Edible Gardening

Looks good - my general suggestion would be to wait for the plants to get established and do their thing - maybe try to curb the impulses to keep adding feed or nip bits off or pull plants up...

Yeah! I have 2 cherries set! Now the battle begins to keep the birds from them. Cherry Pie on the menu soon.

Not too late, although I'd go for maincrop potatoes rather than 2nd earlies.

I tend to sieve all compost for sowing seeds and mix with perlite. I have also found that some plants this year ( notably tomatoes ) have not grown as quickly as expected. Make sure you don't sow too early, provide bottom heat, don't "over pot" and don't leave in full bright sun ( curling...

When growing melons in the greenhouse I'm never sure whether to net all sides . Ok it stops the direct sun from the south side but don't the melons need some sun other than the direct sun?

Thank you all.

Never really grown courgettes but marrow is pretty much the same plant and those pictures of silver viens tends occur in summer when the plants are growing fast, I think it's different to the seed leaves turning silver.

Hi, they should get heads about tennis ball size, from memory, on a mature plant. If you leave them then you can get a dozen or so heads of that size form on a plant bit in good soil, perhaps quite a bit more.

For anyone still looking for a Kaffir Lime, I have just received a catalogue from You Garden and they are selling them for £29.99.

Thank you

Opt 3 sounds best to me. You could also use it as a weed suppressant around other plants. The blackbirds will still chuck it around though searching for insects.

Thank you both. My oldest ones are 3 years now - and the highest (Ozark Blue) are approx 4ft. Other varieties are quite small, though grew quite aggressively last summer.

Hi all,Thought I'd come back to this a year or so later. The raspberries I planted last year did struggle - and I lost those in one pot completely. However, touch wood, this year the majority have started strongly and appear to be popping up all over the place.Someone advised me to be...

I'm interested as to where you are as you say it's too hot around midday.

I'm a little confused by the question, to be honest - why would it ever be helpful to remove healthy leaves from a plant you're wanting to grow?It is the leaves that create the sugars that build the stems that we eat...

I've also found that Strawbs in pots/planters/troughs are very prone to Vine weevil - lay their eggs and the grubs chew away on the roots. Last year was particularly bad for mine despite surrounding the plants with grit/crushed egg shells. Those in the raised beds weren't affected.

Thanks so much guys! Very useful.

I dont protect the peaches at all but it does lose all its first leaves to curl, ive heard lime-sulphur paint in winter can prevent it but thats way too much effort for me! If you can cover it eg. a polytunnel they can avoid it, same as blight in tomatoes and stuff.For fertiliser focus higher...

At least it has had to pass our own import rules even if theyre barely enforced! In New Zealand they take it seriously and have avoided dozens of super plagues already, only after their plagues of stoats and so on though. The box moth has killed every box in my town in only a few years, huge...

Thinking about it, it looks like there were once more horizontal arms but only the top ones are left. I have found myself that the upper arms tend to shade the lower ones and the sap tends to go up so the lower branches are less vigorous.