the daydream fund challenge thread

meanmarie

Dave...what lovely plants....I have about 25 plants at about the same stage and some of them are showing flowerbuds, so hopefully a good tomato harvest this year, have a few nice pepper plants as well so happy at present. We are eating broccoli, rhubarb, leaf beet, onions and lots of ground elder in the hope of some day getting rid of it....

Money has been tight of late but I managed to add €100 to my daydream fund yesterday, will be the last for a while I think.

Marie

COOLTRIKERCHICK

havent long got back after a lovely weekend away at the smallholder show in builth wells..

'sighs' bought some manadrin ducks... hatching eggs. and caved in and subscribed to the smallholder mag. i normally buy it from the place i buy my chicken feed, but with the offer of about 9 free back copies. a load of free samples of dog food, a free pen, a free mug and a free jute bag to put them all in, how could i resist:rotfl:

Davesnave the plant people were doing a roaring trade...... with a few stands down to dregs by the sunday mid-day, the amount of people i seem walking round with runner bean plants :rotfl:

sooooooo i am full of energy again, and need to get more pennies in my pot..



by the way i was just going through amazon and found this book, due to be released in october..... dont know why Davesnave but i thought of you when i seen the title and the discription:D

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Archie-Sparrows-Useful-Recession-Baling/dp/1904871763/ref=sr_1_24?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1274037532&sr=1-24

Davesnave

Thanks for the comments about the toms. Yes, we have a production line and this time next year it'll be twice as big, thanks to the fact that we've just had the planning permission through for a 24'x42' polytunnel.

It's a bit mad here ATM with lots going on and no time to do much, except work, sleep & eat, but I'll have some more pictures and an update in a few days.

Blairweech

Good morning everyone,

I have been doing some work on a local farm this weekend, and I really enjoyed it. The first day we were on sat on the planter on the back of the tractor, planting out onions and the second we did some weeding of the polytunnels as it was raining (its an organic farm). It was so interesting though - and the chap let me have a drive of the tractor Hopefully he will give me a call and I can do some more work for him - I rang another place up this week about casual work (I even offered to do it for nothing), and the guy laughed at me! :mad: :mad:

Things in the garden are coming along quite well, and my house deposit fund is being added to. Hope everyone is doing good :beer:

Lotus-eater

rhiwfield wrote: »

Greenhouse is now empty apart from the tomato plants and marigolds. Leaving much more space between plants than last year and more ventilation to try to avoid the botrytis that got last years crop :mad:

In part for us but also for the chickens, who wont mind the odd caterpillar or ten on any un-netted plants!

How much space are you leaving around your tom plants this year?

Sorry to burst your bubble, but never seen a hen yet that will eat a cabbage white caterpillar. They might try them, but then spit them out and look disgusted.

They will eat the green ones you find on brassicas, they are from the small cabbage white butterfly and the cabbage moth I think. They are the really hard ones to find that sit in the leaf stalks and are well camouflaged. even the wasps that devastate the CW caterpillars in my garden can't find them.

rhiwfield

Lotus-eater wrote: »

How much space are you leaving around your tom plants this year?

Sorry to burst your bubble, but never seen a hen yet that will eat a cabbage white caterpillar. They might try them, but then spit them out and look disgusted.

They will eat the green ones you find on brassicas, they are from the small cabbage white butterfly and the cabbage moth I think. They are the really hard ones to find that sit in the leaf stalks and are well camouflaged. even the wasps that devastate the CW caterpillars in my garden can't find them.

Lotus-Eater, greenhouse is 10' x 6'. 4 toms each long side and 1 at far end (9 in total). Pots of french marigolds in between toms. Wont be damping down this year but leaving door and louvres open and vents are automatic. Avoiding all leaf splashes. Just hope it works.

And you mean those ungrateful little *!@!! will turn their beaks up at the large whites :mad:.

