Edible Gardening

I have just bought some garlic bulbs but not planted them yet.Onion sets were also for sale. My pumpkins, courgettes and lettuces are still taking up my room at the moment so I need to wait for some space.Spring cabbage is so tasty straight from the garden to the pan so I will be planting that.

Hi Ston, I have a couple of pear's and I had a prob with powdery mildew. good blossom, wilts falls off, just a few pears mature. apples also affeced. Now under control.

Well, I am still not seeing anything from mine this year ...... Just lots of healthy foliage and flowers :( .Didn't sow them late either.Nathan.

Thanks dalbuie, I'll have to be patient then... :rolleyes: fiwi

I dont know why they do this late flowering sometimes but I've got a theory it might have something to do with drought, followed by a wet spell later on. The tree goes more or less dormant in the dry, and then starts to grow again in the wet.

Im a bit of a tatty fiend and i prefer the drier types rather than the waxy ones so getting the boiling just right is a bit of a skill. The main thing i thing is to keep an eye on the pot and turn down the heat to a slow simmer once it starts to boil. Take them off the heat and drain...

I bought and planted a John Downey Crab last November and the reason I chose that variety was it was recommended for culinary purposes...ie delicious jelly with the apples I hope to have in the next few years... if I live long enough being well past my sell by date. :D

Hi, I know it is a bit late but found this link, may be good for next year. http://recipes.epicurean.com/recipedetail.jsp?recipe_no=13650 [ 28. August 2005, 06:17 PM: Message edited by: Marley Farley ]

You need to remove the bigger, lower ones and any others masking the fruit, to allow the sun in so they ripen. Also, if left, leaves will take the nutrients and moisture you want the fruit to have.So I always remove quite a few when the fruit have arrived. By that time it hardly matters as...

I've got redskin plants and plenty of fruit.Can someone tell me how big they will get and if I leave them on the plant if they will ripen and turn red?ThanksFeline

Hi Lissysee here http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/basics/techniques/growfruitandveg_growingmarrows.shtmlYou can tell the female flowers as these will have a baby fruit behind them and the males are just on a stalkCourgettes need pollinating by insects to develop fruit or tickle inside a male...

At the moment SteveW it seems to have only male flowers but if anything developes I shall post. Thanks so far.

Hi Neil, you have a few options, one is spray with Derris, spend time picking off the caterpillers or if you have children, offer them a penny each for every caterpiller they put into an old can,then you pour boiling water onto the caterpillers. Or finally make up a garlic spray and confuse the...

Or was it called hardback? or green hardback or hard greenback? anyway thats what alicante gets

Thanks All!!Steve I have printed off the info sheet for my gardening folder. Ladybird, I normally put a band around my apple tree, so will now be doing this to my green gage in future.Thanks againGA

Ah, the beauties of Perthshire... one day I'm going back... oops, gone off-topic there! Coriander. I sowed once this year and it's nice and big and leafy. I didn't know to sow regularly, but it seems happy, and very tasty with egg salad or curried chickpea salad!

Thanks Pete, I will try and look out and protect them this winter-will let you know! Regards Warthog

Lots of help, thanks DalbuieI think my chillis are cayenne, so I'll hope for some red ones - if that's what happens to the peppers though, I think I'll pick them green, because I haven't got so many of those.Thanks again

I've just planted my potatoes for October to Christmas and aparently I was told they'd be fine if I protect them from frost (i.e in greenhouse or cover with fleece)...You can certainly grow them in pots and containers and this was my first year for new potatoes in the summer, and they are so...

hans, on the subject of poor compost, there's a lot of it about. I know we need to conserve peat, but since they've stopped putting it in composts the stuff we have now is pretty awfull. There doesn't seem to be any fertiliser in the stuff, and it goes from soaking wet to bone dry in a couple...