essexpaul

Well I love squirells, we have two that come into our garden every day. I have built them a nice little table that gets filled with nuts and other nice things just to keep them happy. They prance around the garden without a care in the world.They have even been named by my kids as Nuts (Mr) and Nonuts (Mrs). I also love the herbs that I have loving nurtured from seed in the house then potted up and finally planted out into a purpose built planter in the garden. BUT, I got home last night and the stinking tree rats have dug up and eaten one out of the three planters. How do I know it was them I ask you say? Well the kids sat and watch him do it!! If I get my way there will be two Nonuts, If I can get my hands on the little *********! Rant Over Thank You...

Hi Mondy, How is the great horticulture experiment coming on, did you get anything planted? I would have thought you would have some small radishes by now. Paul

Well I have finally got the last of the weeds out of the allotment!!! So I managed to get some more real fruit and veg planted. First were the strawberries, then some onions and brussels that I grew from seed and some runner beans, which are going to grow up the worlds most over engineered bean frame. Made out of steel pipes and chicken wire it is a sight to behold. I have been approached by the discovery channel to see if I would like it featured in the new series of Megastructures. It will either draw crowds of amazed young children or I'll get banned and thrown off the site. I have now only got a few more veg to plant out, when it gets a bit warmer. those being sweetcorn and butternut squash. We have a new neighbour at the site too, "Whingy Woman" she like to complain about everyone and everything she can think of. In a half hour converstion she has already told me how wrong I am doing everything and what I should be doing to put it right. She very nearly ended up as a pole end decoration on the bean frame! I could have hung lights on her at Christmas. But apparently its illegal or someting... The greenhouse is also plodding along nicely, with tomatoes, courgettes and melons all taking shape. I still have a strange mental block as to watering the plants though, I think that because it has rained I don't need to water in the greenhouse. How the rain is meant to get through the plastic sheeting of the green house I don't know, maybe I'll get over soon that soon. I have also prepared a new area in the garden to grow the outside crops in growgbags and the salad bed is coming on a storm and I haven't been plagued by slugs yet. That may be something to do with the amount of pellets I have put down. We had a real cracker of a thunderstorm on Saturday morning, great CG lightning and massive cracks of thunder. It sent of all the local car alarms and blasted the blossom from the trees, but it didn't seem to damage any of the outside veg. Welll thanks for popping by, Im back off to my strange little world!!

Quick question for all of the green fingered out there, does anyone know the correct way to propogate Lavender?

Well I thought I would have a quick catch up with the latest boring installment from my allotment. Managed to spend some time there this weekend and I was most suprised to walk up the site to see no weeds growing on my patch! Then I got a bit closer and noticed it was my neighbours and the stinking weeds were still on their bid for world domination on mine. So me and the trusty hoe ( the gardening tool not me woman..) got to work clearing again. About ten minitues into this latest battle, the weeds struck a painful and final blow to my companion. My Hoe snapped! So it was tiome to get down and dirty, well.. I had to get down onto my knees and pick the little bu***rs out by hand. Oh the joys of Organic gardening. The veg counter at Tesco is looking better every day. I did manage to eventually get the last of the seeds planted so I can at last see some real progress. The onions are shooting skywards and the potatoes are finally starting to break through. I have earthed them up as the books say and everyone else over there seems to be doing the same so I must be doing something right. The other big gardening news for this week is that I got a greenhouse. Well its a metal frame that you put a big green condom type thing over the top. My neighbour was a bit concerned that we would be letting illegal immigrants stay in our garden but I reassured him that it really was a greenhouse. I have now moved the Tomatoes, Courgettes, Squash and Sweetcorn out of the conservatory and into the greenhouse and we have also added some strawberries and Melon seeds. So I have quite a lot growing at the moment, in the allotment and the greenhouse so I should be overrun with fresh fruit and veg this year! and with all of this exercise I'm getting I will soon be looking like a bronzed Greek God...... maybe I really would appreciate any comments/advice on growing melons, or general abuse that you want to send me and I promise I won't be rude back. Paul

