If push comes to shove...?

[Deleted User]

I have spent hours over the last two days just planning everything in my allotment. I have an old A4 account book in which I have made diagrams, which I have filled with plants and numbers and a rotation plan going to 2018. We set up 2 linkabord raised beds up at the beginning of the week and my dh has been putting stakes in to make sure the long sides don`t bow. They look very good and should last a long time so I have ordered 2 more sets at the same size of 4feet by 8 feet, direct from linkabord. I ordered lots of canes from ebay and they are fantastic quality, came today with free p and p, the cheapest on the ebay list. I also have a few sets of figo connectors and plan to use these to connect canes to make net cages for the allium and brassicas at least. I already have a part roll of environmesh, which will at least fit the allium beds and if I need more for the brassicas then I will get debris netting. I think it will make pinning the stuff down a whole lot easier to be working around a raised bed

When I think back, 30 years, I just didn`t have to protect the veg like now. Creatures are definitely getting the upper hand and having a smallish plot, I cannot afford to let the veg go to nature

My plans include quantities so that will be very helpful to me when it comes to sowing seeds

My push will come to shove if I don`t get the hang of bottling/canning by summer as I want my food storage to be as independent of electricity as possible ie open and eat

I sowed a sprinkle of little gem and dazzle lettuces a few days ago and they are up and so are 6 aubergine seeds (I only want 2) my lounge is always at 19-22 and my back is a tremendous sun trap so it will be worth having a dabble with the aubergines for the first time. I received plant supports for the growbags today and will be on the lookout for the bigger planter growbags shortly

Next job is to cut the environmesh, not a job I like as it is very slippery, as I am expecting garlic bulbs and shallots and heat treated onion sets soon, although I will be planting the sets on about march 21st. Tomorrow I will make a very careful sowing calendar, week by week as come march it can all get a bit overwhelming

Rummer

I lost all my brassicas two years ago to beasties and so didn't grow any last year. Think I will try them again this year using enviromesh one pack should be enough for two square foot raised beds shouldn't it?

[Deleted User]

what brassicas rummer? Cabbages will be shorter than say brocolli or sprouts. You need to add 2 x the height plus the width to get one side length and then add a bit for pinning down properly and you will need a square that size at least

I used environmesh on my cabbages and brocolli and it was fantastic, not a single caterpillar munch but they don`t need protection from tiny beasties so debris net will do and it is loads cheaper (ebay)

Rummer

They ate all my brussell sprouts and cabbages and I was gutted! It was cabbage white caterpillars, would the debris nets work to protect them from those?

[Deleted User]

Rummer wrote: »

They ate all my brussell sprouts and cabbages and I was gutted! It was cabbage white caterpillars, would the debris nets work to protect them from those?

have a google say `allotments debris netting` and you`ll find that this is all they use

Rummer

Great thank you!

Davesnave

mambury wrote: »

Now I do have a few questions...... Does anyone live in Devon (other than Davesnave.... I know you are fairly local to me!), and grow pears? I live at the top of a hill so we get a lot of westerlies and a lot of rain but the ground is fairly well drained but I was advised that pears will not do too well in exposed areas? Can anyone suggest some varities that would be okay? The same for the plums..... And how would grapevines do as the fence I plan to grow them against is west facing and will get the brunt of the winter weather (the septic tank is also sited next to the fence so would the roots be too much of an issue??)

Hi Mambury, not heard from you for a while....

Yes, you are a bit higher and more exposed than us, but we still get the westerlies here, whipping across and we have pears. Now the bad news: most of the pears are pants! We have six trees and just one has produced well. As we also have one label, 'Beth,' it could be that, or any one of five others! I've not researched it yet. Anyway, it does look as if pears don't like our kind of site.

We also have an isolated tree on a sheltered, but west-facing garage wall, which has done badly two years running, though whether this is due to not being pollinated well or some other reason is hard to say.

As for the hops, be careful with those, as they do like to travel about underground! I would certainly see what buying the dried product costs before committing too much space to those, but grapes should be well-behaved and you might even get an eating crop from some. I'm growing one I took a cutting of, which was hanging down in a dark passageway between buildings and it has a lovely sweet flavour. Again, of course, I don't know what it is.:o

I'm not really being a lot of help here, but I blame the previous owner, who didn't label enough stuff!

mambury

Hey Davesnave... ta for the advice!!

I guess pears are out then, not much point on spending time and money if I get [EMAIL="bu@@er"]bu@@er[/EMAIL] all from it! Apples and plums it is, with a bit more research.... I see what you mean about the hops, so I guess I will go for grapes and other soft fruit....

I do fancy trees though as we don[t have any at the moment, and if I'm growing a tree it ought to be able to give something back

GreyQueen

rhiwfield wrote: »

Just to briefly return to the theme of rising prices here's today's CPI inflation figures from the Office for National Statistics:

Rise from November 2010 to Dec 2010 (just 1 month!):
"food and non-alcoholic beverages: prices, overall, rose by 1.6 per cent, the largest rise for a November to December period on record. The upward effects within this category were widespread with the most significant coming from fruit and vegetables"

Over the 12 months food rose by 5.7% against overall CPI of 3.7%.

• Fruit rose by 8.6%

• Vegetables rose by 8%

Yesterdays article in the Guardian, before these latest dreadful inflation figures were published, highlighted the impact of rising prices on poorer families.

But as posters to this thread have shown, it is possible to reduce reliance on shop bought food, even if you only have a small growing area.

I'm wondering if, in the not-to-distant future, we won't be able to use our superior economic might to suck in food imports from other parts of the world. I'm particularly thinking of rice, the staple carbohydrate of so much of the world. As populations rise and harvests are menaced by unexpected weather, some countries might ban the export of staples like rice or wheat. Would the forumites consider that there's a moral imperative for growing as much of our own food as possible, and eating what is suitable for our latitudes? I'm sensitive to the argument that cash crops bring money to the exporting country but sad experience shows that the wealth thus generated goes into the hands of the few not the majority and that cash-crop farmers are often on starvation levels themselves. I'd be interested to hear your opinions.

shellysue

I certainly think there is a lot of good sense in eating food in season, growing your own is the best way of doing that:j
Having said that I will be jam and chutney making, bottling surplus and hopefully giving some away.
As the cost of electricity keeps going up and I don't see it coming down, I see my utility room turning into a pantry.