Courgettes will do well with this rainfall at present.. Most welcome on the lawn as well ..Will not do my peas well as already harvested them...

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I missed the planting time for garlic this year but I'd left a fair bit of the previuos year's crop in the ground because I couldn't find it amongst my flowers - the downside of growing veg in a border.  I've just dug it all up and it's done better than any of my previous crops!  Perhaps I should have left some in for next year. 

Plenty of salad leaves, herbs, strawberries and rhubarb now that I've controlled the snails and slugs.  Raspberries are formed but still green, tomatoes are flowering well and cucumbers have buds, but the aubergines and peppers are not too happy.  My green grape has two bunches forming and my black grape has quite a few.  The triffid that was labelled 'yellow courgette' has so many fruits, I'll be supplying the street. Come to think of it, the triffid and the black grape are planted in the spot where the rabbit hutch used to be and where the rabbit was buried. 

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Has anyone had problems with courgettes this year? 

Mine were forming in abundance but not growing very big and having done a bit of internet research it seems it could be due to the hot weather.  Incomplete fertilisation is one cause of stunted growth, so off I went to help them along armed with a cotton bud, but I couldn't find any male flowers.  Back to the internet research and the experts say hot weather can cause them to produce females and no males. 

This morning, I have one male flower but I've left the cotton bud out of the equation as there was a bee doing its job. 

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Has anyone had problems with courgettes this year? 

Mine were forming in abundance but not growing very big and having done a bit of internet research it seems it could be due to the hot weather.  Incomplete fertilisation is one cause of stunted growth, so off I went to help them along armed with a cotton bud, but I couldn't find any male flowers.  Back to the internet research and the experts say hot weather can cause them to produce females and no males. 

This morning, I have one male flower but I've left the cotton bud out of the equation as there was a bee doing its job. 

Same problem with my hundredweight pumpkins. Loads of leaves and long stalk, several flowers, but none have led to anything more than a nub that doesn't develop. Hmmm.

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Has anyone had problems with courgettes this year? 

Mine were forming in abundance but not growing very big and having done a bit of internet research it seems it could be due to the hot weather.  Incomplete fertilisation is one cause of stunted growth, so off I went to help them along armed with a cotton bud, but I couldn't find any male flowers.  Back to the internet research and the experts say hot weather can cause them to produce females and no males. 

This morning, I have one male flower but I've left the cotton bud out of the equation as there was a bee doing its job. 

Same problem with my hundredweight pumpkins. Loads of leaves and long stalk, several flowers, but none have led to anything more than a nub that doesn't develop. Hmmm.

Check to see if you have both male and female flowers, females flowers have the nub behind them, males don't.  If you have both, try hand pollinating them.  You may have the same problem, though the weather has cooled a little now, so hopefully we'll both get male flowers.

Gemma's grown some pumpkins and they're growing very quickly.  I have been picking my tiny courgettes and roasting them, but I've actually picked my first decent sized one today to put in a lasagna. 

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TWO patio pots and a trough. Only 6 grew. 3 were big enough to  be used. 1 in a ratatouille the others in salad instead of cucumber.  

The leaves went yellow.. Others went brown at the ends. The pots now have lavendula  growing in them..

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I've got two courgette plants, a yellow one and a green one and both were given to me but I think it's a bit much for my small scale kitchen border garden as they're both like triffids.  I've just cut three more fruits, two yellow and a green.  Once they start growing they soon fill out and if only my tomatoes, peppers and aubergines were ready I'd be making lots of ratatouille because I love it.

My tomato plants are laden and although I've had no ripe fruit yet, they are just starting to turn.  Gemma's aubergine already has flowers and fruit but mine is yet to flower, although it does look like there's a flower bud growing.  Her pumpkin plants now have two football sized fruits and quite a few smaller ones.

I really have to make room in my freezer now because my runner beans are in full production and we can't eat them fast enough. 

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More lavendula purchase today. Two white plants Arctic White.. Just as well it rained.. A little bit...  

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Very unusually i have a bumper crop of ripening tomatoes...in honesty everything is doing well this year particularly clematis and annuals. 

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Very unusually i have a bumper crop of ripening tomatoes...in honesty everything is doing well this year particularly clematis and annuals. 

I forgot to mention grapes - looks like the best year ever.

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Yes Llamy, it is a bumper year.  My tomatoes have just started ripening and it looks like I'm going to be making passata as there are so many.  Today I've taken some courgettes for the girls at work because they've grown like mad this week - since I moaned about them not growing! 

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I should be careful not to complain about crops not doing well because our courgettes did eventually keep us (and friends) very well supplied and very busy.  We've made everything from pasta and chutney to courgette cakes, which are deliciously moist and more-ish.  I took a cake to work for the girls and nobody could guess what it was made of, not even those who had previously said they didn't like courgettes.  Gemma's pickled some and fed some to her chickens, so we haven't wasted a single courgette.