We seem to have a load of queen wasps this year so as long as they dont nest in the veg patch maybe there will be some biological control. As for cabbage moths, they have to be the ugliest caterpillar going, sort of a greeny brown fat sluglike lump in the heart of the cabbage surrounded by its own c**p. Lost several of my winter cabbage to them, what size netting do you need to keep them out?

Lotus-eater

rhiwfield wrote: »

Lotus-Eater, greenhouse is 10' x 6'. 4 toms each long side and 1 at far end (9 in total).

Lost several of my winter cabbage to them, what size netting do you need to keep them out?

Wow, that's not very many, I've got a 8x6 greenhouse and have fitted 12 or 13 plants in there for the last 2 years. I've squeezed in 12 and 2 melons this year
I defoliate often.

Keeping out flutterbyes you need netting that won't let them in I know that sounds obvious but bear with me. Most anti butterfly netting (about half cm or so holes) keeps them out, but always a few manage to find their way in. Enviromesh definitely keeps out butterflies, but they get under the sides often and if the net touches the plant, they lay through it, no matter how fine it is.

rhiwfield

Lotus-eater wrote: »

Wow, that's not very many, I've got a 8x6 greenhouse and have fitted 12 or 13 plants in there for the last 2 years. I've squeezed in 12 and 2 melons this year
I defoliate often.

Keeping out flutterbyes you need netting that won't let them in I know that sounds obvious but bear with me. Most anti butterfly netting (about half cm or so holes) keeps them out, but always a few manage to find their way in. Enviromesh definitely keeps out butterflies, but they get under the sides often and if the net touches the plant, they lay through it, no matter how fine it is.

Makes me wonder whether I'd made it too humid in the greenhouse rather than overcrowding. I'd removed foliage to keep air flowing and to prevent water splashing but to no avail. Its really struck me that growing crops well is a skill that you dont always get right, or in my case only occasionaly get right!

I've been using 1cm square netting, and its not been doing too well. Works fine for berry protection against birds but not for the flutterbyes

Using enviromesh this year for first time to protect a bed of swedes. Previously turnips and radish have proved magnets for the root fly so forked out for a few metres, cheap it aint

Davesnave

Hello, folks. It's kinda quiet around here, so I imagine most of you have been out there getting on with it rather than chatting on t'Internet.

We have been manically busy but, with luck, there's a 'rest' coming up, as the fencing guys will probably just want us to keep out of the way, make tea etc. I have all the posts, wire etc ready & waiting for them, so it's fingers crossed they arrive, as they are farmers too, and 'things' happen... ...which can cause delays.

Anyway, there is an update to my Photobucket page with a few pictures of what we've been up to:







The rest of the images are on Photobucket.

I hope the rest of you are enjoying this mini heatwave. I can't say I am, as the existing polytunnel is too hot and the watering/damping down is constant. We've some space cleared outside now, so we've been moving things outdoors, rapidly.

We were pleased to get a break yesterday to do leaflet delivery for a village event, which helped us to find hidden & unexplored areas of the place. It was also handy that so many people were in their gardens, because we could start to link faces to places.

Blairweech, you are doing exactly the right thing, getting practical experience. It will really make a difference later on. Time & again I realise that there's so much I just don't know yet.

Have a good Sunday, everyone.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

Flip Davesnave.. i take my hat off to you, i have just looked at the pics on photobucket, and wow you really have done loads since you moved in.... i dread to think of how much all that work, fencing etc has cost you so far....:eek:

did you know how much you needed to spend to get the place up to the standard you want?

I know its slightly different with you as you want to get your business established there, but if someone bought a smallholding/land waht type of budget do you think they will need for those 'hidden' expenses, re-newing fences, drainage, updating old out buildings etc...?

Davessnave..... i must admit i am sooooooooo jealous of you:rotfl: but yet at the same time so proud and elated for you too:beer:......

It just goes to show, with hard work, and focus....( and money) you can get your dream place


off to have a cuppa, and some toast, and then will be back and for out the garden today. and to have a water hose pipe fight with the ducks:D, they love it when i go into the run with the hose pipe and squirt water at them....:rotfl: