This week in your Kitchen Garden.

[BoatieBird]

Try this one Melinda - I've done it a couple of times and it's lovely.

Cut courgettes into batons and gently fry in plenty of olive oil with a little bit of garlic.
When they are beginning to brown, tip them into a shallow dish with some wine vinegar and mint (sorry, I don't know the quantities!).
Leave it for a good couple of hours for the flavours to develop.
Return to dish approx every 15 minutes to have a taste to see if it's ready yet

Nice with bbq stuff

 

[Corax]

Corax- I want to mount the tiles on a piece of hardboard first so I can take it with me should I move.
Will the no more nails stuff do for that and then I just screw the whole thing to the wall?

It'll fix it to the hardboard, but aren't you then still left with the problem of fixing the hardboard to the wall...?

 

[Melinda]

Thanks for the recipe BB Im going to try it tomorrow because I have someone pretty coming round for dinner and I was going to do tabouleh. Your side dish should be a perfect accompaniment.

My first courgette recipe- Meatball marinara sub with grilled courgettes.



Ridiculously tasty.

*wipes mouth with the back of her hand*

 

[Corax]

I have signs of life from the spinach and cauliflower seeds too now! Nothing from the carrots or spring onions as yet though...

 

[Melinda]

Carrots are bastards and take between 2-3 weeks to germinate. Mine took the full 3 weeks plus.

 

[Mrs Magpie]

I have set up a blog for a local community garden...it's a bit string and elastic band and I don't take very good photos, but I hope to set up a Q&A page for novices. I don't have a plot there myself, I'm just charged with updating it.

http://moorlandssecretgarden.blogspot.com/2010/07/moorlands-estate-holds-secret.html

 

[gentlegreen]

Carrots are bastards and take between 2-3 weeks to germinate. Mine took the full 3 weeks plus.

Not helped by being coated with wallpaper paste

 

[Mrs Magpie]

Still, carrot germination is not determined by day length, so you can start them off on a windowsill any time you fancy. Look on the bright side on the carrot front.

 

[Ms T]

I have questions.

1. How do I get some cherry tomato plants I was given that are very leggy to bush out?

2. My jalapenos don't seem to be producing any more fruit apart from the ones that were on it when I bought it. None of the flowers have turned into chillies. Did I do something wrong?

3. The horseradish that I planted in a big pot as instructed is going great guns. Massive leaves even though I only planted it a month ago. When can I harvest some? Do I need to wait until next year?

 

[fogbat]

2. The jalapeno flowers will need to be pollinated.

If they're outside, insects will usually do it. If they're inside, depending how lazy you feel, you can either give them a little shake every day (to scatter the pollen), or run your little finger around each flower, or use a cotton bud/paintbrush to spread pollen around.

 

[gentlegreen]

To make things bushy (assuming they're supposed to - tomatoes are either bushy or leggy), you take out the growing tip (s) - if they're actually "indeterminate / cordon" varieties, you actually take out the side shoots because they're more productive as tall plants than bushy ones ...

I think bush / determinate tomatoes are generally left to look after themselves.

 

[gentlegreen]

Pepper plants get brittle when in flower.

Damn.

Left the watering a bit late and one of my peppers had fallen over. In righting it to tie it to a stick I broke a branch off.

And two more on the next plant when I finally got my finger out and started tying them into wires.



On the bright side, they were sagging under the weight of fruit.

 

[fogbat]

The first of my white habanero fruit are appearing. Very excited

The chocolate habaneros aren't even hinting at flowers yet

 

[Melinda]

Quick question about cucumbers- how long after flowering/ pollination can I expect fruit?

Its had these brilliant yellow flowers for a while now and the plant is now almost at waist height.

 

[gentlegreen]

Are they bisexual or feminised ?

Mine have to be pollinated for the fruit to develop - like a glorified gherkin.
Modern varieties only have females and any males that form need to be picked off.

What variety is it ?

 

[Melinda]

umm... Tooter gave them to me.

I think they were Marketmore? Its an outdoor variety.

 

[gentlegreen]

Seems to be one that needs pollinating.

Do you have both kinds of flowers ?

For a while I thought one of my two plants was male only it had so many male flowers ...

 

[sheothebudworths]

I HAZ MELONS!!!!!!



Three, so far.....although whether my attempts to polinate have been succesful or not is yet to be seen....


Oh and aubergines, peppers and chillis all starting to fruit too.


And strawberries ripening (so far I've had two and my mum and daughter had one each yesterday, too).


Still no ripe tomatoes...<taps foot>

 

[LilMissHissyFit]

Two pumpkins growing well..... one is the size of a small football Lots of courgettes but my tomatoes arent doing well...:-(

Ive got so many beans Im having to freeze them every couple of days!!!

 

[Melinda]

You've got melons and pumpkins? Im so jealous of you show offs.

Im bitterly disappointed- just dug up a potato plant- had the camera at the ready to record my success for posterity. Four fecking potatoes. Four.

Oh there are bound to be more further down- so I keep digging like a stupid bastard looking for potatoes.

Im going out to get wasted.

 

[Melinda]

Four months for four potatoes?

Fuxake.

Im leaving the rest in the ground.

 

[pennimania]

Last year I had trouble ripening my tomatoes, and many got blossom end rot.

This year, I planted them in the polytunnel much earlier, and watered them more - an dthey are doing really well ! Got loads ripe (and eaten ) and this is up here!!!!!

I really begin to see that doing it is the only way to learn. Next year I may start even earlier and wrap them in bubble wrap (which I happen to have a huge left over roll of).

I have courgettes - but I still don't seem to get the huge harvests that everyone else does......

 

[LilMissHissyFit]

Ive got 6 of the buggers.... and two more on the plants almost ready...

what the hell to do with them all?

 

[gentlegreen]

Are marrow-sized courgettes supposed to be more cotton-wooly than proper marrows ?
I've been missing the proper harvesting time for mine and they take a lot of seasoning when they're that size ...

If you buy a can of ratatouille, the marrow is green and translucent and fairly tasty ...

---------------------

My tomatoes are ripening all at once ... and the peppers are green. I planted way too many of those - should have had more tomatoes. aubergines setting quite nicely, but will will be a while ......

Overwhelmed with cucumbers. I have salt, but no pickling vinegar available locally.

 

[LilMissHissyFit]

try greengrocers and see if they will order it in and yes, courgettes when overgrown need lots of seasoning. Buy a cauli and make picallili??

 

[gentlegreen]

Sadly, I don't have a greengrocer locally - thanks to Tesco and Aldi - but I have somewhere within cycling distance ...

 

[Corax]

Overwhelmed with cucumbers. I have salt, but no pickling vinegar available locally.

Behold!

http://www.interbottle.com/sarsons-malt-vinegar-5-litres-p-819.html



(Steep delivery charge, but you could always buy a load and stock up)

 

[AnnaKarpik]

<snip>I have salt, but no pickling vinegar available locally.

But...don't Tesco and Aldi sell pickling vinegar? I can buy pickling onions to go with the vinegar at Morrison's. Or you could try lillia's recipe off the other thread which needs white wine vinegar. Even Tesco must have that.

 

[gentlegreen]

I suppose they could be hiding it. I could only find balsamic, white wine and malt yesterday ... it's the world's most frustrating Tesco ..

 

[Mrs Magpie]

I've never bought 'pickling vinegar'. I usually just use white vinegar.