I'm also harvesting runner beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, raspberries and rhubarb.  Gemma's got several fruit on her aubergines, but they're in her conservatory.  Mine's growing in the garden and has one flower almost ready to open.  Gemma's chillis are also full of fruit but mine aren't doing quite as well this year.

 

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Any one here follow the Lunar calendar for sowing and harvesting? I have looked occasionally when we have had a bumper crop or failure on the farm and sometimes it does tie in. I have found it most accurate for root crops.

Has anybody got any tips on keeping rabbits away? I've been plagued with them this year and I usually see 3 or 4 of them on my lawn each evening and they remain active after dark. I have no problem with them on my lawn but the problem is that they tend to nibble my vegetables - my carrots were a write-off this year. They also have a habit of nibbling my flowers and bulbs. Any suggestions would be gratefully accepted....

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Has anybody got any tips on keeping rabbits away? I've been plagued with them this year and I usually see 3 or 4 of them on my lawn each evening and they remain active after dark. I have no problem with them on my lawn but the problem is that they tend to nibble my vegetables - my carrots were a write-off this year. They also have a habit of nibbling my flowers and bulbs. Any suggestions would be gratefully accepted....

Try to surround the vegetable beds with rabbit proof mesh - four stakes and a roll of the wire netting shouldn't cost too much but it will depend on the size of your plot.  Make sure you dig it in below the surface all round to stop them coming in under the mesh.  One idea might be to fence off the area you want to keep rabbit free and leave a small area elsewhere with a few plants in as an easy option to lure rabbits away from your main crop.

There's always the Yosemite Sam option:

 

Not a problem where I live but then I have two hen harriers which swoop low over the garden several times a day - no bunnies!

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I've harvested some of my black grapes this weekend and they're deliciously sweet, though I think perhaps I should have picked them a little earlier.  I'd purposely left them until 25th October as it's my brother's birthday and the two vines I have were ones he bought but didn't get chance to plant as he had an accident and died, just over two years ago. 

I planted both vines in my garden at the beginning of last year and this is the first year I've had black grapes, though the white vine produced a single bunch last year. 

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Has anybody got any tips on keeping rabbits away? I've been plagued with them this year and I usually see 3 or 4 of them on my lawn each evening and they remain active after dark. I have no problem with them on my lawn but the problem is that they tend to nibble my vegetables - my carrots were a write-off this year. They also have a habit of nibbling my flowers and bulbs. Any suggestions would be gratefully accepted....

Try to surround the vegetable beds with rabbit proof mesh - four stakes and a roll of the wire netting shouldn't cost too much but it will depend on the size of your plot.  Make sure you dig it in below the surface all round to stop them coming in under the mesh.  One idea might be to fence off the area you want to keep rabbit free and leave a small area elsewhere with a few plants in as an easy option to lure rabbits away from your main crop.

There's always the Yosemite Sam option:

 

Not a problem where I live but then I have two hen harriers which swoop low over the garden several times a day - no bunnies!

Thanks for the reply. I think the mesh is a good option for the vegetables. It's not too large and should be doable without too much trouble. A mesh isn't really an option for the flower bed, though. It's a long border beside the patio and I'd be concerned that mesh would be unsightly - not a problem with the veg. but unsightliness would kind of defeat the point of a flower bed. Frankly, I'm tempted by the Yosemite Sam option!!

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Hi Lionel. Good advice given above. We have used the fence option for some years now and it does not have to be like an Australian rabbit-proof thingie, just enough to direct their attention elsewhere. We use rolls of chicken wire and canes to enclose the entire veg garden. Small wire cloches can be easily made to cover up especially vulnerable plants elsewhere. The Yosemite Sam option really comes down to how murderous you feel. Our cat died in February and we are having a lot of fieldmouse activity in our apple store. I am doing a lot of murdering on that front just now, must get another cat.

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Hi Lionel. Good advice given above. We have used the fence option for some years now and it does not have to be like an Australian rabbit-proof thingie, just enough to direct their attention elsewhere. We use rolls of chicken wire and canes to enclose the entire veg garden. Small wire cloches can be easily made to cover up especially vulnerable plants elsewhere. The Yosemite Sam option really comes down to how murderous you feel. Our cat died in February and we are having a lot of fieldmouse activity in our apple store. I am doing a lot of murdering on that front just now, must get another cat.

Yes, I should really have thought of it myself! I'll give it a go next year and it should do the trick for the veg. at least. A good second best option given that I can't import any of Skreever's Hen Harriers unfortunately

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Morning Lionel. We have Common Buzzards and Marsh Harriers here. A local farmer with an interest in such things has observed that Brown Hares have now taken to breeding close to his farmyard. Human activity keeps the raptors away. Our local rabbits seem to be kept down by foxes, which patrol the garden. The cat used to take young rabbits too - so I am expecting an increase in numbers, but have not detected this yet. The garden is currently over run by moles! It has been a great year for them unfortunately.

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