5000 Watt Lightbulb Moment - Determined to Clear Debts

QOTD

I’m in the thoes at the moment of planning my vegetable plot.

My original plan was for 4x 1.2 mtr sq frames but the wood that I have for 2 of the frames are 1.8m long so although this means that I would have 2 beds at 1.8m and 2 beds at 1m, overall I would get more area and therefore more vegetables. In total this means that I would have 5.6 mtr sq area. The ultimate plan would be to lengthen the 1m beds which I can do when I improve the frames in the future. Increasing them to 1.8m might eat up into the garden too much, I would have to play that by ear, but even increasing to 1.2m means that the total area would be 6mtr sq. According to the Vegetable Expert website you should aim to have 5 mtr sq per person to meet ALL of your vegetable needs. Well there are 4 of us and I think 20 mtr sq would be rather a lot for me to handle – and I also think a lot would be wasted – so 5 mtr sq is enough for now. Plus at the moment I am not intending to meet ALL our needs since I think there is definitely a cut off between when it becomes more expensive to produce your own than it is to get it from a grocers.


What to Plant
What I’m trying to work out is what I should plan on planting. I have decided against maincrop potatoes – they are cheap enough in the shops and take up a lot of room so these wouldn’t have save any money which is part of the appeal. New potatoes on the other hand are expensive in the shops and something that I would eat more often if I didn’t have to buy them (plus delicious straight from the ground)

Mangetout is another definite. I’ve grown it before and gots loads (and that was just on one wigwam of canes let alone a whole row). I couldn’t eat it all but blanched it and froze it. Really cheap to grow, really expensive to buy. Another vegetable that I would eat more of if it were cheaper.

Oh and beetroot. I once made a recipe for a beetroot and salmon salad, now I love salmon but I found that I loved the beetroot so much that I had to force myself to eat the salmon (I made too much!)

Well those are the definites, obviously I will also be growing some carrots (DD wants them to feed to the rabbit that we don’t have), parsnips, french beans and peas, salad stuffs (lettuce, spring onions), cherry tomatoes in hanging baskets (done this before and very successful).

I have ordered a Thompson and Morgan catalogue which according to the website will be with me by the end of next week, so I guess I will need to sit down with that and have a good look through to see what we would actually eat and therefore what I should grow. Oh, and I’ll probably try some pumpkins as will since that will be good fun for DD.

miggy

Between the garden, the beach, HM pizza and a brand new job to look forward to, it's all sounding idyllic!

I though my DS was the only person anywhere who didn'tlike pizza. Perhaps they should form a club?

You garden is encouraging me to do mine - all I've done in the garden today is move the rabbit run to fresh grass and water some things that were wilting. Hopefully more will be achieved tomorrow.

miggy

Mangetout is another definite. I’ve grown it before and gots loads (and that was just on one wigwam of canes let alone a whole row). I couldn’t eat it all but blanched it and froze it. Really cheap to grow, really expensive to buy. Another vegetable that I would eat more of if it were cheaper.

I've always had problems with things eating any type of peas before they get more than a few inches high. Any ideas how I can get past this?

Well those are the definites, obviously I will also be growing some carrots (DD wants them to feed to the rabbit that we don’t have),

:rotfl: A girl after my own heart.

I have ordered a Thompson and Morgan catalogue which according to the website will be with me by the end of next week,

I sort of wish you hadn't mentioned that! Over the last few years I've looked online because I love my T&M catalogues so much that when I threw the old ones out once, in a attack of decluttering, I had to go and rescue them! I suppose just one little onemore wouldn't make much difference...! Suttons Seeds is nearly as 'bad'!

QOTD

Whilst spending the last two hours (yes two hours - how did that happen), doing nothing but sitting in front of my laptop. Now admittedly I have been sorting through photos and a general tidy up but two hours

Anyway, whilst browsing I have managed to find a website called http://myfolia.com which allows users to track and organise any plantings,etc in your garden. I haven't had chance to use it just yet as I've only just registered an account - but hopefully this will help in my quest to track what I plan to do. If it's really clever it will prompt me on when to do things, but if not I'll just have to remember to pop these into my diary to remind me.

Right I'm off to explore - I might be a while so I best stick the kettle on. Oh and the sun has just come out so maybe I'll sit outside as well....

