Cabbage and lemon balm Claire's allotment part 73

[powerspade]

Claire you should try MinicoleF1 cabbage. It matures in the late summer and will stand for nearlt 2 month without splitting. It dark green and the taste is wonderfull

[clairesallotment]

@powerspade I may try that next year. Thanks.

[rawfoodsparkle]

Thank you Claire, My daughter and I love your videos.You are so enjoyable and we

always look to you for our garden problems. Thanks!!

[clairesallotment]

Glad you find them useful.

[rawfoodsparkle]

Thanks for the garden help!! My daughter and I planted beans,carrots,tomatoes,mint,sa­ge,rosemary,edible flowers,basil,corn,etc. exciting!

[clairesallotment]

Wow!! Enjoy your harvest when you get there.

[sadia102]

Thanks for the tip about the invasiveness of lemon balm. I bought a lovely pot of it..smells beautiful. So glad you included about it getting woody and dying back in Winter...we are heading there in Australia.

[clairesallotment]

There is a massive shortage of bees. One gentleman down at the allotment wants to have bees on his plot, but he's trying to convince the council that it's a necessity. Myself and many others are backing him.

[baloc72]

What a lovely, inspirational lady .

Great stuff.

[clairesallotment]

Hand pollinate means that they don't do it by themselves. What you need to do is get a child's paint brush and when the flowers are open use the brush to move pollen from the male to the female flowers. Do it quite gently, a couple of brushes on each flower should do the trick. Your brush is acting like a bee basically.

[sadia102]

So glad I put the lemon Balm in a pot then. I haven't heard anywhere else about it going stick like with Winter. Thanks for the warning or I might have thought it was dead. Winter is coming here in Australia.

[clairesallotment]

I'm looking forward to summer here, hope it's a good one this year. After 2 really wet summers we deserve a descent one. The lemon balm will start sprouting again in the spring. Just cut away any stick parts to give space for the new growth.

[ShushLorraine]

Wish I'd known how lemon balm take over before I planted mine. It took a couple of years to show how it can spread, though. I love it, though. Beautiful herb.

[clairesallotment]

Best to keep it contained. Goes well with boiled new potatoes.

[ShushLorraine]

Well, I have "caught up" watching your videos since I subscribed a couple of weeks ago. Your videos, as I have said before are more enjoyable to me than The Victory Garden. Also, it's so nice to see what "real" Brits are like instead of the horrible stuff we see on BBC America. Just like the world sees America on our awful "sitcoms" and assume we're all as immoral and foolish. You are a breath of fresh air, Claire. Thanks to you, I'm eyeing a bramble patch to be turned into a vegetable garden.

[clairesallotment]

I don't know if you're able to get "Gardeners' World" in the US, but that's really good. Good luck with the brambles. Make sure you wear thick gloves and try to get the roots out if you can. I don't envy you with that task.

[cadge123]

hi claire i am a new gardener and love the videos, i want to try rocket in a pot, how many seeds do i put in per 15cm pot.

thx

[clairesallotment]

It's difficult to say really. Just sprinkle 2 or 3 pinches of seeds in that size pot. That should be about right.

[mredhere2009]

Hi Claire, I really like your videos, They've been very helpful for me starting my own veg plot.

Thanks alot!

[clairesallotment]

Glad you find them useful, any questions just ask.

[kevdarke]

I have some tomatoes for hanging baskets which are growing well in my greenhouse, can i ask is it best to stick to one plant per basket or can you get away with two plants, i am growing 100's & 1000's and tumbling tom varieties.

[clairesallotment]

I love both varieties, I always put 2 per pot, just to same space and they seem to work fine. Make sure you water them well and feed them with tomato feed every 7 days. They need more feeding than if in the ground or pots. When they are ready they need to be eaten warm not from the fridge as they have far more flavour.

[hoverboverer]

Cabbages: I'm growing them for the first time too (2 different varieties). I'm finding I'm getting VERY high germination rates (virtually 100%) so I reckon I might be able to get away with sow one (or at most 2) per 3 inch pot to cut out the transplanting. I'm also going to try brussels and Kale: Any tips gratefully recieved!

[clairesallotment]

Most of my cabbage have come up to, it must be a good year for them. Keep to 1 per pot otherwise you'll have to disturb the root when you put them in the ground. Try to find large cardboard tubes (go into a fabric shop and ask, you need them about 3inch across). Brussels and kale are the same as cabbage, just beware of the white fly on Kale spray with diluted washing up liquid.

[socratesx11]

I have three mint (in pots) poking their heads out for a return visit this year. Truely amazing how well the survived the very cold winter here. The pots were solid ice blocks when I checked on them in early March.

Claire, you should do video or two that focuses on that wonderful herb corner that you teased us with in the previous video. What you have growing there, and how you use and harvest them.

- John

[clairesallotment]

Mint is very robust. Will make a film about my her corner. Mat take a few week though as kids are on holidays at the moment.

[theproducegarden]

your videos rock claire!

[clairesallotment]

How's your new patch going? Have been watching your videos with great interest.

Claire

[Wisegeorge]

My wife was mad at me for planting mint in my garden. I liked it, but now we grow it in a pot. Haha, she won.

[clairesallotment]

It can take over if you let it. Best to keep it contained.

[mukwah1111]

Thanks Claire I had heard that about mint but never see anyone put it into a pot within the garden. Good infor. Cheers !

[clairesallotment]

It's the best way to keep it contained otherwise it will take over.