It is tough NOW. So how are we coping

Thats_me

Oh AnnieG, I'm so sorry! Keep reading here for more tips. Hopefully something will come up real soon. HUGS>

boultdj

Primrose wrote: »

For those who are interested in growing turnips, you can still sow them now.
Make a shallow drill, water it well and thinly sow a row of seeds. Cover over and keep the soil moist. They should germinate and grow quickly. The leaves will grow up to 12 inches high, and although I've not yet tried them myself, I understand that the leaves can be picked, cooked and eaten as greens. In hot weather the roots need to be watered daily otherwise the inside of the turnips become dry and pappy.

You need to use the younger,middle leave's,best to steam them and use in place of spinich,you can also use beetroot leave's the same way. Elizabunny,if you want grow from seed,now is the time to plant chard's,perpetual spinich and kale, if you want stuff like broccli n' sprout's go to the garden centre's/wilko's/car boot's to get plant's. HTH. Annie sorry about the job.

Primrose

Annie - disappointed for you about the job. Hope something else turns up for you soon.

Tregemred

BigMummaF wrote: »

Half your luck We're mid-terrace with no down pipes, other than a drinking straw from the flat roofed porch that goes over the neighbours front garden. Plus both sets of neighbours have put up fencing out back & I'm not sure I can fix anything--hanging basket, water collecting device, etc--on 'my' side. Even our shed is a flattie & possibly asbestos roof too

Hi BMF,

We don't have any butts attached to house downpipes, yet . Just the greenhouses and the shed (tin roof). You could just position open topped butts wherever you can fit them in. Our garden works hard for it's living so random butts make little difference to it's appearance. If you have small children or some who visit, it's worth securely fitting mesh over the top. It keeps leaves out too. OH took our butts out when our children were small. It's likely that mossies will quickly colonise them too but a few goldfish keep the larvae down. Our fish go out when it's warm enough to plant out courgettes and come in when nighttime temperatures start to dip below 10 regularly. Good luck with your garden.

"The job I was offered last week fell through, and having done the numbers, things are going to be difficult until I can find something else, so I'll keep reading and finding as many money saving ideas as I can!"

Bad luck Annie, hang in there. I hope something turns up soon.

TGR

ginnyknit

I love the idea of goldfish in the water butts, with a gnome fishing on the edge!

Annie keep your chin up hunny. Thanks for the info on the water meter, any saving is great.

I have already started my winter veg, I have 2 parsnips growing, think maybe I need more. Never thought of turnips, Im off to order some seeds now :T

dandy-candy

elizabunny wrote: »

The vet has advised us that we should only feed him on Hay and Herbs and there's no need for loads of those prepacked pricey nuggets. I grow all my own herbs so that will work out well, and I've even found a site that will sell me Hay/grass seed if I want to grow my own. This is great, bunny gets to eat organically and quite cheaply, food which is very good for him and we get to be rewarded with FREE compost and there's not much in life that is free.

Could you tell me what herbs bunnys like as I would love to suplement my ones diet like this too!

northwest1965

mardatha wrote: »

We need a thread on the greenfingered forum to teach us how to grow winter veg as well as the more usual salad stuff that we're all doing. I want to do turnips.

There is a greenfingered forum on this site, I have looked in a few times, as always its very good:)

Larumbelle

My water butts are securely lidded after I heard a horror story about a cat drowning in one. :eek: So I can't put goldfish in mine (well, I could... but it wouldn't be a very nice thing to do...) but the darned mozzies still get in there. So to keep the mozzies down I put the thinnest layer possible of oil in th top, less than 1/4 teaspoon. This keeps them mozzie free!

I don't post on greenfingered as often as I used to, I never quite got back into it after my hiatus... still lurk there though

Hippeechiq

AnnieG wrote: »

The job I was offered last week fell through, and having done the numbers, things are going to be difficult until I can find something else, so I'll keep reading and finding as many money saving ideas as I can!

Oh Annie - I'm sorry to hear that :grouphug:

ginnyknit wrote: »

even though some of them have been rescued from silly owners. One was kept in a bread tray under a bed!

Oh for goodness sakes!! :mad:

Nice little story amidst all the gloom eliza - thank you

On a light note also, I have a friend who has a rabbit called Pie and two chickens called Sage & Onion ......a girl after my own heart on the humour front :rotfl:

ceridwen

mardatha wrote: »

We need a thread on the greenfingered forum to teach us how to grow winter veg as well as the more usual salad stuff that we're all doing. I want to do turnips.

Indeed we do.

To start the ball rolling - I've made myself a list of what can be grown for winter/early spring eating (NB: probably missed a few off - because I did the list for myself - so didnt write down stuff I dont like personally or stuff I havent got the room for in my tiny garden.....):

hardy oriental mustards
mibuna
mizuna
corn salad
land cress
winter lettuce
winter purslane
hardy oriental radishes
salad rape
rocket
senposai
Texsel greens
hairy bittercress
Swiss chard
salad burnet

So - I guess winter foodgrowing boils down to three things:
- growing foods suitable for that season of the year

- keeping things under cover when necessary (cloches, fleece, etc). A "proper gardener" here could correct me if I'm wrong - but I believe one can even use things like newspapers and old net curtains to help "insulate" plants against the cold.....:cool:

- growing the type of foods that can be left to "overwinter" in the ground without problems - eg beetroot for instance.