The Gardening Thread

[HerrJAH]

I'm a bit of an amateur brewer and I'm looking to plant some different varieties of hops. I've tried growing them from seed without success (although I gather this can be a little difficult and you're not guaranteed a female plant -  required for the hop cones used in the brew). So my question is, do any of you know a good place to possibly buy hop rhizomes and what kind of growing conditions they like? 

I'm aware that there is a wealth of knowledge at my fingertips via Google, but it's always nice to get a personal take!

[grumpyhack]

Time to revive this thread.  Planted 40 runner beans out yesterday and tomatoes doing well in the greenhouse.  Still not sure what to do with the rest of the veg plot this year.

[whisty]

3 hours ago, grumpyhack said:

Time to revive this thread.  Planted 40 runner beans out yesterday and tomatoes doing well in the greenhouse.  Still not sure what to do with the rest of the veg plot this year.

Oh my, swamped this year, took on more allotment space & then stupidly decided to offer my services as a gardener around and about my area. 

As for the space you have, Beetroot is such an easy grower and as with most homegrown there's nothing like the sweetness of the first crop. Talking about home grown, if you have the space............

Took some pics of my allotment this year for the first time, will maybe post some before and after pics when it all goes green ish. Post a pic of your space Mr G. Btw, did your Sweetcorn do any good?

[carlosj]

Wow, music AND allotments, what a website! I'm delayed, as ever, in starting the allotment properly this year. I've got chard, perpetual spinach, sweetcorn, flowers, lettuce, leeks, pumpkins, marrows, chillis, courgettes, gourds and climbing French beans in the greenhouse and a distinct disinclination to dig the plot for them, haha. We have a horse in the field by the plot who puts his head over the fence for veg each time he sees us down there.

Mr G, how about types of lettuce, carrots, spring onions, cabbage for later? Or trendy salad stuff that would be expensive in the shops, like misticanza.

Whisty, I'll see if I've got any pictures to put up of ours.

I'm off to chop up a conifer now and clear the front lawn before putting some bedding plants in.

[grumpyhack]

10 hours ago, whisty said:

Post a pic of your space Mr G. Btw, did your Sweetcorn do any good?

No the sweetcorn was a disappointment last year.  Today I planted a dozen baby sweetcorns in the 4 x 3 block as you suggested last year, rather than a line to aid pollinatiobn.  Got more weeding/planting to do tomorrow then I'll post a pic.

[whisty]

8 hours ago, carlosj said:

Wow, music AND allotments, what a website! I'm delayed, as ever, in starting the allotment properly this year. I've got chard, perpetual spinach, sweetcorn, flowers, lettuce, leeks, pumpkins, marrows, chillis, courgettes, gourds and climbing French beans in the greenhouse and a distinct disinclination to dig the plot for them, haha. We have a horse in the field by the plot who puts his head over the fence for veg each time he sees us down there.

Mr G, how about types of lettuce, carrots, spring onions, cabbage for later? Or trendy salad stuff that would be expensive in the shops, like misticanza.

Whisty, I'll see if I've got any pictures to put up of ours.

I'm off to chop up a conifer now and clear the front lawn before putting some bedding plants in.

And I thought I was busy

[greenfairy43]

our allotment is 3 this summer. It started as a bare, weed ridden wasteland. Lots of hard work later & it's now coming along very, very nicely. We're on the NE coast, so it's a bit chilly but we've got loads packed in. All sorts of berries, cherry, plum, greengage, apples, quince, artichokes, beans, peas, sweet corn, squash, spuds, onions...... Amongst other things! Oh & loads & loads of bee friendly flowers and a pond. 

 

[whisty]

7 hours ago, greenfairy43 said:

our allotment is 3 this summer. It started as a bare, weed ridden wasteland. Lots of hard work later & it's now coming along very, very nicely. We're on the NE coast, so it's a bit chilly but we've got loads packed in. All sorts of berries, cherry, plum, greengage, apples, quince, artichokes, beans, peas, sweet corn, squash, spuds, onions...... Amongst other things! Oh & loads & loads of bee friendly flowers and a pond. 

