Is it worth it?

Kantankrus_Mare

Megansmum wrote: »

Thanks Mare,



How are your sweetcorn coming on? They are the things i am MOST excited about growing....I can't wait until they are ready to pick!!

Next year i want to do parsnips and peppers too! It is great - even though i don't eat much veg myself at least dd1 & dd2 are getting healthy fresh organic stuff and that makes me even more proud!! :j:D:j:D

Sweetcorn are doing well. Did them for the first time last year and were very easy to do. Only thing I find a problem is knowing when the right time to pick them is. I know its when the tassle things have gone brown but when we picked some last year they still werent quite ready. Not sure if they can then be left somewhere to ripen? Maybe somebody knows?

Peppers are easy to do and save you quite a bit of money if you use lots. I slice any excess and freeze them. No good for salads but ok in casseroles and chillis etc.

Lotus-eater

You don't pick sweetcorn until you know it's ready. Peel back the outer leaves and pr1ck a kernal with a nail, if it's creamy, it's ready, if it's watery, it's not.

mrs_moneyspinner

melanie 22 on rotovating: don't bother - I got my allotment in Feb with waist high weeds, cleared what I could and had rotovated - the weed roots are just churned underground and they come up from great depths with great speed. Better to weed and cover with plastic to keep them down. That is what I will be doing for next year.

mrs_moneyspinner

on the subject of ants under slabs - ants are your friends - they will climb up trees and anything else and eat all the nasty greenfly and other crawlies that will spoil your tomatos and stuff.

Lotus-eater

mrs_moneyspinner wrote: »

on the subject of ants under slabs - ants are your friends - they will climb up trees and anything else and eat all the nasty greenfly and other crawlies that will spoil your tomatos and stuff.

No they don't

Some species of ants "farm" aphids, protecting them on the plants they eat, eating the honeydew that the aphids release from the terminations of their alimentary canals. This is a "mutualistic relationship".
These "dairying ants" "milk" the aphids by stroking them with their antennae.[12][13] Therefore, sometimes aphids are called "ant cows".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphid

mrs_moneyspinner

yuk - I no longer consider ants my friends! they will probably take over the planet eventually as they are so clever.

Megansmum

mrs_moneyspinner wrote: »

yuk - I no longer consider ants my friends! they will probably take over the planet eventually as they are so clever.

now funnily enoguh - i was thinking that the other day! :eek: There are billions of them round our streets - the sand inbetweern slabs has all come up from where they have forced there way through. Streams of them march around in lines like well organised little armys! If humans become extinct, ants and weeds will rule the earth! :rotfl:

Megansmum

oh dear..... went to the lottie yesterday to water and i have a jungle! :eek:

I don't know how the weeds grew SOOO tall so quick! I could barely see my 3 little plots i had sown in! I have white flowers, purple ones, nettles, yellow ones..... Not fair!! :mad:

Yes, yes, before you all yell - i DID realise they came back - it's just the speed that amazes me - i wish my veg would grow so quick!

My sweetcorn are all growing but look like they have mini flowers growing - is this normal? Is this what turns into the sweetcorn? I can't find any photos of sweetcorn in mid growth!

Oh well, back breaking stuff again this weekend clearing the weeds AGAIN! I have just read my August edition of Kitchen garden and found an article on how to clear and cover and hopefully be weed free for next season..... yeah right! :rotfl:

Happy growing, sowing, hoeing and mowing all! (and for me...perhaps flamethrowing?? )

ixwood

Mulch, mulch, mulch. Nature doesn't do bare soil. it gets washed or blown away, The weeds are natures way of healing and protecting the bare earth.

Either that, or use ground cover.

Mulching also improves the soil and pretty much eliminates the need to water. I've no idea why all the old boy allotmenteerers do the bare, baked solid earth thing. I think they just like to make things hard work as a test of commitment.

Lotus-eater

ixwood wrote: »

I've no idea why all the old boy allotmenteerers do the bare, baked solid earth thing. I think they just like to make things hard work as a test of commitment.

Because it's tidy.

I don't do tidy, I do practical and useful*


*that's my story and I'm sticking to it, together with "wildlife areas" if asked about untidy lawns.