my food and growing diary

nikki20022008

lol thats a good idea

HariboJunkie

I'm so jealous of you being able to get tomatoes practically all year round by the sounds of it. I only harvest mine in September and October and sow the seeds in late February. Hope the new hens settle in. Your garden must be huge!!

PossumMum

Nikki this is a fab thread - very inspirational. I didn't realise you could plant tomatoes so early! I may have to do that myself. What else can you plant early assuming you have a heated greenhouse (or like myself, an unused "conservatory" with a radiator in it)?

Carrieon -- have you tried Freecycle for a greenhouse? Some people give them away if you can come and dismantle it and take it away. Bargain!

Penelope_Penguin

vandanfc wrote: »

How about after henry viii's wives minus 1 ?

Why minus 1 Catherine, Anne, Jane, Anne, Catherine, Catherine

HariboJunkie wrote: »

I'm so jealous of you being able to get tomatoes practically all year round by the sounds of it. I only harvest mine in September and October and sow the seeds in late February. Hope the new hens settle in. Your garden must be huge!!

Me too - I'm off planting seeds later this week so as I can have fresh HG tomatoes next December :T Thanks for the tip, OP :T sadly, the polytunnel is free of chooks now, thanks to Mr Dog :rolleyes:

Penny. x

Churchmouse

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

Why minus 1 Catherine, Anne, Jane, Anne, Catherine, Catherine


Penny. x

Penny As someone whose name is continually misspelled ( even by family :rolleyes:) I feel the need to say Kathryn Howard and Katherine Parr might prefer the correct spellings of theirs :D

nikki20022008

HariboJunkie wrote: »

I'm so jealous of you being able to get tomatoes practically all year round by the sounds of it. I only harvest mine in September and October and sow the seeds in late February. Hope the new hens settle in. Your garden must be huge!!

I grow them in the house in front of the patio windows lol who says you can't cheat mother nature My garden itself is about quarter of an acre but the farmer who owns where I live lets me use some of the field at the bottom for my allotment hes the main person I get meat off too as a swap for other stuff I gave him 3 pumkins in october for three pheasant legs lol

HariboJunkie

nikki20022008 wrote: »

I grow them in the house in front of the patio windows lol who says you can't cheat mother nature My garden itself is about quarter of an acre but the farmer who owns where I live lets me use some of the field at the bottom for my allotment hes the main person I get meat off too as a swap for other stuff I gave him 3 pumkins in october for three pheasant legs lol

Lucky you. If I was to grow them in the house the cost of the heat and light I would need to maintain for them would soon outweigh the benefits of growing them myself. :rolleyes: Your house must be much warmer and lighter than mine.

nikki20022008

HariboJunkie wrote: »

Lucky you. If I was to grow them in the house the cost of the heat and light I would need to maintain for them would soon outweigh the benefits of growing them myself. :rolleyes: Your house must be much warmer and lighter than mine.

The heatings on anyway and I have two big patio door which work quite well for the light I just sit them in front of there they are smaller than the summer ones I get but the green ones I use in chutneys so I try to make good use of all my veg/fruit.

valk_scot

nikki20022008 wrote: »

The heatings on anyway and I have two big patio door which work quite well for the light I just sit them in front of there they are smaller than the summer ones I get but the green ones I use in chutneys so I try to make good use of all my veg/fruit.

Where in the country do you live, Nikki? I'm most envious. I live in lowland Scotland and I haven't even bought my spuds or tomato seeds yet, let alone started anything off. I've got a heated propagator and a greenhouse which I can heat, but the hours of daylight here are so short in the winter and early spring there's zero point in even thinking about starting stuff off till the end of Feburary at least.

Re: whoever asked about winter salads. I find if I start off raddichio and curley endive in late summer they get to a decent size by the end of the growing season and after that as long as they have some sort of protection from direct rain, like an open ended cloche, they'll stand through most of the winter and you can just harvest off a handfull of leaves as and when you need them. They don't like being completely enclosed in a cold frame (they rot) but they would do fine in an unheated polytunnel. I also grow corn salad in a frame for extra leaves, and use greens like young kale leaves and shredded up brussel sprouts from the brassica patch, plus I grow white cabbage for coleslaw. (Though this last is a bit tempermental up here in the north. And there's good old mustard and cress on the window sill all year round. So winter salads are perfectly possible.

MrsBsBlog

Hi Nikki:hello:and everybody else. What an inspiration you are, I have subscribed and will watch with great interest. I am one of the lucky one`s that have now managed to get hold of an allotment, so hopefully will be feeding my family some delish HG veg. I`m now on the lookout for some potato sets as you`ve given me the kick up the b** that I need and will have a sort through the other seeds I already have. Catch you all later.