 

Sounds good to me, post a pic when you get a bit of growth

 

[HerrJAH]

I've started a couple of hop varieties this year - I'm a keen home brewer and thought i'd try and source everything as locally as possible. They are growing at a phenomenal rate! Has to be in excess of a foot a week!

[carlosj]

13 hours ago, HerrJAH said:

I've started a couple of hop varieties this year - I'm a keen home brewer and thought i'd try and source everything as locally as possible. They are growing at a phenomenal rate! Has to be in excess of a foot a week!

What did you get?

[whisty]

22 hours ago, HerrJAH said:

I've started a couple of hop varieties this year - I'm a keen home brewer and thought i'd try and source everything as locally as possible. They are growing at a phenomenal rate! Has to be in excess of a foot a week!

Interesting. How high will they grow I wonder, only ever seen pics of those old hop picking days. Started from seed? 

[HerrJAH]

I've got one Chinook and one Cascade. Planted rhizomes in November and they started showing signs of growth just about six weeks ago. The Cascade is probably about 2m now. I have them growing up an arch in my little garden, but I think I'm going to need to run additional wires up the side of the house - from what I've seen they'll easily do four meters...

I have tried from seed before (I actually have a whole bunch of boxed ones from when the Meantime Brewery did a promo a year or so ago) but it never worked out for me. All the home-brew forums said buy the rhizomes. I I gather it's not good practise to harvest the first lot of cones, so hopefully by next year I'll get a nice local brew on - I may even get some other varieties.

Edited May 25, 2016 by HerrJAH

[whisty]

On 25/05/2016 at 8:52 AM, HerrJAH said:

I've got one Chinook and one Cascade. Planted rhizomes in November and they started showing signs of growth just about six weeks ago. The Cascade is probably about 2m now. I have them growing up an arch in my little garden, but I think I'm going to need to run additional wires up the side of the house - from what I've seen they'll easily do four meters...

I have tried from seed before (I actually have a whole bunch of boxed ones from when the Meantime Brewery did a promo a year or so ago) but it never worked out for me. All the home-brew forums said buy the rhizomes. I I gather it's not good practise to harvest the first lot of cones, so hopefully by next year I'll get a nice local brew on - I may even get some other varieties.

Never even considered Hops, keep us in the loop eh

[carlosj]

The allotment is starting to look like one thanks to MrsCJ's weeding. We've put in the climbing French beans, the squash, pumpkins etc, just the chard and spinach tomorrow. The raspberries and strawberries look great - if anyone wants a recipe for raspberry vinegar, good for winter coughs, let me know.

Cider and chill now.

[whisty]

13 hours ago, carlosj said:

The allotment is starting to look like one thanks to MrsCJ's weeding. We've put in the climbing French beans, the squash, pumpkins etc, just the chard and spinach tomorrow. The raspberries and strawberries look great - if anyone wants a recipe for raspberry vinegar, good for winter coughs, let me know.

Cider and chill now.

Do you protect your squashes putting them in now? My experience is that the cold nights hold them back a little and I'm further south than your good self. Maybe I usually put them in a bit earlier in May and am behind this year! What else is raspberry vinegar good for, never heard of it before today

 

[carlosj]

51 minutes ago, whisty said:

Do you protect your squashes putting them in now? My experience is that the cold nights hold them back a little and I'm further south than your good self. Maybe I usually put them in a bit earlier in May and am behind this year! What else is raspberry vinegar good for, never heard of it before today

 

I've never thought of protecting squashes, but put them in during May. They do take a bit to get going though.

Raspberry vinegar is good (for me) on vanilla ice cream, and diluted in hot water and honey for coughs. It depends on sugar used as to whether it's a sweet topping or a salad dressing.

Pick the raspberries, cover in white vinegar in a pot bowl for 5 days at least, stirring every day. Drain overnight in muslin and measure the juice. Add sugar, bring to the boil, then simmer for at least half an hour. The sugar is up to 1kg per pint of juice that you got from draining, depending on taste. Enjoy!

