Kitchen Garden Forum

Visitor in my green house.

Aah Colin....always a magic moment when you come across the unexpected. Are you dropping in a few morsels of luxury cat food for him now worms and slugs are probably difficult to find In this hot weather ?? I,ve never actually caught a frog or toad in the act of eating anything so what they actually eat is a mystery to me.

He has been in there for at least a week, no food from me but I suspect there would be slugs as I water the whole greenhouse daily and leave door open.

He,s probably got a nice comfortable lad in there !

You may remember I tried growing stuff in hanging baskets that are not normally grown that way, Petit Pois peas might have worked, but we went away for 2 weeks and with no rain they were cooked on the plants, might try again though. Sweetpeas were also given the same treatment and sadly suffered the same holiday blues. I also had French climbing beans in one basket that was slightly shaded from the fierce heat(well as fierce as we get in NE Scotland) and the plants survived, they looked finished, so I chopped off the tops and put the basket in the greenhouse. A few days later I could see new growth, so a bit of water and tomato feed later and I reckon I will get some fresh French beans for dinner in a few days time, result.

Thanks for reporting on your experiment tigerburnie. It's always interesting to hear what other people are doing, especially if it involves new and alternative ways of doing things. Growing things upside down certain eliminates the staking and tying up problem!

I like experimenting and it's interesting that your bean has survived, but I grow as few things as possible in ways that rely on me for watering them unless they can tolerate drought conditions. Even my indoor plants get neglected at times.

Dealing with a half acre garden mainly on my own is a bit of a challenge and at the moment I'm working my way through picking, processing , storing and giving away the wonderful harvest of fruits etc.

I plant three or four cobra beans in the pollytunnel each year this year we are down to two some were bitten in half by a mouse , I find they intertwine in the tomatoes put goodness in the soil and only with two this year they give us enough beans to eat at least once a week

Beans nearly ready

Had a couple for my breakfast

Thanks for the update Tiger. When you originally posted I considered hanging some in the net tunnel but didn't in the end so something to consider for next year.

Watering is the only time consumer, otherwise, it's been a fairly good result.

Thought I'd do a round up of this years season as most things are now lifted or eaten, only some carrots and parsnips in one raised bed and a couple of late potato self sowns in the ground outside.
The greenhouse is also pretty much finished too, one butternut plant with two squashes left growing, the perpetual strawbs are still throwing out flowers, but they will come to nothing with snow on the surrounding hills forecast for this weekend, expecting temperatures to tumble.
Even with a drought, the crops have been pretty good, best crop by far has been carrots, chantenay and F1 Eskimoo in particular did/ still doing well. Tatties were good too, not huge amounts or large tubers, but both new to me, Charlottes and Roosters, very tasty. Onions were the least successful, Reds grown from seed and the leeks very small, though quite tasty. Peas and beans were ok, broad beans not much of a crop, forget the variety just now. Pak Choi was another first time grow for me and we really enjoyed those, I can't eat lettuce just now, as I am still awaiting my operation to remove a troublesome gall bladder and it upsets my tum, but the Pak Choi didn't bother me. Tomatoes were all productive and we particularly liked the Red Plum ones, not so keen on the Sun Gold, though everyone else seems to rate them. I have a new variety to try next year called English Breakfast, never heard of them before. Just need to wash the greenhouse and disinfect it and it won't be long before we will be loading onion seeds into the heated propagator again.

Evening Tigerburnie, I would just like to say how much I have enjoyed all your updates in, (a view of my garden) good to read and the wonderful pictures compliment things too.....so thank you.

Good to have your update Tigerburnie as we all plough on with growing in our own localities and sometimes forget how difficult environmental conditions can be for others in different parts of the country. Your mention of "snow being forecast on the surrounding hills for this weekend" reminded me how fortunate we are further south and how temperatures like this are a constant extra battle you folks further north have to battle with in your growing year. All in all you seem to have had a reasonable growing year. Hope you get your gall bladder sorted soon so that lettuce can appear back on your growing schedule.

test run, i have never sent a photo in before alas i am not trying to show my garden off i am trying to learn how to use a laptop,please let me know if a photo comes through thankyou.