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Brian.

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4 hours ago, Hayley said:

 

I very nearly bought a pepper plant the other day but decided I should do some more research first (for things like should I leave it in a pot, does it need to be in direct sun etc.). We've started cutting back all the overgrown things and weeds at my new house and there is space to plant things now. I'd really like to grow edible things, I'm just not quite sure what yet, or where they should go!

What vegetables do you enjoy. I especially enjoy tomato, pepper, and cucumber. Time is of the essence though as it takes them all time to grow and/or ripen. all 3 of those vegetables should get sun, approx. 6 hours a day. More sun is ok and a little less sun will also work. Cucumber you can plant the seeds and they will grow fairly fast. In the ground is best for the 3 I mentioned.

Edited by muggle not
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51 minutes ago, Marie H said:

Another part of my stationary obsession is pens and pencils. I love using fountain pens, and the huge range of fountain pen inks. Usually I prefer dark inks, burgundy or chocolate shades, but I have branched out with dark greens. My favourite is Diamine Teal, then a slightly blue/grey of J. Herbin’s Vert de Gris (which translated as green of grey = verdigris). I hardly ever write letters, but I’m a fiendish of making lists, so it is lovely with different colour notes. 

I am a list-making person too, I love the thought of doing them with nice ink! 

Have you ever heard of palomino pencils? Someone recommended that I get them for writing but they're really expensive for pencils!

 

16 minutes ago, muggle not said:

What vegetables do you enjoy. I especially enjoy tomato, pepper, and cucumber. Time is of the essence though as it takes them all time to grow and/or ripen. all 3 of those vegetables should get sun, approx. 6 hours a day. More sun is ok and a little less sun will also work. Cucumber you can plant the seeds and they will grow fairly fast. In the ground is best for the 3 I mentioned.

I can't think of any I don't like! Do you think it would be too late in the year for me to grow from seed now? I know that would be a lot cheaper but I've seen established plants (well, of pepper and tomato at least) in shops now. I suppose I'll be able to do a better plan next year, when I'm hopefully here in the spring!

 

1 hour ago, muggle not said:

I went down to the garden and took a few photos for you. i grow my cucumbers on a trellis to save garden space but most people just grow them on the ground.

Thank you! (It looks like you'll have loads of tomatoes!) How tall are the posts? 

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2 hours ago, Hayley said:

 

Have you ever heard of palomino pencils? Someone recommended that I get them for writing but they're really expensive for pencils!

 

 

Never heard of them before, but just looked them up and I have to ask - at that price - are they magic pencils?  

 

Do they write your thoughts as you think them?

 

Do they draw pictures as you imaging things in your mind?

 

According to the site I found* they are made of Genuine Californian Incense Cedar - is that the most expensive substance know to man after ambergris and Deliveroo coffee?

 

*Amazon

 

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7 hours ago, Hayley said:

 

I can't think of any I don't like! Do you think it would be too late in the year for me to grow from seed now? I know that would be a lot cheaper but I've seen established plants (well, of pepper and tomato at least) in shops now. I suppose I'll be able to do a better plan next year, when I'm hopefully here in the spring!

 

Thank you! (It looks like you'll have loads of tomatoes!) How tall are the posts? 

It is not to late to plant seed for the cucumber. I would use plants for the tomatoes and peppers though. You may want to try a couple plants each of the tomato and pepper. Then next year you could plant more if desired.  Possibly 1 plant of a regular tomato and 1 plant of a cherry tomato. Peppers, whatever type you like.

 

My posts are between 6' and 7' tall but most people if they use posts use smaller ones. I put in my garden in this location 15 years ago and since then surrounding trees have gotten bigger and give too much shade to the garden and the plants grow taller reaching for the sun.

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14 hours ago, Raven said:

Never heard of them before, but just looked them up and I have to ask - at that price - are they magic pencils?  

 

Do they write your thoughts as you think them?

 

Do they draw pictures as you imaging things in your mind?

To be fair, I would pay £30 a box if they did :lol:. I've noticed that you can buy them individually, where they're about £4 per pencil. I am tempted to buy a single one at some point, just to see what all the fuss is about!

 

9 hours ago, muggle not said:

It is not to late to plant seed for the cucumber. I would use plants for the tomatoes and peppers though. You may want to try a couple plants each of the tomato and pepper. Then next year you could plant more if desired.  Possibly 1 plant of a regular tomato and 1 plant of a cherry tomato. Peppers, whatever type you like.

