Help MBE grow his dinner 2011

Sally_A

ex_fox_now_a_dragon wrote: »

Wow Sally A, that's a serious amount of veg. How big is your plot?

Not that big to be honest (about 1/4 of 2/3rds of an acre - it makes my head hurt to work that one out), but Mr Next Door passed away last year, so I hope to grow extra including next doors veg patch to keep Mrs N-D in basics. Have use of an extra greenhouse, and will probably use their land for 80% of the spuds, the majority of leeks and parsnips. Our side is slightly more clay-ey, good for beans and brassicas, sweetcorn, courgettes and squashes/pumpkins.

It will be tricky, but Mrs N-D loves her pre packed and frozen veg, I'll do what I can, 2011 will be the first year of me trying to feed 2 households using the best of 2 gardens with a totally different soil make up.

Fay

Well I have ordered some seeds from the real seed company-2 types of chilli (pretty in purple and an early jalapeno), one type of beans (Cupidon bean), miniature white cucumber and two types of peppers (king of the north and kaibi round sweet pepper). I've read that peppers are really difficult and might not be as good as the shop brought ones but I wanted to try them. I've got a small (basic) unheated propogator which I have put on the window sill in the kitchen near the aga and hope that when the seeds come they will germinate nicely in there. Not sure if I will get out in the garden this weekend, but our green bins have been emptied today so if I do at least I will have room to put all of the cuttings! Is anyone planning any gardening jobs this weekend? Its become extremely cold here again with frost on the ground for the last 3 days.

Sally_A

Doh! Fay! I have some Pretty in Purple you could have had for the price of a stamp. £1.93+ P&P for a pack of 20ish, let say 10p a seed :eek:, this time next year Rodney :cool:

Fay

Sally_A wrote: »

Doh! Fay! I have some Pretty in Purple you could have had for the price of a stamp. £1.93+ P&P for a pack of 20ish, let say 10p a seed :eek:, this time next year Rodney :cool:

Oh! Well at least I have them now, and hopefully will be able to grow them-I haven't planted them yet as things have been chaotic. Hopefully I will do them this weekend or next.

Fay

MBE where have you gone, how is your garden looking?

I think we may have some rhubarb growing, but I'm not sure-if it is it's only just starting, although one of the shoots looks as though it's rotting. Any tips on how to care for it?

Hopefully there will be pics of said potential rhubarb below:

mrbadexample

Fay wrote: »

MBE where have you gone, how is your garden looking?

I haven't done anything more yet, although I was planning on having a go tomorrow - mowing the lawn if it doesn't rain etc. I'm going to sow my chillies too.

Your rhubarb looks fine. How old is it? If it's not the first year, you could think about forcing it for some nice tender stalks?

Fay

Yay, so it is rhubarb! We only moved in October but it has just started to grow and it's surrounded by established herbs-so I'm assuming it's not it's first year. So I think I'm going to try forcing it, would I do it now?

mrbadexample

Fay wrote: »

Yay, so it is rhubarb! We only moved in October but it has just started to grow and it's surrounded by established herbs-so I'm assuming it's not it's first year. So I think I'm going to try forcing it, would I do it now?

Cover it with a bin or something similar. After a few weeks you should have nice, pale pink, slender stalks.

Then make a pie. :drool:

After you've harvested it, leave it alone until it grows back. You should get plenty more throughout the summer, but don't deplete it too much, and stop picking in about July to give it chance to recover.

scotsaver

Hi everyone - glad to see this Thread up and running again this Year, I've finally got my Allotment 100% dug over and sorted for this year so really excited, also got plenty of space in the Garden, Greenhouse and Patio so should be Bumper crops this year - bearing in mind I now have 60 packets of Seeds I should be able to get something from that lot.:o

I'm also hoping that I can join you all in posting Pics - will ask my Teenage daughters for some help with that, I may have Greenfingers but a bit of a technophobe, we can't be good at everything.

Off up to the Allotment today to put my Shallots in, also got Garlic, white onions and red onions in the same bed so things shaping up nicely.

Hoping to get some Seeds sown at the weekend - good luck everyone.;)

mrbadexample

Ok, time for an update.

I've been very, very lazy. I haven't actually done anything yet.

However, the rhubarb's coming along nicely, I had a check on it today:



And I managed to nip to B&Q for some compost yesterday, so I'll be planting chilli seeds this evening.

Everyone else ok?