QOTD

The most obvious vegetables that I need to grow are those that we as a family eat. In additon to this there are the veggies that we would eat more often if the price of them was more reasonable so this is my starting point, a list of everything that we either eat regularly or would eat regularly if cost wasn't a consideration. Pure brainstorming list so no apologies for any difficult to grow fruit and veg:

1. old potatoes
2. new potatoes
3. onions
4. carrots
5. parsnips
6. peas
7. mangetout
8. french beans
9. celery
10. lettuce/salad
11. spring onions
12. cherry tomatoes
13. "normal" tomatoes
14. beetroot
15. spinach
16. cabbage
17. cauliflower
18. broccoli
19. strawberries
20. blueberries
21. apples
22. bananas
23. plums
24. peppers
25. chillies
26. cucumber
27. melon
28. butternut squash
29. grapes
30. oranges/lemons/limes
31. celery
32. chard/spring greens

Wow, that's quite a list - 32 items - some of which are NOT going to be grown in the garden but at least it's a start.
Also, I haven't mentioned it before but obviously I will be growing herbs as well. Currently we have a couple of window boxes. mint has overtaken a complete window box and the other have rosemary, thyme and chives in it. I need to add a couple more herbs to this list as things that are regularly used - oh and have basil and more chives on the kitchen windowsill:

1. sage
2. coriander
3. parsley
4. bay
5. dill

So now I have my list it's time to wittle it down to something more manageable and also more reasonable (ie achieveable)

burntfingers_2

I hope you have better success than me as my attempt at growing things usually means that the plants die, my friend gave me a cucumber plant I was so chuffed and watered it regularly it had several little cucumbers growing, I planted it out in a growbag and now it looks like a single solitary stick, something has totally demolished it, my tomato plants are still tiny although 3 of them are trailing plants so are in baskets. The other is in the growbag, and is now flowering....so fingers crossed on that one.

I have also planted some rocket seeds which seem to have disappeared, the peppers that I have planted are quite big by now and need separating out, I also got a lettuce that was several different types with roots. I didn't get chance to use it and it was looking a bit tired, so I thought that I would plant it and see what happened miraculously it has sprouted and is really bushy now.:T

The only other plant that I have is a Jade plant and no-one can kill them not even me !! :rotfl:

burntfingers_2

ps. thank you for the books which you sent by PDF

QOTD

I have had success growing things in the past and so fingers crossed this time as well. Although in a different area my previous soil was clay and so is the soil where I am now.

My pleasure with the books.

Well I didn't think that I was going to achieve anything visibly productive today. Feel like I've just been enjoying the sunshine outside whilst looking at vegetable seeds and timings and things. Finally I came up trumps and decided to put wood stain on the table and chairs on the bottom patio - now that my sound *grand* but basically there is decking just outside the kitchen and dining room where we have a nice set of wooden table and chairs (donated by the in-laws). Then we have a garage at the bottom of the drive, but "in" the garden and behind that OH has laid a circular patio (£50 bargain off one of his friends at work which costs about £300 in B&Q) and on that we have another set of wooden table and chairs which were left behind by the previous owners.

It's a lovely little sun trap as it's south facing and with the way that it's situated, it's completely private. Anyway the OH every so often mentions that we should get rid of it since it's past its best and on these ocassions I paint it with some woodstain and then he always seems utterly amazed that it looks like new.

Since the wendy house has been housed on the bottom patio for a couple of months we haven't had the furniture out (it's been propped against the garage) but since moving the wendy house earlier this week I keep wanting to sit at the bottom of the garden but then remember that the chairs look scruffy and then it doesn't seem so appealling. Anyway, I've now done them up so they just need to dry - shouldn't take long in this sunshine - so they will be ready of sitting on tomorrow :j .... and it looks like I've done something productive today

QOTD

Last night whilst walking the dog I spotted a very cute and very small mouse scuttling through the undergrowth along the bridal path. It was probably about an inch and a half long, it looked like it was a little baby that had lost it's mum - the poor thing

I was really surprised that Max didn't spot it and try to chase it - actually it would have been interesting to see if he was scared of it with it being so small.

It's lovely how when you're in no particular rush you can spot things all around you instead of rushing from one place to the next not seeing anything - you just miss out on things that make you smile, like the baby ducks on the canal who are growing fast now and the squirrels in the trees dropping the shells from their nuts which Max goes crazy for thinking it's raining food :rotfl:

QOTD

Ok so I've spend some time working out the produce I want to grow, drill spacing, costs, etc, etc and have fomulated a plan based on being able to get 3 raised beds sorted out. If I can only manage three then I'll probably just have the fourth bed as a normal one - slightly raised, but no sides to it.


All this is subject to change but I wanted to see that I have enough space to grow everything since if there wasn't then I would need to work out what not to grow.


Right off to town now as need to buy a test pot of point to cover over in the lounge where I used the wrong paint and now it's a *lovely* shade of pink in some places instead of the *subtle* shade of pink that it should be. Then on to do the door frames and skirting upstairs and touch up the paint in our bedroom then I can officially declare the painting over and done with for the year and get rid of the paint brushes and tray from the bath :beer: