What’s happening my cucumber
Posted by: Can the Man - 17-07-2020, 12:21 AM - Replies (6)

I have 2 cucumber plants, and up to yesterday they were both doing great, yesterday I noticed a lot of small fruit dying off, however this morning I noticed some green flies on one of the plants so I got out my trusty Bug Off spray and sprayed both plants and some chilli and tomatoe plants close by asa precaution. Oh I also clipped off some lower leaves that were gone yellow and the dying/dead fruit, By lunchtime when I went in to check and after one of the plants major branch had started to wilt and die off. I will try put up some photos

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  Gutter gardening
Posted by: Veggie - 16-07-2020, 08:33 PM - Replies (8)

          

Latest experiment!!

 These gutters (originally from Freecycle) were planted with strawberries outdoors but the plants were past their best so I decided to turn them into something different - a Greenhouse Gutter Garden (GGG). 
Took the tops off the staging and rested the guttering on them - filled with compost.

5 rows of guttering, though not all full length.
Back row planted with beetroot seedlings.
Next row - spring onions
Next - radish
Next - Salad bowl lettuce seedlings
Last row - nothing - so far.

I'm sowing in small sections - when one lot germinates, I sow another lot of seeds alongside and move the seed label to the end of the sown part.

So far, so good and it looks like a good way to keep small quantities of veg growing, hopefully over winter. Also, easy to pick.

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  Random "Pots"
Posted by: Veggie - 16-07-2020, 04:42 PM - Replies (3)

Show us your strange and unusual plant containers please.  

Inspire me to think even further outside the box!!
Speaking of which - who'd have thought that you could grow dahlia tubers in a cardboard box with no soil whatsoever!!

   

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  Gooseberry glut, ideas please?
Posted by: Vinny - 16-07-2020, 01:15 PM - Replies (6)

As the title says, I have collected about 2 kilo of gooseberries today with about another 3 kilo's to collect! So what do I do with 5 kilo's of goosegogs?

I thought about using gooseberry jelly as a base for different coloured chilli jams as one option? Huh My strawberries are about finished but I have still to harvest blackcurrants, redcurrants and whitecurrants so maybe an amalgamation of these?

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  Plum Glut Recipes
Posted by: Scarlet - 16-07-2020, 11:00 AM - Replies (7)

I'm not making jam this year - I don't eat it and even though we have used up jars of the stuff while in Lockdown I don't want it using up my cupboard space....so recipes please! I have dozen some after cutting in half and taking the stone out.

I made this pudding yesterday. The recipe said Apricots but I subbed with plums - and OMG! It was delicious. There wasn't any left this morning! Wink

Plum and Almond Upside Down Cake. 

8-9inch cake tin. Buttered.
Slice the plums in half.
For the sauce:

50g butter, plus more for the tin
fresh apricots - I used plums - halved        and stoned. Enough to line the tin
125g caster sugar
1 tbsp runny honey

For the cake
150g unsalted butter
150g caster sugar
2 eggs, beaten
100g plain flour
1½ tsp baking powder
100g ground almonds
1 tsp vanilla extract
125ml full-fat milk


Butter a 20-23cm cake tin and prepare the apricots.
Put the sugar and 75ml water into a small saucepan. Heat slowly until the sugar has dissolved. When the sugar has melted bring to the boil and watch until the syrup starts to turn to caramel (it will turn golden first). Swish the pan a bit. Once it becomes caramel (you will know by the smell and colour) take off the heat and add the butter. Stir once the butter has melted. Pour into the tin and place the apricots, close together and cut-side down, on top.

Preheat the oven to 180C/170C fan*/gas mark 4.

To make the cake, cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, then add the eggs a little at a time, beating well after each addition (add a couple of spoonfuls of flour if it starts to curdle). Sift together the flour and baking powder and stir in the almonds. Add the vanilla, then the dry ingredients, alternating with the milk.

Spoon this over the apricots and bake for 50 minutes. When the cake is cooked, a skewer inserted into the centre should come out clean. Run a knife between the cake and the tin and invert on to a plate. If some apricots have stuck to the tin, replace them on the cake.

Gently heat the honey. Using a pastry brush, glaze the top of the cake. The honey will run down the sides to give a lush, home-made look. Leave to cool. The cake is lovely with crème fraîche or a mixture of sweetened Greek yogurt and double cream.

It was delicious! I didn't use the honey as I forgot!

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  Special Offers
Posted by: Veggie - 16-07-2020, 09:45 AM - Replies (946)

https://www.gardeningexpress.co.uk/garde...85f351c0c2

I've bought these offers several times - if you want gladioli, lilies and dahlias, they're a bargain. Quality was good but I bought far more than I needed and gave away most of the gladioli. Half my dahlias are still growing in a cardboard box. Blush

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  Bullace
Posted by: Mikey - 16-07-2020, 07:05 AM - Replies (5)

Size is everything when identifying the plum family, they all start off green and go a near purple black colour. It’s the first to develop a derrière, ie the v groove cup associated with a British plum. The bullace is a little larger than the sloes and smaller than a damson. It’s still round like a sloe whereas a damson is more oval. For size it’s between the top section of your middle finger and thumb, 1.5-2.5cm. Grows on bushy often thorny stems and makes a pleasant slightly sweeter alternative to sloe gin. It can also be made into jams and added to other fruit in a jam. You want pretty much equal quantities of sugar and fruit to make a jam.

I like to freeze mine for a few days minimum to improve the sweetness, this also softens the fruit giving you more juice. You can freeze for longer with little deterioration. The fruit contains a stone so will make a better seived jelly, and a really tasty leather.



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  Himalayan Balsam
Posted by: Mikey - 16-07-2020, 06:42 AM - Replies (11)

So often mistaken for Japanese knotweed by the uninitiated until it flowers, the Himalayan Balsam has very amusing exploding seed heads. Which is a pretty cool method for spreading  anything. The seeds taste like young hazel or cob nuts, slightly grainy in texture due to their size but a fun country walk snack. 

I photographed some yesterday for identification. I need to do a little research but, I think they could be ground into a flour once dried. Once the seeds go black they become hard and more than a little unpleasant to chew on.



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  Face Masks
Posted by: Neffa - 15-07-2020, 03:40 PM - Replies (14)

This is not a thread to discuss Government actions, WHO statements or the rainbow of scientific’evidence’ associated with COVID. 

This is about my experience of face masks. 

Please powers that be delete if you think this unsuitable. 

OK. 

OH has early onset dementia and serious lung and heart problems. 

Had to walk to the chemist in the next village yesterday as he’s not so good to get the meds his Community Respiratory Nurse said he needed. 
Went into chemist in my hospital quality mask to see a young lady in front waiting to be served. Chemist lady said she should be wearing a mask to which the young lady replied ‘ ill never wear one as it will ruin my makeup’. 

Managed to get a bus home and me and an elderly gent were the only 2 on the bus except for the driver. 

I’m wearing a mask to help protect both myself and OH whilst the driver isn’t and the elderly gent was but it was beneath his nose. 

In shop, PO and garage this morning and the lady that runs it said it was nice to see me wearing my mask properly as a teenager had been in with his attached sideways. 

In my PERSONAL opinion I don’t want anybody to risk either my OH or myself.

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  Tomato favourites - and not so favourites
Posted by: JJB - 14-07-2020, 06:44 PM - Replies (26)

I've been musing again.

We all grown so many different types of toms,  for all sorts of different reasons - eating, snacking, salads, sauces, etc.

What's your favourite, for what purpose, and why.  Or put another way, which toms do you grow every year, come what may, and which ones would you never grow ever again.

Two of of my regulars are sungold and sweet aperatif, as I like a sweet tomato to snack on.
Shirley is a salad size I like.  
Black Russian is a beefsteak I seem to grow year on year.
Whilst I grow many other varieties it's probably because I just happen to have the seeds rather than a preference for their taste.
One I won't be growing again is Glacier, I found it tasteless.

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