[whisty]

5 hours ago, carlosj said:

I've never thought of protecting squashes, but put them in during May. They do take a bit to get going though.

 

Took over a plot with loads of Raspberries so can have a play around with them  A few of the folks protect squashes by putting a big paint pot with the bottom cut out around the plants, stops the wind and keeps them a little warmer. Planting mine next week.

[carlosj]

4 hours ago, whisty said:

Took over a plot with loads of Raspberries so can have a play around with them  A few of the folks protect squashes by putting a big paint pot with the bottom cut out around the plants, stops the wind and keeps them a little warmer. Planting mine next week.

The only other tip I know on raspberries is to freeze them on trays and then box them up, if you're going to make pavlova and stuff. I'll try that tip on squash. I can't use the water bottles cos I'm saving them for cider in June, hehe.

[Spindles]

Got to admit I'm jealous of all this allotment talk.  I've spent the spring getting my garden to the best standard it's ever been, I'm now thinking about planters and growing something edible.

[whisty]

On 30/05/2016 at 10:26 AM, Spindles said:

Got to admit I'm jealous of all this allotment talk.  I've spent the spring getting my garden to the best standard it's ever been, I'm now thinking about planters and growing something edible.

Go for it, double delight, watch it grow then eat it. Maybe if you're using planters grow some cut and come again plants.

[carlosj]

On ‎30‎/‎05‎/‎2016 at 10:26 AM, Spindles said:

Got to admit I'm jealous of all this allotment talk.  I've spent the spring getting my garden to the best standard it's ever been, I'm now thinking about planters and growing something edible.

As whisty says, go for it.  A tip with salad stuff is to plant lettuces but then only take off 1-2 leaves per young plant instead of cutting the lettuce (the plant gets a bit longer too).  I read about this in a magazine and it means I get more leaves over a longer time instead of 1 lettuce for 2 days. Spring onions and radish are quick crops which you can even sow between the lettuce and pick before the latter are ready. If you have window space inside, start off the lettuce to get a good crop and transplant out. Climbing French beans will give you more crop than dwarf French Bean in the same space.  This is all much more fun than writing a test script for an electronic form.

I've spent more time on the allotment than the garden, so the greenhouse is bare, with spindly chillis :-( I need to catch up with the garden now!

[grumpyhack]

Hello gardeners, time to start again.  A lovely sunny day.  Put eight tomato plants in the greenhouse today and 36 runner bean plants in the veg plot. Need to clear a bit more space and put another eight poles in for the rest of the runner beans and then on to other things.

[Guest]

Have only just found this thread.

I had a good day down at the allotment last Sunday. I finished preparing the soil for my Peas and French Beans and erected the netting they're going to be (hopefully) growing up. Most of my brassica plants are now planted apart from the Purple Sprouting Broccoli and Spinach which will be planted this week. Early Potatoes are growing well. Main crop and Sweet Potatoes will be planted later this month. The greenhouse is now looking a bit empty so time to plant the heritage Tomatoes, Cucumber and Melon plants I have growing. I usually use growbags but I've been give a number of old fruit boxes which I'm planning on lining with weed suppressent matting and filling with compost. Hopefully they will be happy there.

[carlosj]

We've got the allotment dug and carrots, parsnips, swede, and peas are in so far. Beans, courgettes and pumpkins are growing in the greenhouse. I've some chillis too but they're still small.

[mjsell]

I've finished my project at the end of the garden. Now have three big raised beds, 1 in full sun, 1 gets half sun half shade, and 1 is all quite shady. 

Anyone got any tips for anything that will grow okay in shade? I hadn't really thought it through. 

So far I have mangetout that appear to be growing well, a few courgette plants in the ground, with a few more in pots just hardening up before they make the jump, and some basic salad leaves growing nicely. 

and I have just planted some beetroot, spring onions, carrots and have some broccoli growing at various stages indoors and in pots. 

Spinach a goer for shade? I've put a bit of the beetroot in shade as well but o dont know how well they will cope.