The Potting shed

I am outraged.

I am a keen beetroot grower... or a beettickler as we like to call ourselves

and have just seen that they are going to drain out all the juice of millions of beetroots to colour artificial beef burgers.

This is a Travesty

Will no one stand up for the poor beetroot??????


I would contact my MP but what is the point (LibDem)

 

There is a fabulous cafe about 2 miles from where I live called The Potting Shed.

Might go for a coffee this afternoon.

 

You can get beetroot of a different colour, I've seen them on the Hairy Bikers programme!

 

Agree - imagine if they tried something similar with Leeks, Offa and his dykes would march across the border in their hordes...

Put a petition on 38 degrees, I'll sign it!

 

Thank you for all your support
I shall talk to the hairy bikers in the potting shed café and petition Prince Charles... he, at least, would take this on... he always fights true causes

 

Can any of you green-fingered types offer some advice on recovering a couple of hanging baskets that #2 son forgot to water whilst we were away?

TIA

 

Offa was actually a king of Mercia, I believe, i.e. on the "English" side - so wouldn't have cared a great deal about leeks (or daffodils or sheep for that matter). Don't know about the dykes though......conjures up a rare mental picture of early Saxon Shrewsbury........

 

Just got in from the garden the second it began raining. Has anyone else had a surfeit of large white butterflies laying eggs on young sprout and broccoli? I'm scraping the eggs off every day in huge quantities, though some of the leaves have quite a few holes in them now.

On the subject of beetroot...I'm afraid my support will be absent, Yorkie. It's one of the few things I don't like and probably dates back to school dinners when every bit of salad was stained with the stuff.

 

How does this affect you though - are they commandeering your stocks as well?

I think breweries would have more reason to be annoyed - the Four Pines Brewing Co in Sydney do a beetroot Belgian Ale that may now be in jeopardy - and NZ may confirm the rumour that the Three Boys Brewery in Christchurch do one similar, unless the earthquakes got to it.

 

This sounds like the cabbage white butterfly which lays its eggs in cabbage plants and the lavae then feed on your crop. Unfortunately they can smell cabbage from about 5 miles away ! I've been growing all sorts of cabbage sorts in the garden for many years now and have found that the best way of preventing them moving from one plant to another is to avoid monoculture and to plant sellerie between your cabbage plants. Another method is to place your tomato cuttings between cabbage plants. More drastic is soot from an open fire, a thin coating of which will prevent all problems with these butterflies. Once they have layed their eggs it often helps to spray soapy water on the plants.

 

Thanks for the tip Scullion - I might try planting up some salad greens and some Mint. That is another topic - I just cannot get Mint to grow well, it just produces manky looking leaves that do not tasted very minty!

 

Wow, the opposite is usually true - unless mint is confined within a container, say, it can spread rapidly. w-y have you tried different sorts of mint like spearmint, peppermint, ginger mint, lemon mint etc. etc. You might find that the leaves have much more of a flavour than the sort you are growing. Most garden centres sell a limited number of varieties, but a specialist herb centre should sell up to a dozen different varieties. Good luck!

 

I stand corrected obviously did not learn about him when I walked along his dyke!

 

Anybody got any views on those clusters of little black insects that attack nasturtia at this stage of the season?

 

Possibly aphids that do like the plant. Plenty of insecticides on the market that will deal with them, or if you don't want to use them try the soapy water sprayed on.

 

cheers....

they always come at the latter stage of flowering... thousands of the bugg@rs

 

I am horribly allergic to beetroot so I won't try it but I will check on the Three Boys beet beer.

 

Any tomato experts here....

We planted some plants in the greenhouse which produced clusters of cherry tomatoes, more of an orange colour when ripe, they never reddened, cant remember the name either .. I am over 55....


But we have had a lot split as they come to ripeness.... any views?

Some folk say it is over watering ... but TBH I have barely watered them in the past three weeks... it is so damp..

any suggestions what to do with the green ones.... no more chutney please!