Growing your own - is it worth it?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Have you tried growing Pink Fir in bags? There's much less chance of disease, though the price of the compost might be a consideration too.

[umslopogaas]

No, though I might give it a go next year. I have used growbags for tomatoes, but not recently, because I dont really like tomatoes that much. The scab on the spuds in my pots is puzzling, because the compost is from the "3 for ten quid" bags from the garden centre and ought to be sterile. However, I did mix in some garden soil, also from bags from the garden centre, which I also thought would be sterile, but I just checked the bag and It doesnt actually claim that it is. Common scab is soil-borne and worse under drought conditions, so I shall have to be extra careful with pots, which do dry out very easily. Next time I shall maybe leave out the soil and stick to sterile general purpose compost.

[doversoul1]

As early blight set in the potatoes, I have cut the tops off. Since then, something has been digging, or more precisely, scratching them up. I keep finding some (up to six so far) potatoes left lying on the surface every morning. There are no scratches or teeth marks on the potatoes and the ground isn’t particularly disturbed. Very odd. Has anyone any idea what does it for what?

[cloughie]

Any garlic growers out there know how to present it for a village show?

[umslopogaas]

Doversoul, could this be birds? They might not actually be interested in the spuds, but are just disturbing them while digging for worms, or insects.

[doversoul1]

Doversoul, could this be birds? They might not actually be interested in the spuds, but are just disturbing them while digging for worms, or insects.

There are a cock pheasant and few hens that use my garden as their daytime place, so it is likely that the potatoes are the leftover from their activities. Come to think of it, the centres of some Savoy cabbages growing next to the potatoes have been pecked and I have seen the pheasants pecking at other cabbage leaves. These birds seem to have a pretty good life…

[teamsaint]

There are a cock pheasant and few hens that use my garden as their daytime place, so it is likely that the potatoes are the leftover from their activities. Come to think of it, the centres of some Savoy cabbages growing next to the potatoes have been pecked and I have seen the pheasants pecking at other cabbage leaves. These birds seem to have a pretty good life…

all very curious DS. Hope you get to the bottom of it.

Just picked and tasted our first ever broad beans.

Tried a few raw, and they are just gorgeous. And lots of them, it seems.

[gurnemanz]

My second year with climbing round bean Cobra. They're very good. Just eaten first picking

[umslopogaas]

Interesting, I always thought pheasants ate insects and apparently they do, but they also eat a wide variety of plant material including vegetables and cereals. According to F.O.Morris, "If they come into a garden they devour grapes, potatoes, carrots, cabbages, and turnips, and scratch the ground in search of food."

[cloughie]

I find I am - most unexpectedly - growing white flowered runners!! I'd left it late so went to the weekly market to buy bean plants only to find he'd sold out (to a bloke from the allotments, 18 trays of them @ 16 plants per tray!) so I ordered some beans for the following week, collected them and assumed they were Enorma as that's what he'd had previously. I'll go to market this Friday in the hope that he can remember what variety I have and, come harvest time, I can report what they were like (I'd wondered in fact why the foliage was a paler shade of green) In a way I'm disappointed because the traditional red flowers look so pretty. As to blossom dropping without setting, in the past this has always happened to the very lower flowers, I'd assumed it was perhaps the same as apple drop?

As to bees, earlier in the season there were loads but now there seems to be a definite lack of them.

Ams, sorry about your failure - what you need is an obliging friend/neighbour or perhaps move them indoors to a cool shaded area whilst on holiday.

Can't help with a name but a couple of years ago I bought seed which was a mixture and produced flowers of white, pink and red. The crop of beans was pretty good too. This year's which are the conventional red are flowering and setting well. Courgettes on the other hand seem to be male flower dominated!

[Anna]

Can't help with a name but a couple of years ago I bought seed which was a mixture and produced flowers of white, pink and red. The crop of beans was pretty good too. This year's which are the conventional red are flowering and setting well. Courgettes on the other hand seem to be male flower dominated!

I went to the market this morning and he tells me that I have White Lady. He promises they will have an "abundance of long, stringless pods, full of flavour"! We shall see. Also, he said the pigeons never attack the white flowered varieties (although I've never had birds eating the flowers) At the moment they are very heavily laden with blossom. I quite fancy the multi-coloured ones, would make a decorative screen if grown in a row.

[umslopogaas]

#235 cloughie and #236 Anna, Plant World Seeds in S. Devon sell a white flowered runner bean called 'Desiree' and a red and white flowered one called 'Painted Lady'. I've only got red flowered ones, 'Scarlet Emperor' and 'Streamline'. They are coming along, but it'll be another couple of weeks at least before I get any beans. Just as well, because at the moment I'm deluged with peas!

'Desiree' sounds worth a try, it is claimed to be totally stringless and tender and very heavy cropping.

[jean]

The white-flowered runner beans produce white beans, which are good to eat if the pods get too big. The purple-spotted beans from the scarlet-flowered varieties aren't very nice.

I wish I had any peas at all, never mind too many!

[umslopogaas]

Thanks Jean, I'll definitely try them next year. The standard red flowered ones definitely arent stringless!

i always plant too many peas on the grounds that so many things can go wrong, but this year nothing did. Everyone says "freeze them" but that presupposes room in the freezer. But I can always give them away, everyone likes peas. (well, everyone I know, anyway).

[jean]

Thanks Jean, I'll definitely try them next year. The standard red flowered ones definitely arent stringless!

I wasn't very clear - I meant that if the pods get too big to be eaten at all, the beans are good to eat like broad beans, without the pods - and they can be dried and eaten like butter beans!