Preparedness for when

GreyQueen

nuatha wrote: »

That's how I propagated mine, currants and gooseberries want to grow, seems any chance they get they'll take. Literally sticking a pruning or broken branch in the ground results in a new bush.

I agree they'd be wonderful replacing some exotic shrub in most gardens.

:j Yess! And when I prune the parent bush, I shall aim to get some more of them from it. I have some big plant pots and may plant into those so that they can be donated hither and yon to spread the blackcurranty wonderfulness.

My long term plan for the lottie is to have several fruit bushes but the current status involves some major earth moving this late summer/ autumn to correct the last of the uneveness I inherited, and then I have to engage fully with the War of the Horsetails. They are really very bad on the top 50% of the allotment. I shall get that digging fork in there are rootle away at it with my customary tenacity.

It should probably have a Wagnerian soundtrack - lots of noise. Actually, come to think of it, those Valkyries look like sturdy lassies who could wield a mattock or a fork with extreme prejudice. And a bit of extra manure from the horsies wouldn't go amiss, either.

Hmmm. Plotting on (pun intended ).

nuatha

Only on OS MSE could you get the idea of a Valkyrian Ground Force, complete with Wagner as a sound track, and the useful advice to keep the horse droppings as manure.

cornishchick

nuatha wrote: »

Only on OS MSE could you get the idea of a Valkyrian Ground Force, complete with Wagner as a sound track, and the useful advice to keep the horse droppings as manure.

Brings a whole new meaning to the words "ground Force" :T


I am poddling along to ALdies tomorrow to check out their trellis grown fruit trees. My ys fruit bushes from Morris's are doing well. I don't expect any fruit this year, but they are becoming well established.
And ,, big news .. So excited... I have my first home grown tomato growing in the green house. I was so thrilled I took pictures of it and sent to my friends , :rotfl:

Frugalsod

Possession wrote: »

When I went to live in Japan 20 years ago the Japanese were definitely still the enemy to my Grandma. She had 5 brothers fighting in WW2 and one captured as a POW of the Japanese, and she was NOT fond of them all those years later.

Some of my family lived in Burma owning and operating Ruby mines. During the war most were evacuated to India but one great aunt who did not leave because of her husband, was not worthy enough to live in an internment camp, and was forced to live the war out in a ditch outside a women's camp. They lived off the scraps that the dogs would leave. My mum still hates the Japanese for that.

GreyQueen

nuatha wrote: »

Only on OS MSE could you get the idea of a Valkyrian Ground Force, complete with Wagner as a sound track, and the useful advice to keep the horse droppings as manure.

That's because only MSE Old Style has the dubious benefit of me posting, and I'm more than a little eccentric.:p

Woken up at silly o'clock for the 2nd morning running by a s0dding car alarm. Thanks, neighbour dude, 'preciate the 04.30 rousting from my pit. Feeling a bit urghh as other neighbours kept me up past midnight anyway. You can go off people when you live in high density housing.........:rotfl:

After w*rk I shall continue with the project of harvesting the blackcurrants. It took me the best part of 40 mins to pick two tubs of them, they're fiddly little beggars. Will do 2 tubs per day until they're all done and stored away in the freezer.

I'm continuing to keep the autumn-sown broad beans in place, drying on the haulm. The plants themselves are now brown and 'orrible-looking but the pods are still green. I'd like them as dry as possible before I pod them then bring them indoors to dry out. The spring sown ones are to be eaten now and laid up in the freezer. Runners will be late as they have only just gone outside and are about to start twiddling up the canes. Spuds are going over and the cunning plan is to lift them next Friday, weather permitting.

Is it just me, or do other gardeners feel that things are finishing earlier this year?

Frugalsod

nuatha wrote: »

How do you know a politician is lying? Are they breathing? The odds are they are lying.
We know fossil fuels are running out, we know that renewables aren't popular with big business - therefore the current government is ending investment subsidies, we also know that nuclear isn't the panacea that was promised - so how are these robots going to be fuelled? GM crops require fossil fuels, they arrive coated in petroleum derived fertilisers, are designed to be planted by petroleum powered equipment etc.
And so far we've been told they are infertile - so why is Monsanto suing farmers whose crops have been fertilised (contaminated) by GM crops. We've been told that GM crops are resistant to pests and herbicides - so why are the levels of these poisons used increasing. If the crops are more efficient to produce and safe and accepted by the general public, why are the companies resistant to labeling them and marketing them separately from traditional crops?

You also need to add in the fact that the main political parties are corrupt and rely on funding from industries that want to keep things exactly as they are. The problem is that these business models are dying dinosaurs and will fail eventually regardless.

In theory GMO is not a bad thing but it is the inclusion of terminator genes and suing anyone who has had their crops tainted with GMO pollen for intellectual property infringement that is so wrong. What this amounts to extortion and really we should be arresting the company directors and their lawyers for extortion.

I agree about labelling. Let the consumers decide.

[Deleted User]

Love the idea of dotting in fruit bushes in place of ornamentals and why stop there? there are lovely dark leaves on beetroot which would enhance any flower border, carrots have the most beautiful foilage, things like Cavalo Nero grow tall and straight and have that lovely dark green dimpled appearance and lots of herbs will happily co-exist with flowers. You could grow runner beans up the back fences, they were originally grown for the red flowers and not the bean pods. Espaliered fruit trees also will fit against a back fence and things like thornless blackberries too. I think a combined garden, with the right companion planted flowers would be lovely to look at and very productive in terms of harvests. It's after all only what our ancestors did isn't it? Put in fruit trees instead of ornamentals and you've almost got a Forest Garden System!!!

