It is tough NOW. So how are we coping

Maxjessdru

I would second growing raspberries in the garden - I have a long row behind my garage (they will grow quite happily in shade where other things struggle) which I have had for about 5 years now. The variety I grow are Autumn Bliss - they are easier to grow than some other raspberries as they are cut to the about 6" in February, need no staking or training (other than a large rope in front of them to stop them taking over the path!!), and this year produced fruit from July through till the first frosts at the end of October. I made so many jars of raspberry and apple jam (froze the raspberries until the apple tree was ready), I still have about 10 jars in the garage. I even used the jam and some frozen fruit in my christmas trifle. Would also recommend planting tumbling tom tomatoes and strawberries in the same pots (I made a "tower" out of 4 different sized pots last year) - as they both need about the same water and food requirements. Happy planting everyone!

Gigervamp

I had no luck with most of the veg I planted last year. It either got eaten by slugs or rotted with all the rain, or just didn't come to anything.
I had a blueberry that fruited the year before but needed repotting, so I did that (in ericacious (sp) compost) and it died.
My tomatoes grew only about 5 tomatoes and they all got blight.
My celeriac grew stalks and looked like it had decent sized bulbs just below the soil, but when I dug a couple up (only had 3) it turned out that below the top bit was just a load of roots.
Peas, beans, salad, chillis and peppers all got eaten by slugs.
The only plant that I got something from was my one courgette. I got about 3 fruits. It did fruit well, but the slugs got to several of the fruits before I did. :mad:

Of course, the wet weather was just perfect for those bloomin' slugs!

ceridwen

Penelope Penguin has made a good point re a reason why our food is going up a lot again in price - i.e. the weak £. If our currency is worth less - then obviously this is going to happen. As a country - we just cant buy as much for our money...stands to reason.

Please please everyone start growing food - if you arent already. Believe me...we do need to (we need to do a few other things too - but I'll behave myself and wont go off into them.....). Speaking of weak currencies - anyone know how Iceland is doing these days (ie the country). I do feel sorry for the ordinary person in the street there and hope they are managing okay.

Anyways....must away back to my second blog...which seems to be rather overtaking my main one at t'moment...ie "My Gardening Notes". Being a total ignoramus about foodgrowing and experimenting and making notes and experimenting some more...I need all the help I can get to figure out how to grow food in my teeny tiny bit outback - so all gardening comments welcome on:

http://mygardeningnotes.blogspot.com/

Aril

Hi I've posted these links on the DFW board but may also have some relevant frugal tips here or ideas to explore-
www.wildmanwildfood.com- a wide range of wild food recipes [the chap was on the Living without money programme last night].
www.goselfsufficient.co.uk
Aril

wigglebeena

My response to price rises is determined by my basic approach to food shopping: I don't set a menu then find the cheapest places to buy the ingredients. I buy what is cheap and readily available, then work out what to make with it. I can still make phenomenally cheap bread, soups and stews: I'm just flexible on the ingredients.

Until I was broke I never realised how cheaply it is possible to eat well.

hgbels

Thanks for all the talk on gardening - I really must get a good veg patch going, and had a look at the RHS planting plans this afternoon. Just got to work out what is best for the family.

After last year however anytime I mention growing veg to the LO's they say 'but it will all the eaten by slugs'.
Once the builders leave and the ground defrosts I will have to start digging and weeding.

I'm thinking of an old dustbin for strawberries and tomatoes - need to think of something for the top - - maybe even some flowers.

I was flicking through some catelogues this afternoon - for a posh childrens furniture shop that came in the post. It had the most lovely covered notice boards and fabric holders so I have added these to my list of things to make - but I never seem to get anytime

Hels

elizabunny

Sorry folks! this must be the latest ever, but HAPPY NEW YEAR!! to everyone. Been away for a few days and only just catching up on all the posts. Glad to see everyone sounding fairly positive with their plans for the new year. I am hoping to grow lots of veg. again this year, but need to plan this as I had quite a few disasters last year. So I will catch up with you all again soon -when I catch up with myself, as I appear to be coming down with something. I seem to have lost the ability to speak anything louder than a whisper over the last few hours due to a horribly sore throat. Nice for DH as he will have peace, so annoying for me as I'm a right chatterbox. Take care all. x

sexki11en

Gigervamp wrote: »

I had no luck with most of the veg I planted last year. It either got eaten by slugs or rotted with all the rain, or just didn't come to anything.
I had a blueberry that fruited the year before but needed repotting, so I did that (in ericacious (sp) compost) and it died.
My tomatoes grew only about 5 tomatoes and they all got blight.
My celeriac grew stalks and looked like it had decent sized bulbs just below the soil, but when I dug a couple up (only had 3) it turned out that below the top bit was just a load of roots.
Peas, beans, salad, chillis and peppers all got eaten by slugs.
The only plant that I got something from was my one courgette. I got about 3 fruits. It did fruit well, but the slugs got to several of the fruits before I did. :mad:

Of course, the wet weather was just perfect for those bloomin' slugs!

Oh dear. Your attempt sounds as good as mine was lol. Still we needn't feel bad now - it was obviously not our fault :rotfl:

My best one was putting about 10 seed potatoes in a small (ish) planter. Guess whose potatoes sprouted but didn't grow beyond mini egg size? lol. I have some growing now that were supposed to be Christmas day spuds but aren't quite (understatement lol) there yet. If the frost hasn't completely killed them off :rolleyes: They only have one seed per pot

Ahh well, we live and learn. I've started some compost today (in the garage for now) for this year and as soon as we get a bit of a thaw, will be out digging the soil over instead of using pots this year.

My tomatoes are actually still growing in the conservatory but I think the frost even got to them in there the last few days as they're watered but are still wilting. My Aubergine is growing but never sprouted any fruit over the summer, despite being kept in the greenhouse. Fingers crossed we have a good summer eh?

SK x

ixwood

Growing your own is definitely a good move for all sorts of reasons.

Veg can be hard work. And using "traditional" methods and annual veg normally means hard work. Digging (or double digging), hoeing, weeding, watering, sowing, protecting, dealing with pests etc etc etc.

Newer "low input" back to/working with nature techniques are a much better option IMHO.

Permaculture techniques are brill and very low input/green/organic. Mulch to prevent weeds and eliminate watering, don't do block planting as bugs can't go wrong once they're there as they're surrounded by food, layer plants to help each other and improve (total) produce, never dig or stand on your growing soil, let nature do it for you etc.

Concentrate on perennials (live for more than a year) instead of annuals (last one growing season and need replanting every year). Bushes, small fruit trees, edible hedges, salad bushes etc. This bypasses the hassle of constantly sowing and protecting delicate seedlings. Once established perennials will withstand slug attacks and are generally low maintenance.

For the normal veg as well, use square foot gardening techniques (no need to spend a fortune on fancy raised beds, improvise and be creative). It's designed to be low input and is very efficient/easy/rewarding.

And grow indoors. Salads, Aloe vera, sprouted seeds, mushrooms etc are all possible.

Useful plants:

http://www.pfaf.org/index.php

The "Plants For A Future" book is brill. It has pretty much every useful plant we can grow here in it.

Read that, square foot gardening and a permaculture book or 2 and there'll be no stopping you.

Oh and maybe a woodland/forest gardening book. It's a permaculture idea to work with nature and create an edible "woodland" garden with multiple productive layers. It can work well in small gardens.

Sylvan

Thanks mummysaver. I've put harissa on my never never list (I daren't ask DH to look for it - we had enough trouble sending him to find bread flour in Mr T's yesterday:rotfl:). We are planning to go out on Saturday, but by the time we've found (or not!) a trench coat () for DS5 and been into 3 large DIY chains looking for the cheapest beech effect melamine faced chipboard (don't ask!) the males will have had enough mentally and I'll have had it physically, so I don't hold out much hope for food shopping.

I was going to make an Asdie order (they're the only people that will deliver to us), but after I'd managed to spend £50 I discovered it actually needs to be £99 - and I've only managed to stretch it to £90 so far. :mad:

Your muffins sound lovely. I think I might try making some with the leftover cranberry sauce (if the kitchen ever warms up enough for me to be able to stay in it).

My shiny new SC finally arrived - and boy, is it shiny! I think I'm going to need sunglasses:cool:. It's very, um, big. Mind you I'm still going to have to cut my gammon in half. It's 2.4kg and the SC instructions say I shouldn't put in a joint bigger than 1.5kg
I've [strike]wasted[/strike] spent a lot of time drooling over the recipes in the SC thread. Thanks for the pointer. :T

I grew my peas in containers last year, since we didn't know when (or even whether) we were likely to move. It worked very well, till I forgot to water them at the end of July:o. (Though we were pretty sated with peas by then anyway.) I put them up on walls and old chairs so they were easy to pick too. I don't think the slugs round here have learnt to look up yet - but I'm sure they'll catch on eventually.

mmm, plum wine. Pity I can't drink alcohol any more. I have fond memories of peapod wine (you can feel the heat all the way down...), goosegog, blackberry, and a white wine I once made (I can't remember what I used - it was over 25 years ago) that was incredibly sweet, thick and golden, but tasted absolutely delicious.

I made cottage plum chutney; spiced plum chutney; panj puran plum chutney (you get inventive when you're bored!); apple and ginger chutney; damson and apple jam; apple, plum and ginger jam; low sugar damson and apple jam; apple and damson jam with nutmeg; and the last batch was labelled "Dam apple & rhubarb jam"...

mardatha, I'll happily make a giant batch of crumble and custard but between your snow and our snow I don't think you'd make it here - unless you have skis, or huskies.

I got a good tip from the Beechgrove Garden (the Scottish Beeb gardening prog) a few years ago. If you plant your toms fairly deep in a big pot (those flower buckets from the supermarkets are good) you can keep adding compost to them as they grow. That way they root from the stem, which anchors them better and gives them more roots for collecting water. They left the first sideshoot on too, so it was effectively a double-stemmed tomato plant, but I'm not sure how well that worked - I didn't really have a long enough growing season at 1500 feet:rotfl:

Gotta go - DH is looking put-upon...

Hope everything goes well D&DD