Kitchen Garden Forum

Well done Monika, you can only beat those in front of you.

OH, sorry to hear about your peas, I hope they recover ("Give peas a chance")

I'm off to pick ever more raspberries. They do so justify their place in the plot.

The peas are fine again now, Stephen, so it must have just been the sun on them....

It's been mostly warm and sunny here but our "dry" problem was for a different reason. Workmen digging up the road outside our flat damaged a water pipe so quite a lot of buildings in our street, including ours, had no tap water for two days and one night. We usually have drinking/cooking water from 20 litre (reusuable) plastic bottles anyway but it was difficult to get domestic chores done, such as washing up. Also, no washing machine or dishwasher. My husband was able to shower at his place of work but I had to make do with "bits and pits". (Too much information?)

It's amazing how much water you get through without thinking about it when you're used to having it on tap. We were recycling like crazy - used kitchen water was used to flush the toilets. It was inconvenient and uncomfortable but we didn't actually suffer. Makes me wonder how much water we'd use if we were like people in some developing countries where they have to walk miles to a pump and carry their water home.

Our plants all had the "luxury" of having drinking water instead of tap water so they didn't suffer.

It's still like summer here but apparently September is an unpredictable month and we might even expect frost. If it does cool I'm going to have to find space indoors for the things I have outside - a pot of tomatoes (still green) and a trough of Asian greens on the balcony.

Had a full day on the plot filling new beds with home made compost, just before I left I counted 7 thought I had made 8.... Another senior moment.

Annoyingly, when I was tidying up the butternut squash today I broke one off.

1.5kg! I'll put it in a south-facing window to ripen off.

I don't know how you do it Stephen, I am so envious! For the fourth year I have had lots of foliage, but zero butternut squash on three plants. Not bothering again, I know when I'm beaten.

I'm out too. One butternut squash for a plant that ended up taking almost a half of my growing area is not a good use of space.
I had a second small one which starting rotting at one end. I chopped the rotten part off and covered the bare flesh with clingfilm in the hope it would ripen enough to eat, but not sure that's going to happen as the rotting part is still trying to spread.

Can you eat the flesh before it has ripened?
Has anybody tried? What does it taste like?
I do so hate wasting food I've grown !!

Their only saving grace was that I ran them underneath the sweetcorn so the foliage was a good weed control and of course, it composts well. I can think of better things to do with the space though...

We have a Chinese guy on our allotment he speaks very little English his wife does not speak any ,their plot has two things on it sweetcorn and watermelons ,the watermelons are outdoor ones about the same size and shape of a rugby ball he must have around a 100 or more today I was given one by a third party this one has been on the perimeter fence and the local clowns have been stabbing it with a knife it will probably be bad when it's ripe

Chantal, Primrose:-
I was told the secret by someone else on our set of plots and I more or less follow their method.
Above all it depends upon having a lot of manure.

Germinate your seeds as normal.
Dig a hole a spit deep and equally wide and fill it with manure.
Add so much water that the manure is nearly liquid and then plant.
I add a pipe or inverted bottle to ensure you water the roots.
Keep watering.

That's it. A few anti slug measures to begin with.

I usually just use the manure heap to plant into, then spread it over the rest of the plot after harvesting. This year I put the last three ungerminated seeds into the ground when we planted out and they have pretty much caught up with the germinated ones.

Primrose:- how about putting some netting up and letting the squash grow up that? This was talked about on GQT in the past fortnight.

OK Stephen, you've convinced me. One thing we're not short of is manure! I'll try again next year.

Thank you

I wish you good fortune Chantal. I like the keeping qualities of butternut squash. We have planted variety Hunter for several years.

Primrose GQT 23 august East Dorset, second question. Letting your squash grow up rather than spread out.

Just cleared two large patio pots of tomatoes. Mixing the compost in them with lots of grass cuttings and other compostable material like banana skins to recharge the compost for a couple of weeks before putting a few pansies to brighten up the winter.

This works very well for me. I never have to change the compost - just throw in a few chicken manure pellets next spring when I plant next season's tumbling tomatoes. I don't know where all the worms come from but this process certainly generates lots of them !

Clever approach Primrose. That saves a lot of time and physical work. I don't mind the lifting or the exercise but there always seems a lot to do, so the time is valuable.

I have been stripping the last of the dwarf french beans and removing the plants. T&M variety Opera this year which I loved. Next year I'll have more freezer space and hope to grow more and freeze some.