I don't know if my post yesterday reads wrongly but what I actually meant was that existing farmers would be better served by employing real people to work thier land rather than investing in the increasingly complex, expensive and large pieces of machinery that seem to be necessary for farming today.

What we really need though is less population, that's a harsh judgement I know but we are reaching the point where the planet will be unable to furnish sustenance enough for the increased head of mankind that is in existence today!!!

nuatha

cornishchick wrote: »

And ,, big news .. So excited... I have my first home grown tomato growing in the green house. I was so thrilled I took pictures of it and sent to my friends , :rotfl:

An event worthy of celebrating.

GreyQueen wrote: »

That's because only MSE Old Style has the dubious benefit of me posting, and I'm more than a little eccentric.:p

Nothing dubious about that benefit - you've brightened up many of my days.

Is it just me, or do other gardeners feel that things are finishing earlier this year?

I know that I ran out of year rather quickly this time, failure to close down the garden properly last year lead to additional delays in getting up and running this year, health and other issues haven't helped. But the year got away from us and everything seems to have hit harvest rather early. I've never known leeks to bolt in June, only the soft fruit seem to anything like on schedule.

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

Love the idea of dotting in fruit bushes in place of ornamentals and why stop there? there are lovely dark leaves on beetroot which would enhance any flower border, carrots have the most beautiful foilage, things like Cavalo Nero grow tall and straight and have that lovely dark green dimpled appearance and lots of herbs will happily co-exist with flowers. You could grow runner beans up the back fences, they were originally grown for the red flowers and not the bean pods. Espaliered fruit trees also will fit against a back fence and things like thornless blackberries too. I think a combined garden, with the right companion planted flowers would be lovely to look at and very productive in terms of harvests. It's after all only what our ancestors did isn't it? Put in fruit trees instead of ornamentals and you've almost got a Forest Garden System!!!

I think I've just found a new gardening guru
There's no reason why edible can't be ornamental as well.

I don't know if my post yesterday reads wrongly but what I actually meant was that existing farmers would be better served by employing real people to work thier land rather than investing in the increasingly complex, expensive and large pieces of machinery that seem to be necessary for farming today.

I did read it that way, sorry if my responses suggested otherwise.
I can't see how a lot of that very expensive equipment is cheaper than human labour - though there is far less willingness to undertake dirty, backbreaking seasonal labour on behalf of local populations - and even less willingness to see strangers doing it.

What we really need though is less population, that's a harsh judgement I know but we are reaching the point where the planet will be unable to furnish sustenance enough for the increased head of mankind that is in existence today!!!

It may be harsh, it may be unpopular but its true.
The traditional answer to population pressure was migration, but we've no where to go - despite decades of science fiction suggesting humanity needs to leave its parent planet for this very reason. The other traditional solution is even less palatable.

thriftwizard

Love the idea of dotting in fruit bushes in place of ornamentals and why stop there? there are lovely dark leaves on beetroot which would enhance any flower border, carrots have the most beautiful foilage, things like Cavalo Nero grow tall and straight and have that lovely dark green dimpled appearance and lots of herbs will happily co-exist with flowers. You could grow runner beans up the back fences, they were originally grown for the red flowers and not the bean pods. Espaliered fruit trees also will fit against a back fence and things like thornless blackberries too. I think a combined garden, with the right companion planted flowers would be lovely to look at and very productive in terms of harvests. It's after all only what our ancestors did isn't it? Put in fruit trees instead of ornamentals and you've almost got a Forest Garden System!!!

That's our little garden in a nutshell, MrsLW! Not quite as I'd planned it, the Head Gardener often has other ideas & won't part with his beloved lawn - in fact he keeps trying to extend it, hoping that somehow I won't notice the little patches of grass springing up here & there - but pretty productive all the same. It has been proposed that we open it several times a year as a Land centre, but he's not having that!

(Note to self: find some time to pick cherries, blackcurrants & red currants today...)

Just discovered that DS3 is under the impression that we are (all) taking him to Provence in September, to do a year's teaching out there. He's completely baffled that we hadn't already planned this... Might have some heavy-duty saving to do, wasn't expecting to go out there ourselves until next May!

craigywv

TALKING OF THE WAR, MY MUMS UNCLE WAS A pow IN jAPAN FOR 3 YEARS WHEN HE CAME BACK THERE WAS NO HELP FOR THESE MEN LIKE THERE IS TODAY, HE WENT MAD, MUM REMEMBERS HIM SITTING FOR HOURS ON THE BACK YARD WALL STARING AT A BRICK WALL HE LOST HIS WIFE,KIDS ETC...SO SAD. ON ANOTHER SUBJECT I TOO COME ON HERE TO GET THE BEST COMMON SENSE FROM LYNN ,GQ AND ALL YOU OTHERS REGARDING GROWING. I QUITE EXCITED ABOUT THE BIT ABOUT JUST PUTTING A CUTTING INTO THE GROUND FROM ANOTHER FRUIT BUSH AND IT WILL GROW. I SHALL HAVE A GO DOING THIS TOMORROW.MY PLUM TREE IS SPROUTING RANDOM STALKS DOWN THE BOTTOM OF THE TRUNK SO WILL REMOVE AND REPLANT XXX sorry its in big writing left caps lock on