Preparedness for when

GreyQueen

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Am I in time to get myself things like rhubarb, blackcurrant and gooseberry bushes in this year? If so, what's the chances I would be able to harvest anything from them this year?

Yes you can plant them and no, you can't get a crop this year. Blackcurrants have flowered and are in fruit and starting the first stage of their ripening, I imagine broadly similar for the gooseberries. When you first obtain your rhubarb crowns, you need to plant them with a stick to mark the spot as even mature plants die back and disappear underground for the winter.

When rhubarb crowns are new, you're advised not to pull stalks off in their first year, as the crown needs time to establish itself as a strong plant. And, even once established, not to pull too many stalks from each plant at once, so you should ideally have several.

When it took on my allotment the only green thing worth saving from the previous tenancy was a solitary rhubarb crown stuck slap bang in the middle of the plot. I avoid rhubarb as I feel as if it's dissolving my tooth enamel, so I gave the crown away. It's still going strong as far as I know.

You'll find it easier to buy fruit bushes in a few months than you will now. HTH.

moneyistooshorttomention

'Ah right - stick it is then to mark where that rhubarb is. Darn...had a nasty feeling that this year would be a bit of a write-off regarding getting anything much from my new stuff:(. There were reasons that work couldn't be done earlier in the year....and I feared I would lose out for this years produce as a consequence.

wah! Oh well....

Very frustrating to have to wait so long, one way and another, after moving here to have my garden fully up and running. That's with me throwing money at taking shortcuts wherever possible to save time waiting...goodness only knows how long it would all take if I waited around nurturing the soil like mad and then growing from seed, etc. Future thoughts along those lines will have to come after I've at least got a "good framework" going and plenty of stuff being produced already.

That's one of the downsides they don't tell you about getting older - being you work out how many years you are likely to get the benefit of doing/having something for and then decide "Shortcuts it is - there's not enough potential years of benefit left now to be able to do things the slow way". Now if I'd got that proper garden in my 40s (as per plan) I would do things the Slow Way...but in my 60s I'll shortcut.

GreyQueen

I'm just cynical enough to think that it suits TPTB very nicely to have a chunk of the population, especially the youngest adults, frequently off their faces with drugs both legal and illegal. You really wouldn't want to look a gift horse like that in the mouth, would you?

And yet people still fall for it, and imagine that getting pished or stoned is somehow alternative and daring, rather than the lame, self-deceitful behaviour of people too chicken-hearted to look into the reality of life, decide that it ain't good enough, and work to change things for the better.

Cheapskate

Has anyone else been paying attention to the goings-on in Greece lately? Sounds like they're on the brink of leaving the euro, according to the broadsheets, and a few hidden things in other parts of the press. Even if they don't, the demands being made by the IMF and others will push the country deeper into poverty (for the regular guys, never TPTB, of course - they're all Teflon coated! )

I've not grown anything much this year; we were supposed to have major building work going on, which has now been postponed until next spring, so I could have had tons of stuff in! :mad: Will have to rely on foraging again, and becoming more friendly with peeps with allotments (will repay favour for favour, of course!). We've just had to get a new fridge freezer, our middle aged (19 yrs) one's seal was going, often found temps inside at the teens centigrade. :eek: I rediscovered things I'd forgotten about, more meat than I thought :j so food budget a bit easier this month. I want to use up everything this month and next, clean out the extra little freezer and start batch cooking and freezing foraged stuff ready for autumn/winter - been feeling autumnal here, despite the calendar, and my inner squirrel is already awake! :rotfl:

A xo

Cheapskate

Despite a decent upbringing, my eldest DS succumbed to the evil weed - he's already a slightly emotional chap and regular use of it for more than a decade HAS changed him, he's had a few mental meltdowns and although he's stopped now has permanent hand tremors. He's the wrong demographic to use it - age, gender, family history of mental health issues and personal ones - yet was swayed by peer pressure as a teenager, and has reaped the consequences.

A xo

moneyistooshorttomention

I've always taken the view that it suits the TPTB very well for people to get tied into the conventional lifestyle of get married (amend these days possibly to = live together instead), have children, etc.

By the time people have spent a lot of time/energy focusing on finding a Significant Other (successfully or otherwise), maybe have children, maybe spend long hours involved with earning a living = then what time/energy is actually left available for critiquing the system?

Over the years I've watched many people being so thoroughly tied-up with the relationship/sheer Existence stuff that its obviously difficult for them to find any time/energy for anything else. If you then add persistent ill health (your own - or that of someone close to you) into the equation to make things even more difficult....then you wonder just how many people are ever going to find the time/energy for anything other than just "getting by" and come to the conclusion most never will.

My latest "Maybe then they will....." thought = Well...when people retire they will find that time/energy and then Watch 'Em Go. Then I looked around at just how many people have chronic ill health problems even as young as their 60s. Add in maybe being a carer. Add in maybe doing a lot of looking after grandchildren (rather than just the odd bit of babysitting) and most people still don't have much time/energy left for doing what they actually consciously decide to do iyswim.....and Life is still something that just Happens to them.

Of those people (of any age) who do actually find that time/energy you wonder whether its all getting wasted (ie because they are getting "wasted" - even in my agegroup) or the worse case analysis of they are out there rioting in the street (a la the Middle East) and, as a consequence, changing a bad government for an even worse one.

boultdj

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

'Ah right - stick it is then to mark where that rhubarb is. Darn...had a nasty feeling that this year would be a bit of a write-off regarding getting anything much from my new stuff:(. There were reasons that work couldn't be done earlier in the year....and I feared I would lose out for this years produce as a consequence.

wah! Oh well....

Eerrmmm, there is some hope for fruit this year, if you have plan's to include raspberries in your garden, the orange lable DIY store still has some pot's of autum fruiting raspberries in that you can plant now, also 'everbear' stawberries, which fruit 'n flower at same time, Marie de Bois,her daughter Mara de Bois and Albion are 3 name's I can remember of the top of my head and the will give you strawberries from july up till the first frost's. hth

Frugalsod

Have many of you taken efforts to make sure that your pets are not bored.

Frugalsod

Cheapskate wrote: »

Has anyone else been paying attention to the goings-on in Greece lately? Sounds like they're on the brink of leaving the euro, according to the broadsheets, and a few hidden things in other parts of the press. Even if they don't, the demands being made by the IMF and others will push the country deeper into poverty (for the regular guys, never TPTB, of course - they're all Teflon coated! )

I did see this infographic on Zerohedge and it mentions two rates of VAT on food. 11% on basic food and 23% on processed food.



Now since it will be hard to avoid a tax on food, you can minimise it by avoiding processed foods. So making everything from scratch could be the only option for many to reduce their tax bill.

The other thing to not is that such taxes are exceptionally regressive and hit the poorest hardest which is why the Tories and New Labour kept the headline income tax rate falling yet dumped all the tax burden on the poor via additional taxes.

moneyistooshorttomention

That VAT on food would just apply to the Greeks though wouldn't it?

Though...goodness knows...poor them if that's lined up for them...

I think we pay VAT on a bit of our food in Britain - but seem to recall its just on some processed food isn't it?