Our Gardens

Bill & Ted said:
We tend to plant carrots in large pots for the piggies. You never get carrot fly this way, but marigolds definitely work well
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I have an allotment so everything is in the ground! I was actually more impressed by the size of my marigolds than the carrots last year!
 
Piggies&buns said:
I have an allotment so everything is in the ground! I was actually more impressed by the size of my marigolds than the carrots last year!
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We have never had much success with sewing carrot seed in the ground. I think it’s the soil. When it rains the soil seems to form a hard crust on the top and stops any seeds germinating. We have a row of carrots with only three little carrot tops showing atm. We also have three biggish pots of sewn carrots and they are doing really well, some tomatoes in the conservatory are doing well tooF85223E0-6E4C-431F-AA36-39F9596B5F39.webp
 
Bill & Ted said:
We have never had much success with sewing carrot seed in the ground. I think it’s the soil. When it rains the soil seems to form a hard crust on the top and stops any seeds germinating. We have a row of carrots with only three little carrot tops showing atm. We also have three biggish pots of sewn carrots and they are doing really well
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I find carrots to be such a pain but my hubby deals with them! We had a lovely crop last year (my marigolds still looked better, don’t tell the hubby!) and enough for several months was produced. This year the carrots have been a disaster so far
 
We can't grow carrots in our soil either but they grow well in pots. Are marigolds also called calendula? We have a mass of calendula come up in the veg plot this year. I had one or two fairly small plants last year and they have self seeded everywhere.
 
Bill & Ted said:
We tend to plant carrots in large pots for the piggies. You never get carrot fly this way, but marigolds definitely work well
Click to expand...
Bill & Ted said:
We have never had much success with sewing carrot seed in the ground. I think it’s the soil. When it rains the soil seems to form a hard crust on the top and stops any seeds germinating. We have a row of carrots with only three little carrot tops showing atm. We also have three biggish pots of sewn carrots and they are doing really well, some tomatoes in the conservatory are doing well tooView attachment 146337
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I don't think my carrots are doing particularly well either, under 50%, I think it's my soil too. We have clay underneath with a layer of dry stony soil on top. Carrots don't like stony ground. I think I'll try your pot method next year- can you use really big pots, eg barrel size?
 
This is really interesting- I tried growing veg this year for the first time and I'm not convinced my carrots will be any good, I sowed directly into the ground too, that said my beetroot is coming through my radish is good plus some other stuff, my greenhouse is doing ok too. I was late really in my sowing and planting so am perhaps a bit behind, @Bill & Ted those tomatoes look brilliant!
 
I need a greenhouse. I’d love to grow things year round. Actually what I really need is a shed for the piggies....maybe I can convince the husband to fit it somewhere in the garden....
 
Qualcast&Flymo said:
I don't think my carrots are doing particularly well either, under 50%, I think it's my soil too. We have clay underneath with a layer of dry stony soil on top. Carrots don't like stony ground. I think I'll try your pot method next year- can you use really big pots, eg barrel size?
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You can use smaller than that, ours are about 12” diameter by the same deep. We like them quite small and the piggies tend to get the tops and sometimes the carrot as well! Very spoil piggies
 
Bill & Ted said:
You can use smaller than that, ours are about 12” diameter by the same deep. We like them quite small and the piggies tend to get the tops and sometimes the carrot as well! Very spoil piggies
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I thought I might try to grow quite a few in some big tubs we have. Put in a good layer of compost for them to grow in, on top of the dry soil.
 
piggieminder said:
We can't grow carrots in our soil either but they grow well in pots. Are marigolds also called calendula? We have a mass of calendula come up in the veg plot this year. I had one or two fairly small plants last year and they have self seeded everywhere.
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I think calendula are also called English marigolds. Piggies can eat them - I've just planted a load of seeds in hopes of getting a crop to dry for them! French marigolds are Tagetes, they are lower growing, bushier and the flowers are smaller with more layers of petals.
 