 

My posts are between 6' and 7' tall but most people if they use posts use smaller ones. I put in my garden in this location 15 years ago and since then surrounding trees have gotten bigger and give too much shade to the garden and the plants grow taller reaching for the sun.

Aware that this may be a stupid question, but would I plant the cucumber seeds in a pot first, or just put them straight into the ground? 

I was hoping you might say the posts don't need to be too tall because we found a couple of discarded posts just in the bushes when we were clearing space, so I can probably use those! 

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46 minutes ago, Hayley said:

To be fair, I would pay £30 a box if they did :lol:. I've noticed that you can buy them individually, where they're about £4 per pencil. I am tempted to buy a single one at some point, just to see what all the fuss is about!

 


I bought a box of Palomino Blackwing 602 years ago and I still have some of them unused, I’ll send you a couple if you want.

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18 hours ago, Hayley said:

I am a list-making person too, I love the thought of doing them with nice ink! 

Have you ever heard of palomino pencils? Someone recommended that I get them for writing but they're really expensive for pencils! 

I Googled and find these pencils, and they are supposed to be very good especially with soft, but dark leads. I don’t use wooden pencils now, as being left handed it’s impossible of me to use a sharper (and unable to use my right hand at all) so I use mechanical and clutch pencils. 

 

15 hours ago, Raven said:

 

Never heard of them before, but just looked them up and I have to ask - at that price - are they magic pencils?  

 

Do they write your thoughts as you think them?

 

Do they draw pictures as you imaging things in your mind?

 

:D

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2 hours ago, Hayley said:

 

Aware that this may be a stupid question, but would I plant the cucumber seeds in a pot first, or just put them straight into the ground? 

I was hoping you might say the posts don't need to be too tall because we found a couple of discarded posts just in the bushes when we were clearing space, so I can probably use those! 

Plant the cucumber seeds right into the ground. Follow the directions on the seed packet. Many people don't even use posts for the tomatoes. They just let them sprawl on the ground. It is based on the preference of the individual. I don't want to make it seem complicated because it is not, however, sometimes the size of the post depends on the type of tomato plant. Some tomato plants are called "bush tomato" and you may not even need a post. Do some trial and error and learn from that. :) And I am happy to answer any questions you may have.

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2 hours ago, Marie H said:

I Googled and find these pencils, and they are supposed to be very good especially with soft, but dark leads. I don’t use wooden pencils now, as being left handed it’s impossible of me to use a sharper (and unable to use my right hand at all) so I use mechanical and clutch pencils. 

 

:D

 

If you haven't used one already I would recommend one of the Uni Kuru Toga mechanical pencils. They have a rotating mechanism which rotates the lead slightly every time you lift the pencil off the page. By doing this the lead is always pointed and you never get that broad flat spot on the lead that happens with other mechanical pencils. I bought one about 15 years ago and it's still my go to mechanical pencil.

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I did plant some tomato seeds quite late last year, in a pot as I don't have a greenhouse, and some of them did grow, however as they were  the larger beef toms they didn't grow that well and I only had one that was really viable.  Bizarrely I have a tomato plant which has self-seeded in the middle of tub of cornflower and wildflower seeds, I only noticed it on Saturday so I've potted it up separately and will pot both that one and the one I bought into their summer homes ie the place where they should grow properly, hopefully at the weekend if it stays dry for long enough.  they do need quite a lot of extended sunlight and warmth so fingers crossed.

 

I love mechanical pencils, I get fed up with sharpening them and these are much more fun (sorry, don't judge me!).

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On 22/06/2021 at 11:36 AM, Brian. said:


I bought a box of Palomino Blackwing 602 years ago and I still have some of them unused, I’ll send you a couple if you want.

That would be amazing, I'd love to try them if you don't mind!

 

22 hours ago, muggle not said:

And I am happy to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you, I appreciate that. I'll try not to be too annoying :lol:.

 

2 hours ago, Madeleine said:

Bizarrely I have a tomato plant which has self-seeded in the middle of tub of cornflower and wildflower seeds

This sounds like it would be very pretty though!

 

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On 22/06/2021 at 2:32 PM, Brian. said:

 

If you haven't used one already I would recommend one of the Uni Kuru Toga mechanical pencils. They have a rotating mechanism which rotates the lead slightly every time you lift the pencil off the page. By doing this the lead is always pointed and you never get that broad flat spot on the lead that happens with other mechanical pencils. I bought one about 15 years ago and it's still my go to mechanical pencil.

