Next Year I will........

[Weed]

This year I have solved the problem of collapsing bean poles.... I managed to obtain some redundant scaffolding poles and made a frame...one each end of row and one across joining the two. I can now attach my canes to this structure.

I have already dug out the trench for next year and am currently in the process of depositing all compostable material in it.

[Chantal]

I'm going to sow many things a month later this year. Because of the cold Spring I was struggling to cope with two greenhouses and two temporary greenhouses full of stuff that I would have normally planted out. Having finally done the planting on the Sunday of the late May Bank Holiday, we had a perishing cold first week of June which checked the beans and the courgettes really badly. Later sowings soon caught up and then overtook the first lot.

Also, NO Patty Pan squash; I never want to see one again. Ever. I gave away 10 last night and have just thrown another 8 in the compost. I'm not picking any more, I'm leaving them to get as big as then can for the compost bin.

Grow more onions from seed and not bother with sets.

[Primrose]

Allan - perhaps the green plastic coated runner bean poles I'm using are steel rather than carbon fibre. Am only going on what we were told at the garden centre years ago when we bought them, and you know how (un)knowledgable some garden centre staff are !!
They're about half inch diameter and the plastic surface is "crinkly" rather than smooth, so that climbing plants can get a good grip. It also makes it easier to get a good grip on them when forcing them down deep into the soil for good anchorage. I bought them from a garden centre which no longer exists but have seen them occasionally in others. Over the years I've also bought slightly shorter ones for my tomato plants and find that one of the benefits is that despite needing to keep the ground nice and moist for the plants, my supports never rot in wet earth. Having used them for nearly 25 years now, I reckon the expense is now fully depreciated although it did seem a little expensive at the time. They also have the benefit of being able to be left in the ground all year round although I pull mine out as I switch my growing locations for beans and tomatoes every year. With the cost though, I would worry about them being stolen if I was using them on an allotment rather than our back garden.

[oldherbaceous]

Dear primrose, they do sound like a good investment.
Since you have had them twenty five years, you must be a bit older than i imagined you to be.
It must have been the clambering in to the skips bit that through me.

Kind regards Old Herbaceous.

Theres no fool like an old fool.

[Primrose]

oldherbaceaous - you obviously missed the clue that whilst I managed to scramble into the skip I wasn't quite agile enough to get out again unaided !!

[oldherbaceous]

Or maybe i was just being polite Primrose.

Kind regards Old Herbaceous.

Theres no fool like an old fool.

[jopsy]

not like you OH

[oldherbaceous]

I can be to the right people, my dear Jopsy.

Kind regards Old Herbaceous.

Theres no fool like an old fool.

[OverWyreGrower]

Our problem is, I desperately want to grow as much lovely fresh veg as possible, however, Mr OWG doesn't like veg...

He eats:
potatoes, leeks, carrots, onions, lettuce and yellow peppers

I want to grow all sorts of stuff, so am going to plan my beds round our "main crop" (see above) and fill in the gaps with spinach, sweetcorn, pak choi, chillis, cabbage, rocket, etc etc

I may even get him to eat a pepper of a different colour (don't hold your breath though...)

OWG

[peter]

Do stews with everyting in.

If he is still suspicous do mild curries and use cocconut milk or yoghurt to disguised the veg.

Works with our kids.


Failing that ply home with intoxicants first, take surepticious photos of him consumimg said veg and next time tell him "well you ate it yesterday".

[Tigger]

We have a friend who's like Mr OWG. For years, every time he sat down to eat with us he would ask what was in each of the dishes and then announce he didn't like this ingredient or that. However, once he tasted it, he'd find he did like it and would often have seconds.

One day, after he'd 'enquired' about the first course and cross questioned the main course in great detail, I'd had enough. When we got to the desert, which was cherry pie and ice cream - both home made - I flipped. I put half the pie on a large plate, added several dollops if ice cream, then calmly walked towards him and placed the plate and it's contents, upside down, on his head. "Wear it, if you don't want to eat it" I said, then went back to serving the rest.

Funnily enough, he's never asked a single question about the contents of a meal since and happily eats whatever we give him.

[OverWyreGrower]

Hmmm, Mr OWG ate a chilli con carne AND rice at a friends house, yet scorned the spinach I did for tea...

I think he might change when I bring in stuff we've grown...

He tasted a tomato earlier in the season and declared it "alright, actually"

[Primrose]

Tigger - what I wonderful story. I would have loved to be a fly on the wall - and if his wife had been present at the time, she must have been sitting there silently cheering you for doing what she'd never had the courage to do at home!