[Norton Sharley]

Are you safe to be let loose on the lettuce with your cutting skills? 

[Dolly]

No blades involved (in both senses of the word)

[Norton Sharley]

  very good

[SA Chris]

Our strawberries are rampant this year. In spite of slugs and snails taking about a 1/4 of ripened fruit we have already got a pound or so, and tons more to ripen up before the summer is out.

[nik at work]

My three year old in a fit of childish impatience (well he is a child after all) decided that the time had come to start uprooting carrots. His crop of one was small but in the words of the youth "it tastes very carrotty". I have persuaded him to let the rest of them be for now...

[GCW]

He's a perceptive lad.  Must get it from his mother.

[galpinos]

We've had a bumper crop of 1 courgette, 2 carrots and a runnerbean so far. The apples are looking good, the strawberries are coming along but would be embarrassed to be planted next to Chris' fertile beasts, and we've high hopes for the tomatoes.

I'm trying to convince the missus not to just keep picking things one at a time.

[Bubba]

After talking to an allotment evangelist over the weekend, was toying with the idea of applying for one. Anyone know what the waiting lists are like in Sheffield?

[grumpycrumpy]

Varies from site to site Bubba ..... Archer Lane is currently about four years ( but it's well posh ) .... Cat Lane is nowhere near that , (but it's not quite as posh ) ..... Best thing to do is to pop down to the allotment offices on Burcot Rd and have a chat with them ....   

[grumpycrumpy]

Our strawberries are rampant this year. In spite of slugs and snails taking about a 1/4 of ripened fruit we have already got a pound or so, and tons more to ripen up before the summer is out.

It's been an excellent year down here too Chris ..... Picked about two and a half kg off some forty plants ..... mmmmmmmmmm

[Bubba]

Varies from site to site Bubba ..... Archer Lane is currently about four years ( but it's well posh ) .... Cat Lane is nowhere near that , (but it's not quite as posh ) ..... Best thing to do is to pop down to the allotment offices on Burcot Rd and have a chat with them ....   

Cheers for that - was thinking of Warminster Road as that's very close to me.

[Bonjoy]

So far we’ve had Raspberries, Chard, Kale, lots of herbs and a couple of courgettes.
On the window cill the lemon grass (grown as cutting from standard bunch of stalks) is going mental.

[lagerstarfish]

My 30ish strawberry plants have done great (first time for me). Half on the shed roof and half hanging in flower bags. Lost only a few strawbs to slugs/snails so far - think they prefer my lettuces. Best thing has been the regular visits from house sparrows to eat the aphids off the strawberry leaves - we don't normally get birds in our garden.
My plants are cheap Elsanta from Lidl, but taste lovely if they are left to go dark red on the plant before picking.
Shed roof method has been particularly successful - must take pics of my mini-terraces...

The neighbours have all been enjoying my rooftop wild-flower/random-seeds-left-over mess on top of the kitchen; loads of bees, butterflies and general flowery gayness 

[SA Chris]

Dunno if I mentioned them before, but beer traps are amazingly effective against slugs. Each time I put beer in them there are at least 20 or so slugs overnight. Beer tastes a bit slimy afterwards though! They aren't fussy either, cheapo lager works fine, will even go for a few granules of yeast with a bit of water.

[grumpycrumpy]

Beer traps are definitely the way forward , much nicer way to go than being covered in salt and then exploding ...... And they seem to prefer the cheaper brands of lager  .....

[Dolly]

Please can you supply a graph/chart showing type/price of lager on 1 axis and slug death on the other ? 

[SA Chris]

Seems to be a straight line regardless of beer quality. They even went for some non-alcoholic becks from when the lass wasn't boozing.

[Paul B]

Our chilli plant has one small chilli on it and the 'erbs are looking a bit dead. Living in a north facing flat isn't great. The herbs live on the balcony but don't catch any rain and I'm very forgetful.

Next year I think I might try and get a long pot to take up the whole window and grow more indoors. Either that or pop into the hydroponics store down the road to supersize my veg 

[grumpycrumpy]

Or grow basil Paul ..... Basil likes it dry .....

[Jim]

my basil plants don't, have to water them every other day at the very minimum.
just planted out tomato's and repotted chilli's into larger pots. had 1 cucumber so far. spring onion still very small

[Percy B]

Its not been great so far, but with all this rain it could all be about to go off in our garden. Not long to wait for carrots, spuds, spring onions, peas, rocket, lettuce and sweetcorn. Apples, plums and pears look like being a bumper crop this autumn, and the redcurrant bush has already produced a stack of berries. Shame we're not French, as Annies tadpoles have produced a respectable frog harvest....!

[SA Chris]

Wondered why the parsley was growing so well as it must be pretty potbound.



Lifted the pot and roots had grown through the bottom of the pot and between the lockblocks. Guess it's time to plant it out.

[grumpycrumpy]

my basil plants don't, have to water them every other day at the very minimum.

Must be the variety , mine only need watering once a week .....

Loads of tomatoes coming through  ....... Potatoes are looking good ...... Nice crop of  broadbeans ...... Loads of blackcurrants , made blackcurrant  double ripple ice cream the other night ( thanks to Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall recipe) which has turned out surprisingly allright  ......

[Dolly]

Good weekend this one for home grown produce chez Dolly
On Saturday we harvested French beans, cherries, raspberries (all eaten before we got inside) strawberries, tomatoes, broad beans, lettuce, redcurrants, blackcurrants.
Would still like to know of fast growing lettuce if there are any recommendations ?

[Bubba]

Nice bit of parsley Chris

Varies from site to site Bubba .....

just fyi - applied for Warminster Rd allotment, also a 3-4yr waiting list.