Well I thought that I would start this off for two reasons. The first is so that I can try and remember what I have done and when, and the second is so that any of you nice people out there can give me some advice if you see me obviously going wrong. So what am I doing? I have taken on an allotment over at the local patch near to where I live. It is an old patch that wasn't worked at all last year other than by the weeds. They seem to be very happy there! I have cleared the whole patch once by digging and crawling round on my hands knees pulling up the roots and then rotovated the whole patch twice. This left it nice and clear and fairly weed free. I then left it for a few weeks over the coldest weather. Then a few work commitments and a holiday came along which also meant no time to visit. I did manage to plant the spuds out and put some onion sets in which seem to be doing absolutely nothing so far! I went back this weekend to find the whole plot completely covered in weeds again! So, I spent a few hours Hoeing and raking and finally got rid of most of the weeds. Hopefully I wil be able to keep on top of it now. I have various plants that I have grown from seed in the conservatory at home ( Cabbage, Cauliflower, Sweetcorn, Tomato, Butternut squash and Onions) and I am just waiting for them to grow on a bit before I put them into the plot. I am also hoping to get out and sow seeds directly into the ground this weekend. The weather looks like it should be OK and the soil should have warmed up enough by now I think. As a glutton for punishment, I have also built a covered bed in the garden, that I am hoping to grow some salad veg ( Lettuce, Spiring onions, Radish) in. I filled this in with plenty of compost and I hope this should have dried out enough this weekend to start putting some seeds in. Hopefully then I will be able to feed the local slug population all through the summer!!! Well I think that's enough for now, don't want you nodding off at your computers! any comments suggestions please let me know.

Hi Mondy, Must agree with the others, the humble radish must be the easiest veg to grow. I have also taken veg growing on in a really big way this year. I have taken an allotment and I have tatties and onions in at the moment with lots of others waiting in the wings. My conservatory looks like kew gardens at the moment with tomatoes, cabbage, cauliflower, sweetcorn, butternut squash and masses of herbs all under way. Herbs are always worth a try, chuck some in whatever you are cooking and everyone thinks you have suddenly learnt how to cook!! You can buy the potted herbs in the supermarket and plant them out. Most people say that they will not grow on too well because they have very small roots as they are grown very quickly to supply the supermarket trade, but I had great success with them last year. But they also seem to come up great from seed. You could also try growing some salad veg such as spring onions and various salad leaves in pots or small bed in the garden. These are also really easy to grow and couple of packets of seed will keep you growing throughout the summer. Make sure you follow TM's advise though, sow little and often and you will end up with a fantastic supply all summer. Give me a shout if I can help you out at all. Paul

3c Grey 12mph E wind Pretty grotty really

Light grainy snow for the last couple of hours here in Southend. Now changed to real flakes and falling more steadily.

Moderate snow at Southend airport. Getting heavier.

Very light shower of snow grains at the moment. Generally overcast

link from the weather alert post in the forum is not working. EP

Thanks Frogesque, I am in the SE so I should get away with planting on the early side. I have grown most of these things in the garden, but am now moving up the scale to a fairly large allotment, hence wanting to get things going as soon as possible, to give me a bit of a head start. As for the herbs, (me being the cook at home) I grew quite alot this year in a massive planter that I made in the garden. Some were from seed and I also tried to grow on the potted fresh herbs from the supermarket which grew amazingly well, much to most peoples suprise. I think I will sow some cauli and onion seeds at the weekend indoors and see what happens. If it all goes wrong, I should still have plenty of time to give it another go. Thanks for your input. Paul

Thanks SB, much appreciated. Paul

Thanks Snow Bear, I have the book by Hessayon and it's pretty good. I'm really trying to find out about the temperature extremes that the seedlings will be able to handle. I know that frost will kill them off, but Cauliflower for example, can germinate down to about 10C. But I don't know if they will then be OK growing on in a cold room, none of the books seem to tell me that. I'm not sure if I'm tryingto start too early. But when I read the seed packets many of the seeds need to be started off in Jan/Feb.

I have recently got my hands on an allotment, and I am going to grow (hopefully) a range of vegetables this year. Do any of the green fingered amongst you know if it OK to start of the early crops now (Caulifolwer/Onion seeds) in seed trays indoors. Would these need to be kept in the house to kick start germination or will they be OK in an unheated conservatory? Thanks Paul

Hi Paul, I asked about this last week, but it's happening more regularly now. I'm using Firefox, and when I first come on to the site I normally just click on the view new posts button. This either dosen't work and I get the no new posts message or when I do get on I only get the new posts that have been put on in the last few minutes and I can't see anything beyond that. Any ideas?

Thanks Paul, I'll give it a try. Paul

This is what I get. Sorry, the board administrator has enabled search flood control. Please wait at least 20 seconds before trying again. I just tried it a few times and got through once, but this is the first time I have managed it today

Hi Paul. View new posts. Dosen't seem to work at the moment. Thanks Paul

Thanks Paul, I'll look forward to seeing them.

Hi, Are there any RSS feeds available or have you thought about adding any?

Snow in Southend for the last ten minutes.

It's here in southend, just a few flakes but that's a big thing for us!

Light rain 7.5C V light wind