I have Kuru Toga on my wish list, one of the cheapest ones, just to have a try with them. I usually buy stationary from Cult Pens, and they love Kuru Toga, and are still using them for a long time. Which type do you use?

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Just now, Marie H said:

I have Kuru Toga on my wish list, one of the cheapest ones, just to have a try with them. I usually buy stationary from Cult Pens, and they love Kuru Toga, and are still using them for a long time. Which type do you use?

 

I have the cheapest one on the Cult Pens website, the M5-450T.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I’m a bit late with this update, as this actually happened about a week ago, but I have a tomato plant, a pepper plant and cucumber seeds all in! 

 

I hope I’ve chosen the right places for them. There’s not really a specific sunny spot in this garden. The right hand side gets the sun in the morning, then the left gets it through the second half of the day. I went for the morning sun side because there was more space. They’re also a bit closer together than I originally intended because I was trying to avoid big old roots, hopefully they don’t mind! 
 

2A97D147-C2C6-4472-900F-BFE04DEFA2B4.jpeg

810829D9-05AA-46E9-BD0D-D8CDDD723775.jpeg

 

I also planted a couple of fox gloves, which have attracted loads of bees so I’m happy with that! 

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Update on the plants: I'm pretty sure the tomatoes are doing well. I had to find a bigger stick for them because they were getting so much taller. The peppers are growing but some seem to have black patches (looking it up online tells me they're either meant to be that colour until they ripen, or they have a disease, so hoping for the former!). The cucumbers though are mysteriously disappearing every time I get a new shoot. Do birds eat cucumber shoots??

 

tomatoes and peppers.jpg

 

One of the other things about the new garden I didn't mention before is it has two little apple trees. They're both basically growing sideways because they'd been pushed out by other overgrown things behind them, but one of them is actually doing really well. I'm hoping we might be able to get them standing upright again at the end of the year when they're dormant, without killing them!

 

apples.jpg

 

There's also a smaller tree behind them which I think is a crab apple. That was totally enveloped by a clematis though, so it's a funny shape and just has a couple of small, pale fruits on it. Again, hoping it might revive next year!

 

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4 minutes ago, poppy said:

 

It could be slugs or snails, Hayley. 

Ah, true. I'm only used to them nibbling plants but I suppose if it's just a little shoot they probably would destroy the whole thing.

 

Somebody told me recently that I should put stones around the plants I want to keep slugs away from - does anybody know if that actually works? Would they not just climb over the stones? 

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Most likely slugs and/or snails.  Grit is meant to be good, the TV gardeners all seem to swear by it, it's also meant to stop weeds growing. I would think they would be able to get over smooth stones.

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My grandfather used to put empty halved orange or grapefuit peels face down round his tender plants. Slugs and snails love them and congregate underneath. As long as you don't mind disposing of them. I had trouble with snails or slugs eating my new dahlia shoots and had success sprinkling a circle of sawdust round them. I've also heard of using coffee grounds and broken eggshells.

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Yep I've heard of coffee grounds and eggshells too, they eat my dahlias as well!  I've just found some sort of ornamental grit in some old jars so I've sprinkled that around the worst affected - we shall see if it has any effect.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 15/07/2021 at 2:31 PM, Madeleine said:

I've just found some sort of ornamental grit in some old jars so I've sprinkled that around the worst affected - we shall see if it has any effect.

Have you noticed a difference? 

 

On 15/07/2021 at 6:41 AM, poppy said:

sprinkling a circle of sawdust round them. I've also heard of using coffee grounds and broken eggshells.

I think it's a bit late for the poor shoots now but definitely experimenting with these next time!

 

Tomato question: do we just let them grow as many tomatoes as possible? Mine is very heavy with tomatoes now (still green!) and someone told me I should have cut some off so there's more energy for the existing fruits. It seems a shame somehow though.

 

[a quick side note regarding the Palomino pencils - they might not be magic but they really are lovely to write with! Thanks again Brian :lol:

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I haven't noticed any difference with the grit, as it's ornamental  I suspect it's not rough enough to keep them off, my two dahliettas seem to still be  getting eaten!

 

My tomatoes are all still very green, I've never heard of taking off some tomatoes before, the usual advice is to cut off the leaves to let  the light get to them.

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