Planting Plans For One Person

Sylvan

Flickr does have a privacy option but I had it set to "Public".
Rassen frassen... I've now followed your link and signed up to Photobucket, to see if it works any better.

harib0uk

Sylvan wrote: »

Flickr does have a privacy option but I had it set to "Public".
Rassen frassen... I've now followed your link and signed up to Photobucket, to see if it works any better.

I can now see your links in the post - if those links are what you were trying to put in as images it wont work because they are not images they are links to pages on flickr not actual images.

The first one "Beginning" for example:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ria-d-sylva/3090563366/in/set-72157610871381228/

Should be:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3065/3090563366_85e635522a.jpg
to give you the image:

Sylvan

:cool:Wow! Thanks. Where did you get the "farm4.static" bit?

(I did it with photobucket but it would be nice to know how to make flickr work:rolleyes:)

ceridwen

Now feeling a bit envious Sylvan - that looks like a reasonable bit of ground (possibly a bit shady?).

My situation is its just a backyard and positively TINY and half of it in shade - so I'm having to have one readymade raised bed (4' square) in the sunny bit and the other in the shady bit and slot in other assorted containers as and where I can. I can fix some bits to sturdy trellis on a wall I have that is about 10' long in the sunny bit to help out a bit. I'm trying to take encouragement from a website where they reckoned they grew all the veg. they needed for 2 people from 2 of these 4' beds - so thinking "One should be plenty then - topped up with my 3 potato growing thingies and a growbag with 3 tomato plants in" - but I bet they had to do one heck of a lot of planning to make this small amount of space do.

I was reading in a Shirley Goode cookbook yesterday about how she grew aubergines and peppers on windowsills indoors and she said 6 of each should keep them supplied (ie a family - with 4 children) - so I imagine that perhaps I could have 2 pepper plants and 2 aubergine plants on indoor windowsills in my case and hopefully that would be enough? (though I suspect I use more of these than she would - as my cooking is more "continental" in style). What do people think about those quantities for me? and what would be the right types of these plants to have for indoor growing with a prolific supply from them?

Another thing Shirley Goode mentioned was that she used those mushroom-growing kits and she figured that her mushrooms were half price from that - dont know what other peoples thoughts are on these? Has anyone used them? I'm inclined to think "Value" mushrooms would come out much the same price and that surely all mushrooms have to be organic wherever one gets them from.....?

EDIT: 'fraid I have no way of posting photos. I dont even take photos anyway...being the non-technical person I am.

Karmacat

Sylvan, those pictures are fantastic:beer: well done on taking them, doing the work *and* managing to post them!

Ceridwen, I have the sort of space that Sylvan has, I must confess tho not the *man*power :rotfl: . Its also much, much more overgrown than that. I *may take a photo today of where I intend the bed to be, but its basically 6" deep in grass and weeds at the mo.

I'm also concentrating much more on getting shrubs and trees down to a manageable size where they aren't creating structural damage - its already too late for my raised patio, a retaining wall at the front and the fence at the back of the property, all of which will have to be rebuilt, but I don't want anything else to go. :eek:

At least I'm not taking up planting time in getting that sorted. I've got garlic cloves ready to plant - I presume I can just put them in individual pots, and put them outside half sunk into the ground?

Larumbelle

Oooh Sylvan it's lovely!

Ceridwen, I agree that you may need more than two pepper plants if you eat a reasonable amount of them. I love Shirley Goode (and I know you read her blog, 'cos I do too ) and she does seem to use fewer of these ingredients. But that doesn't take storage into question. If you don't have freezer space for the peppers, you'd need to look into 'canning' them in jars or making batches of sauce or preserves. Aubergines simply don't store - at least, I've never managed it - they deteriorate within a few day after they are picked, when frozen I find they are really nasty (maybe they'd freeze better 'processed into a sauce?), and even my American 'canning' book says they can't be preserved, and they like to jar pretty much everything! So it may be that two plants will be enough to gorge yourself before they go back out of season. In any case, most aubergines won't all ripen on the plant at the same time, so at least while the plants are alive they should give you a steady supply. DOes Shirley mention anything? Maybe you could ask her what she used to do with them?

harib0uk

Sylvan wrote: »

:cool:Wow! Thanks. Where did you get the "farm4.static" bit?

(I did it with photobucket but it would be nice to know how to make flickr work:rolleyes:)

I don't use flickr so I'm not up on what information it gives you to be easily able to put images in posts on forums.

The way I did it was to right click on your photo and select properties then copy the location of the photo, in the first photos case the location was: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3065/3090563366_85e635522a.jpg?v=0 however that still wont work as for some reason it has "?v=0" stuck on the end - all images must end in .jpg (if jpg is the image format) so i just deleted that off the end to leave: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3065/3090563366_85e635522a.jpg

I know photobucket and image shack give you the direct code so you just copy and paste into your forum post

Yategirl

ceridwen wrote: »

My situation is its just a backyard and positively TINY and half of it in shade - so I'm having to have one readymade raised bed (4' square) in the sunny bit and the other in the shady bit and slot in other assorted containers as and where I can. I can fix some bits to sturdy trellis on a wall I have that is about 10' long in the sunny bit to help out a bit. I'm trying to take encouragement from a website where they reckoned they grew all the veg. they needed for 2 people from 2 of these 4' beds - so thinking "One should be plenty then - topped up with my 3 potato growing thingies and a growbag with 3 tomato plants in" - but I bet they had to do one heck of a lot of planning to make this small amount of space do.

