time.

I had to do nearly 3 hours of weeding! Managed to get a few cabbages
transplanted, intended to put the leeks out but ran out of time (and
energy). It's an open site and it was hot.

Was glad to see my brother had managed to get some horse manure and put
in on the compost heap, there is now a mountain of weeds on top.

Surprisingly, I've had very little trouble with slugs and snails, just a
bit of outside leaf damage on the lettuces.

The first courgettes have got away from us just with a week of rain and
not being picked. Stuffed marrow coming up.. every day.
Runner beans doing well. We did an experiment - my brother's beans
would have a trench dug for them filled with newspaper, chicken manure
etc to be transplanted out on top of it, and mine would be transplanted
straight into the ground with bfb scattered on top. No contest. His
are romping away and already have some beans on. Mine are doing OK,
have plenty of flowers on but are definitely not so..luxuriant.

Had my first completely homegrown salad today. New potatoes, iceberg
lettuce, cucumber and radish. Just added a tin of tuna.

I found lots of ants in the salad beds, when I weeded I kept disturbing
their nests. I was going to transplant the leeks out in there, but
decided not to as I think they might stop the leeks settling their roots
down.

Sweetcorn looks OK. We've never grown it before. Landcress (never
grown that before either) doesn't look quite ready otherwise I would
have added it to my salad today.

Spinach has been a disaster. I've sowed it three times, it either does
not come up, or comes up and bolts when only two inches high. I won't
try it again, I'll plant leefbeet.
Beetroot was also a disaster.

Peas didn't do that well but I didn't plant enough. I know better for
next year and I will probably sow full sized peas rather than dwarf.


I think you chose a very difficult year to start your "allotment". I
can't remember a season so difficult for a lot of plants especially with
Blight coming so early too. From what we see only the Shallots and
Onions have done as well as usual although other things seem to have
started growing normally now the weather has normalised.


Normalised? Thunderstorms 2-3 times daily for 4 days last week and
localised torrential flooding and now up into the 20's?
Not normal yet.


Well it is here, luckily.
--
Regards. Bob Hobden.

It's calmed down weather-wise and I have been able to pick yet more huge
courgettes to get a chance of keeping them going at a reasonable size now.
Got the first two patty pans today.
I also got a thank you e-mail from my friend. I dumped a huge ex-courgette
(round type) on her doorstep with a recipe last week. I know she will use
it.
I'm hoping now the Olympics will be over soon, my brother will be able to
help again.
He said he'd borrowed a petrol strimmer a few weeks ago but no sign of him
using it. We desperately need it to maintain the path into the plot
(nettles) which I have ineffectually had to clip with shears. I also had to
take a dangerous path up to the tap today, 50 yards away, totally overgrown
with nettles, bindweed etc. because I needed to water. It normally wouldn't
matter except I have osteoporosis (fragile bones) and if I turn my ankle
it's likely to break. I had two fractures last year. I could not stand
another one.
I cannot even clip my way down 50 yards of big bad weeds as I broke my
shoulder (osteo again) and it's not really recovered from the operation.
However, even with the awful weather and I nearly gave up, the courgettes
are more than good and the runner beans look set for brilliant.
Tina

kay wrote:
I had to do nearly 3 hours of weeding!
Is that a lot?

I didn't like to say so, but it doesn't seem a lot to me.
Sometimes I go to do a job then realise I've lost 3 hours of not doing
that job due to being distracted by a teensy bit of weeding that needs
doing first ...

I never finish all the weeding I need to do in one go, and I usually get
bored after a couple of hours or so.

there's no such thing as 'finished' with weeding.

"kay" wrote in message
...

Christina Websell;966384 Wrote:

I had to do nearly 3 hours of weeding!

Is that a lot?

Yes. And it was very hot weather to do it, too.


I never finish all the weeding I need to do in one go, and I usually get
bored after a couple of hours or so.

My veggie plot is a mile and half from my house. I think I did well to do
three hours last week (thunderstorms) and a couple of hours today.
I cannot go there if it is very wet in case I slip. I think I have
explained why it is difficult for me in another thread. I have fragile
bones that snap and put me in hospital for ages.

Ah - I don't think I phrased my question very well. I wasn't asking about the amount of effort you put in, but more about the amount of weeds.

Yes, weeding for three hours solid is a lot, whatever the weather. But having enough weeds for it to take three hours if I were to get them all out isn't, for my garden, a lot. My laughingly named "vegetable garden" is a tiny fraction of an allotment in size, but I'd expect a good afternoon's weeding just to get that small space clear.

So I was wondering whether going to the allotment and finding there was 3 hours worth of weeds was a lot, because normally you'd only expect half an hours worth of weeds.

"kay" wrote in message
...[color=blue][i]

Christina Websell;966531 Wrote:
"kay" wrote in message
...-

Christina Websell;966384 Wrote:-

I had to do nearly 3 hours of weeding!-

Is that a lot?-

Yes. And it was very hot weather to do it, too.


Ah - I don't think I phrased my question very well. I wasn't asking
about the amount of effort you put in, but more about the amount of
weeds.

Yes, weeding for three hours solid is a lot, whatever the weather. But
having enough weeds for it to take three hours if I were to get them all
out isn't, for my garden, a lot. My laughingly named "vegetable garden"
is a tiny fraction of an allotment in size, but I'd expect a good
afternoon's weeding just to get that small space clear.

So I was wondering whether going to the allotment and finding there was
3 hours worth of weeds was a lot, because normally you'd only expect
half an hours worth of weeds.




10 minutes at Morrison's Veg counter saves all of that ;-)

Mike


--

....................................

I'm an Angel, honest ! The horns are there just to keep the halo straight.

....................................

