Thanks Foinavon and Jack...let's pray for some sunshine!

Click 'post reply', then 'insert photo', then 'upload photos', then 'Add from my computer'.

At this point on Windows7 and Google Chrome all my downloads appear. Double click on whichever picture you fancy and take it from there.

Changed to chrome from explorer and found it. Photo uploaded and now pending approval. The photo is in response to Blades and shows my runner beans to the left. Hope it will appear soon.

No problem, Delta.Pleased to be of help.

Wow, you are fortunate to have a greenhouse. I have tomatoes and peppers in a cold frame and they are just starting to flower. My allotment photo has been approved, here it is.
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Thanks for your comments. Despite its shaded position, your greenhouse seems to be working reasonably well judging by the thriving tomatoes.
My photo was taken about a week ago and I wanted to show the state of the runner beans which had been checked by the cold weather. To the right foreground are gherkins and tomatoes planted through black fabric, the rest of that bed is out of shot but contains broad beans, beetroot and hamburg parsley.
The mid-ground has potatoes heavily mulched with grass cuttings. Behind them on the left are garlic and autumn planted onions almost ready for harvest and to the right are recently planted winter squash and courgettes. In the background are fruit bushes and utility areas. The garlic plot is no longer being weeded as the weeds remove water from the soil and help the crop to dry out and ripen. As soon as it is cleared in about a fortnight, the bed will be replanted with beetroot and quick growing salad vegetables.

great pics lads  thanks for posting

screaming' I have taken an alternative view on Potatoes this year as a experiment and that is no earthing up! [how radical}

my theory on this is that its time consuming, that on a small plot it is hard to set the rows far enough apart to allow space enough for ridging, that the ridge when the soil gets dry falls away and as some of the potatoes have grown near/in the ridge then they get exposed to light they go green and finally as one 'old boy' off the allotments explained to me, that when ridged up the plant is putting too much energy in growing its top all the time to keep peering through then it is not putting enough reserves into forming and growing the actual potatoes below ground.


so we will see how it goes, tbh the tops this year currrently look like the best potatoes I have had - but the proof will be whats below - we will see -

[the flaw to all the above is that earthing up helps to avoid the frost damage, luckily this year I was in late enough that frosts havent been a problem.]

Great photo ( and description ) Foinavon, cheers - i think some growers believe they have to use every inch of available land all of the time, but you've gone for generous gaps. Good luck.

Still havent got round to pictures.  Really want to take a pic of the compost heap, always half a dozen slow worms on the top, they make me feel ill, wonder if you can cook them.

My greenhouse got demolished in the recent winds which was gutting.  Think I saved the two potted toms and sweet peppers which Implanted out.  The runners and leeks I out side and watered but they still look a bit ropy so I just planted 2/3 runner bean seeds at the bottom of each of eight canes I had set up in a circle.   Other than that spend an hour and a half weeding and watering.  Next year I am going to have to think seriously about some sort of weed depressant measures.  How many hours a week do you guys spend weeding.  Filled about 5 big buckets full, gonna need some more compost space soon.  My pie in the sky plan for next year is to make some fancy timber framed netting that I can just lift on and off the raised beds.  My cane and bottle method weighed down by stones is only half satisfactory imo.  Great pictures and updates all.

Don't spend much time weeding Rob to be honest. I mulch where possible and run a hoe along the rows every week where it's not. It's necessary to hand weed close to plants and seedlings and I do perhaps 15 minutes a week before my back gives out. Had problems with parsnips for the second year running. Last year planted three times and nothing germinated. This year the first sowing in April didn't germinate, the second sowing three weeks ago is just coming through. I find hamburg parsley more reliable although the roots are smaller. You can also pick a few leaves to use as parsley during the growing season too.

I have bought loads of netting 4 times 2x10m worth, 80 square metres worth.  My plan this weekend is to buy a load of canes and try and lash up some proper frames that are easily lift upanddownable in one piece instead of my hatchet job with canes, plastic bottles and stones method.  Wish me luck.

Ate my first harvest this week... A lettuce.

Sounds good Rob, best of luck with it.
Did you work out which seedlings were the parsnips and which were weeds?

Parsnip seedlings have two long narrow smooth seed leaves which appear first, followed a few days later by a true leaf which is flattish and circular in shape with a serrated edge similar to flat leaf parsley.
Colour is a light grassy green, usually paler than most weeds. Hope this helps. Weeded mine last week.

Rob, there is a solution in that book involving blue pipe, which I think is the mains-type pipe.  It is cut into lengths of say 2m and then curved into a semi circle and placed on pegs/dowel either in the ground or knocked into the tops of a raised bed container.  Netting is then placed over, I think.  I don't have the book to hand - and Amazon's Look Inside doesn't cover it - but will check when I can.

My main hassle is not the frame but the netting.  It is only 2m wide so I am going to need some way of tying two nets togetherparallel which shouldnt be too easy.  It is awkward stuff at the best of times.

Ive got loads of twine for lashing, I did see those fancy connector things but wasnt sure I could justify the expense if string was fine.  Now one thing I cant recall from my cub scout days... Do you wet the string after lashing or before to make it tighter?  I suspect it is irrelevant as my string looks kind of nylony.

homebase do 4mx8m - green fine square netting ....

Have had no luck with Florence fennel, Blackbarn. Tried to grow it once a few years ago but it was leathery and stringy, totally inedible. Depends where you live but possibly our summers are too marginal. If I tried again, would probably use some sort of weather protection like a polytunnel. Just guesswork unfortunately.

You probably stand a good chance then Blackbarn, Spring is usually colder and later here in the West Midlands.
I believe you have to cultivate fennel like celery. Keep it well watered at all times and bank up the swollen stem as it develops. Good luck, will be interested to know how you get on.

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