I was reading in a Shirley Goode cookbook yesterday about how she grew aubergines and peppers on windowsills indoors and she said 6 of each should keep them supplied (ie a family - with 4 children) - so I imagine that perhaps I could have 2 pepper plants and 2 aubergine plants on indoor windowsills in my case and hopefully that would be enough? (though I suspect I use more of these than she would - as my cooking is more "continental" in style). What do people think about those quantities for me? and what would be the right types of these plants to have for indoor growing with a prolific supply from them?

Another thing Shirley Goode mentioned was that she used those mushroom-growing kits and she figured that her mushrooms were half price from that - dont know what other peoples thoughts are on these? Has anyone used them? I'm inclined to think "Value" mushrooms would come out much the same price and that surely all mushrooms have to be organic wherever one gets them from.....?
[\quote]

Peppers - I got 2 per plant this year (outside grown) and have no success with aubergines - lovely plants but no fruits.. If you could squeeze more in.. then I would grow them.. Tomatoes - you can grow these from hanging baskets as well as in pots or indoors on a sunny window sill - think about the type of toms you like - cherry/plum etc.. if you go for a cherry then maybe try "hundreds and thousands" or similar - very prolific fruiting - this one is a bush trailing variety so good in a hanging basket. I tend to grow lots if tomatoes so would maybe tempted in your position to grow 4 - they can be canned or if you have freezer space frozen but fresh tomatoes I can eat by the handful!

Mushrooms - ds1 and I grew one of those packs last year - did it the garage which I think was too cold... and only got one crop so have to say I wasn't impressed... However, we have been given another one for christmas so am going to try it under the stairs and get the 3 crops they estimate that you can grow. Not sure if value for money though....


Sylvan - love the garden! I have a few pics on my blog but still have a few to take.

Sylvan

It is pretty shady Ceridwen. There are some incredibly tall conifers over the wall but of course the shade moves round so everywhere gets sun at some point during the day.

We bought the house for the garden. I've been used to vast amounts of space. The most I've had was 7 acres, the least about a fifth of an acre, but it's quite a struggle to grow sufficient to feed a family in very high, exposed gardens if you work as well. (Sometimes I used to be gardening till 11.30pm in the "white nights"). I'm hoping that the better growing conditions will help to mitigate the lack space.

We had to move closer to civilisation as it's only a matter of time before I can't walk or drive again but it was a real struggle to find anywhere with a garden bigger than 20' x30'. I was shocked - even in London I had about 100' x 30'.
We found this one at the last minute and grabbed it. It's about 30', narrowing to 20', by about 80', but we have to park the car on part of it, since the house fronts directly on to the (narrow) road and we can't plant anything on that square of grass around the plum tree (the bit the dog's sunbathing on) because there's a lead water main under it that keeps bursting.

The bit we're going to use for the veggies is 20ft x 40ft but only about half of that really gets sufficient light. I'm planning another 16' long bed on the other side (it can't be any longer or it would end up under the apple tree), with the greenhouse between them and a couple of beds between the two trees. I know those two beds, along with the southern ends of the other two, will be very shady, but it's better than nothing. The problem up here is that you tend to have to choose between shade and strong wind:rotfl:

I'm a little worried about the soil. The old lady that lived here had a "gardener" (I assure you, whatever else he was, he wasn't a gardener!) who came in once a week. There was nothing at all growing in that back bit (or the foot wide beds round the lawn) but it obviously hadn't been dug for years so I have the feeling he used weedkiller. As it happens I need high raised beds but I don't think I'd feel safe growing food directly in that ground anyway.

The tree next to the dog, in the 2nd picture, is a Victoria plum. The plums are gorgeous but the tree's not in the best of health, poor old dear. I hope she lasts.

I'd like to put trellis running across the garden about half way between the plum tree and the raised beds (or at least posts and wire) for some extra vertical growing space but the slaves are revolting:p

To be fair they spent the summer clearing the thickets from the rest of the garden and even roped their friends in, and when they haven't been building in the garden they've been doing so in the house - guess who constructed and installed those kitchen units they're leaning against:D - and they have an awful amount of schoolwork to get through

When we were clearing the flower beds we left a few of the brambles because I love blackberries. Am I just storing up trouble for myself?

I can't understand how anyone can possibly eat aubergines (they're almost as bad as okra!) but I would have thought 2 plants would be sufficient for one person. It's been a long time since I last grew them but I think I only had 8 or 9 plants for a family of 8.

Sorry about the incredibly long post - it got away from me a little!:o

Sylvan

:eek:Structural damage sounds terrifying Karmacat. Are you on clay?
It would be lovely to see your garden before you clear it and then again as you get it sorted, if you have the time to post pictures.:D

If you know any 14-16 year olds who don't have jobs they'd probably be quite happy to clear your patch for £4 an hour (and there you were thinking mine were digging for love:p) or you could dig out the worst deep-rooted perennial weeds and then cover it with newspaper, thick cardboard and straw or muck (or possibly large stones). You can even plant through the mulch, and by the time it has rotted down completely your weeds ought to be well and truly dead (unless you have ground elder - oh please tell me you don't have ground elder!).

Will you be wanting to move your garlic later? If not you could just plant them straight into the ground.