"kay" wrote in message
...[color=blue][i]

Christina Websell;966531 Wrote:
"kay" wrote in message
...-

Christina Websell;966384 Wrote:-

I had to do nearly 3 hours of weeding!-

Is that a lot?-

Yes. And it was very hot weather to do it, too.


Ah - I don't think I phrased my question very well. I wasn't asking
about the amount of effort you put in, but more about the amount of
weeds.

Yes, weeding for three hours solid is a lot, whatever the weather. But
having enough weeds for it to take three hours if I were to get them all
out isn't, for my garden, a lot. My laughingly named "vegetable garden"
is a tiny fraction of an allotment in size, but I'd expect a good
afternoon's weeding just to get that small space clear.

So I was wondering whether going to the allotment and finding there was
3 hours worth of weeds was a lot, because normally you'd only expect
half an hours worth of weeds.

Yes, I thought it was a lot. I expected maybe an hour.
The thing is we've reclaimed it from my goat paddock and every weed in the
world is trying to establish itself in the bare soil now and they are very
successful.
Spurge is the worst, it gets a foot high in no time. Also mallow.

Tina

In article ,
Christina Websell wrote:
"kay" wrote in message
...


Ah - I don't think I phrased my question very well. I wasn't asking
about the amount of effort you put in, but more about the amount of
weeds.

Yes, weeding for three hours solid is a lot, whatever the weather. But
having enough weeds for it to take three hours if I were to get them all
out isn't, for my garden, a lot. My laughingly named "vegetable garden"
is a tiny fraction of an allotment in size, but I'd expect a good
afternoon's weeding just to get that small space clear.

So I was wondering whether going to the allotment and finding there was
3 hours worth of weeds was a lot, because normally you'd only expect
half an hours worth of weeds.

Yes, I thought it was a lot. I expected maybe an hour.
The thing is we've reclaimed it from my goat paddock and every weed in the
world is trying to establish itself in the bare soil now and they are very
successful.
Spurge is the worst, it gets a foot high in no time. Also mallow.

I spent about 5 hours on Sunday, and did only about 2/3 of the area
(and most of that fairly roughly). But I had let it get a little
overgrown. I find that lawn grass is the worst, followed by hairy
bittercress, though the bulk of my weeds were chickweed, spurges
and shepherd' purse.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On Thu, 9 Aug 2012 08:15:46 +0100, "Bob Hobden"
wrote:


I think you chose a very difficult year to start your "allotment". I can't

Or an easy year.
If everyone's stuff fails it's a rubbish year for growing. If it's
just you ...

My plot is stuffed with beans, courgettes and bits of stuff.
Son is fed up with beans already.

remember a season so difficult for a lot of plants especially with Blight
coming so early too. From what we see only the Shallots and Onions have done
as well as usual although other things seem to have started growing normally
now the weather has normalised.
--
http://www.voucherfreebies.co.uk

mogga wrote:
My plot is stuffed with beans, courgettes and bits of stuff.
Son is fed up with beans already.

*grumble*grumble*

I don't know /what/ is going on. Even the plots full of 6' tall weeds have
beans sticking out of the top of the weeds! But every single one of my bean
plants has been munched to skeletal and dead. :'(
My only beans this year are the ones I put in hanging baskets, and of course,
they don't get enough water to keep them happy.

You should have harvested the chickweed. :-)

"Chickweeds are Medicinal and edible, they are very nutritious, high in vitamins and minerals, can be added to salads or cooked as a pot herb, tasting somewhat like spinach. The major plant constituents in Chickweed are Ascorbic-acid, Beta-carotene, Calcium, Coumarins, Genistein, Gamma-linolenic-acid, Flavonoids, Hentriacontanol, Magnesium, Niacin, Oleic-acid, Potassium, Riboflavin, Rutin, Selenium, Triterpenoid saponins, Thiamin, and Zinc."

"Martin" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 14 Aug 2012 12:57:32 +0100, mogga
wrote:

On Thu, 9 Aug 2012 08:15:46 +0100, "Bob Hobden"
wrote:


I think you chose a very difficult year to start your "allotment". I
can't

Or an easy year.
If everyone's stuff fails it's a rubbish year for growing. If it's
just you ...

My plot is stuffed with beans, courgettes and bits of stuff.
Son is fed up with beans already.

and us with marrows.


remember a season so difficult for a lot of plants especially with Blight
coming so early too. From what we see only the Shallots and Onions have
done
as well as usual although other things seem to have started growing
normally
now the weather has normalised.

Our shallots were grown for pickling. They are too big to fit into a
pickles jar.

Didn't grow shallots, but the onions look very impressive.
I'm making curried courgette soup tomorrow.
Runner beans doing great, first pick the other day from the ones planted
over the water-retaining trench, the others are behind them but that will
just give us a longer season. If it works well we'll probably do the same
thing again.
My dwarf french beans were nearly destroyed by the hailstorm we had in June
(estimated 150 million quids worth of damage for the insurance companies to
mop up..) but they perked up and have a few beans on them that will be ready
to pick in 10 days or so.

Heavy rain predicted for tomorrow. An inch in a couple of hours, so they
say.

All in all, it was a very difficult start, I did get discouraged, but even
if my carrots went woody because the weather was so bad they couldn't grow
and my spinach gave up the ghost, I intend to do it again next year!
(We so seriously need a petrol strimmer or mower for the paths between the
beds and more importantly down to the tap)
It's out of our price range atm.
I geared myself up with big thick trousers and covered my arms to get down
to the tap the other day to do a little bit of watering.

It's actually a bit dangerous for me. Thank goodness the Olympics are over
so my brother might have some time off to take some share of weeding and
picking courgettes before they go wild.
I'm going to visit my aunt on Thursday and she is happy to to accept a very
big marrow ;-)

Tina