no fool like an old fool

[BUFFS]

we have been growing our marrow and courgettes in buckets and as the marrow was getting quite large I thought I would put them into the veg patch, so I dug out the hole and just as I was lowering the rootball into the hole when the marrow rested on the soil pile ,rolled sideways and detached itself from the plant, the anglosaxon exclamations frightened all the birds away to say the least, so its stuffed marrow instead of a showpiece one....that is all from this old fool, and the courgettes went in a treat, isn't this what they call sods law?

[frogdoctor]

Nice one Buffs, wish I had seen it happen, bet the birds were sniggering quietly to themselves.

[Nicos]

It's always he way isn't it???

Having said that, I have never grown a marrow...what is the difference between a marrow and an overgrown courgette?

Maybe you could allow some of the courgettes to grow to marrow size to make up for it???
I purposefully grow some big and they store well into the New Year!

[Jeanied]

Well I have a tale of my own - I have bought some garden perennials to fill the bare patches in the garden - caused by heavy clearance last summer to get ready for the dog - and since then by various diggings up and chewings.

Needless to say as fast as I was planting stuff, the pots were being run off with by the dog and now she has effortlessly un-planted them with a couple of digs with her front paws. I have come indoors to cool off a bit and will need to source some wire caging from somewhere to protect the plants.

I also think I will direct sow loads of perennials in the hope that at least some come through in future

[Bill HH]

You may remember my spaniel ate all 30 of my sweet corn plants, I think lateral think tells us to cage the dog not the plants. But you never do eh.

[Potstubsdustbins]

Yes but you can forgive a springer like no other dog, I never managed to stay annoyed with mine after he looked at me with those wonderful eyes.

[Jeanied]

I know, who can resist, eh?

[BertieFox]

Not sure if this makes me an old fool, or if it's just part of the rich tapestry of life in the countryside! We had an entire row of beautiful fully hearted red cabbage. I kept putting off cutting them thinking they would stand better growing where they were until they were needed.

Below the garden is a large pond and then a river. One morning a few days later I went to look at my cabbages only to find every single one had completely disappeared and all that was left were the stumps.

Following the tracks around the cabbages I discovered they led down to the pond, where there were several extremely well fed coypu gambolling in the water. We'd always thought they were quite 'cute' apart from the problem of the holes they dug and the water plants they ate.

It was war from then on!

[ButternutSquash]

It's always he way isn't it???

Having said that, I have never grown a marrow...what is the difference between a marrow and an overgrown courgette?

Maybe you could allow some of the courgettes to grow to marrow size to make up for it???
I purposefully grow some big and they store well into the New Year!

A marrow and a courgette come from the same species, but marrow plants are bred to produce few fruit, courgettes are bred to produce many. I suspect you know this and your question was rhetorical. I find marrows insipid and unpleasant, but it is hard to keep up with one courgette plant.

[veggiechicken]

Today, I pruned a young apple tree that was overhanging the path and being a real nuisance. Unfortunately, I cut off the only branch with an apple on it

[Greenleaves]

I am always doing things that end in the opposite result to which I had intended. Sometimes through accident and sometimes through stupidity.

To that end I am claiming the old fool crown....

[Penellype]

I had a similar experience with a Totem (bush) tomato plant. I left it indoors because there was room and the forecast was for possible ground frost, and it got bigger and bigger until there were quite large green tomatoes on it. Its proper home was in the growhouse, which of course has a metal frame and is quite hard to plant in at the best of times. So when it came to planting out time there was me trying to cope with removing a bushy 2ft high tomato plant from a 3 litre pot in a confined space and fit it into its position in between metal framework and glass doors. You can guess the rest...