Your tomatoes are way ahead of mine, @Bill & Ted ! I have some vine Tom's in my greenhouse, 3 I bought on March 23rd and planted a month ago, 3 I bought when garden centres reopened and planted today, all in grow bags. They're not very big yet, and I noticed the first baby toms only today.
I also have a "Tumbling Tom" in a wall basket , a bit of an experiment.
 
I buy tomato seeds and plant them in the unheated greenhouse in the spring, they do really well. I buy varieties that will grow outside so they are not too delicate. This year Alicante and Money Maker. I also grow coriander and lettuce in there, start of carrots, French beans and runner beans etc. I start things off once the danger of heavy frosts is over so it's not too cold at night. I've got caught out some years and lost a few bits and pieces but on the whole I do alright. I also over winter pots of geraniums and manage to keep most of them going. It's probably a couple of degrees warmer here on the whole but I'm sure you could germinate seeds in your greenhouse. An acquaintance of mine dries seeds from the vegetables she grows the year before, I'm going to try that this year. I threw a few red pepper seeds into a pot 3 weeks ago to see what would happen, not expecting much - I've got 10 little plants! My main failure this year is cucumber plants, I've now planted 10 seeds and lost all the plants at a height of about 4 inches, I've never had this trouble before. The one surviving plant is not looking very healthy now, fingers crossed it survives.
 
My greenhouse isn’t heated and I grow tomatoes from seed.
I also overwinter tender plants in the greenhouse too. Throwing frost proof fleece over things which are very tender
 
Qualcast&Flymo said:
Your tomatoes are way ahead of mine, @Bill & Ted ! I have some vine Tom's in my greenhouse, 3 I bought on March 23rd and planted a month ago, 3 I bought when garden centres reopened and planted today, all in grow bags. They're not very big yet, and I noticed the first baby toms only today.
I also have a "Tumbling Tom" in a wall basket , a bit of an experiment.
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The tomatoes in the conservatory are called sweet n neat. they are bush tomatoes too. They do very well in there as it’s very hot in summer. We have a variety in the greenhouse, vine, beef steak and plum, none are really yet though. We also have two cucumber plants too, not quite ready yet. We grow carrots in the greenhouse in winter.
 
piggieminder said:
The boys all had some garden time today. Sorry I'm spaming the forum with photos this evening, I can't post them from my new lap top so I've borrowed one and making the most of it while I can!
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Oh wow! That's quite a big garden. 😍

Our garden is quite horrible at the moment. Only few grass parts of it have been cut. Hubby is cutting the grass in sections so that the piggies don't run out of grass. They're more important than having a lovely looking garden. 😂
 
anyar.dris said:
Oh wow! That's quite a big garden. 😍

Our garden is quite horrible at the moment. Only few grass parts of it have been cut. Hubby is cutting the grass in sections so that the piggies don't run out of grass. They're more important than having a lovely looking garden. 😂
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I've not cut my grass for several years, except with scissors when the piggies can't pick their own. We ran out a few weeks ago with the dry spell, luckily it's growing again. The runs get moved by half a width each day to try and keep things a bit tidy.
It is a big garden, it carries on again behind my partner's workshop/shed. We have plum trees and flower beds in that bit as well as piles of stuff that might be useful one day according to him!
 
piggieminder said:
It is a big garden, it carries on again behind my partner's workshop/shed. We have plum trees and flower beds in that bit as well as piles of stuff that might be useful one day according to him!
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My dad kept an aluminium screw for 30 years and fixed his neighbours broken leg splint with it so she didn't have to go back to hospital. You never know when these things come in handy!
 
I picked a load of plums today. According to my book etc, they shouldn't be ripe until mid August, but the hot weather in May must have helped them ripen quicker. The trees are dropping fruit by the dozen, it seems criminal that it goes to waste when there are folks who haven't enough to eat , so I thought I'd better start picking them.
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These were just what I could reach, there's tons more but I need a ladder to reach them.
Tomorrow I'm going to freeze some and give some to my neighbour, tonight I preserved some for Christmas the Germanic way - with sugar and strong alcohol! :beer:
 
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