[pigsatlesrues]

I know this is lame, but  I just had to share my moment with my TAS mates!  Our first proper veg garden is now shooting out of the ground.  The potatoes are all poking out of the ground in their neat little rows - all 120 of them; the various selections of beans are about 3 inches high now; the radishes are all sprouting, the lettuce is showing now, and the tomatoes are ready to go into the ground;  and I just feel like the bees knees!

We bought some more lettuce today further on than mine, and two types of cabbage, purple and green - the green not the round sort but will grow sort of pointy.  Also some chillies and two types of corgette. OMG it is a fantastic sight to behold.

You know that feeling you got as a kid on Christmas morning??  Well that is me today, I am so chuffed!

Anyway moment shared.

Kate 

[doganjo]

Isn't it just SUCH a super feeling?  Well done,Kate!  All your own work...........  with the help of Mother Nature, of course!

[Rosemary]

's great isn't it. We've had a mix of rain and sun thie week and everything is shooting up. The carrots in pot are a triumph. Might do them all that way next year.

[sellickbhoy]

It's a fantastic site eh? Don't think i'll ever tire of it!

I was away for the weekend and i came back to my first RED strawbs! They aren't quite ready yet, should be ready tomorrow  And there are tonnes of green ones just waiting to ripen up and be eaten by me! (and the future mrs SB of course!)

Before i left i noticed a couple of my chilli plants had their first fruits appearing, they were coming on nicely when i came back. and my sweet pepper plants have got their first peppers forming.

The blackberry, tayberry, boysenberry and Loganberry plants are flowering nicely, the rasps have all shot up and sprang to life, the red currant plant is MASSIVE and there are tonnes of little green currants underneath just waiting to ripen up and be made into a nice jus to serve with some venison!!! yum!

I also lifted my 1st garlic bulb the other day and put it in the greenhouse to dry - the smell of fresh garlic was fantastic, the whole garden was reeking of it!! In fact, i reckon there is a good chance it'll be ready for eating now, so i'm away to have a peak at it.

Oh, happy days!!!

[Fluffywelshsheep]

does it not make all them dull winters you dream of the plants/veg/fruit getting harvest worth while.



Linz

[carl]

I love to see the veg growing this time of year. alas, I have acheived a spectactular display of weeds. Turn your back for one minute and they are there. I cleared out a load of weeds this weekend, and fed them to the pigs, but you can hardly tell. I started out with a lovely neat plot, but the mix of sunshine and rain obviously suits weeds better than veg. The nettles have been giving as good as they get and my hands and arms still tingle today.
I suppose it will be worth all the hard work, but if I charged by the hour, the veg would be vastly expensive. Next year? more weed control sheeting and a rotovator?

[rustyme]

re weeds + rotavator: using a rotavator will on the whole bring up more fresh soil each time you use it , therefore bringing up millions of fresh weed seeds that were dormant below germination level. One way round it is to till the soil as little as possible, thus bringing into play less seeds. Another way is to divide your plot into sections and leave one empty (fallow) . This empty one you just till , rotavate , or plough , whatever, then leave it for a week or so . The weed seeds will germinate and you then harrow or rake them off or even dig them in , as long as they aren't dock etc. You then let the next flush of weed seeds germinate , do the same again , you then rotavate dig or plough again and follow the whole process over again . This is a job that takes the best part of the year , but each time you allow them to germinate the numbers get less and less , till in the end nothing germinates. In the mean time you are using the rest of the plot to grow your veg , and your weeds !!!. Whatever you do do not let them go to seed !! The following year you swap sections and use the fallow one to grow veg (no weeds) and one of the others you do the weed germination thing again. It really does work IF you can keep it up till you have done all sections. Thereafter you have to watch what manure you put on the plot , make sure it is very well composted , IE the compost has heated and killed all weed seed, and remember , never let a weed go to seed, one years seeding is seven years weeding . 

cheers

Russ

[sellickbhoy]

i too will be putting card or weed suprissing membrane over the raised beds this winter!! lesson learned this spring!!

apparently those "burners" are good ways to kill weed seeds. Once you ahve removed your crops, give the whole area a good blast with a burner and then give it a quick dig over and repeat.

then you can add some rotted manure/checken pellets/compost to the beds to give back some nutrients and cover with weed membrane to hold back the weeds

i've not tried it myself yet, but it's def getting tried this autumn

[northfifeduckling]

If you have couch grass or anything else with propagation through the root system I can't recommend a rotavator. Since that was done we have grass coming up everywhere. Also not good if you have clay underneath your topsoil, no goodness coming to the top there...For us here it's literally patchwork now - I'm covering some areas with card and grass clipping or large planks from an old wardrobe, dig up others and cover with organic matter, on "new" areas I grow potaotes to break up the clay. It works fine, I just never have enough time to keep on top of it all, but it's getting better each year and the "horticultural" area's getting bigger, too, lol. for me too, it's like Christmas all summer, nothing can beat having your own food, if you can just go out there and pick some...