Just Giles

Strong Wire Trellis

Hi All,

I've just bought a fairly mature Wisteria, going to grow it up a south facing stone wall (side of the house). I know I need to support it and understand it needs to be strong support. So I believe I need a couple of horizontal steel wires, maybe 4m long, with hoop supports every 1m and a tensioner at one end.

I'd appreciate your advice on whether I've missed anything and any suggestions for the best value to purchase it from (seen some 'kits' online, none seem to be exactly what I want and quite expensive).

Thanks

Greenhouse

I went a year with one of the polycarbonate pannelled jobs, got fed up with retrieving the panels from neighbours garden.

Put one of these up last autumn, it's survived the winter no problem, feels really solid, seems to be fairly draft proof, very happy so far: http://www.greenhousewarehouse.com/goliath-8x10-extra-strong-greenhouse.html 

Pumpkins

Hadnt occured to me to look for different varieties, usually just buy seeds from the garden centre. I assume i could try that with other fruit and veg, look for varieties that cope with cold better.

Are there any seed selling websites that are structured in a way that makes easy to see which variety of a certain plant might be better suited to your climate?

Pumpkins

Thanks,

Think i will try some small squash next year, really enjoy eating them.

I tried growing a lot of different things this year, with limited success. Lettuce and Rhubarb did the best; onions, garlic and leek all grew ok but got rust midway; swede grew well until the caterpillars ate most of the leaves (will buy netting for next year); chilli's, peppers and potatoes did okish in the greenhouse; broccoli, cauliflower, courgettes, beans, carrots, parsnips, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, spinach, asparagus, celeriac all barely grew at all outside; cucumber and tomatoes did very badly in the greenhouse

Just trying to think what i can do better next year. I'm sure I'll still end up trying to grow the exotic as well, but want to end up with a bit more 'fruit' from my labours

Pumpkins

Hi, I was very jealous watching Montys pumpkin and squash harvest. I live at the top of a fairly exposed hill, near Newcastle, it's snowing outside now. Would i actually have any chance of successfully growing pumpkins and squash or do i just not live in the right climate? In fact, whilst i hear its been a difficult 'grow your own' year all round, after a first fairly unsuccessful year, I do wonder whether i should try growing more things that can cope better with the colder wetter climate we have round here. Not sure what veg this would be?

What's the weather like in your area?

Snow in Newcastle

What's wrong with these tomatoes?

I have some similar looking black specs on some of my toms, foliage no where near as healthy looking as yours. After some searching i decided it was a fungal disease called brown speck, apparently bought on by water being on the surface of the tomato for too long

Joke

"My racing snail wasn't winning any races anymore, so I decided to remove his shell to make him more aerodynamic.

 

It didn't work. If anything, it made him more sluggish."

Where to plant a Fig?

I was bought a very small fig tree this year, read about the root restriction and poor soil encouraging fruiting, but figured I`d be best giving a big pot and good soil for at least a few years to grow it a bit bigger before trying to encourage fruiting

Get thrifty

For anyone like me, living in the cold north and therefore growing everything on windowsills, if you've run out of trays, cut off the bottoms of 2L drinks bottles and stand pots in these.

Strong Wire Trellis

For Wisteria 

Pumpkins

Is it worth trying 

Joke

My Racing Snail 

Windowsill planter

indoor windowsill long pot